A lot to cover

Well, I haven't posted anything in a long time. I'm sorry for those who check this blog every day and have been consistently disappointed every time. I guess since I had family visiting for a week I decided that I didn't have to post. However, that's not fair to the others who weren't here. So....

First off, here is a short video of a hard day's work down at the bottom of the powder gulch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKUGRwWc1Uo

Yep, we built a jump. Even a ski patroller hit it with us! There is now another jump that requires me to tow them in by skidoo. We have a tow-rope on the back of the sled, they hang on, I go up to 50kph, and they let go and hit the jump. It's fun....

When I had my Mom, Dad, Andrea, Randy, Oma, Opa, Uncle Brian, Tante Barbel, Uncle Karl, Dorreen, and Nick visit we had great weather. Around -5C, sunny skies, and great snow. It seemed that everyone had a great time and enjoyed what the resort had to offer. I really enjoyed the accommodations everyone had, especially at the Snowbird lodge. From my parent's hot tub on the balcony we could watch skiers and snowboarders go by on the summit lift with the mountains in the background. The room itself was fantastic......all except for the bedframes. You see, the feet for the bedframe stick out really far from the rest of the bed and many people ended up stubbing their toes on them. My mom, in particular, bent her little toe sideways which made skiing a little difficult. But, besides all that it was some of the best accommodations I've ever seen.
The skiing was great and the snow was well groomed. Everyone enjoyed the runs and even Andrea, Randy, Nick, and Agata took a 3 hour lesson with everyone's favorite instructor: Spike! Spike still asks about everyone and says hello!
I think the favorite runs were Sunny Ridge, Gypsy Queen, Exhibition, Big Dipper, Far Out, Whiskey Jack, BX Express....there are a lot of favorite runs.
Friday night we took a ride in a groomer, designed for carrying passengers, up to Paradise Camp on the top/backside of the mountain for dinner. That was a great night with great, great food. We met a Finnish freelance reporter here on assignment to report on Big White, Silverstar, and Whistler. She had dinner with us and also came back to our place for drinks afterwards. Neet little piece of information.....she is on the Finnish Olympic Skeleton race team!! You know, Skeleton is the sport where they slide face first down a steep ice chute on a sleigh...crazy people.
It was also my Dad's birthday on the Sunday so we went out to the Den for dinner with everyone and had a great time.
Also during this time we had other visitors. Phillip Dilts and his girlfriend Tatiana! They came to see us and skied for the first time! They were great fun and we enjoyed having them here.
A lot more happened, but those are the highlights. If you want more, let me know.

When everyone left it was back to work. Eventually, Agata and I took a day trip to Big White since she's never been there. It was just after they got 16cm of powder but it was really really windy. Both the Gem Lake Express and Falcon Chair were closed due to wind. But in the trees it was great fun. Back at Silverstar we got another warm spell and it actually rained down at the bottom of my lift......yeech... But then a few days later it got colder and snowed like nobody's business. That was a fun powder day too.

I filmed a "my ride to work" with my helmet cam, got it edited.....but it's too big for me to upload. It said it would take 300 minutes and the timer just got longer and longer. The internet here is very slow.....I'll keep trying though. But here are some pictures from my ride to work at the intersection of Aunt Gladys and Wee Willie.

And here is a picture from the top of the Comet
And here is a picture of me as a judge for SilverStar Idol!! Same as Canadian Idol but...Silverstar. I know......I can't sing so why am I a judge? Didn't care really since judges get free drinks!!
As for today, Agata skied her first Double-Black diamond runs! Rusty Whistle and Doognog. She did very well!!

I'll keep trying with the "ride to work" video...

Again sorry about the long blogging wait.
Oh ya, We'll be coming home around April 15th.

Bye for now!
Mike and Agata.