Travelling Blog: 2014

Friday, 28 February 2014

North America: Big White

Big White (B.C.)

22 Feb - 1 March 2014

Enjoying Big White. Fresh snow first day, 10+ second day then fine sunny weather for the remainder of the trip

Aspens #309

Sitting just below the t-bar just after close of main lifts. Night skiing while about to begin is overshaddowed by ruining the first tracks left by a keen 1615 groomer. (This was the closest I was able to get Dennis to the t-bar. You will see a hole of skiied terrain around the t-bar on the map. Turns out Dennis is actually a snowboarder at heart)

Expensive inter resort shuttle SP to BW. Although it did have us in BW by 9:15am in the morning ready to ski!

The aspens nestled on the run of Highway 83. Still selling 1200sqft for CAD$240,000

Jammo at the top of BW looking East towards the Canadian Rockies

Looking up Secret between Aspens #4 and #3

Night skiing off Rocket

First runs on Tuesday (?). Looking toward top of BW. T-bar top left, Cliff chair right and Rocket behind.

Sitting waiting wishing. Okay... it is impossible to go from gem lake chair to ridge rocket or black forest without taking the super speedy Powder and/or Falcon Chairs

Sitting on a ridge. The aforementioned 'skip powder chair' mission was abandoned

Favourite run slightly off piste, slightly out of bounds, mostly full of tree

Dying on Gem after another Dennis incident of 'following the yellow jacket'

Mapping the routes of the Cliff. "All we need to do is walk around to that little area of trees and drop in from there. It'll be really easily to find the trees, they are the only trees around." - Dennis

The walk was underestimated, 20minutes later and after finally getting to the top Dennis collapses upon the hill to gaze at the distant Canadian Rockies.

Jammo helping Dennis back to his feet

In his defence, the walk from the top of the chair to the top right of picture does not look like +80m vert.

Despite minor frostbite earlier in the week, 'shirt above head' cooling techniques had to be employed after climbing to the top of BW. But, ultimately worth it.

Evening fire warming. Unfortunately our private hottub broke it's heating element, resulting in warm-tub and later cold-tub. Still worth it @ http://www.alluradirect.com/892/

Stay away from a climbing monkey with sharp tools

Sunset from the tube

60km/h tubing fun! More fun than you can imagine. More fun than Dennis would be able to handle.

Tubing. So... the heavier object picks up more speed in tubing races? Please note the (heavier) Jamieson winner on the left lane.

King of Big White

Favourite Run? Secret runs between Kalina's Rainbow and Moonlight Run

Longest Run? 4.8km T bar to bottom of Gem lake via Blue Sapphire

(Kalina's Rainbow into Moonlight run was 4.7km)

Fastest Run? 84.1 km/h

Total Distance Skiied? 262.4 km

Total Vertical? 45,103m

Average Rating? 4.5/5

Download our Google Earth GPS Tracks

The past two weeks involved a lot more skiing than planned!. More than 85,000+ vertical metres and more than 500km in distance. 27.5 hours from ski shuttle big white to Melbourne.

Flying back home

Plans are to go back to the North Hemisphere winter. Locations of interest... Whistler, Hokkaido (Rusutsu or Niseko), Telluride, Austria)
Japan Map

Accommodation 27%
Flights 18%
Food - USA 4%
Food - CAN 7%
Shopping/Activities 9%
Snow Gear 15%
Transport 5%
Broadway Tickets 4%
Snow Tickets/Activities 11%

Sunday, 16 February 2014

North America: Sun Peaks

Sun Peaks (B.C.)

Bliss

The morning view from Hearthstone Lodge #309

Paulette ready for 5 mile. Think burnt hut for 6km.

Snow-shoeing is hard work!

Snow-shoeing is fun!

Snow-shoeing is dangerous

Still fresh tracks on a blue-bird powder day @ 3pm. Happens to be the worst snow season for 10 year, and the busiest week of the year? And the locals were still complaining... spoilt locals?

Looking up west bowl

Nice small little village. This is taken a couple of steps from our lodging.

'Best Ribs Ever'. That sort of praise doesn't come cheaply. If you ever have the opportunity to be nearby a chef named Dennis. A. Bond do take him up on a meal.