Bye Canada :( And thanks Griz for an incredible season :)

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So it’s all over. Well, the Canada portion is at least. We are back in the UK, spending time reflecting, oh and washing.

So what did we do in our final days? Our exams were on the last day so the last few weeks were very stressful (Don’t laugh, it really was!) but we did manage to have some fun. You will be please to hear WE PASSED! We are now Level 2 Instructors. This probably means absolutely nothing to most of you but is actually a huge achievement for us!

The first day of my exams was Hot Dog day which is a day of pure genius. For any of you who remember the ski slopes in the 80’s, the all-in-ones and fluorescent colours will bring back fond memories. For the rest of you, feel free to laugh and point to your hearts content.

Basically, Hot Dog day (Taken from the movie ‘Hot Dog the movie’) is a day spent dressed in ridiculous outfits, doing old fashioned jumps like the ‘Spread-Eagle’ and drinking lots. I didn’t get to partake in the drinking but Richard assured me the temporary on-slope bar ‘wasch aaamaching’ and the tricks off the specially built kicker ‘wasch aaawshome’. Photos attached, I’m pretty sure you can figure out which ones!

How does sleeping in an ice cave in -20°C sound? Well it was fantastic! We simply loaded ourselves up at the end of the day skiing, took the last lift to the top of the hill and walked 5 mins to a little out of bounds area called ‘Lost Boys’. Once there we had to build our very own Quinzhee. This is a little ice home in which we were to spend our night. 4.5 hours and a lot of hard work later we had a fantastic shelter and a bed of compact snow 4 meters under the snow. I know you won’t believe me but it was icy cold outside, and t-shirt weather inside! Rich got sopping wet whilst digging so we had a slight panic getting him warm again, but cooking sausages and drinking a G&T in front of the campfire soon sorted that out. Fantastic night!

In the week before our Level 2’s we had some visitors. John, Will, Anna, Glenn and Chris are all instructors at nearby Lake Louise Resort. They were sick of riding ice and rock so they decided to have a little holiday in Fernie. And they could not believe how much snow we had. It was absolutely brilliant for Rich and I because all of a sudden we had some experienced and highly qualified teachers all to ourselves! We skipped a day of classes (naughty!) and spent the day trying to keep up. And I am proud to say we didn’t do too bad. I think we had the advantage of knowing the hill but still! We have been assured a video of their trip is in production so I will load a link as soon as available.

So 9th April it was good bye to Fernie and hello Lake Louise! As I just briefly mentioned Fernie = Powder (11meters fell while we were there) and Lake Louise = Ice (3.5 meters fell) so it was a huge adjustment going back onto groomers. But we did it and loved it. The views at the Lake are spectacular, and there is a special thrill from blasting down lovely, sweet, fast pistes.

And Banff was as good as we remembered it. After a trip up the Gondola (Views, wow! But just a tip, instead of paying the $50 odd dollars like we did, you can do the 2 hour walk for FREE!) and a long, long long soak in the Banff Upper Hot Springs (Sooooo relaxing) we finally got to have our long awaited meal at the best ever steak house in the world, the Saltlik. It was a bit of a good bye to new friends and was hilarious fun, no time for tears! We ate some amazing food and drank way too much red wine. (Thanks go to Andy for the expensive red wine!). To top it off the next day was a glorious 19° so we lazed by the Bow river soaking up the spring sunshine. Ahhhh, Happy!

Other highlights include Richard seeing a Grizzly bear on the way to the ski hill, Ard finally started getting the hang of moguls (Like, I actually enjoyed them!), both getting very drunk in Banff for basically nothing (Thanks Macca!) and Rich doing some rails, boxes and throwing his first 360°.

And then final goodbyes, back to the UK and here we are. Rich’s parents have very kindly given us a place to stay and are keeping us well fed and well cleaned. We are so spoilt Rich’s sister Sarah has even lent him her car. In fact they are in danger of us not leaving…………

Just kidding! We have just booked our flights for the next stage so our plans are:

12th May - London to Sydney
19th May - Sydney to Christchurch
7th October - Christchurch to Sydney
18th November - Sydney to London

Get ready, here we come………

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