Skiing SunShine - Banff, Canada
April 2002

For anyone who actually reads this stuff, you'll know I LOVE to ski. It's a spiritual thing.

Jacqui and I dumped off - I mean - we lovingly placed our child with the grandparents, and took the corporate jet to Calgary, Canada. We traveled all day Saturday. A 4 hour plane ride - two hour shuttle ride - and 20 minute gondola ride to the hotel - which is halfway up the mountain (SWEET!!).

It was a long trip - but we made it!

Our accommodations

We woke up Sunday - and it was snowing. Ahhhh, fresh powder. Jacqui and I made a few 'warm up' runs down a couple green slopes - then tackled the first blue runs of the trip. The weather took a turn for the worse, and by mid afternoon it was almost 'white out' conditions. You could only see about 40 or 50 feet - and forget about seeing that huge bump in the snow. So, we had to sit it out for a while. No biggie, we enjoyed a hot chocolate in the Saloon, and a leisurely lunch.

This is NOT good skiing weather

It got better in the afternoon, and we headed back out - this time to the TOP, baby. (I should post the trail map ...hmmmmm) ..well anyway, I enjoyed skiing above the tree line and down the long runs, but the winds were still between 30 and 40 MPH with needle like snow hitting you in the face. Jacqui wasn't as thrilled as I was. With just an hour or so left in our first day of skiing, she headed back to the lower (read: easier) slopes.

That's when Jacqui ran into Kenn and Julie. Actually, this was THEIR vacation - Jacqui and I were just tagging along. A last minute "well HELL YEAH, we could come up there and ski for a couple days with y'all!" kinda thing.

The weather was better the next day - still not sunny. But at least the wind wasn't so bad. The four of us skied the obligatory 'warm up' runs - then headed for the fun stuff. It was awesome. I'm used to Colorado skiing, and this was pleasantly different. Most of the slopes are not groomed so we skied in a lot of powder. Also, the snow seemed much smoother...faster. :-) A good portion of the runs we did were above the tree line And that can be pretty hairy when a big wind comes and blinds you (no trees to reference how fast you're going - or if you are actually stopped).

The view out our window - still snowing.

Kenn stretches out those poles while Jacqui watches.

I almost got some good video of Julie eating a mogul.
(Good recovery Julio)

Sup Dude?!??!

Julie is buried somewhere under there.

Hurry up and take the picture - we're COLD!

At lunchtime - we all decided to ski down to the base ....(again - I need to post the trail map). Anyway, it's a LONG....LONG run that follows the gondola all the way down to the base. It's a 17 minute gondola ride up, so the run down must have taken 30 minutes or more. We ate a nice lunch - had a couple pictures of beer - then rode the gondola back to the top for our last runs of the day. It was AWESOME - the sun finally peeked out a couple times - the wind wasn't killing us....and we made some KILLER runs - SWEET!!!!

The famous lost-and-found Camera!

SMILE !
The gondola is fun.

I'm sorry.
I had to post a least one picture of me, just to prove I was there.
Again - my apologies to the viewing public.

The view from the top.

We ended the evening with a dip in the hot tub ...Canada's BEST ski resort hot tub (I read that somewhere). I was a great trip. I can't wait to go back.