Well the season is beginning to wind down here. Snows starting to melt but there’s still some good slush riding to be had.
Only 7 work days left then finally no more early morning (generally hungover) days fighting severe boredom at the lifts.
Simone and Davo took off today so just me and Phil left at home and he’s taking off on friday. Kinda sucks with everyone taking off but we’ve all got our own ways to go and it’s been an awesome season. Not quite sure yet what I’m doing when it’s all over, though considering going to Kelowna and trying to get a bar job for a few months. It’s meant to be a pretty cool summer place with lots of lakes for wakeboarding and a bigger town atmosphere that little ol Fernie.
So lets see if i can manage a brief recap of the last month or two.
Doing our best to keep things extreme we went swimming in the Elk River in Mid March, definiately a lung crusher but worth the shock to the system.
Phil’s birthday blew around near Patty’s day and we had some old roomates from IH come visit, Amy Kate and Jeremy guranteeing a wild couple of days involving keg parties, rum shots and lotsa green.
With our paychecks decimated by alcohol, we decided the next week to go backcountry and spend a night in a snow cave. Definately a cool experience, taking all the avalanche equipment and getting a crash course in how to work it all. Although we came across a few slides out there luckily we avoided anything requiring it’s use. The place we camped was called Lost Boys, on the other side of the Fernie face, which meant that it was in the sun until about 7.30 at night giving us plenty of time to build a monster snow cave that could sleep about 7 people, a nice big fire pit with a jump over it and a cool tree rail.
After a few sausages and bevvies by the fire it was still pretty warm when we crashed in the cave but the temperature dropped over night and being by the door things got a bit bloody cold. The next day we hiked up to a couple of cornices and some jumps that other people had built. The only problem was with such a hot day beforehand and the temperature dropping, everything froze over making for some pretty hard landings.
Following up the backcountry experience we decided to head on a bit of a get the frig outta fernie trip and release a bit of mountain fever.
The next wednesday was Hot Dog day at Fernie, a throw back to an old 80′s ski movie where everyone on the mountain dressed up in eye gouging fluoro jump suits and pretty much drinks all day. Had to work, but at least it was entertaining. Leaving from work we headed to Golden and rode Kicking Horse the next day. Unbelievable features and lots of steep terrain which would be awesome on a powder day but we didn’t manage the best conditions. Heading off a bit dissapointed we decided to stop by the river just out of golden, break off a few icebergs and go rafting. Fun in theory but a couple of close calls when we decided to hop from iceberg to iceberg, with a bonechilling leg drag through the river when the gap was too big. That night we partied in Banff, getting sloshed on cheap beer and depth charges, before rockin at the bars. The following day we rode Sunshine which although it had some good reports turned out to be a pretty big disappointment, not enough snow and too many flat sections. Think maybe we’ve just been too spoiled here in Fernie but it’s a vindication at least that we came to the right spot.
That about catches up most of the highlights of the past month. We had our end of year Lifty party on Tuesday and a few of us deicided to cut sweet mullets for it. A good idea at the time that went down well but now i’m stuck with a crazy looking mowhawk. The things we do for fame ey?
The party was a blast though. Lots of kegs, a race course set up for us and many a crazy antic when you get that many lifties drunk together.
The next day was definately a sight for sore eyes for us poor bastards that actually had to work. Needless to say quite a few people where conspicuously absent.
So now I’m in the recuperation stage, with some solid couch time and plenty of sleep. Tomorrow we’re heading up to session a kicker and maybe some afternoon snowblading. Will be tough lowering my self to that level of embarrassment (they just look so stupid) but might be good for a laugh