on new endevours: secrets & treasures Whistler

i have a few loves in my life.

i love to write. i have loved putting one word after another since i could make words. i've been keeping a personal blog since may 2010 to flesh out my experiences, namely moving away from australia to live in Whistler, BC.

i love winter. odd for an aussie girl, but i've never been that comfortable in the heat. winter makes sense to me, settles me, gives me slow calm breaths to breathe.

i love riding. i learned last season (09/10) and by this time, the end of the 10/11 season, i am besotted with it. far beyond the first flutterings of lust, i am in love with the snow beneath my trusty 09/10 salomon 'lily'. i'd be the first to admit there is a lot about the mountains here that i do not know and have not seen, but i'm comitted to learning my way round now. me and whistler mountain are pretty serious, whereas me and blackcomb are still a little shy around each other. so i guess this means i have to do another season. or two.

i love mountains. they feel like home.

so those are my loves, as well as my life here with all the other ski-bums dedicating themselves to lives of minimum wage jobs in the name of seeking out powder, fresh lines and glorious tree runs... we have fun, we laugh lots, we tell tales of our epic days...

i've decided to start this blog about Whistler as a challenge to myself to start writing a little more professionally. i would love to be considered by WhistlerBlackcomb as a blogger for the 2011/2012 season.

so here i am, working on my portfolio. for now i'm going to run with the rest of the spring riding i'll be sneaking in, and in the middle of summer i'll do my best to capture warm sunny Whistler in all its glory... with, let's face it, reflection upon the past and future winter seasons.

suggestions and feedback are welcomed, in fact requested, as well as contributions of photographs if you have anything epic... i will hopefully start collecting some photos of my own.

below i've re-posted my mountain-related posts from the blog i've kept the past year.

thank you all for reading.

treasure: australia day, 2011 (jan 27, 2010)

whistler has a huge australian population, mainly because

a) we get renewable 2 year visas up until we turn 31

b) australia doesn't have mountains like this, but for some freakish reason we all love snowboarding

c) it's a party town, and we sorta like to party.

so on australia day, residents of whistler fall into two categories: Go Hard, or Go Home.

we started out the night before to celebrate the triple j hottest 100, an annual countdown that happens on australia day in australia, which means we were listening to streamed radio until some ridiculous hour of the morning.

i was rather pleased with number 1, as i lurve Angus and Julia Stone. I saw them play in Vancouver in dead season with Keltie and Nicole (loveliest housemate of all time) and i loved them even more, and that love grew and grew, so that when they won #1 with 'big jet plane' it was quite an emotional moment for me. julia stone is so gorgeous, and angus is all quiet and cute, and you should go to youtube and look at them playing big jet plane live:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvD7a2fRV7A

so now you can love them just like i do.after this victory of sorts (it is always cool when an aussie band wins the hottest 100), we struggled out of bed the next morning for the offical 26th of jan, the whistler aussie day.

Initial plans to meet at 8 were nixed and replaced with plans for a 930 rendezvous. so factor in a hangover or seven and 10am saw us making our scraggled way up the creekside gondy:

as much as they used to make me cringe in my previous life, i am in fact wearing an australian flag. the inner snob in me still finds this more than a little embarassing, but the larger, more brain-damaged-by-alcohol part of me says, "screw it, when in rome ...".

let everyone please note that mitch's inflatable aussie flag hand was MINE, and he stole it from me after pretending he was helping me out by "holding it".

i documented the first few drinks on facebook, personal favorite photo being first beer at raven's nest:

drink of the day goes to my double extra spicy caesar at roundhouse, because godDAMN do they know how to make a caesar... anyone not in the know, a caesar is a canadian bloody mary made with clamato juice instead of tomato. yes. clam juice. yes.

i was suspicious initally. and now i pretty much always drink them. i think i like them better than most other types of beverage. heck yes. dusty's makes them with celery, a pickled bean, and a stick of beef jerky. that's a meal in a drink, people. a meal.

but i am off topic.

the joy, the gloriousness of it... the weather up there (remember, we're back in the mountains of whistler on australia day, stay with me) turned spectacular. sunshine. clear views across the valley, with epic clouds sort of sitting on top of the village... there was an inpromptu footy game at chick pea hut with strangers, there were men skiing and riding round in shorts, there were sneaky beers on chairlifts, in gondolas, there was a naked arse at whistler peak, there was snowboarding holding beer (please note at no time, even with all the falling over, was a drop of beer spilled), there were loud obnoxious noisemaker things emitting loud honks.

we did dave murray downhill, we rode green chair, we hit harmony and nicole rocked another blue run (not bad at all for a beginner), we shredded the saddle and finished up with peak to creek. a warm day gave us almost spring-like riding conditions coming down that epic final run.

i really like peak to creek. i only rode it once last season, on christmas day with little brother, and then no more. i don't know what i was thinking last season, was i crazy? it's a lovely long run, with the right music playing and comfortable snow (anything more than about 10cm of fresh) it is, for me, one of the joys of my life. plus you end up at dustys, which is one of my favorite places in whistler.

as the rest of the day was a blur of dustys, subway (a girl's gotta eat), home then crystal's, bill's, tapleys, and finally fat tony's and home, i'd like to reflect a little.

in australia i never really got into aussie day that much. during uni i was always working at retreat hotel, my trusty trashy local/employer. before that i don't think it rated, maybe as hottest 100 day, but not as anything more significant.

i'm not sure i'm so patriotic that i'd chose australia to live overall. i mean look, i'm half a world away in whistler, canada. i'm happy to be an australian for the opportunities it has afforded me: renewable 2 year visas in canada, the fact i grew up speaking english, the comfortable middle-class upbringing i enjoyed, the fact australians are still welcome (or at least endured) in most/all coutries in the world... these are aspects i have taken full advantage of.

but really, patriotism is a little beyond me mostly.

i did think of making snobbish comments about southern cross tattoos and crocodile dundee, but with all my worldly experience these days i shall instead observe that a good day was had by all, nobody (that i know) was too badly hurt, or arrested, or made too much of a fool of themselves. in a town where the focus is on fun, i will have to say: success!

thanks going out to: nicole n mitch (ultimate housemates and best friends), kate and phil (hottest couple in town), kate "janice" (she gave me some of her breakfast, and shared much boy-related wisdom), karin (my swedish fiancee, aren't i the luckiest), toby (everybody's new bff), ben & grey for various entertainments (and for wearing shorts with thermals underneath, so fugly), and the glorious amy schilling for all that whipping our hair back and forth at bills. plus all the others that were here and there and dancing. only the ones that danced get thanks.

ah, and special thanks to kate and karin for all the photography. nothing like waking up the next day/day after that to see that you have, in fact, been tagged in no less that 39 photos on facebook. nothing nerve-racking about that AT ALL.

xx happy australia day kids, until the next one.

treasure: POWDERRRR (jan 13, 2011)

i've been meaning to make this post for a while, but life has just been rather busy. i wanted to give the pow the respect it deserves.

we've had some truly amazing powder days so far this season. anyone not in the know, when i say powder i mean fresh snow; the more the better.

snow freaks get all turned on by powder, get up when it's still dark, get aggressive with queue-jumpers in line, pushy on chairlifts, make loud whooping noises as they drop off things and into things and over things. it's the only forum where you can use the term "faceshots" with your mates, as a girl, and have a 50/50 chance that noone will snigger at you.

my all-time favorite thing to see on a powder day is how stoked everyone gets. on christmas eve, we'd had a huge dump of snow overnight. we uploaded from creekside, and when we got to red chair, jumped in the line. waiting there we hear all these wooping noises, and then 4 guys pop out of goats gully, a black run that ends right at red, covered in powder from head to toe. it was like they came out of nowhere, part of the mountain... 4 canadian boys on skis, and all you heard out of them was typical skibum banter: "duuuuuuude, that was fuckin' EPIC" ... "did you see the air i got off that pillow?" ... "shiiiiit, it was all faceshots".

it's hard not to be stoked when you see such infectiously happy skiers, and i hadn't even done a run yet.

granted, the pow was pretty heavy over christmas, and the lift lines were sort of crazy, but we snuck in some great runs. my mate phil had decided that every time i stopped in front of him he was going to spray me with snow... a trick he found somewhat hilarious, and i couldn't help but giggle a little myself, all the while looking like i was trying to camoflage into the mountain... snow ninja styles.

there was boxing day, where 4 of us headed for seventh heaven on blackcomb after lunch, along with everyone else... it had cooled down a bit so the powder had dried out a little, was a little less cement-like, but it was crazy windy up there, and it's hard to enjoy riding when you can't see anything, while getting blown off the side of a mountain... once we made it down out of the wind we had a fantastic run down the left side of seventh.

i loved that run the most because everyone fell over and had to hike out of various parts but me. the run we picked had a few spots that were steep, followed by flat- a good skill to be able to keep momentum up to get over to the next steep. up til now, i had found i was over-thinking, the inner monologue going something like "here's a flat bit keep your speed up don't fall over keep your speed up" ... BAM (that's the part where i inevitably fell).

but this time i pushed a bit, took on a bit more speed than i normally do, and it worked out.

and this was the beginning of my powder confidence (or cockiness... pretty sure i bragged to everyone in obnoxious fashion about just how awesome i was, then bailed big time at a crowded chairlift line... karma).

i went up last friday and i owned it, all day. riding my sweet $12.50 board from Re-Use-It Centre, all set up for powder, making it so damn easy to lean back and embrace the pure, unadulterated joy that is powder riding.

everything i knew so far, plus all the well-meant advice i'd been given, just fell into place. click. the mind turns off and the body turns on, and you go, and everything is good.

sometimes, as a learner, you get too much advice. i myself am guilty of giving this same advice a few times... it's all coming from a good place, the person just wants you to love riding as much as they do, but sometimes it seems a little irrelevant and generic, like, listen man, i'm just doing what i can do, stop patronising me and let me get there on my own...which i myself finally did last friday.

in the morning we kept it fairly simple and sweet, hitting some trees to the left of the park on whistler, then back up to do chunky's choice, then across to franz's meadows... i'd not done any of these runs before, but i was in the mood for new things, and lucky to have my mate andy up the hill with me to suggest them. it's great riding with someone different- everyone has their favourites for whatever reason, and you see new parts of the mountain. it's nice to share them with mates.

andy left us, and me, marty and the lovely karin headed over to harmony, as we'd heard a rumour it was going to open. we queued maybe 45 minutes. it was getting cold. i couldn't feel my fingers. the queue started a snowball fight and the snowballs were getting harder and icier. we had made the call to give it 10 more minutes. 7 minutes later, at 2.05 pm, they opened the chair.

so, in writing this, i admit i really can't do those runs justice. we got 2 in before they closed the chair at 2.45. the first one, it was so windy up there it was hard to see... we snuck down the ridge and out of the wind. marty convinced me to drop off the side of pika's traverse, the green that heads back to roundhouse. i was more than a little scared because i couldn't see a damned thing. i had to trust him. down i went. i was petrified and heel-edging it, wasting good powder, until i decided "screw it, the worst that can happen is i'll fall over". what followed was the best and most amazing fresh lines of my life. we did mcconkeys and then some trees at the end... i hit a pillow by accident and got some amazing air. i stomped it and rode out. i was a rockstar.

there really should have been someone filming me... that's how shit-hot i was.then we did it all again.

i have to be honest with you, i did bail in a huge way coming off the lift the second time round. i don't even know how i managed it, but i went down hard, right off the chair. thanks go out to marty for laughing quietly to himself, instead of loudly in my face, while i scrambled around, all embarassed. my lifty mate rob saw it too. i bet he laughed not so quietly... but he did ask if i was ok, so there was SOME compassion...the second run was as good as the first, with so much untouched powder there was no real way to go wrong... except getting stuck on a flat, which i didn't, because (if you didn't already figure this out) i am awesome (instead i got stuck a week later, yesterday, but that's another story, and i won't tell it, it makes me look bad).

so.

i shall make the proclaimation here:

powder = better than sex.

sex and boys can let you down, which they frequently do, but powder never pretends to be anything other than what it is. if it's there, it's there. it's so good it should probably be illegal.

powder makes me happy in a way that nothing else has so far in my life.

fuckin' eh.

and that's all i have to say about that.

treasure/curse: christmas crowds and tourism towns (dec 21, 2010)

it's beginning to look a lot like christmas round these parts. there are enough fairy lights to run several small fairy cities. it's like whistler can't get enough. christmas on steroids. a terrible side-effect of christmas is that the village of whistler fills to the brim with damned tourists, spending their holidays here, and lining up at OUR chairlifts, taking all the good tables at OUR bars...

bastards.

i had a burst of outrage tonight (internal... i don't really make scenes) at the full buses, the traffic everywhere when none of the bastards can drive... then i realized that maybe if the tourists didn't come, i wouldn't have a job. duh.

to ponder a little, if i may (and yes, i may, because it's my blog and i'll ponder if i want to), i think that north america is way bigger on christmas than australia is. is it a northern hemisphere thing? is it the white christmas factor? coz, holy crap, there is a lot of christmas in the air.

i love this time of year, but can i tell you exactly why? obviously being mostly atheist i am not really about the birth of christ. what i do like, however, is the excuse for excessive consumption of everything... foods (ham, turkey) and drinks... oh boy, what i wouldn't do to a rum and eggnogg right now. mitch and i had an pretty sweet drinking session with the rum and eggnogg the other day. he's replacing my little hugh, who i love the shit out of (that expression is just so i don't seem too gooey) but who sadly is not here to be my drinking buddy like he was last year.

so we've all got it down. i like drinking. i like it more when it's appropriate, but then, i do live in whistler, where most of us have a little bit of a problem saying no to alcohol, thus making it almost always appropriate.

but listen kids, and listen good. the reason for the season: the snow. the white stuff. that's the good shit, i waited 6 months for it and it has not failed me yet. that's the reason i really love this time of year. snowboarding, friends, apres.

all i need now is a kiss under the mistletoe, or on the chairlift...

treasure: snowboarding (nov 21, 2010)

the mountain is open.

if the 1 & 1/2 of you that actually look in on this blog from time to time will recall, i am sort of into snowboarding. so this is rather good news for me...

a reflection:

i actually think my best day of 09/10 season was the last day i spent on the mountain, which was late april/early may on blackcomb. i was working at 1.45, the close shift at the supermarket i was at as a cashier for 6 months. so i had time to ride in the morning. miracle of all miracles, we had about 12cm of fresh juicy snow the night before.

i was waiting for the lift at 9, when it opened. riding solo- i did a lot of that last season, firstly because i was learning to ride and i hate the idea of slowing people down, so i went up on my own most days, even if it was just for the hour before i started work to get a couple of runs in. once i could keep up i found that i still loved riding on my own, music playing in my ear, hitting the singles line at the lifts, sometimes just doing the same runs over and over again, totally stoked on it. just like this day in may. i went straight up aiming for jersey chair, to hit those few runs that i was loving at the time, when i realised i as perfectly capable of dropping right over the side- the powder was fresh, soft and forgiving and there were some trees to sneak into right over the other side of the groomer... i think i probably hit that same run 5 or 6 times, with no lift lines, no falls, not a care in the world, until i saw that glacier chair was just about to open, with the tiniest line.

as i came up to the very end of glacier chair, the last bits of cloud had cleared and it was officially a bluebird day- clear and beautiful skies with a view right down the valley.

there are very few moments in life where you truly believe you are untouchable. normally you're drunk at the time, and about to do something very stupid, which 9 times from 10 will end badly, probably with bruises. but this day was one of those days where i was so filled with the perfection i was experiencing that i felt weightless. everything went right- i picked good lines, i had the right tunes playing, and i had no falls. i felt like a superstar. i felt like someone should have been filming me.

i did 3 runs from glacier, and coming out of the last run i went far right and took the trees that had been cleared out by the fires that went through in 09 summer, the first month i was in town.

fresh lines at midday on a bluebird day in may.

i didn't know at the time that it was my last day on the hill. i think if i did, it would have had to mean more, for me to do something significant like i did riding my last day on whistler, where i spent the day hurrying around trying to do all my favourite runs, hating the saddle in particular on the peak because it was damn icy. the way this last day fell though, it was just this sort of moment in time that made me the happiest i'd been for a really long time.

since the innocent happiness of spending a whole day outside playing matchbox cars with my little brothers when i was about 10.

i'm in love with these mountains. the beautiful thing about this place is that everyone seems to have had this same connection i feel, and thus to have some kind of personal stake in the weather, the snow, all of it. i know if i hear people bitching about anything (especially at this point in the season where i'm still experiencing the heady rush of first love) to do with the mountain, i feel like shaking them... or kicking them in the shins hard enough to leave bruises.

not to get all enlightened on your asses, but life is really very simple. living here has taught me that, and i don't think i'll ever be the same.

secret: a picture of something that makes me happy (oct 1, 2010)

christmas eve 2009.

on my way down to dusty's, my favourite pub in whistler, to drink rum and egg nog with bridget and sam who had just arrived in town.

love.

treasure: a photo of a place i went once (sept 12, 2010)

the top of flute, with mitchy and shani, 2 crazy kiwi gals. we hiked up and we rode down in the powdery goodness. i chose this one because i've been thinking a lot about upcoming winter season and all the things i want to do...

treasure: mountains, mountains, oh mountains! (july 14, 2010)

i have fallen in lust and in love with the rockies. they are all i have been looking at and thinking about for the last 5 days, i have fallen damned hard.

i think i need to be near mountains always. ones with snow on.

how can i ever go home now i know how much i love the mountains? and riding in winter. mmm. is it bad to wish it was winter again, when summer has really only just kicked in?

i feel like everything is just one big wait for winter. i am such a winter person. riding and apres and warm headwear (give me another winter in canada and i'll be calling a beanie a toque). powder powder powder. i send a prayer to the snow gods: give me another good powder season.

then i think i might do a year of double winters. it's getting serious. basically, this has the makings of a long-term relationship.

secret: there are mountains behind all that fog (june 11, 2010)

when i look out from my balcony, there should be a whole entire mountain peeking through the trees. but alas, for the last few weeks, i have not seen my beautiful Whistler mountain. the stupid fog is hiding it.

i had a fantastic winter, and i don't use fantastic lightly, as i feel it sounds simultaneously over-cheery and sarcastic. so. my winter here was fantastic. there was record-breaking amounts of snow, i learned to snowboard and loved it. snowboarding is the only activity i've come across so far in my life where all i think about while i'm on the mountain IS snowboarding. i cannot really explain why this is so amazing to me, but it's all very zen, i am one with the mountain, etc.

i fell in love with the mountain a little bit. wierdly enough when i say mountain, i mean both whistler and blackcomb mountains, but they are known by everyone as 'the mountain', as in "are you headed up the mountain today?". i fell in love with winter, mountains, furry boots, snow.

then i started to run out of money, and started to get a bit panicky, having never had a debt before. so i worked like a crazy person. in hindsight i should have let the debt ride a little, after all, it was all the way in australia. then i could have had some quality time with my mountain.

last night i sat on my deck with housemates, drank wine and talked about boarding. and i ached for winter. i made vows that i would learn to freeride, which is hitting jumps and whatnot on the sides of runs. i made vows i would be a powder-riding genius, re-invent the art of tree runs. i did drink a fair amount of wine- enough to get idealistic.

i am really trying to be excited about summer, and i think it would help my excitement if the sun came out and the fog stopped hiding the mountain, especially on my days off. so for now, i am going to eat a stupidly big breakfast at wildwoods and then attempt to make cookies.