Day 8 - Big White

We slowly awake and Packy gets all can-do and makes pancake mix. We have awesome pancakes and head up to Hayree's and Mexi's. I wax my new board which is lighter than air; yes, it's like helium but is way more shredtastic. I am pretty stoked on this board. We head out and straight away the board is AMAZING. It is light, heaps of pop, sucks up chatter (this is due to a 100% wood core plus wood sidewalls) - I am spinning much easier and popping much higher. Stoked.

There has been about 5cm overnight, although we estimate at the top there has been around 10cm or so. It is cold with the wind and starts snowing around lunch - heavily. Mexi and Hayley take us through some powder stashes. I remember now why I liked Big White so much. There is so much natural terrain to hit. Hips and drops everywhere. Trees. Glades. Constantly using the terrain nature has given us. Epic mountain.

We don't take too many photos today as it is simply too cold. The batteries would fail almost immediately and my hands would get collllddddd. Still, Packy got some shots. See below.


Hayley (hayleymei.blogspot.com) thinks it's funny to cover me in snow.

I get revenge by ripping and shredding. Bananas!



Whassup.

Time to rip. And shred. Like Tommy Lee. Bananas.






We do run after run of powder and chutes and bowls and trees. Packy is like a kid and thinks riding like a lunatic is the Best Thing Ever. I almost get axed at least three times by him and we all nearly hit each other as one person appears out of the trees near another. Good times. I get a compliment from a random lady on my board design.

There are a fair few people on the mountain but we hit Powder Chair and Gem Lake and don't have a lift line. The biggest lift line is at Black Forest (which gets stickered :) ) and even then it is a short wait. Heresy stickers start appearing.

We stop quickly for a coffee - the food is good, but not on the level of Whitewater.

The village has changed a little since I was here in 2002; the old Samesun that Dave and I stayed at was torn down and replaced by units (aka condos).
The development reflects what is happening at Red/Rossland and at Apex. Condos go for about $400k and this to me seems a reasonable price.

The snow thickens and we're like kids. Everyone hooting and smacking every stash we can find. There is a serious lack of people where we are, as we find hit after hit of new terrain. About the only thing holding us back is the bone-seeping cold wind. I now remember how cold it really is here.

I gain confidence in the board and I realise just what Pat and Packy were going on about. ABS is old technology. Packy and I continue to tweak ideas for the 2008 board designs and settle on two. These will be revealed shortly.

We head in around 3.30PM and spa up, dinner up, and have an early dinner.

I work out that it's my media card reader that's wiped Josh's XD media card....I just put it in the reader and it wipes the content. We can recover though luckily through the camera.

We have home made pasta and vegies and I get to sleep at 12AM....
....only to wake at 12.02AM when some loud clowns (I shall hold back the words I actually want to use) are up and down the hall for THREE HOURS, including being in our room. THEN, at 4AM, 4 dudes come in, one of whom is in a wheelchair. He is completely drunk. His friend rolls him in, leaves him, then wheelchair dude - let's call him Paul - vomits all over himself and into his own mouth. I call his "friend" back in and he then wheels him out. I get 1.5 hours sleep until they roll back in and I have to endure 3 more hours of noise and carry on.

As they are leaving, Paul apologises but all I can give him is a "rrrrright". He seems genuinely sorry but dude you're in a dorm. Display some responsibility. His mates are equally to blame. As far as I am concerned, I don't care who you are, that kind of behaviour is just not on when you're putting four other people right out. There was another couple from the UK who were also made to feel completely uncomfortable.

Not happy Jan.