The last seven days of my life have been unlike any other in my whole skiing experience.  I am just so thankful for all the good luck that’s come my way.  The Powder Highway has been such an amazing place to spend a winter season.

The last week, in summary:

Monday – Skied park at Panorama , BC

Tuesday – Skied some more park at Panorama, BC

Wednesday – Skied pow with RK Heli Ski , Panorama, BC

Thursday – Travel day/visited Radium Hot Springs , BC

Friday – Skied 14 runs of pow with Great Canadian Heli Skiing

Saturday – Skied Day 1 of Wrangle the Chute freeski competition at Kicking Horse, BC

Sunday – Finished 5th overall by Day 2 of Wrangle the Chute

Needless to say, I’ve been spoiled with some amazing days of pow skiing, got my jumping feet under me at the terrain park in Panorama, and joined the Canadian freeskiing revolution by skiing big mountain lines down to a step-up park jump and ditching my skis to ride a bucking bronco.  By the end of it all, it was the bucking bronco that ended up taking me out with a pulled groin.  haha

The athletes and organizers of the Freeskiing World Tour had a powder day today, choosing to use the optional weather day to wait out the surging storm. Revelstoke Mountain Resort is offering up the use of their helicopter to shuttle athletes to the landing zone (LZ) at the top of the almost 2000 vertical feet of spines, chutes, and cliffs. With everything on hold for the day, the mountain was abuzz with the whoops and yells of roving groups of freeriders dressed in baggy, bright clothes.

If you had a chance to ride the 8-seater gondola from the mid-mountain lodge today, you would probably have seen some frozen waterfall lines being sent by shredders in full-face helmets. Or snowboarders slashing some turns down a steep, powdery face. Not much sun out, so most folks were taking advantage of their low-light goggle lenses to battle the drab greybird day full of indistinguishable clouds. With all the gladed, steep tree skiing on the main aspect of Revelstoke’s frontside, poor-visibility is not an issue.

To wrap up our day, some friends and I ate some good burgers at Nomad’s and finished it all up with a hot tub session.  The yoga from the other night can still be felt in my muscles, but the hot tub definitely helps.  Tomorrow, the comp wraps up; I’m hoping to get some interviews with fellow POC athlete Arne Backstrom , while he sits in third place going into an epic finals.

The border crossing into Canada was easy. The recognition of how monumental the task is that lay ahead of me: words fail me. It may be that it is now 1:30am, and I am full of beer, but the game has been layed, and it’s time to start playin. The contest has been won, and now it is commencement of an epic trip.

I left Eureka, MT this morning around eleven after waking up in a parking lot for a xc skiing trail. It was snowing, and after brushing my teeth, I hit the road towards the border. Eight miles later, I found myself being waved through by a border patrol agent who must have been sympathetic to skiing; I owe him a hi-five!

I met Chris Andrews, the man responsible for the whole Powder Highway contest, and he treated me to a lunch at Tim Horton’s. Apparently, TH is the staple of many Canadian diets, and I can see the appeal after wolfing down a turkey bacon club wrap with a chicken noodle soup. Mmmmm mmm, good.

We picked up the Dodge Nitro (Courtesy of Budget Rentals) from the place it got wrapped, and wow are there a ton of stoked partners for this trip! After a quick cheeseball photo shoot, Chris gave me his blessing and sent me on my way.

I killed some time at the Real Canadian Superstore until Justin flew in aroiund 8pm. His board bag didn’t make it, so we are now settling in for the night at the Prestige Inn at Cranbrook. A long hot tub sesh and some beers at Shenanigans (gambling is encouraged at Cranbrook bars) downtown gave Justin & I a lot of time to brainstorm more of our plan for this winter. Keep checking back for updates!