Ski Day 16, Sunshine April 27 2007

Vertical: 10,235 m, Cum to date: 161,420 m <== 1,648 short of our record year
Runs: 21, Cum to date: 309
YTD Average run 522 m, YTD Average 10,089 m/ski day

It was a wonderful day for spring skiing.




10 days ago we had a wicker winter blast that threw down 60 cm of snow at Sunshine. I was sick last weekend, so missed the powder (folks I know said it was world class). I was bound & determined to get out this weekend, as this week marked the official transition from winter to spring skiing.

And what a spring day it was. It was about 0° when we got to the village, so we did a few runs on Standish to start the day.



Standish isn't usually my favourite, but it gets early AM sun. By 9:30, it was generally soft in the sunny areas but not slushy. The shade was ice. So we headed up Divide and found a very mixed bag of conditions, with good at the top, a middle band of hardpack, and the lower part of ice. The conditions improved all morning; by lunch they were very nice.

Hanging on the deck catching rays for the morning hot chocolate is part of the fun of spring skiing.




We spent the afternoon on Goat's Eye enjoying the corn (it was soft and wonderful on Wildfire, Rolling Thunder & Sunshine Coast) and building vert. This season is very close to our record season of 1996/1997, where we managed 163,068 m. Now, in those days, we skied on the CFCN ski team, so had a lot of days with low vert. Last year we missed the record by 368 m (we were asleep at the wheel -- we bailed on our last day with only 7,250 m). All we need is one more day, 1,648 more meters. Think we can do it?

I do. After all, with 60 cm last week, the coverage is there.

The Hunt Spring Fling at Flames Central

My company celebrates Spring Breakup (a period of low activity in the oil patch due to road bans). Our social club puts on a party, this year with a Hawaiian theme, and this year the party also coincided with a Flames playoff game. Here's a raft of pictures (mostly so Hunt folks can download them).

The Junos

These things I learned at this year's Junos:

Don't party with the CTV folks.

We got home from skiing, then some of KC's friends from Toronto stopped by for a quick glass of wine and a house tour before we headed to Escoba for dinner. Dinner was late, as we awaited the arrival of all the folks who were working the set up and the Juno gala. We got out of dinner at 10:30, then went across the street to Seven Restolounge for the CTV party. The lineup was a little goofy. Some 1,200 people had been invited to a party where only 400 could be inside at any one time.




It was good that it wasn't too cold, but still we were directed across the street to wait for a few minutes to the Chicago Chophouse for a glass of wine (which was actually two bottles...)



Then security game and got us, and we were escorted in. To a zoo.




Still, it was a fun and star-studded zoo. I saw Tom Clarke, Ivan Fecan, Suzanne Boyce (Ivan is the Head of CTV, and Suzanne is President of the Creative stuff), Seamus O'Regan, MP Jim Prentice, Jack Layton, Genevieve Beauchemin (actually, she joined us for dinner, too), Pamela Wallin. Michael Buble was in the corner, and some of the guys from Hedley were there.

Here's Seamus & Lisa from Karen's office...




The dancing was good (right Wendell? Right Bonita?)



The bar was flowing freely. So freely that when I went to get a Cran/Soda at about 1:30, they really couldn't give it too me without putting Grey Goose Vodka in it (they were, after all, a party sponsor). It took me quite a while just to get a water.

We're not sure what time we got home, but it was about 3 -- and given that we had gotten up that day at 6:05, it was a long one.

Then KC was awoken to a work crisis at 8 AM Sunday, and she actually had to go to work at noon. Me? I got up at 3 PM. My throat was shot, partially from the LOUD music (so conversation was a scream), partially from dehydration, and partially from snoring, since Jello slept on me, keeping me on my back for several hours.

Then we went to the Junos themselves. It was a great event, with highlights being the 5 country guys who started the show, Finger Eleven, Feist, the kid Michael Buble introduced on sax who played Charlie Parker, Michael himself (don't like his stuff, but his voice is killer), Anne Murray's bad facelift, Jann Arden's re-gaining of the weight she lost (or her awful wardrobe) and being near Jim Cuddy.

But the bestest part? We dressed up for it.



You can't believe the number of people who noticed my red suede shoes with the mis-matched laces. Cool.

Hunt Oil Ski Day, April 5, 2008

Vertical: 8,430 m, Cum to date: 151,185 m
Runs: 13, Cum to date: 288
YTD Average run 522 m, YTD Average 10,079 m/ski day

A bunch of folks from my company went skiing to Sunshine last weekend. It's taken me until now to get the post up. It was a great day, with most every kind of weather known to mankind. There was about 15 cm fresh, there was some blue sky in the afternoon, a bit of wind and cloud in the morning -- Bob Park summed it up best when he called it "just a great day to be out". The vert wasn't high, because all group ski days are like herding cats. In addition, KC and "Jimmy Bob" Davies spent an hour waiting to get into the Chimney Corner for lunch, and KC & I had to scoot home to go to the Junos (see next post).

And the final reason vert was low is because of the aforementioned Mr. Park, and Mr. Petrovic. These two "way better than me" skiers decided to push my personal limits of sanity in run selection, so we spent most of the morning mashing in the double blacks in the Cleavage and Wild Side areas of Goat's Eye, where the chutes are steep with 10+ foot drop ins and the moguls are the size of small tractors. Thus degradeth my legs...