Whitefish Weekend

Wow, what a weekend. Colette, Michael, Ryan (Michael's friend) and I went with a group called Downhill Riders to Whitefish, Montana this past weekend for some killer snowboarding. Just what I needed, despite being behind on homework as a result. It was a blast to get away and try a new mountain that is too far away to do a day trip. Also, it was a lot of fun to go with a group of strangers and make some new friends. The bus ride down was a big party, and the bus ride back was... slightly more restful. Here's some pictures of our adventure:

Aren't we cute?

We must have been a ways up, we passed through clouds to get to the summit

The trees were just coated in snow - regardless of the amount of powder lying on the runs

Happy place...

Drool...

The Pros and Cons of Winter

Pros

• Large quantities of snow
• And thus, SNOWBOARDING!
• Christmas!
• Snow angels
• Snowmen
• Snowmobiling
• Getting pulled on a tractor tire behind the snowmobile
• Snowball fights
• Tobogganing
• Hot tubbing outside, getting out to roll around in the snow, and getting back in
• Hot cocoa by a fire
• Hot apple cider
• Getting tackled by a very excited black retriever who, might I mention, LOVES the snow
• Ice skating on the dugout
• Just how beautiful everything is when it is covered in a blanket of frost and snow

Cons

• -40 with windchill. Need I say more?
• Walking between classes when its freezing cold
• Icy roads full of people that have somehow forgotten how to drive
• BEFORE the snowplow comes out, when I have to use my car as the snowplow to get up my driveway
• Getting stuck because my car can't actually make it up my driveway through those snowdrifts
• AFTER the snowplow comes out, when a two-lane street is really only one and a half

I think it is safe to say that I love winter too.

Got My Snowboard Fix

On Friday, the weather forecast for all of Alberta was a winter storm warning - with up to 20 cm of snow, gusting winds, and guaranteed bad roads. Many highways were shut down due to the large number of accidents.

The Marmot Basin snow report was over 200 cm of total snowfall, with a 191 cm base, and all runs open. And they have a new express quad that takes you from the bottom to the upper mountain. Previously you had to take two chairs - one express quad and one triple - to cover the same distance.

So what did a few friends and I decide to do? Drive to the mountains of course! We had just finished classes, and had been patiently waiting to get our snowboard fix. Besides, we weren't going to study for finals yet anyways!

Having successfully squeezed four adults (well two of us are really only half an adult each), and four snowboards into the Jetta, we headed out at 530am. The roads were crap for the first two hours of the four hour drive - or so I'm told. I scored a passenger seat - rather than the drivers - and slept through it. Oops? We finally made it - an hour and a half after opening, but we made it nonetheless. Conditions = snow, snow and more SNOW! Visibility = not so great. Worth it? Definitely.

Marmot has more snow now, than they did at any point last season. Shredding powder is a lot harder on your muscles than a groomed run, but the trade off is that when you wipe - it doesn't hurt. You simply create a large mushroom cloud of snow instead! We definitely had our fair share of solid crashes, but again, WORTH IT!

Probably our wisest moment of the day was deciding to stay at one of the Jasper hostels rather than driving home yet that night. Roads were decent (considering) in the morning, but had been expected to get progressively worse throughout the day. And it hadn't stopped snowing the entire time we were there.

You may have seen these on Facebook, but here are a few pictures of our adventure:

All geared up and ready to go!

Left: Colette, Right: Josh

Just look at all that snow!

Michael

I am so in my happy place...

Next time she'll do this off a 30ft jump. Right Colette?