White christmas!!

Hey there folks! It's been a couple of days since the last update. Just getting a quick one in before I head off to bed. The arctic warning has finally been lifted! Instead of -25 days we now just have -10 days and it feels warm compared to what we've been through. I've had work on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday this week which has been interesting, seems like a nice little cafe that we're running. Although it does sometimes get a bit cramped considering we only have about 40 or so seats in the whole joint. At least the food we have available there is fairly awesome, these gourmet cooked sandwiches and soup which is a pretty good way to spend your break.

Today on Christmas Day Jimmy, Pete and Sarah all had work but with 15cm of new fall over the past day and night I couldn't resist the mountain. So I headed up with some other mates I met on my kickstart in Vancouver and we went up Blackcomb mountain on the first gondola giving us a good few minutes to enjoy the whole mountain to ourselves and rip the freshly groomed runs up. We headed up to the glacier on the top of Blackcomb and hit some big powder runs on the way back down, of course I have to mention that there's only t-bars on top of the glacier and I finally managed to use them without stacking in a big way. This is a great step for me after the days of falling continuously on the t-bar after about 2m of the way up.

Anyways I'm hardly managing to stay awake here, better get some sleep. Jimmy has the day off tomorrow so we're heading up for first lift in the morning to get more fresh tracks!

Well it's still cold

Whistler, BC -18deg Bluebird days
Our "Arctic Outflow Warning" has been continued until at least Monday, meaning we'll be facing rather cold days for a bit longer. Haven't been able to grab any new pics off the mountain since pretty much anything that isn't lined with fleece will freeze instantly. I don't know if I've mentioned this but it's gotten to the stage where you have to avoid breathing through your nose since the air freezes your nostrils pretty much instantly.

I started work yesterday, although we weren't open for serving yet, just bringing all the stock up the gondola and putting it on the shelves and whatnot. The hut opened today, was going to go up and do a few runs then check it out but it's about -26deg up there and everyone else is at work. Might head up Saturday or Sunday if it's a little bit warmer. It should be a good time working up there, the outdoor grill is definitely on. As well as a bunch of cooked gourmet sandwiches that we're doing where you can choose a side and sauce and whatnot. Should be interesting, I'll write up more about it after my next shift on Monday.

Some of you may or may not have heard as well about the gondola accident that happened up here a few days ago. The main gondola for Blackcomb Mountain (called Excalibur), as well as the main gondola staff use to get from housing to the village, had a tower collapse not far from the base. Fortunately noone was hurt which is great news, it just means we're going to have to walk to and from the village now which is bad news :P Our main link with the village is a ski run which is now covered in snow, adding a bit of an element of excitement to walking down to town. You can read up more about the gondola incident at http://www.whistlerblackcomb.com/excalibur/index.htm

Alas, I better get going. Got to get into town today and pay bills, why do they always choose the day before your bill is due to take down their online payment service for 24 hours to perform maintenance? Trickery and deceit I tell you!

You could call it a cold snap

I'll let the picture do the talking really, but apparently we're in the middle of an arctic wind. Gonna go up there and see if it's possible to board in this weather. Time to layer up!

Snow arrives to stay!

Hi!

Onto my blog now, I hope to cover everything up to date.

My first topic is work. Nick allowed me to rant about work while we lounged after my first day on the job.

So work up here is pretty disappointing. I can't really get into it. Most employees aren’t overly enthusiastic, just there for the money. The customers aren't as friendly as at home, and no one really has any taste for a good coffee. Forced to work with an automatic espresso machine (for big dummies) and it does my head in everyday. I do get along with everyone though, and lunch time isn't gourmet jimmy anymore but 'Montreal smoked ham.'

There are about a thousand odd employees staying in my staff housing (consisting of about 8 apartment blocks). More than 50% are Aussies. There is probably about 1 Canadian to 5 Australian employees. We’re hearing a bit about Australia day plans, apparently it is really big here. We Aussies are expected to behave in mischief such as replacing Canadian flags with Australian and snowboarding in either Australian flag jocks or bare skin naked. Ha! The people in staff housing are awesome. Everyone in the same boat, everyone shares at least one interest and I’m lucky to be around it all the time. It makes me so passionate about the sport, while I’m getting so much boarding done, I’m not losing interest.

At home I’m cooking a lot and experimenting different meals. I hope to come home being very familiar with different dishes. Away from Australia, I’m here almost alone, it’s easy to realise that cooking is a cherished independent skill to have. And when you get as many compliments as I do from my v. friendly room mates, you just want to keep going. I’m also writing a lot in my diary which I’ve never done before. Reading back on it is a good laugh. I get a better understanding of the past events reading back on my diary. So that’s another thing I’m gonna keep up.

Nick arrived with bells a little over a fortnight ago. As you can see he is all over this blog, very enthusiastic about being here he is. Right before he came I was so home sick I could have dropped everything. Luckily enough he brought a bit of home with him so he has kept me going ever since.

Our apartment consists of ongoing tunes, laptops laid out on the coffee table, a TV with very little use and a packed fridge. We all respect each other’s things (“Don’t touch what isn’t yours” SLAP!) Ha! Not to that extent. And our apartment is considered very homely by almost every outsider. Due to the season’s slow beginning, we have had even more time off to bond into the little family that we are. We have a set roster for dinner and dishes and we contribute $100 on each pay day which is fortnightly for supplies.

We have our own internet! Finally! So Skype is up and I am making good use of it each night. So expect a call to arrive sometime soon.

Jimmy.

Kickers are fun!!

Whistler, BC 0C Sunny and Cloudless!
Well well, its been a fun day here today. Jimmy, Pete and myself all had the day off to come up and check out the slopes. We headed up early to find the clouds nowhere in sight, which gave awesome views everywhere you looked. The picture above was taken yesterday which was also pretty clear, but as you can see the village was still under the cloudline.

Yesterday Jimmy and I headed up the mountain and signed up for an intermediate lesson at the snowboard school. We get all lessons for free the only catch being you can't book, just rock up in the morning and ask if there's any spots left. The lesson was a good session, the 4 of us in our class were all pretty much at the same level so we were able to do some more stance work than usual, then in the afternoon get into taking off and landing jumps, which was definitely good practice for today's sesh! Had a bit of a chat to the instructor and found out they have a little snowboard school terrain park for learning how to jib and ride rails etc so we'll definitely be hitting that class up when there's enough steady fall for them to groom the terrain parks. They also run a Quicksilver sponsored course up here which sounds cool, focusing more on freestyle riding and apparently involves a bit of hiking to get to good terrain.

Alas, today we had lots of fun. All 3 of us headed up early and did a few quick runs on our favourite piste and off-piste sections. Then we stopped at our regular resting spot which is a cleared area off to the side of one of the main runs, this little spot has a tendency to turn into a nice powder keg after fresh fall so it's wicked fun all the time. We ended up building a kicker which started off as a small project and eventually resulted in us spending 3 or so hours there packing the snow to try and form a booter which ended up about 3 or 4 feet tall. Ended up being an awesome session, lots of air and trick attempts. We took a bunch of videos today, I've uploaded the one I took on my camera of Jimmy then Pete hitting the jump. Awesome fun, and a nice soft powdery landing meant our multiple falls were nice and soft! :D


11Dec 08 from Nick Osborne on Vimeo.

Anyways! Tomorrow I start training at work. We're meeting in Whistler Creekside which is sort of a detached village about a 10min bus ride from the main village that sits at the same height as the main one except is a bit around the base of Whistler mountain. The place I've been posted at is actually two locations, the first is Dusty's Backside which is down in Creekside and is more like a bar & grill, and the second (where I'll be primarily working) is up the Creekside Gondola at a cafe/grill called Raven's Nest. It sits just about halfway up the mountain and is just above the cloudline so we should get some awesome days. It's only a small one compared to alot of the other places that seat like 200-2000 people, we only seat 50-60 at the Raven's Nest which will make it alot more fun. There's an outdoor patio area with seating as well as an outdoor grill that one of us in the team will be running each day through the week which sounds like awesome fun. On sunny day's they run the outdoor grill and you stand out there cooking burgers and stuff whilst chatting to the guests sitting on the deck, wicked! Apparently I'll be working Raven's Nest and then if necessary we back up Dusty's Backside which should be a nice change every now and then.

Looking forward to starting work finally, and now we have this great new hobby of building kickers, can't wait to get back on the mountain. The Peak 2 Peak gondola opens tomorrow morning as well which should be pretty cool, apparently it's being webcast live at 6am Aussie time so if you're up it should be worth checking out. There's 3km of slack between towers, and in the middle of the sag its 450m or so from the ground.

Dinner calls so I'll be off!
Catch

Snowin' all day!

Whistler, BC 1C Snowing
Hey there folks! Good news, we now have operating internet which is a definite plus. Means updating the blog isnt a three day operation! Since I've last updated, we've basically been up on the mountain shredding each day. Last week was a bit tough on the emotions though, we had a 10cm drop at the start of the week which gave us plenty of fluffy powder, but then the temperature dropped to -10 over night and it all froze instead of staying nice. What followed was about 5 days of the snowmakers dusting the mountain as fast as they could to keep up with the freezing piste's. One figure we came across was the at one point, the snowmakers had converted 9 million gallons over water into snow in the past 24 hours!

With the season now running fairly late and only about 10 of the 200 or so runs open, the weather had to break eventually, which I'm hoping it has. Waking up this morning I took the picture you see above. Last night there was no white coverage on the ground and now today its covered and has still been snowing hard for a good 4 hours now. Alas, enough about the snow. Had a crazy sighting last night while we were sitting in the lounge room watching a movie, right outside the window a wolf stalks past. Really takes me back to how close to the wilderness we are, with thick forest starting only a couple of hundred metres from the staff housing area.

Anyways, I best be off! It's noon here and I'm still sitting in my pyjamas, gotta head off to a staff meeting. Apparently this is where they drill us with the Connect/Assist/Exceed service goals. And yes Fridays peeps A+'ing plays a big part of the manual as well! Shouldn't be too hard to get into the swing of it.

I'll try and post a bit more tonight about where I'm working because it seems like it's gonna be a real cool place. Halfway up the mountain just above the cloud settling point, with outdoor patio and outdoor bbq that we'll get to rotate shifts on! Awesome!

Speak soon!

Apologies

Currently having issues with our internet, the speed ranges between 0KB/s and 0.5KB/s. So what we've done is set up our own internet account rather than signing up with the company that runs the wi-fi that covers our building. My apologies for not keeping this updated for now but we're just hanging out for new internet! We've just got to hang on a little longer since the router takes 3-5 days for delivery, and we're on day 3 here on Friday so it looks like we won't have decent internet until Monday or Tuesday then. Then I can Skype you all!

Back soon! :D

Day 2 of riding

Hey hey! Well it's been a pretty awesome couple of days, I've been able to get up the mountain both yesterday and today. Whilst it's only been snowing lightly down here in the village, it's been snowing hard up top, as it was all yesterday. Lots of fresh powder to be had, with a bunch of off-piste little runs here and there. As for the progression I'm slowly getting there, today was definitely alot more comfortable, though keeping a decent speed to surf over the powder is a bit tough. Definite highlight for day 1 was getting off a lift without falling over, and highlight for day 2 was linking toe-side and heel-side turns. Some wild feelings plowing through waist-deep powder slowing sinking, then sitting back on the board and feeling the nose lift me up and out of the powder! So mad!!

Currently just chilling back in the apartment after dinner, feeling pretty sore from the day's boarding, and got all my gear in the laundry now washing it up for tomorrow! I start work proceedings on Wednesday so I think enjoying every day until then in the snow sounds like a good plan! Until next time!

Can I get a hell yeah!

I know I posted earlier today but just wanted to thank everyone for doing their snow-making dances and willing the snow, coz it's gonna be brought tonight! Was just out for a couple of hours, picking up some supplies, as well as getting my season pass (means I can start hitting the slopes!) and a pretty sweet uniform. Our work tops are North Face moisture-wicking tops which is gonna be mad, the pants are North Face cargo's with the same fabrics. And then they also give me Gore-Tex snow pants and jackets, all with the Whistler Blackcomb logo's on them. Hells yeah!

Anyways, the snow, as I was walking back up the hill to the accommodation it started falling! Only light but if it's snowing light down here it's heavy up there. The weather report, which was pretty average this morning, is now saying flurries (snow) for the next 3 days!

Score!

The Season Begins!

Whistler, BC 2C Overcast
Today being laundry day gives me plenty of time to sit and write about the events of the past few days. Speaking of laundry day, I'm currently waiting on the results of whether I chose the right type of cycle to wash my whites in, time will tell!

Anyways, I arrived in Whistler on Monday and instantly unpacked, I will never underestimate the power of the act of putting your clothes in drawers as a way of making you feel comfortable. Also, finally got to see Jimmy again! We're in a group of apartment blocks specifically reserved for staff housing, conveniently called HOUSE. We've got a pretty nice little apartment with 2 bedrooms each with 2 bunks, a decent kitchen with a little toaster/oven that makes wicked nachos, and a lounge room which satisfies all lounging needs.

Tuesday was something of a paperwork day, wandering around trying to find everything I needed to get admin to start printing my staff pass. The village here really is massive, more of a mini city. To date I still haven't been able to successfully navigate it on my own, definitely need to grab a map today. Tuesday night, being the eve of one of the mountain's opening, there was a big party which they tell us is a tradition to do on the eve of the opening. That is to "Rock the mountain, and bring the snow", and their method for doing this is pretty great, that being handing around free beer and shots all night. Made for one crazy night, and definitely makes me start thinking about trying to get a DJ gig up here. At Merlin's Bar that night the DJ booth was in a gondola hanging from the ceiling, and big screens all around playing snowboard movies and such.

Basically today is a bit of housekeeping, doing the washing and vacuuming while the rest are at work earning a dollar. Looking forward to starting work next Tuesday, after chatting to Jimmy's manager on Tuesday night, she was talking up the huts higher up the mountain, which I believe I'm working at. Catching the gondola to work in the morning, and boarding home in the evening sounds amazing. And plus, going boarding means I finally get to strap onto my board. It's living next to Jimmy's board in the cupboard at the moment, one day, one day!

If you know of any snow-making dances then I'd love to hear it. Up around the top of the mountain is apparently excellent snow but it would still be awesome to have it all powdery down here near the village, instead of sliding around on ice all the time!

Until next time, time to see if my t-shirts are fun size...

UPDATE: haha! Take that "no tumble dry" sticker, my t-shirts still fit!

Van-city day 2

Vancouver, 8C Fine and sunny
Well it's day 2 here in Vancouver and the city is starting to grow on me. Managed to sleep from 6pm last night right through to 11am this morning, aside from the hour or so I spent awake discovering that my room is right above the outdoor area of the Beaver Bar downstairs, where they like to have late-night listenings of Dizzee Rascal and the The Beatles albums. Fortunately they also played a bit of Pendulum and SebastiAn hence I wasn't that upset about the situation.

I also picked up a new sim card today so you can now reach me on 604-9027-385. If you're sms'ing from Australia I believe you put +1 on the number, and if you're calling you'll need to put 0011+1 on the start of it. Shock of the day was that almost all Canadian phone companies charge you for "airtime" which is every minute you spend talking on your phone, whether you made the call or not. You also need to pay an extra subscription to be able to call 911, which seems a bit irresponsible. Cap plans pretty much dont exist either, I always thought we had it bad with mobile phones in Oz but these guys get charged for every little thing.

Alas, I basically spent the day wandering around Vancouver scoping out the city, which became very easy to navigate after only 2 days of being here. It truly is a sea-side town here, with the city going right up to the waterline and seagulls flying all over town. The picture above I took from the upper concourse of Waterfront station, I just love the fact there's another half of the city on the other side of the inlet that goes right to the base of the mountains, then just stops. And the fact those mountains are shrouded by clouds all day long, very picturesque!

Sunset begins at around 2pm which puts the sun on a hard angle, casting nice long shadows down the streets and giving the whole town a great golden glow. By 4pm you're walking with streetlights as the only light source, really messes with your body clock, save for the triple-shot coffee I accidentally ordered on the way back to the hostel, or maybe they did it because it took me so long to count out 72 cents.

Ah well, this is starting to become a pretty long post so I better wrap it up. The meetup for the people on the Moose Kickstart is tonight which will be good to meet some people. So far I've spent the past couple of days as one of those people that seem to survive without conversation, it's killing me! The kickstart is basically just a little 2-day package that they set up for the Whistler staff, you get a package on arrival that tells you where to get your social security number and whatnot. Then there's the meetup in the bar tonight, and all of tomorrow is spent touring around Vancouver in their bus, then on Monday we spend the day heading up to Whistler. The move to Whistler is very excitement, I've just been looking at their website and it looking pretty awesome, heavy snow in the village that's sticking around! Let alone the mountain now being officially open!

I've posted up some pics on facebook of my travels tonight, if you don't have facebook or are lazy you can click here to see the album.

That's about it for tonight! Do hit me up with comments and stuff!

A tad limbo

Vancouver, 8C Overcast and showers
So the trip to Vancouver did an excellent job of convincing me that air turbulence isn't that fun, aside from some great new fashion statements like wearing your lamb curry. On arrival I felt a bit worse for wear owing to the lack of sleep. I still think all those people that sleep on planes are faking it, they actually have eyes wide open under those eyemasks. After collecting all the baggage and tracking down the airport bus we ended up shuttling around Vancouver to everyone's hotel. Of course for the backpackers they don't drop us off in front, rather, down the street in front of the fluorescent sign advertising 25c peeps, fun!

Arriving at 8.15am gave me the chance to get most of the business side of things done, like registering a Social Insurance Number and setting up a bank account. Made a nice excuse for a stroll through the city, which looked alot like Melbourne in it's layout and old/new theme, except with more of those big white vans that normally house a surveillance team in movies. Im not sure if it's the weather but the city just seemed so quiet, which I wasn't exactly complaining about, since it made it alot easier to get around and alot of the seaside areas were totally deserted.

Anyways, its coming off a bit like a kind of limbo. I see what Jimmy meant when he said he was sick of living out of a bag, it took me about half an hour to get sick of. Not staying long enough to warrant unpacking, but at same time needing to get into the bag several times a day for various stuff. Ah well, it'll be great to get up Whistler after this little adventure.

The final note Im making is how early the sun goes down, by 1pm the light was so dim it seemed like a normal Melbourne 6pm. So now it's 5.45pm and the sun has been down for a couple of hours, I feel like it should be around 9 or 10, but really, honestly, it looks like Im heading to bed before 6pm. Sleeeeeep....

Testing, Testing 1,2,3

So we set this blog up as an open textual and visual diary of our 6-month tour of duty at Whistler Blackcomb mountain resort in British Columbia, Canada.

We'll post images such as (better than! - thanks Jimmy) the one below as well as a couple more after the jump.