Boarding Fever... Snow, Snow and more Snow!!!

We finally got some snow!!! After a few weeks of on and off snowing in Rossland where we were staying, we decided to head up North to some bigger mountains to hunt for some powder. We jumped in the car and drove 7 hours to a town called Banff, right near a couple of big mountains that were open for business.. We got to Banff and there was snow on the side of the road, which was very promising.. After checking into a hotel, we got up nice and early the next day to make sure we were on the mountain as early as possible.



The first day we went to a mountain called Sunshine Village, where they had about 6 runs open. It was still early in the seaon so some of the black and blue runs were a little patchy, but all up was a great day. After Dazzman giving me a couple of lessons on the first few runs, I was stacking with the best of them! :)
By the end of the day, we were taking black runs and all.. Was greaty to actually get to use all of the new gear we'd s ambishously bought on our first day in Canada! When we got back to the car, it was -12deg C and our power power steering had frozen up! There were so many alarms going off in the car but after we thawed it out (and ourselves) we were on our way back to the hotel.

So a little sore and tired, we headed out into Banff for dinner, and found out it was a wicked little town. It was full of pubs, restaraunts, and Aussies!! We had been recommended a great pub called Tommy's, by our friends Ben and Amy from Rossland, so we checked that place out first. Was a great little place that had great beer and chicken wings, as well as cheap meals. It quickly became our local, having dinner and beers there most nights.
On the second day of boarding, we thought we'd try a different mountain called Lake Louise. Was a little further away from Banff, but was a good excuse to see a bit more of Canada in the car.. We got there to find that only one run was open, but it happened to be about 5kms long! Man were my legs tired.. If I didn't stack at least 4 or 5 times on the way down, I'd have to stop to give the legs a rest! Dazza was almost breaking land speed records down it, while i was almost breaking myself every run! haha.. Was a great day on the mountain, and my boarding was improving out of site. I was linking turns and spraying snow on anyone I could actually pass.. As you can see from the pics here, this mountain was steep and sort of forced you to learn quickly! Great times :)

We retired to Tommy's for the evening, and heard there was an open mic night in another pub called Bruno's a little later that night. So after dinner, we headed there and I played a couple of songs on the old guitar. Was a great setup, with the owner having a wick PA setup and a heap of his own guitars that he'd brought in. He also had a bass guitar and a simple drum kit, in case anyone wanted to jam with whoever was playing. After singing some covers early in the night, I got on the drums for another guy who was playing, and thats pretty much where I stayed for the entire night! The owner of the bar Gary came out on the guitar and was bustin out crazy solos, another guy got up on base and we jammed for ages, with the crowd requesting song after song! Was a wicked night, and we finished up about 3am!

Still, we were up early the next day and headed back to Sunshine Village, where they'd opened a heap more runs. The whole frontside of the mountain was open and a lot of them were Black Diamond runs. As I was a pro now, with a total of 3 days boarding under my belt haha, we headed down a few of the steep runs and was a great day. The steep runs are easily the best, and it wasn't as busy, so some runs had a good 30cm of powder! As it was powder, we started grabbing airs off little kickers, and were even pulling some 180's and board grabs! Was the best day boarding that we've had and it def gave me a thirst for more!!
We headed back into town that night and went to Bruno's for a beer. There was a couple of crew playing a gig there who were doing great harmonies together, so we sat and watched them for a bit. During their break, Gary got up there again and busted out a few tunes, and then invited me up to play again! Was great times, with Gary on the harmonica and the place really started rockin when the other crew got up with us and started doing some harmonies to the songs we were singing.
All up, Banff was a wicked little town, with a great live music scene and even better snow! The powder snow there was amoung the best in the world and it was a shame we couldn't stay longer, but it was time to head back to Rossland to see if Red mountain had got any snow.
We headed back the next day and had to drive home through a blizzard!! The road was so iced up and was snowing like crazy, you couldn't even see the lines on the road! We made it out of the blizzard section and found ourselves in some of the best country we,ve ever seen. All the lakes were frozen over and the massive Rocky mountains in the background made for some great pics..

































We made it back to Rossland and caught up with some of our friends at the local Rock Cut Pub.
After telling them about our thirst for snow, one of the lads Benny offered to take us up Red mountain to board some back country trails, as the main mountain wasn't open yet. It meant hiking up the mountain for 2-3 hours and then boarding down for 2-3 minutes, but easily worth it :)
We're thinking about heading out there this weekend so hopefully we find some snow. Apparently there's a few bears and cougars out there so we're taking Benny's dog just in case! :)
We're back in Rossland until then, and then headed up to Big White mountain to board with Jaye from our Europe contiki tour. He's working up there and said we could crash with him. Big white is scheduled to open this weekend, so hopefully we'll get some great boarding done up there. We plan to stay there for about 5 days, and then it's time to head back to Vancover and fly back to OZ!!