We're bad bloggers

Sorry we haven't posted in a while. It's been about....5 days since our last post and really not much has happened. We had a great Christmas and the days following that we worked were ridiculously busy. It made for quite a tiring day. Agata has lineups that go out to the parking lot and the occasional stupid people that come to her office.
We have gotten a lot of snow and this week we have snow every day this week, including a big dumper Thursday/Friday/Saturday.....unfortunately I work Fri/Sat/Sun/Mon so I won't be able to get much of that sweet sweet powder. Oh well, more will come.

There are a lot of dogs here and we really miss our Cody. He would love it here and would have many friends. They actually have a $5 season pass for your dog. There are big dogs....little dogs....Agata buys doggie biscuits for the dogs that come in to visit.

They got their other winch-groomer fixed on Friday so there are more black/double/black diamond runs being groomed which makes the skiing more fun on the back side. I think I'm going to see if I can get a ride in the winch-cats as I think it'll be one heck of a ride.

As for New Years, Agata and I going to our local pub for the night. Well.....me, I'm going to be there for 4pm to watch Canada vs. US in the World Junior Hockey Championships. Yes......there will be beer. I don't work on the 1st so I can sleep in and then ski.

We finally went night skiing yesterday and it was really eerie since it was windy, cloudy, and no other light pollution. The night-ski lights made it look like a desolate planet.

Pictures! This is a great picture from the top of Alpine Meadows

and this is a great picture of Santa Claus after a hard night of delivery presents. He can really shred!
Sorry this post was short but really not much has happened. There will be more cool-ness after New Years!

Ta-Ta!
Agata and Mike

Remy R Shristmac everyone!

Merry Christmas everyone from Agata and I in Silverstar, British Columbia!!!

Today I skied possibly the best day of skiing ever. I've never skied thigh to waist deep powder before. I got some videos but they aren't the best....I didn't get batteries for my helmet camera until the runs were fairly tracked out. None the less, I'll post the good ones on YouTube!

We received many greats Christmas gifts that helped make it feel a bit more like home.

The pictures below illustrates what we got from everyone for ChristmasThe mittens from Oma and Opa, the beautiful hats from Erin and Tasha, my new shirt, fleecy pants, Boxers (can't see them), and socks I got from my parents, and the awesome shirt Agata got from my parents (an exclusive Erin Dittmann product).
In this picture you see the books we got from my sister and Randy, they fit our personalities perfectly, the book Agata got from Joanna and John - Agata definately thinks a bad day on adventure is better then a good day at the office by the way, and the set of speakers I got from Joanna and John (they didn't fully make the picture....they're on my knees).

It was a great Christmas here in BC. Although, we did miss our families. We hope everyone had as good a Christmas as we did!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year (Wesołych Świąt i Szczęśliwego Nowego Roku)!
Love Agata and Michael

Sometimes you just can't help giggling like a schoolgirl

Yep, it was one of those days today. We got a good dump of snow and Agata and I found the glades over in the Silverwoods side of the mountain. The result? Knee-deep powder and fantastic skiing. It was a great Christmas Eve.

It's been a few days since we posted anything so I'll catch up. A few days ago we went Caroling with the Aussie's, anyone else staying at Silverstar, and the Vernon Community Singers. It was actually a lot of fun, ending up at our Auditorium for a Concert put on by the Vernon Community Singers. It did well to put us into the Christmas spirit!
Today (Christmas Eve), we went skiing the whole day. It was so much fun. There was lots of powder, Agata and I had great fun skiing in the fluffy snow and in the trees. It is so great when you go to hit a jump beside a tree and it turns out that it's not a jump but powder up to your thighs. Hence......me giggling like a schoolgirl. Ask Agata, I giggled a lot.
Agata is really improving with her skiing. I have pictures. She really enjoyed the powder and glade skiing today.
After skiing we had a gathering here in the Staff Accommodations where there was more Christmas treats than you can shake a stick at. Cupcakes, macaroons, fudge, cookies, cakes, tarts.....we almost didn't need dinner afterwards. Agata and I then had a really healthy dinner to offset the Christmas treats and relaxed. At 8pm we went to a Christmas eve service here on the mountain which was very nice. It had songs and readings just like the service I would be going to back in Temiskaming Shores. Afterwards we opened some of our presents. We have to take pictures and we'll post a full summary of what we got tomorrow (Christmas Day)!.

I have a lot more pictures to post here. Lets see.....

Here is the bottom of my lift, the detachable quad, Powder Gulch
Here is the bottom of my other lift, the T-Bar, Home Run TeeHere is me, just relaxing.

Here is Agata shredding the hill

Here is Agata again, shredding

And here is Agata relaxing in the Champagne Powder

We'll have plenty of more pictures tomorrow! Merry Christmas everyone!

Love Agata and Mike

Silverstar: My Mountain

"Silver star: My Mountain" is the slogan for the resort.

And it couldn't be more appropriate then on an idle Wednesday morning before the christmas rush.

There was absolutely no other person or signs of civilization by Powder Gulch the other day. Nothing. NOTHING. No lifts, no other skiiers, no noise, no patrol. Just freshly groomed trail down the path. For the 10 minutes that it took me to ski down to the lift, it was, indeed, my very own, personal mountain.

I have to go stuff myself with Ginger bread and home made cookies now. Still can't believe this is my life.
-Agata

Feels a bit more like home

Yes, it does indeed feel a bit more like Christmas at home. We just received two packages: one from my parents and one from Oma and Opa. They both contained fantastically tasty cookies and Christmas snacks, which everyone who has tried them really have enjoyed. The Kievelings and Gingerbread cookies are the favorites and people are wanting to mail Oma, Opa, and my mom money in exchange for more cookies. So if either of you recieve $20 in the mail from some random Aussie, the hope is that you'll mail back a bunch of home-baked treats.
In the package from Oma and Opa there was this:

It made both Agata and I feel so good! We had so much fun decorating the Martineau Bay tree with the decorations and lights. I'm really not good at putting on the icicles.... Regardless it looks great in our room and is very much appreciated. Our roommates really love having a Christmas tree as well.
Thank you Oma and Opa for the Christmas tree, decorations, treats and gifts (no we haven't opened them yet!) and thank you Mom and Dad for the treats, gifts, and our stockings (also haven't been opened yet!).

It's quite cold here, about -26C˚ and that makes the snow here very dry. Very dry snow is actually very slow. This results in us having to do more skating on the runs instead of skiing.

Oh, I'm finally driving the snowmobiles around the resort. It took a while for my driving record to get here from Ontario (insurance requirement) but I'm all set. First time driving to my lift.......I ditch the friggin' thing. Well it was hard sitting on top of my skis, boots, and poles with another person riding behind me with their snowboard. The left ski hit some soft snow and I couldn't turn quick enough (crammed forward because of the 2nd person), and couldn't lean because of all the gear. Took 10 minutes and a lot of lifting/pulling to get it out. I felt better after learning that a ski patroller rolled the new 2008 Tundra down the hill.....

As for more pictures......here they are!

This is the view from the top of the Comet Chair while we had an "inversion" (clouds get pushed into the lower valleys).

This is Agata having a rest on the slopes.

This is me and one of our roommates, Tom, he's from England.


That's about it for now because it's late and I'm planning on getting up early to go skiing.

Cheers,
Mike

I can't find my knees

I can't find my knees because I'm buried in snow! In the last 24 hours we have received 46cm of snow. Our base is now 115cm. It has been a fantastic opening week.

It started on Tuesday, opening day, when we got another 24cm and we only had 2 lifts and 10 runs open. Then two days later on Thursday the Comet, the 6 person high speed lift, opened along with more terrain. Basically at this point the main, front side of the mountain was open. Then along came more snow and today we opened up the whole backside of the mountain, including my lift the Powder Gultch and all of its ridiculous powder and advanced terrain. Tomorrow we open the Silver Woods express to access the lower part of the mountain and all the great glade skiing, then Tuesday we will be fully operational when the Alpine Meadows opens to access Attridge. So within a week we went from 65cm base and 10 runs to 115cm+ base and all runs open. I love Okanagan weather.

The only downside of the 46cm we just received........I didn't get to ski it. I was working today. Booooo. Oh well, more snow will come that I can ski. Although, yesterday I wasn't working and I got to ski about 15cm of powder that was absolutely fantastic. So smooth.

Oh, we have new roommates. There was another room with 2 couples and one couple snored like a rusty bulldozer, and the other was sick. So they really didn't get along when the sick couple couldn't sleep at all because of the snorers. So our roommates, one of them snores like a chainsaw, moved in with the loud snoring people and we got the other roommates. One is from Chile and the other is from England. They are great people who are friendly and easy to get along with. They are also both ski instructors....and I'm getting free lessons. I'm going to get some Freestyle lessons so I can keep up with Mark :)

I have some fantastic pictures from the top of the hill when it's sunny and clear. But.....I don't have my camera on me so I'll get it later and post them.

I love snow.

Talk to y'all later.

Mike

It's me!

Hi!
So this is the "Agata" portion of the Blog... sorry it took so long to type:

So.

I was introduced to powder yesterday. I think we'll get along, I've just never actually seen it before so we took it slow. I just stayed with the circles for now. No need to get crazy.

No broken bones as of yet.

But I am out of shape. Only half of the mountain was open yesterday. And I could only ski half of that before I sat down to rest. This means... 1/4 of the way down I had to sit down. This hill certainly isn't blue...

Yay! We're Open!

Yes, we finally opened yesterday (December 9th) with 10 runs and two lifts. We had the Silver Queen (quad, non-detachable accessing beginner runs) and the Summit Chair (double, old-school, non-detachable accessing the main part of the mountain) running for opening day and today (10th). I worked both yesterday and today working the bottom of the summit chair, where all the traffic was, and the top of the summit chair. It is really fun meeting everyone who comes through the lift line. Being a fixed grip chair I had to stall the chair for everyone and I'm pretty good at it now.

Oh ya, I've only skied once when I skied down after working today. It was awesome, I felt so good. I got the custom molded foot beds for my boots and I can really see the difference they make. Basically, they ensure that your foot is properly seated in the boot and there is no slippage or unnecessary movement. The result is a more responsive ski since your foot doesn't move around in your boot.

I am off work tomorrow and the next day and I plan on skiing it all. Agata is off as well so we're going skiing together. It will be fantastic. The view from up there is so very very beautiful.

Tomorrow the big, 6-person high speed detachable opens up and so does more of the mountain. We're getting more snow tomorrow and Friday so the back side of the mountain may be open by the weekend! The back side is my lift, the Powder Gultch and Home-Run T-Bar as well as the advanced runs. I am quite excited.

Overall, it's so very nice to be skiing and working. Agata and I have been reminded why we're here......

Ta Ta for now.

Agata and Mike

Almost.....

We're almost there. We got a lot of snow the past 5 days and we should finally be open this Thursday (11th).
I just hiked up the hill and tried my ski legs and skis out for the first time for the year. My skis really really need a waxing etc.... a whole tune-up. I've gone X-C skiing too and that's pretty fun. Well, not as fun as downhill but I don't have much of a choice. There really isn't much to do when there is no work.

Oh, I actually worked as a ticket checker for the nordic skiing. That was pretty fun but I didn't get to slap (figuratively speaking) anyone around for not having their ticket, trying to cheat the mountain, etc...

Hm. Not that much to talk about really as nothing has happened since the last post. I went through Technological withdrawal recently since I haven't done anything techie for a long time. Everytime I see an ad for Gears of War 2, or some other great Xbox game I twitch. Luckily someone brought their Xbox 360 and I satisfied my craving. They have Guitar Hero for the Wii that's great fun and the funny thing is that I'm one of the best here. I also ended up fixing someone's computer which really helped.

I have to say both Agata and I are very very excited for everyone to come here in February. It's going to be fantastic. Jasmine says she wants to meet everyone since she has spoken to them all so much. She also mentioned that my family are an absolute pleasure to talk to. She talks to dumb people all day and when she talks to anyone from my family, it's a breath of fresh air. She loves you guys....

We have more pictures but they haven't been compiled yet.

Well, that's it for now. Post any questions, requests etc... in the comments section below.

Bye for now.

Mike and Agata

Aussie's and Hockey

If you have a chance, bring some Aussie's to a hockey game. They're fantastic! The staff here in our accommodations went down to a Vernon Viper's hockey game (Junior A hockey) last night and it was great fun. The resort organized the buses and tickets for the staff and it only cost $5 each. Everyone was really into the game with cheering, yelling, and other entertaining, hockey-related things. It was a really one-sided game with Vernon winning 8-4 but there was lots of action, 3 fights (which the Aussie's loved since they're used to Aussie-rules football.....look it up, crazy game), and of course beer. Good fun was had by all.

As for snow, we got another 8cm last night and there's flurries for the next few days. We still need another 50cm or so though so we need a big dumper. None of the lifties are working until we get more snow so......I'm kinda bored. I tried expanding my questionably-legal computer abilities by trying to hack into the various secured wireless networks around the resort but I decided that wasn't a good idea. We only have one accessable wireless connection for the whole staff accommodation which is only accessable in one side of one room. So I was motivated by necessity really. We're getting our own dedicated wireless connection.....soon we've been told but we're at the bottom of a very very slow moving list. Only 2 IT guys for the whole resort. I've volunteered my help since I don't have anything to do but I doubt anything will come of that.

On that note, anyone have any ideas for stuff to keep me busy and out of trouble until we get snow and get open?

I finally got some decent pictures!

1. Here is my lift control console and some people I trained yesterday:2. Here is me in my Uniform (I'm not wearing my radio)! The back just has the Silverstar logo

3. Here is Aggie in her Uniform and office!
4. Aggie and I in her office (Aggie pointing out the window to where she has seen all the deer...pictures doesn't really show where she's pointing but you get the idea).That's about it for now. As before, send all the snow storms over here!

Cheers,
Mike and Agata

Snow?

Ok......really......What does Toronto, or even Southern Ontario need with all that snow? We have very little snow (nope, aren't open yet) and we can do plenty with it! Send it all over here. A little aggravating but not much we can do about it. I'm still training people so at least I'm working. I'm off today and tomorrow, then I work 1/2 day Friday to train some latecomers.

I'm going to bring my camera so I can get a picture of my lift and all it's fun and games and me in my uniform. The lift won't be MY lift but identical to mine. It's wierd though, after riding the Poma lift at Mount Tri-Town for most of my life, it's odd to come here and see the "Poma" lifts here are the giant 6 person detachable chair lifts. Leitner-Poma made most of the lifts here...

The other lifties here are getting antsy since most of them aren't working. They came here all the way from Austraila/New Zealand/UK and are quickly running out of money. In addition, they are getting bored. There isnt' much here to do than watch TV, sleep, eat, and go to the bar (which has gotten a few people fired). We really need to get skiing/riding. The snow will come. The winter has just shifted forward a bit. Last year, they closed in April and they had more snow than they had all season. They close regardless of conditions here (which is ridiculous) because people just stop coming (apparently, I don't believe it though). Sure the season's pass people will come but they dont' make money off them. Sigh.

Oh, for all who need to know, here is the address for me and Aggie

C/O Silver Lode Inn

P.O. Box 3005

Silver Star Mountain V1B3M1 B.C. Canada

Well, hope to hear from you all soon.

Cheers Mate,
Agata and Mike

I am the trainer and they are the trainees

Finally got some snow, which made everyone happy. We still need more but at least everything isn't ice and dirt....

I'm still doing lots of training, but I'm the trainer. I am training the other lifties on the high-speed detachable quads, the same one that I'll be in charge of when we open. I just found out today that I'll be responsible for the Powder Gultch high-speed quad chair (which I already knew) AND the Home-Run T-Bar. I will work 10-hour days Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday then I'm off for three days. The consistency is nice since I can plan around things.

I also took my first walk UP the hill today after work. After I closed down the bottom (loading side) of the lift I had to walk up to the next lift to get picked up by snowmobile.....that is a long, and hard hard walk; especially when you're wearing huge snow boots and in full gear.

Agata bought her first set of skis/poles/boots today! She has Head Every One skis with Nordica boots. She also got a custom foot-bed for her boots (orthotics for ski boots). I am thinking of doing the same thing since everyone here swears by them.

I have more pictures! I still have to get one of me in my full uniform. This is a nice one of the mountains from the village on a sunny day. I like the clouds below...
Here is one of me!

and another one of mountains. I like Mountains! That's the old Summit Chair (2 person chairlift).


That's about it for now, and pray for snow.

Mike

It has begun...

The snow has come. It is snowing, has been snowing, and will keep snowing for a few days. Then next week, it is supposed to snow some more. Thank you....Snow Gods. Please keep blessing us with your bounty.

I did more hands-on training today with the detachable and fixed quad. THe detachable is quite complicated but I really like it. There are a lot of safety switches, startup sequences, etc... but when you get the hang of it.....it's great, quite easy.

The fixed grip is easy to operate. There aren't much things to do but actually loading people is hard!! You know when you load onto a non-detachable quad chairlift and the liftie kinda slows the chair for you....yeah, that's hard. Those chairs are heavy and moving pretty quick. It damn near put me on my ass a few times. Even then I could only muster enough to slow it a bit. I'll need a bit more practice. Luckily I'm the lead on a detachable quad. I am now training others on the detachable quads for the next few days until opening (hopefully next Thursday).

Agata is training people as well in the seasons pass and daily ticket office. She meets so many people that way. I've met so many new people through her. Aussie's, Kiwies (New Zealand), UK, US, Japan........ I met most of them tonight at the staff night of a great bar here (Bistro really) called The Den. They had a special, $7.50 for dinner and a pint. Live band too. Great food, good beer, good music....Quite fun.

Well, that's about it for now. I have to work tomorrow and Brondwyn needs to use my computer (a fellow liftie).

Cheers Mate.

praying to the snow gods

We were supposed to open this Saturday but that has been pushed back. There is not enough snow and it isn't cold enough. So the tentative opening date is November 27th. We need snow and cold. Last season they didn't open until December 1st but the whole season was fantastic once it opened. I'm not worried.....just a little antsy. I wanna ski.

Oh oh oh.......Agata bought her first set of skis/boots/poles. She's so excited. She got wikid Head skis, comfy Nordica boots, and nice poles. Just need snow.

I finished my training today. We had our lift evacuation where we lowered people off the chairlifts using ropes and wee chairs, as well has fireman's nets and ladders so they can jump/climb off the lift. It was great fun because I was one of the people to be lowered down from the lift (30ft up). After I got my snowmobile training so I can ride to my lift in the morning and back to the village at night. Yeah, kinda lame since I've been riding ski-doos since......6 years old? Dad, is that about right? But it's still necessary for insurance reasons.

After, not much happened. I went to the pub tonight with my new buddy Jake from Austrailia (Dickie Beach, north of Brisbane). He's a liftie too. Here are some pictures. That's Jake...

Here are the beer choices at Long John's Pub (great place).My favorite is 1516....
Here's Dennis, one of the owners/operators of Long John's Pub.
Now that I've figured out how to post pictures on this thing, there will be more. Including myself in my awesome uniform.

Well, that's all for now. I'll post again soon, hopefully when there's a pantload of snow.

Mike

Day 1: training....day 1

I started my training today. It was all in-class stuff with everyone else. It's an interesting bunch of characters but they are all friendly and it's going to be great.
We met the maintenance crew, the post-RCMP security personnel, Human resources people, and Guest Services people. I also watched the cheesy 1980's era training video...funny stuff.
Since we're pretty well the first or second person the skiers will be seeing when they get here we have to make a good impression. Smiley faces and such. But I think I can do it.

It has snowed here but it got warm today and it turned soggy. But it will be getting colder now and there is supposed to be snow by the end of the week. I like snow.... Oh, Agata is here and she said from her workdesk window she saw two deer prancing about on the hill...and no she didn't shoot them.

Well we're all heading out to the pub....right next door to our place. I think I will do JUUUUUSTTT fine here.

Toodles for now.

Mike and Agata

We have arrived

Well, we're all here. Myself and Agata have moved into our place here at Silverstar Resort. We're living at Silverlode Inn, which is a hotel specifically for staff. They've redone the whole place really well. We have the following at our disposal:

Bar
Hot Tub
Games room
washer/dryers
Plenty of eating places

Those are pretty well the highlights. Our room is shared by another couple and we have a kitchenette, bathroom, fireplace, TV...quite nice.

They have snow, and more is coming. I have my training tomorrow and Agata is already working. This is going to be great. The people I've met so far are fantastic, friendly, and a lot of fun.

Just thought I'd post something to get started. I'll put in more detail etc.... as I think of them and as everyone asks me questions.

Cheers,