It would be an understatement to state that the trip did not disappoint. Fantastic snow (the 18″ earlier in the week + cold temperatures helped), perfect weather, gorgeous views, a great crew, and a chopper (piloted by the veteran maverick Seamus) to take you wherever you pleased are hard to beat.

JJ and I did the 5 hour drive on Wednesday afternoon, and our advance scout Peter took one for the team by learning firsthand and warning us exactly where a cop might happen to be. I’d feel bad if I didn’t get a ticket in Montana the previous week!

Upon arrival, we chilled in the luxury mountain cabin at the Freestone Inn, enjoyed some wine and fine beers before resting up for the start of the adventure.

Thursday morning, we awoke bright and early. Breakfast, weigh-in, avalanche and helicopter safety briefings. After signing our lives and future earnings away, we geared up, and hit the slopes.

Blue skies, fresh powder, and epic views reigned supreme throughout the trip. The North Cascades are a really beautiful part of the world. Guide extraordinare and NCH co-owner Ken shepherded us through some great terrain throughout the day.

Thursday night, we headed down to Winthrop for some pizza, retired to the condo for some beverages and to watch some Olympics, but we all passed out pretty early. We did, however, learn the benefits of aerating PBR beforehand for optimal drinking pleasure. Peter and JJ also invented a new cocktail, the Flaming Adirondack Chair, the wonders of which the world will have to await (perhaps the next heliskiing trip).

Friday – more of the same, this time led by Scott. There were a few hiccups getting going in the morning, and we had a mid-morning problem with the starter on the helicopter that left us in limbo for an hour while the backup chopper flew in the “Auxiliary Power Unit”. Fortunately, we had a little advance warning so we stopped in a sunny spot, and JJ and Scott had the brilliant idea to dig a snow pit so we could learn a little more about snow safety.

Turns out, there was a moderate weak layer about 18″ below the snowpack, which Tim had the misfortune to set off later in the day on a boulder drop.

Apres was a fantastic group dinner at the Swann abode, with more than enough food and wine, etc, to go around.

Starting Saturday morning, team JJ, Joe, and Peter had used up 19 of our allotted 21 heli-drops, but we weren’t going to let that get in the way of fun. Joined by Tim, guided by Michelle, we rode till we dropped, racking up a total of 30 runs for the 3 days. Play now, pay later.

Saturday evening, we hit up the restaurant at the Freestone Inn, rested the legs and fueled up on food and spirits. After dinner, we hit up the other house for some post-dinner relaxation. Everyone was in a decidedly more mellow post-skiing mood.

Descending back to reality, on Sunday we packed up and made the beautiful return drive back to Seattle.

Thanks to our awesome guides, Ken, Scott, and Michelle; to Seamus for being able to put down the beastly machine time and again; to Matt and crew for organizing the trip and inviting us along; to Peter and JJ for being a great riding team and for taking top billing in the total run count for the trip; and to everyone else for a great time.

Fantastic trip, one I hope I am lucky enough to repeat.

My Pictures (Smugmug): http://nofriday.smugmug.com/Travel/North-Cascades-Heliskiing/

My Videos (YouTube): http://www.youtube.com/user/nofriday1#p/c/999497F88D843B9F

Brian flew in on Wednesday night, and Meagan, Brian, and I went to Wasabi Bistro for some sushi.

The next day, after sorting out gear and rides, we departed north on Thursday afternoon, a bit delayed by a real estate transaction. We rolled into town late in the afternoon, met up with JJ, who had arrived earlier, snowboarded that day, and amazingly stocked both condos with beer, chips, breakfast food, muffins, fruit, and, JJ’s staple, cut vegetables. That earned JJ about five points (and his own room).

Dinner was beers and a big bucket of chicken from KFC. When we were through eating, there was only one piece left in the bucket, with a single bite mysteriously missing from one of the pieces. No one fessed up, leading us to believe that either someone was lying, someone forgot, or someone at KFC did it. We considered all equally likely.

After chicken, we made our way to the Telus Conference Center for the Pro Photographer Showdown. The Telus Festival and events like the showdown are some of the many reasons I love Whistler – five outdoor photographers are selected as finalists and display their work in a nine minute slideshow, and the winner takes a fat check home. It’s a great celebration of mountain life, and the crowd helps to make it a fun event.

One of the minor downers of this year’s was that the emcee was a little too chatty, and not that entertaining. He started off by introducing the event, then the judges, then the photographers. It was way too anticlimactic – everyone wanted to see some pictures, but instead, the emcee was droning on with boring preamble.

Once things got rolling, it was a lot better. One of the things that might have helped get things rolling was the forwardness of our friend, who will remain nameless. Frustrated with the pace of the preamble and sensing the mounting palpable frustration among us and other attendees, using skills honed at home Sonics games, he finally yells out, “Shut the fuck up Galbraith and show us some fucking photos!”. I was nearly on the floor, half in embarrassment, have loving that he had the balls to say that. It turns out that his name wasn’t Galbraith (that would be one of the judges) but the certainty and conviction were awesome. Most around us shared in the shock but also the quiet amusement of someone saying what many were thinking. I thought we might be in for an incident-filled evening, but fortunately, things calmed down a bit and the show started.

Due to the amount of time it took for the judges to decide and our desire to not listen to the emcee anymore, I didn’t find out who won – they were all pretty inspiring, my favorite display was by Frode Sandbech. I thought his compositions were more interesting than the others (instead of just snapping huck shots) and he choreographed the music with his photos a lot better.

We finished off Thursday with a few rounds of beers and miscellaneous shots at Tapley’s and then chilled at the condo.

Friday, we rode Whistler mountain. Conditions were really variable. In some places, they had a few inches of new, but it was on top of a really hard crust, so on steeper slopes, it slid quickly and it was hard to edge. We rode the park a bit too. Downer of the day was JJ taking a hard fall and separating his shoulder, putting him out of riding condition for the rest of the trip.

After riding, we headed back to the condo to hit the hot tub. We selected the condo for the largeness of the hot tub – we weren’t the only large group of guys to do so. At one point, there was a 23-1 ratio in the hot tub. Dude soup. It was fun though, relaxing with a few beers.

Options for dinner quickly diminished as we lazily hung out in the condo some more, so we finally ordered some Dominos from across the street and picked it up. I left early to meet my friend Louise, my sole housemate remaining in Whistler. We then went to the Fashion Exposed show, featuring mountain and action sport clothing. The highlight, of course, were the two models wearing little else but black body paint who occasionally filled such necessary roles as walking down the runaway to inform us how many minutes remained to the start of the show. Sweet. Other than that, lots of bright ski gear. It was fun.

Afterwards, we headed to the Beagle and then back to the condo.

Saturday, half the group stayed in and played Settlers of Kattan, made brownies and nachos, and the other half went to Blackcomb. Similar conditions to the day before, if not a bit harder pack, and way colder. Negative 20 C at the top, crazy cold for late April. Once warmed up, we had a fun day doing laps on a mellow jump on Seventh Heaven.

After riding, we hit up Citta’s for two orders of poutine, one order of wings, and three jugs. The poutine barely saw the light of day before we pounced, incurring some looks of shock and awe from the adjacent table (ladies in shock, gents in awe). Additional highlight was the Kokanee “mascots”. We got a free beer.

After Citta, we headed to the hot tub, then back to the village to check out De La Soul. Tim and my brother ran into a bachelorette party. When Tim informed one of the group that he was married, this woman responded “I’m married too – if you cheat on your wife tonight, I will haunt you in your dreams!”. Wow. We left shortly after that to hit up Earl’s for some food. A few people ate themselves into a near coma.

We returned to the village, headed back to Tapley’s for a bit. Some split for the Cinnamon Bear, Matt and I decided to part with $50 and check out the DJ Experience Rave. Security was tighter than at an airport, requiring us to empty all our pockets and subject ourselves to a fairly aggressive frisk. Once inside, it was a good scene and good music, although I didn’t really have enough energy to properly enjoy it. We headed home around 2:30.

Sunday, a few people left early, a few chilled in the village, and Tim, Brian, Matt, and I rode Blackcomb again. On the way to the village, we saw a dog trying to order breakfast.

The mountain was fairly icy again, but fun to be outside and sweat the remaining alcohol off. We did some runs on Seventh Heaven and the glacier before heading down to Dublinh Gate for a late lunch sendoff. I was (unfairly) laughed at for ordering too much food and losing my wallet and/or cell phone for the thirteenth time on the trip.

The ride home was fairly uneventful and we pulled into Seattle in the early evening, sorted out gear, and headed home. Brian, Meagan, and I went out for sushi again, this time to Kisaku in Green Lake. I gotta give my brother credit – for being a sushi novice, requesting it twice in four days is a strong showing.

Monday morning, reality returned particularly early as I got up at 6:30 to give my brother a ride to the airport. This was Brian’s fourth trip out here since I moved to Seattle and third one to Whistler, and each time has been a blast. Thanks for coming out Brian, and thanks to all my friends who made the trip happen. Special shout out to JJ for organizing the condos and taking an unfortunate injury hit.

Finally, a few quick bullets for the “What happens in Whistler stays in Whistler category”:

• The Brian and Ben mission
• Ridin’ Dirty
• Angry Ming
• The Apple

I’m looking forward to next season’s Telus festival already. Fortunately, there might be a few more days left in the ’08 season yet.

First, the videos. Trip organizer/cinematographer JF created three videos celebrating our trip. They are all great – the last one, if you had to choose only one, is probably the best.

Day One:

Day Two:

Day Three:

And now, the aftermath of the deer. As mentioned in my original summary of our trip, there was a certain incident with the Audi in Idaho. Some have told me that the written recap itself wasn’t pleasant – the photos from Ming’s now-repaired car (both before and after) most certainly aren’t either. If you want to see evidence of the most worthwhile $220 spent to clean the undercarriage of a car, check out the story.

After lunch, I headed up by myself to the top, and conditions there were pretty fantastic – a little windy though, which was good for refilling the snow. The top got 10″ overnight on top of a foot or two the previous few days. It was pretty fluffy snow, and I was doing pretty well for myself on skis. I wasn’t quite missing the snowboard as much today. Ended up doing about five laps on the East Ridge chair before heading down.

Once I got below mid-mountain though, conditions started to get thicker and then icy again, and I could definitely feel the legs burning while on the hardpack.

We did apres at the Alpenhof, now we’re back at the condo, soon heading out for one more nice dinner at the Granary here at Spring Creek. Tomorrow, we’ll probably check out the park, town, and/or wildlife museum before flying back to Seattle tomorrow night.

Jackson got 2-14″ overnight last night, depending on the elevation and slope, which ordinarily would be fabulous news. There were two caveats:

• it was pretty thick, wet snow
• I was on skis.

I was skiing by myself most of the day, so I headed for lines that I would ordinarily be stoked to be on with my snowboard. Bad idea. Second run, I lost a ski in the “powder” trying to navigate some trees. After lunch, I hit an open bowl, and I was destroyed – every turn was a struggle. Here is me taking a rest in the middle of Cheyenne Bowl, counting down the meters until I reached Nick Wilson’s and could crack open a PBR tall boy.

Anyone who claims snowboarders chew up more powder than skiers hasn’t seen me on skis. I called it quits at around 3:30, then waited for Meagan to join me. Before we headed home, there were, as always in Jackson, a few dogs begging for attention.

Tomorrow we’re taking the day off and doing a wildlife safari. I’ll enjoy the break.

The after-ski scene was also a good time. We stopped by the Mangy Moose again, which had an older crowd, but entertaining. There seemed to be a large middle America, middle aged ski club getting their swerve on.

On the way out, we stopped by Nick Wilson’s, which had a pretty fun outdoor scene with a band, as well as a festive St. Bernard.

Afterwards, we headed back to the condo, where we had a more mellow and less traditional St. Patrick’s Day wine and cheese celebration. I nearly burned the condo down when a log fell out of the fireplace, but fortunately I was able to do fairly quick damage control.

Today we took the day off from the slopes and chilled in Jackson. First we had breakfast at the Bunnery, a really good bakery. Next, we checked out the shops and then stopped at the Shade Café for a rest.

Meagan checked out the local knitting store while I cruised around town taking pictures.

Finally, we had some Thai food and then stopped into the local pet supply store to get some treats for one of our friends back in Seattle.

We’re now back at the condo, where we’re doing some wedding planning (always fun), and getting ready to head to town to check out a gunfight (somehow I doubt it will be real), get dinner at the Sweetwater, and watch a movie, either No Country For Old Men or The Other Boleyn Girl, depending on my chick flick tolerance.

Only other thing to note was the parade of ten Jackson Hole cop cars heading up the relatively obscure road leading to our hotel when we left this morning. When we returned several hours later, they were all parked in the hotel lot.

We were curious what was going on, but disappointed that it was nothing terribly exciting – apparently there was some sort of awards ceremony going on in the conference center.

Finally, I am curious how many people are actually reading this blog since I started it, so if you’re reading this and want a postcard from Jackson Hole, email me your address.

Snow in the forecast…woohoo!

Then we headed to town, stopped at the Silver Dollar Bar for lunch, and I had a monstrous chili bacon cheeseburger.

After lunch, we drove to our condo at the really cool Spring Creek Ranch. Really beautiful location just outside the town of Jackson, looking out over the Teton Range.

Upon checking in, I lay down on the bed for what was meant to be a minute, but I guess I was still exhausted since I passed out for about four hours.

Making up for lost time, we headed out to a nice but pretty pricey dinner at Mizu Sushi.

Today, we headed to the mountain. We stopped for breakfast at a small café right near the hill – muffin, bagel, latte, mocha – $21. I remember Jackson Hole as being expensive, but that’s ludicrous – the $4.75 muffin took the…cake.

Hit up the hill, mostly skiing the Aprez Vous chair. They got about 3-6″ the night before and a few feet earlier in the week, but since I was on skis, we mostly took to the main runs, with a few darts into the trees to remind myself that I am not as good of a skier as I’d like.

We hit up apres-ski at the legendary Mangy Moose – I polished off a few beers and some wings, and Meagan had an over-the-top hot chocolate.

After that, we stopped for groceries, headed back, made some fajitas, and now I’m having a beer and heading to bed.

Gearing up for more of the same tomorrow, with the added bonus of fantastic St. Patty’s day in a ski town!

Day One: The Journey

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The adventure started in Seattle last Thursday. Around eleven, we packed Ming’s Audi to the hilt, and Ming, Matt, and I started heading east across Washington state on I-90. We stopped for lunch at Quizno’s in Cle Elum, then continued driving, past Spokane and into Idaho. We stopped for “supplies” at a brand new and extremely bright Duty Free shop, and drove a kilometer to the border.

As we crossed the border in Eastport, Idaho, we could hear the car dragging something a bit. We quickly thought back to what happened about half an hour before we got to the border. I was driving and following a semi truck. As we crested a hill and started descending, I realized that we were, quite quickly it turns out, approaching some sort of dead animal on the road – not sure if the semi hit or if it was already there. We have no idea what it was, but it was larger than I originally estimated. Guesses as to the unlucky mammal’s identify included a wolf or a small deer.

[Drive Update - after we crossed back into Idaho, we passed something to the side of the road extremely close to where the incident occurred - we turned around, pulled over, and checked it out - small deer. At least we have closure, and I spared you pictures.]

In any case, I was driving about seventy on a two lane road bearing down on carcass, and didn’t have a whole lot of time to react or avoid the obstacle, so I ran over it. It was small enough that we mostly cleared it, but large enough that we definitely felt it and probably picked up a few pieces. Oh, we did.

I first suspected that there might be a problem when I could smell a faint burning odor when we parked at the duty free, but brushed it off as someone grilling some type of game – it turns out that would be the Audi. After we heard the dragging noise at the border (and fortunately didn’t arouse any suspicion with the agent), we parked a little past the border to investigate.

At this point, it was quite obvious that the smell was getting worse and was definitely coming from the car. We took a peak underneath and, sure enough, there were some gristly furry things hanging from the undercarriage of the car. The animal also cracked the plastic housing that protected the bottom of the car, which was the source of the dragging noise. Holding our noses, we tried to clear the plastic, largely succeeded, and continue the voyage north. But the animal would remain with us.

We stopped a few hours north in Cranbrook, BC, and had a fantastic supper at Burger King. When we got out of the car, the smell was almost unbearable, and I had one of my many near-hurls that would occur over the next few days. After polishing off the bacon double cheeseburger, we got back in the car, and geared up for the last leg.

We finally made it to town around 10:30 pm, which made it an eleven hour ride with stops. We picked up our keys at the office and headed to our townhouse. The roadkill was absolutely atrocious at this point, but we hoped that not driving and the mountain freeze would at least allow us to have a reprieve. Fortunately, for the most part, we did.

We unloaded the car, and met Jeff, an awesome Edmontonian who arrived earlier and quickly became part of the renegade snowboarder pad (Matt skis and so do I sometimes, but the label stuck a bit as the rest of the crew were all skiers). We headed over to the other townhouse to meet JF and the rest of the crew, had a few beers, and then headed back to catch some sleep for the upcoming adventures. So Thursday ended.

Day Two: Warmup

After shoveling down a banana, some pasty oatmeal, and coffee for breakfast, we spent Friday riding at Panorama resort. I spent the day on the snowboard – it was a pretty sunny day, so although they didn’t have any new snow recently, it softened up pretty nicely and we had some fun rides on the cruisers. We finished off the riding with some mountaintop beers in the sunshine, which was a very nice way to cap off day one on the mountain.

While we were hanging out, JF, our rambunctious Quebecois trip leader, mentioned that we would have to do twenty pushups as part of the fitness test for the heliskiing trip – and didn’t think I had it in me. I felt the need to defend my honor, so I finished off my beer and then did twenty – which JF videotaped. As it turns out, JF was yanking my chain – man am I gullible – and still a little sore.

We headed over to the RK heliplex to check in for the next day, get weighed in, and sign our lives away. We grabbed dinner and drinks at the restaurant there – turns out it’s the best place to eat in town (lasagna carbo load this night). After getting back to the townhouse, we grabbed our suits and some hot tub refreshments and headed over to the pools – hot tubbing on a ski trip is a fairly essential element, and this trip was no exception. We went back to the house, chilled for a bit, turned in around midnight and rested for our big first helicopter day.

Day Three: Wow

Saturday morning, even though none of us are morning people, the excitement was palpable. We made the quick drive back to the heliplex, got our avalanche transceivers, and enjoyed a nice breakfast of eggs, bacon, sausage, hash brown, and fruit.

After breakfast, we met our guide for the next two days, Graham. He did the safety lecture – I was immediately super impressed with the RK operation. When you’re getting into a helicopter and riding unpatrolled wilderness (with no avalanche control) with eleven other people, you’re really putting your life into someone else’s hands. It was clear from the get go that Graham was a pro, took his job and safety seriously, and was committed to making sure we had a good time.

[Drive update - we're now crossing the border in Idaho - I knew I'd get carried away writing this]

We finished up inside, and continued the safety overview. First, the helicopter lesson – don’t carry your skis too high near the chopper, and generally it’s rarely a bad idea to keep your head low when approaching the whirlybird. Finally, we practiced using the avalanche transceivers with a simulated rescue in the parking lot. It took a little getting used to the Barryvox Pulse interface (mine is a BCA tracker), but fortunately it was pretty easy.

Adrenaline was flowing pretty strong by now. We met our pilot, Duncan, who was an amazingly competent pilot – the way that he was able to bring down the helicopter in windy, uneven, alpine terrain with only a few feet of clearance in between the designated landing spot and where we were perched never ceased to amaze us over the next two days. Watching the chopper fly away after getting dropped on the mountain never got old either. Duncan clearly loved his job, and hammed it up for us during the rides by buzzing by the terrain park at Panorama on our return and cutting though a really tight notch in a mountain pass (“I’m not sure if we were small enough to fit!” – Ha, yeah right). Given the complexity of operating one of those machines, it was very reassuring to know that we were in good hands with Duncan at the helm.

We were close to launch time. We posed for a few group shots, and then loaded up. The energy was high as we took off, knowing how much fun was ahead of us. We all snapped a bunch of photos (which were largely pictures of other people taking pictures inside a helicopter), gawked at the scenery, and tried to patiently wait for the big first run. After about fifteen minutes, Duncan put the machine down, Graham unloaded the equipment, and we disembarked for the fun of our lives.

I grabbed my board, found a spot to strap in, and waited for Graham to lead the way. We had a quick safety recap – go where Graham goes, stop above him, person with the pack goes last. Check.

And then we were off. Graham started making a few turns, and soon we were following. I was a little worried about the snow quality – we were paying some good coin for the trip, and anything short of epic was going to be a bit of a letdown to our buildup of the trip. Fortunately, my worries weren’t validated – the first few turns were a little windswept and crusty, but there was plenty of untracked powder for everyone over the next few days.

Needless to say, It was amazing to have run after run of awesome snow, with no one else out on the mountain except for us. It was a mostly overcast day, but it wasn’t too cold and visibility was great. The riding was epic. We had a pretty good mix of runs throughout the day – started off with some glacier skiing, followed by lots of tree runs. Most of the runs had a few kickers to huck off – those who know me know I am hardly a park rider, but with the amount of boot deep powder to soften the landings that we had, getting some air throughout the day was pretty much mandatory.

Although the runs were quite long, the day was going pretty quickly. We had four runs, then broke for a nice lunch on the mountain, followed by another two runs. This exhausted our five prepaid runs for the day (one was considered too short to count), but everyone was pretty much operating in a “play now, pay later” mentality, so most opted for one extra run – it was definitely worth it.

We returned to the chopper – Duncan took us back to the heliplex, and grazed through the resort at a really low altitude, just for kicks (suckers!). We hit the bar for some beers, and reveled in the excitement of the day, trading stories, comparing favorite runs, and swapping cameras to check out the glory. Several of us decided to stay at the heliplex again for dinner, which was a good call – pasta alfredo with prawns this night. Finally, we wrapped up our first heli day and headed back to the house.

We then made the transition to evening adventures. We repeated the hot tub ritual, then changed to go out on the town. We headed for the Crazy Horse Saloon, which is pretty much the main game in Panorama. The journey was interrupted briefly as we stopped to film two teenage snowboarders ride off the garbage station down the hill below, about a ten foot jump. They both landed nicely and we continued on.

To no one’s surprise, the Crazy Horse was filled with a lot of alcohol fueled skier dudes, of which mix we were about to be part. I am really happy that I don’t have to play the “try to find some cute girls in a ski town” game anymore, but it was plenty entertaining watching my friends and egging them on. Doctor Brian was a pretty staunch wingman for the crew. It was a fun evening – the only other highlights to note were meeting an Olympic skier (I won’t go into that here…) and my attempt to leave early being thwarted by getting lost in the parking lot and having the rest of the crew beat me home anyway.

We headed to bed, and got less sleep than we intended due to our staying out past our designated quitting point and due to the insanely early arrival of daylight savings time. So cruel. The loss was partially offset since, now that we were heli veterans, we could skip the hour long safety session, but nevertheless, morning came sooner than most of us really wanted.

Day Four: Even Better

Fortunately, knowing that another day of heliskiing awaits you motivates you to get out of bed really quickly. We drove to the heliplex, fueled up, and got ready to fly again. Sunday ended up being an even better day. The snow was just as good, with an added bonus of a bluebird day. We started the day off with some great powder tree runs in the morning, with some high alpine bowls in the afternoon. There were a number of crevasses to look out for, and a few crazy large cornices overhanging on some of the runs. Graham kept us in line, and we had eight awesome runs.

Speed was the theme of the day, especially for the snowboard crew. With visibility and snow quality generally awesome, it was fun to just point it and rip. Who needs to turn anyway? My favorite run of the day was a steep line where I bisected a nice powder eight laid down by two skiers in front of me with Ming ripping behind, close in tow. The last run of the day was a perfect open tree run with a nice jump at the end. Epic day again.

We met Duncan at the chopper, loaded up for our last ride, and basked in celebration of another glorious day. Duncan promised us a fun ride home and didn’t disappoint, cruising through a narrow mountaintop notch and buzzing the terrain park again. We knew that we would be returning to reality soon and would be riding the resort the following day, but we held off thinking about that just now, and enjoyed the moment.

Sunday night, apres-ski was largely spent at the heliplex. We had a few pitchers with our guide Graham, and it was really cool to chill with him afterwards, since he was very much responsible for the awesomeness of the experience. After he headed home, we moved into the dining room for a large group dinner. Meal #3 at the heliplex was by far the best, a huge filet mignon wrapped in bacon. This trip was all about going big, and dinner wasn’t going to be an exception. We settled up, and headed home.

We then geared up for the obligatory hot tub experience, and after three days of hard riding, it was definitely in order. After that, we kept it fairly mellow, and returned to chill at the house and called a relatively early night.

Day Five: Chillin’ and Grillin’

Monday was a much slower morning. Although we tried not to be powder snobs, we knew the return to reality was going to be a bit of a jolt, so the snowboard condo took it easy. We got up around 9:30, picked up Dave (who had trimmed his beard into a fantastic porn stache, which he sadly eliminated shortly after our arrival), and gradually made it to breakfast in the village. We then headed back to the townhouse. A few people headed straight for the hill, but Ming, Jeff, and I vegged for a little while longer. So much for not being powder snobs. We were just waiting to the sun to soften up the snow a bit.

I finally geared up and was pretty stoked to be on skis for the first time this trip. We hit the hill around one, and it was super warm, which was great for the conditions. We ran into JF, who was giving a ski clinic on the mountain. Ming and I rode together for most of the afternoon, racking up about six runs before we decided it was time to crack into the beers that we had wisely packed before leaving. The rest of the crew soon joined us, and we had one last session on the mountain. It was great to be part of such an awesome group of people, enjoying life outside.

The vacation routine continued when we got home, and the next obvious step ensued – hot tub. This time, we had a genius idea of bringing my portable travel speakers and iPod to the pool, which added to our already high level of hot tub entertainment. Four days of riding, hot tub, friends, some beers and music – it’s really a hard to beat combination.

Our last night continued with a group dinner at JF and Cat’s townhouse, which was fantastic. It was great to have one last time together with everyone. The fact that there was lots of grilled meat made it even better. After dinner, we checked out lots of the photos that JF had collected on his computer and the work-in-progress movie for the second day of heliskiing.

After dinner, several us headed back to the Crazy Horse for one more night on the town. This night promised to be exciting as it was “staff night”. Sure enough, it was pretty crowded, and it reminded me a bit of the winter I lived in Whistler. After a few rounds, we packed it in and headed back.

Day Six: The Return

Today, Tuesday, with no riding to look forward to and a long drive back to Seattle, we weren’t in any hurry to get up, and slept in pretty late. We finally got moving around 10:30, cleaned, packed up, and loaded the car. Jeff got a pretty early start back to Edmonton – I think I heard him leave around 6:30 or so. We hit the road around 11:30 and stopped for lunch at the Bistro Restaurant in Invermere, which is a short bit away from Panorama.

First order of business, after lunch, was getting directions to a local car wash, since we needed to attempt to do something about the festering roadkill smell, which was not going to get more pleasant during an eleven hour car ride. Time will tell if we got all of it, but we did the best we could with the power wash, and so far the stink seems to have faded. The car wash was located in a fairly industrial area of a remote mountain town, and the two guys washing some fairly beefy and beat up trucks must have had a laugh watching the three city kids with the Audi and ski gear trying to clean the underside of a car.

Well, we’re now back in the States and getting closer to home. We stopped for one last bit of epic ridiculousness and scrubbed our fast food dinner plans for a Red Lobster experience when we sighted one in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. Other than that, we’re slowly descending back to reality. I’m a little sad that an amazing vacation is over but fortunately I have a pretty sweet life in Seattle and a fun trip to Jackson Hole with Meagan to very much look forward to.

Thanks to Ming, Matt, Jeff, Dave, Eric, Brian, Rob, Lloyd, Cat, and JF for an unbelievable trip, and to our RK heliskiing crew, especially guide extraordinaire Graham and hotshot pilot Duncan. Special shoutouts: Ming and Matt, for inviting me on the trip and being great driving buds. Cat, for putting up with ten dudes in a chopper for two days in a row. Lloyd, 70 years young, you’re an inspiration – I hope I’m still tearing it up as well as you are forty years from now. And last, but not least, JF, thanks for making this trip happen, letting an American snowboarder crash the Canadian ski trip, and putting together the awesome videos.

I can’t wait to do this again real soon.

Friday night, went to Tilth with Meagan – as predicted, it was very crowded (we had a 9pm reservation, waited fifteen minutes to get seated, and I think there were only one or two tables empty when we left around 11:30). Surely this was due to the NYT review, prime offender being the grey tweed jacket and white turtleneck wearing twenty-something overheard stating to his presumed date that he likes to apply risk management techniques to choosing restaurants, selecting them when they were established but on the upslope of their growth. Ugggh. What a DB.

Saturday, went to Stevens Pass with JJ, Tim, and my friend Chris, who used to work at Amazon and is now a computational linguistics PhD at Maryland. We had a great day, catching up, enjoying the outdoors and the five inches of fresh on top of the hard pack. The day included a very leisurely two beer lunch at the bar, which made for some fun afternoon riding.

Saturday night, Meagan, Chris and I had a some ‘za at Tutta Bella in Wallingford. Tried to watch Lost with Meagan last night, but fell asleep. Getting up at six will do that to me.

This morning, I successfully watched Lost (this season has been amazing – I am going to be sad when the eight episodes they made before the strike run out). Just got back from my first road bike ride of the year, riding down to Wallingford, along the Burke Gilman towards Mathews Beach and back. Beautiful outside, not quite as out of shape as I thought. But with a big four day snowboard trip to Panorama (including two heliski days) coming up, I’m not taking any chances.

Heading out for some lunch, going to try to do some errands for the trip (new snow pants, wax snowboard, pack), do a Green Lake walk with Meagan, do some wedding stuff, and try to catch up on some work. I doubt I’ll accomplish all that, but that’s the plan.

Ugly – tandem snowboarding. I used to share a house in Whistler with one of the guys in the video – that he invented this doesn’t surprise me at all.

Looks like snow is in the forecast this weekend…dry spell may be ending.