Sunday, 24 February 2013

Three weeks of snow


Our decision to spend nearly three weeks of our trip at the Big White Ski Resort was one that we second-guessed many times over prior to arriving.  Would there be enough terrain to keep Alick interested over that length of time?  What if Tess absolutely hated learning how to ski or snowboard?  After moving around so much over the last few months, would we find ourselves completely bored being in one place for so long? 

Luckily, our doubts didn’t result in us changing our plans as Big White was a great experience in all aspects. 

The Big White resort is set on a truly picturesque mountain, famous for the ‘snow ghosts’ (trees completely covered in snow).  Unbeknownst to us when we arrived the resort was originally owned by an Australian family and I think we heard more Australian accents than any others while we were on the mountain.  Being a seasonal resort, the majority of staff and visitors were doing one-off trips to Big White, though through Dawn and Keith, we also discovered a lovely local community who had grown up spending winters at Big White.  To our delight, a major contributor to the homely, community feel of Big White was how dog-friendly the resort was – with nearly every local we met being accompanied by a dog wearing a season pass!

Big White 'snow ghosts'

In terms of the skiing and boarding…well, suffice to say that it was amazing.
Tess’ confusion over whether to attempt to ski or snowboard was very quickly resolved, after witnessing some very painful snowboard falls in the first few days while in her beginner skiing lessons.  It became pretty clear that skiing it was!  While making good use of the skiing lessons on the mountain and enjoying many mornings skiing with Deb (thanks for your patience Deb!), Tess’ skiing progress was slow but steady, with only a few hiccups along the way  - including accidentally knocking over a little kid, getting somewhat stranded when the mountain experienced a complete white-out and one unfortunate case of getting wrapped around a tree.  Thankfully all injury-free for all parties involved! In between all of that though, the enjoyment of skiing certainly kicked in, particularly when Tess found herself finally being able to generate enough speed to not feel like she was holding Alick back...  For Tess, this newfound enjoyment of skiing was definitely an unexpected bonus given that the experience of learning how to ski was taken on as a personal challenge rather than an expectant  future hobby – and Alick is certainly very happy that Tess seems to be about as addicted to the mountains as he is now!

Tess skiing at Big White's 'Gem Lake' 

Alick also took a couple of lessons, which really helped to tweak his technique – as well as meet other people on the mountain (including having the opportunity to go riding for a morning on a powder day with his instructor from the day before – the best way to find all of the chutes through the trees!! Thanks Duncan!!).  We both really enjoyed being on the mountain, and particularly toward the end of our time when we were able to ski together a little more. Alick in particular was thrilled to wake on our final morning to a fresh dump of ~10cm across the resort, and clear skies to boot.  Having trialled some demo snowboards the day before, and had his stance professionally aligned, Alick was happy to be back on his board and able to cut a little loose for our final morning at Big White – including a run in the Cliff area, which he had been eyeing off for the previous three weeks, but had not ventured in as the conditions or snow hadn’t been ideal.

Alick at Big White's 'Black Forest'


We hired an apartment on the mountain for the duration of our stay and the luxury of having a place where we could completely unpack and cook for ourselves didn’t wear off…so much so that we very quickly developed an evening routine of coming in from the mountain, jumping in the hot tub, cooking dinner, usually being in bed by 8.30 – 9pm so that we could be awake for an early start on the mountain.  While it may sound very boring and unsociable, we can’t quite describe how blissful this ‘home life’ was!  Of course, as mentioned in our previous post, this was also aided and abetted by us developing a continued obsession with the TV series Homeland, which also kept us indoors on a number of nights!!  Now that we have finished Season 2, we’re not sure how we’re going to survive the wait until September for S3!!

We were however lured out of our cosy abode on a few evenings, joining Dawn and Keith or Deb and Nig in their cabins for dinner, spending an evening ‘tubing’ and going night-skiing (with Alick strapping some skis back on for the first time in 15 years).  

Our lovely skiing companions - Christine, Deb and Dawn
We were totally blown away by the hospitality and generosity of people at Big White; and in particular our friends Dawn and Keith who went above and beyond anything we ever imagined, and we are so so grateful to them for all of their support and hospitality. We also had a great dinner at the Gunbarrel Grill, complete with the famous ‘Gunbarrel Coffee’ (a coffee laced with cognac and Grand Marnier, set alight during the serving) constructed and served by the maestro Keith himself! 

Keith whipping up his 'Gunbarrel Coffees'
After a slightly eventful journey down from the mountain to Kelowna, we had a lovely night with Dawn and Keith before boarding a bus to Vancouver, to stay in the Victorian Hotel – where we had stayed six years before with Tess came to visit while Alick was living in Canada.  We had a great couple of nights in Vancouver, characterised by good food (the amazing sushi and a brilliant sandwich shop called Meat and Bread being a couple of notable highlights) and great catch-ups with friends from both near and far…

Once again, our experiences in Canada really tied in with the overall themes of our journey – to provide us with personal and physical challenges, to enable us to reconnect with friends and loved ones, and to provide opportunities to meet new people and have new experiences…  We write this post from a plane en route to Las Vegas, where we commence the final leg of our journey.  For the next month we will be driving around the southern states of the USA, hoping to journey from Las Vegas to New Orleans, and then back to California in order to catch our flight back to Australia at the end of March.  It is a bitter-sweet feeling to be embarking on this final component of our trip; we have had the most amazing and unforgettable experiences, met wonderful people and thoroughly enjoyed each other’s company.  As we embark on our road trip, however, we are also now enjoying being able to start thinking and planning in earnest for the next chapter of our lives in Australia, and are very much looking forward to seeing friends, family and loved ones when we return in just over a month’s time!

For now, however, Viva Las Vegas!!!

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