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Published: February 21st 2010
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A lovely scene
(a lovely scene) HOW DO!
Really interesting week this week. Monday kicked off with our Avalanche level 1 course, which has been a real eye opener. The course is designed to give snowboarders and skiers or just people interested in hiking in the backcountry, a basic understanding of the things to be aware of before setting into avalanche terrain, such as wind, sun, compaction and other elements that can trigger an avalanche.
Every snowboarders dream is to get out onto pristine mountains and get first tracks in the untouched snow but the reality is, there is a hell of a lot more to just hiking up a mountain and chucking yourself down it. On piste we are all lulled into a false sense of security; all the terrain is bombed for avalanches after snowfall, and every thing is reletively safe. In the back country it's a completely different world.
After avalanche training we had the Canadian Red Cross teaching us First Aid. Everyone was a little bit down in the dumps about not being able to go boarding, but as it happened the guy running the course was a bit of a legend. Imagine Legolas in his 50's, then imagine he came
Ski jump
People jumping from Hawaii and taught first aid with attitude then you have the perfect mental image of what this chap looked like.
Starting off the day, people came in late, due to lack of enthusiasm for it, so as we waited Legolas decided to put on the film 'Snatch' to entertain us. After a rather engaging and interesting lesson in CPR and a Guy Richie film later we finished the day as qualified First Aiders. Result.
On the bus on the way into town for dinner that night a large group of middle aged drunk American women sat down next to us.
'The American girl in the down hill beat eeeevery other 'wimin' on the track'
She squaked. My Oxfordian bredren, Rob, equally as well educated and scholarly as I, piped up with:
'Women.'
American cougar: 'I beg your pardon'
Rob: 'You mean 'women' you just said 'wimin'
To which I added: 'Yes, Rob is correct, we're both from Oxford and we shan't tolerate any bad gramma on this bus'
After much drunken ear shattering laughter, the dust settled and I felt the American- English alliance had grown stronger. At least, I think they
thought we were quite quaint (background vomiting noises to be inserted here).
The next day was SKI JUMP! After a rediculous night on the booze ('excuse me Mr. Police man what is your fluffy hat made of') and three hours sleep later, I was meeting a couple o good lads Ted and Adam in town to head off to our first Olympic event: the mens ski jump qulifier. It really is hard to get across on TV how fast those guys are going. One Japanese chap flew for 145 metres. Absolutely insane. It left me wondering 'how do you even begin to get into something like that?'
Ted likened there appearence to birds flying through the sky, at which point I busted out my famous bird face and squaked and strutted around manically. You can allways count on me to take things seriously. The event only lasted 45 mins but it was a really refreshing change to get out of whistler for this once in a life time experience.
Saturday has been the third or possibly fourth day of unseasonally hot weather. most of the snow has melted in the village and conditions on the lower slopes are
really crappy. What it has meant however is that we've been able to go out and enjoy the sunshine. To celebrate this we decided to head up to the off piste area around '7th heaven' To build a jump in the snow, otherwise known as a kicker.
Another difference with the European resorts is the knack to name the different runs on the mountain with unfathomably cheesy names such as: 'Jersey cream' 'Twist and shout' or 'Rock and Roll'. No flippin class I tell thee.
Anyhoo I digress. I imagined the kicker we were going to build would be a fairly mellow affair, but the young whipper snappers in our group had different plans. It turned out to be a rather substantial affair and I had to oblige by throwing my self off it. I'll let images speak louder than words: please watch the video i've added. It was a really good day and everyone really mucked in and had a good laugh.
Things are really hotting up in whistler in terms of the olympics. Athletes and thier crews of all nationalities are aaaall bout de place. There's a huge stage at the bottom of Whistler mountain and one
in the centre of town with free live acts constantly playing, a real festival atmosphere....we have Damian Marley playing next week...should be irie ite.
Lessons starting again tomorrow after 2 weeks break. Really looking forward to getting back into training again. Will up date again soon.
Peace out duuuuuudes
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