Exodus

A considerable chunk of the 2nd and 3rd floor's residents left today. Ben, Leigh, John, Alex, and Shane all drove off for their road trip to various resorts on the way to Whistler (something I would have done if I weren't traveling around in the summer), and Kelly left to go home for a few weeks. So for the next 3 weeks it's going to be eerily quiet around the place. Mind you, it is only 3 weeks left, which in itself is kinda scary. It's really sad to know that our time is almost up, but it's gonna be a damn sweet period right after the season ends, with a week in Whistler, and Coachella almost right after, not to mention one or two gigs in Vancouver before heading to LA.

Ski free

I borrowed Jessalyn's skis for a day last week, and had a lot of fun learning on my own. I actually picked it up pretty quickly. I guess once you know the mechanics of one sport (i.e. skiing or snowboarding) then you can figure out the other easier than somebody who hasn't tried either. Anyway, after a couple of hours I was linking turns comfortably. The only downside was that I could go fast, but I had trouble stopping fast, so I was still very cautious, as there were lots of other people on the hill. Still, it was a great experience, and I can see myself doing more of it as the snow gets softer in the next few weeks.

More photos should be coming soon. I took some great shots when I went up to Taynton Bowl and rode some phenomenal powder last week.

Of course, it doesn't always pan out that way...

Well, just a week after the supposed end to winter conditions (and on the day that the season officially ticked over to spring, no less), the weather decides to pull another one on me, as the summit of Panorama got another dump of snow (about 15cm on Monday night, and more yesterday). I was working yesterday, and, despite it not being a busy day, could not find a way out of work, so I was looking out of the window all day and seeing the snow just puking from the skies. I guess that means that I'm going back up to the summit again after all.

To make things decidedly more interesting, I was (am) meant to go to Lake Louise today for a staff trip. It's $15 I'm thinking about throwing away for another great day of riding at Panorama. I was out bowling last night and told Alex and Shelley that I'd go riding with them today, so I don't exactly want to ditch them to go to Louise for a measly 10cm over the past 2 days, especially when Pano has gotten more snow in the same period of time. That's not to say that they'd pike too, but I'd still feel bad either way.

I still haven't made my final decision. It's 6:30 now, and the bus for Lake Louise leaves at 7:15, so I have about half an hour to choose between Panorama or Lake Louise. I'm kind of leaning towards Panorama.

Speaking of plans going haywire, it seems that even more people are leaving soon. It kind of sucks to see them go, but I guess people have good reasons to stay or to go (as is my case), and I'm gonna farewell everybody else in about 4 weeks anyway, so it's not such a big loss. I'm sure I'll see most of these folks again somewhere in the future.

The last beautiful day

Well, I think I'm done. I think I've gone to the summit for the last time of my stay here. It was almost a perfect ending to my season of doing runs from there too. It all really started two days ago, just before midnight, when, out of nowhere, it started to snow at the village again - something that Panorama hadn't seen for some time.

It continued to dump throughout the morning and early afternoon of the next day (which was yesterday). Add to that the fact that it was in negative degrees for the first time in a while, and it was a recipe for some fresh tracks. The only problem with this situation was that I was both working yesterday and was meant to work today. Thankfully, a series of events occurred that led to me being able to get the day off, and oh, what a day it was.

I didn't actually go riding too much today. I did two runs... one was a practice run while I waited for Taynton Bowl to open up, and the other was through Taynton itself. I had committed to this being my last run at the bowl (unless there's another massive dump of snow before the end of the season), and I wanted to make sure I had some nice powder for it, so I decided not to do Devil's Drop (which I had wanted to do all season) because it was too tracked out, as per usual. Before I headed out, I had an excellent sandwich at the Summit Hut, my last meal at the top of Panorama, and took in some of the beautiful scenery for one last time. It was a shame that I didn't bring my camera along, as it was a beautiful day.

Then, it was time for my last hurrah. It's still a month away from the end of the season, but I knew that this would probably be the last time I would bother to take three lifts up to the top. I took my time to scout out the tracks, and eventually found some attractive powder in between Kinbasket and Whitetail, two of the last runs down the bowl. I didn't hesitate to strap in and there began my final descent, making some fresh tracks and surfing some nice fluffy snow. I was not only riding through good snow but was also riding really well. It was so good that I decided not to go up again, in the fear that I'd have a bad run and spoil my big finale.

It doesn't mean that I won't be going riding at all for the rest of the season, though. I will still do a lot of riding, but I'm probably going to restrict myself to the bottom half, cruising through groomers or getting better at the terrain park. And, of course, there's staff trips, and my end-of-season trip to Whistler. But it's goodbye to the summit of Panorama, at least for 2006/07... I know I'll be back here some day.

KA-SMACK!

My very massive bail about a month ago can be seen here. Enjoy.

Slush

Conditions have been deteriorating over the past couple of weeks, and in more ways than one. First and foremost, spring has decided to come particularly early this year. There's still been some precipitation on the mountain, but the state of the runs are what you would see in an average Australian season - ice or slush - because of the increasing temperatures that haven't allowed for any decent powder. The champagne and summit runs were closed for the first time since the start of the season yesterday due to high winds, and will probably close permanently some time soon due to the lift operator staff thinning out (as a lot of them have left or are leaving).

That seems to be the general theme around work lately. A lot of people are taking off early because for some it's not really worth it to stay - there's not a lot of good snow anymore, and there's only about 4 weeks left in the season. The lifties in particular have been hard hit, and they've had to poach a lot of housekeepers to keep their numbers up, which has meant that we've been losing lots of staff too. Not only that, but a good portion of the support staff in housekeeping have left for other positions or have headed home. It's gotten so bad that I'm taking on a different position tomorrow, just for one day, because the new trainees for that position are still being trained, and are all off tomorrow.

The bad conditions have also thrown my goals out of whack. I no longer intend to ride every run on the mountain because of the cover becoming thin and exposed, and have become consigned to the fact that my 75% coverage will have to do. I've also stopped at 5 other resorts visited throughout the season, as I can ill-afford trips to any of the resorts that are a little further away (with the exception of Whistler after the season). I have a feeling that I'll be back to visit some more resorts somewhere down the line, just not this year.

As for my plans for the season, I have all intentions to stay until the end. I need to save up some money for my post-season travels, and it would be mighty handy having a few more paychecks, and to get my bonus too. They're not making it an easy decision though... there's a staff day on the day after the season ends, which means people would probably head off on the day after. The bad thing is that the buses stop running on the day the season ends, which means a lot of people would be stranded here. I'm trying to get a charter shuttle going from Panorama to Calgary Airport, but it would cost too much if we don't get a full shuttle. I'm hoping for at least 3 or 4 more people, because it would then be worth it to get one. Otherwise, it'd be a free-for-all on the 17th of April to get on that Greyhound to Calgary, which would then be followed by an expensive taxi to Calgary Airport.

The post-season

In any case, my plans for where to go after the season ends are solidifying. Some travel details still need sorting out, but the locations I want to visit are pretty much locked in.

I fly out of Calgary on the 17th, going to Vancouver then heading straight to Whistler for 5 days, as I get 5 days free at any Intrawest resort for finishing my contract (another reason why I want to stay until the end of the season). After that, I'll be heading from Vancouver to LA (by plane or train - that hasn't been decided yet) then catch a bus to Indio for Coachella. I'll probably hang out in LA for a few more days after Coachella, then go to San Francisco for a month or so. I've got tickets to see Arcade Fire at the Greek Theatre in Berkley (which is near San Francisco) on June 1, which I'm really looking forward to, even though I'm already seeing them play a condensed set at Coachella. I then head to Chicago for a few days in mid-June, followed by New York, then to Montréal for the International Festival of Jazz.

Montréal is the first stop of my eastern Canadian adventure, where my goal is to try and visit all the eastern provinces, as well as major cities like Toronto and Québec. Speaking of Toronto, I'll probably be visiting the city twice. The first time will be around the time of my birthday, because I've booked tickets to go see Roger Waters there, and the show just happens to be on my birthday. The second time will be around early September, when I'll be in town for the Toronto International Film Festival. I'm very much looking forward to both of those trips. My last stop will be Vancouver, which is convenient because my flight to Sydney leaves from Vancouver, and because the Vancouver International Film Festival takes place not too long after the Toronto one. I'll probably visit Vancouver Island while I'm there too, as I hear it's beautiful there.

I don't have a great deal of new photos, and most of them are of people partying, so I won't bother uploading them yet. I'll put up some new ones when I get some good shots.

Canadian vacation

I ended up getting a room at the Banff Center's Lloyd Hall for around $70. It was twice what I would have paid at a backpacker's hostel, but all the ones in Banff were booked out for that day. The good thing was that it was a nice little hotel room. It obviously had to be classy-looking because of all the international conventions they had at the Banff Center.

After checking in at the hotel room, I headed into town for some dinner. After seeing the big line-up at The Keg (steakhouse), I went a few doors down to the Elk & Oarsman, a pub and grill. I had a bison burger, which tasted quite nice. Afterwards I ran into a trio of travelers from New Zealand and proceeded to get drunk. There was a guy playing tunes on the stage and knew some NZ and Aussie songs like Crowded House and Paul Kelly. I eventually got drunk enough and went up on stage and sang a couple of songs (rather badly), and I got a free Jager bomb from the barman for my troubles.

Mike turned up at the bar after he finished work, and after a couple of drinks we went across the street to Tommy's, a nice little pub, for a couple more drinks. We had a few games of darts and eventually headed back to the Banff Center with Mike's girlfriend, Lindsay. We hung out for a bit then I crashed at my hotel room until about 10 in the morning.

Splurge!

Despite the late start, Sunday was a pretty full day. I took a scenic trail over into town, which was great. I hadn't done a walk (as in, a nature walk type of walk) in some time, so this was a nice scenic experience. I saw the Banff Springs from a distance and eventually ended up in town after going along the Bow River. By this point, I was pretty hungry, so I stopped over at Evelyn's Again, a coffee chain in Banff (the chain is called Evelyn's, this particular one was Evelyn's Again, the third one in town is Evelyn's Too). The food there was pretty average. There was something advertised as an Aussie Meat Pie, which was nowhere near what an Aussie Meat Pie should be. Needless to say, I was not very impressed with my purchase.

The Bow River meets the bridge at the end of Banff Avenue, and makes for some good photos

What I was happy with, however, were my other purchases on Sunday. I bought some new DVDs and, after meeting up with Mike, some new clothes. I finally bought those gloves I've been looking at buying for ages, as well as a new tuque (what Canadians call a beanie), a shirt, a sweater, and a windproof North Face shell, which was the most expensive of the lot. I won't even say how much I spent on that day of shopping, let alone for the entire trip. It had to happen eventually though, I had been planning to buy new stuff for a while.

At the end of the day, Mike and I were very tired for reasons we could only attribute to the energy drink we had earlier in the day. We lounged a bit at Mike's room then went to see a show at the Banff Center. We saw Mae Moore and Lester Quitzau, a Canadian folk-pop duo. They put on an incredible and entertaining show that everybody in the small intimate audience really enjoyed, myself included. The plan afterwards was to go to Aurora for 25c beers. Sadly, there as a DJ playing that night, and they were charging a big cover charge and coat check fee, so we just went to McDonald's for dinner and went to Tommy's again, where the drinks were also fairly cheap. It was an early night out as we wanted to go to Sunshine for a full day of snowboarding the next day.

Monday was pretty straightforward day to explain. We woke up early, snowboarded until about 4:30, had dinner, and went to bed. An entire day of riding really takes it out of you. Mike and Pat took me out to Sunshine's backcountry, which is not nearly as good as some of the stuff we have inbounds at Panorama, but was still a fun adventure. I started becoming comfortable with jibbing small features in the middle of runs, which we don't really have here at Panorama.

Mike and Pat hike up to do a kicker at Sunshine's backcountry

More complications

I had a long, albeit interrupted, 12-hour sleep and woke up just as Mike was going snowboarding and Lindsay was going to work. I left and took the scenic trail to town again, this time to have breakfast at a much nicer bakery-style place, the Wild Flour. I generally just had a stroll around town and ended up on the other side of the Bow River, doing the start of the Bow Falls trail. Unfortunately, the rest of the trail was closed off for reasons unknown. Consequently, I just went to the Fairmont Banff Springs instead. It's much more grand up-close, and the inside was just insane. There were probably more rooms and more shops in this huge castle than there was in the entire Panorama village. I'd like to think that one day I can afford one or two nights in that place.

They don't call it the 'Castle in the Rockies' for nothing

I headed back downtown after checking out the hotel and had a milkshake from Cow's, which Reader's Digest had once highlighted as having Canada's best ice-cream. I must admit, it was pretty darn tasty. My next stop was meant to be an art gallery at the Banff Center, where I would hang around for the next couple of hours waiting for Mike to get back from snowboarding. Alas, the gallery was closed for the day, and I just sat around the lounge area outside Mike's apartment reading Popular Science and Ender's Game for a couple of hours. Mike was stuck in Sunshine until about 4:30, so when Lindsay got back, she let me leave my stuff in their room while I went out and got dinner.

I had dinner at The Keg, which had one of the most phenomenal steaks I have ever eaten. I had their biggest cut of prime rib, which was 14oz, and it was juicy and tasty all over. The accompanying baked potato was also about as great as the steak. After chomping down this huge cut like a machine, I walked back to the Banff Center to get my stuff. I caught the taxi to the Greyhound station early so that I wouldn't miss the bus, which seemed pointless later on as the bus showed up about 30-40 minutes late.

As we approached Radium, I turned on my phone (which was running out of battery) and tried to make some calls to get a lift back to Panorama (the last bus to Panorama was 9:05, which I was not going to make even in the bus from Banff was on time) but alas, the phone went dead before I had any success. At this point I was consigned to the fact that I had to hitch a ride back up, which would have been hard at 10 at night. By sheer luck, when the bus pulled up to the Petro-Canada station in Invermere, Justin, one of the people from the cash office at Panorama, was waiting there. He was picking up his friend from Toronto, who had just flown in, and so I was fortunate enough to be able to get a ride up from him.

Right now it's back to the normal routine. I was slow at work yesterday due to exhaustion from the Banff trip, and today I'll probably only go riding for a couple of hours before calling it quits. I got a whole weekend of work ahead of me, and I don't wanna be feeling dead for that busy period. New photos are finally up on my Photobucket album for February. The video of me crashing spectacularly at the terrain park should be on Ben's website, but I don't know the URL for that yet.