After two long days of shredding Whitewater Ski Resort here in BC, the crew, with the welcome addition of Casey Vandenbroek and A.J. Hobbs, headed up to Mike’s Pub to let off some steam. Located at street level in the historic Hume Hotel, Mike’s tends to bring in a wide sampling of local Nelson color.

Last night was no different, with Casey, Justin and I getting our dance on with some ladies from the Cheesecake Burlesque show tour that just wrapped up in Nelson. The ladies were still in their costumes, with all their womanly parts on display, and Casey took no time in getting a dance party started with them.

The highlight of the whole evening was meeting Ms. Judith Stein, who recently was inducted into the Burlesque Hall of Fame. At 62 years of age, she taught us some moves that were barely legal on the dance floor. I wish we had more time to hang with Ms. Stein, as I’m sure she has some stories to tell.

After some good songs and some fun dance moves, our little crew said our goodbyes to the ladies and bid them good luck on their trip back home to Victoria, BC. Next time, I hope we get to see their show!

On Wednesday, I checked my Twitter feed from my phone and found disastrous news: pro skier CR Johnson had passed away skiing at his home resort of Squaw Valley.  I had just pulled in to our hotel here in Nelson, BC, and the various tweets paying respect to CR hit me hard.

CR was a skier that many of my peers, including myself, watched with disbelief at the style, speed, and airtime he could manage off of natural terrain features and in the halfpipe.  His signature bio 900 trick in the superpipe at the X-Games a few years back helped push skiing to new levels and new heights, sending airs upwards of 22 feet in the halfpipe.

It’s been about 6 weeks since I set out upon the Powder Highway with my good friend Justin, thus marking the halfway point of our three-month journey.  We’ve been to resorts like Kicking Horse and Revelstoke and heli- and cat-skiing operations like RK Heli and Selkirk Wilderness Skiing , experiencing all kinds of conditions that Canadian weather brings.

Through deep pow, some peculiar mid-season spring conditions, and cold, crisp air, Justin and I have been staying warm and dry with some really great new base layers courtesy of Core Concepts . They have a variety of offerings from long underwear style pants to some really tech fleece tops.  I brought a ton of t-shirts to wear during my time up here in B.C., but I’ve found myself spending up to 20 hours a day in my Core Concepts tops.  They’re just so comfortable that I don’t ever really need to change to hit the bars at night; with some clean style, these shirts go great with a pair of jeans.

The following is an excerpt from the Great Canadian Heli Skiing newsletter they send out to all their clients.  I will be posting a review on their operation at the Powder Highway blog site linked to below.

The Ultimate Ski Bum

No doubt many of you would have heard of the Ultimate Ski Bum contest. It was a competition organised by Kootenay Tourism (our regional tourism association) that promotes the “Powder Highway ” a joint marketing venture between ski resorts, cat-skiing and heliskiing operations in the area.

The person who made the best “Why I’m the Ultimate Ski Bum” video was the extremely lucky recipient of free skiing all winter long with unlimited resort skiing at places like Kicking Horse, Revelstoke, Red Mountain, Fernie, etc and the coolest part: 1 free day of heliskiing at all the different cat and heliskiing operations in the region.

A 2nd generation Aspen/Sun Valley ski bum, Chris ‘Tats’ Tatsuno won the competition with this video: powderhighway.com/SkiBum

Tats visited us last week for a day and had a blast! In fact, he racked up 14 powder filled runs! Maybe he should of visited us last as we may have spoiled him!!

Exclusive preview to the Backcountry.com Semi-Annual sale up to 60% off.  I’m up here in BC trying to raise gas and food money to go and film with Warren Miller.  Thanks for visiting my site, and click below to help a ski bum out.

CLICK HERE TO SHOP EARLY!

Thanks for the virtual high-five!  – Tats