This is it Canada

So this is it. What started as a dream back in 2004 became a reality for me. I have been here in Canada now for 14 months, but it feels like 6! Before the immigration man comes knocking I am jumping on a big bird out of here....but will return. This is my last day of my Canadian Dream.


I could ramble on about how awesome my time here has been, but feel there are about 400 pics uploaded on my facebook profile and about 22 other posts on this blog that, to me, paint a pretty solid picture of pure awesomeness. (Just once more though, season of my life!!) haha

But what has really made this trip such an amazing experience are the people I have had he pleasure of meeting. You could be doing the most kick-ass activity in the world, but lets face it, if you are not doing it with friends then its just not going to be that cool!! So here you are, my thank you to every great person i meet on this trip. You all made it what it was for me, something that I will never forget.....:

The Mike and Julie Blackwell wedding squad, Hails cousin Suz and buddies, Dani in Whistler, Katie who put me in touch with Toni and Dan, The cherry picking Qubec Qua (spelling), The Cowboy and Indian in the red pickup hotrod, Robin Paul and Maple Park campground, Laura and her Aunt and Uncle and their sailing dog, Jesus in Calgary Greyhound Station, The awesome buddies from Samesun Hostel in, The Vier cres crew (I love you guys/miss you guys/wana do it all again you guys!!), The Days Inn workmates, Every single person who rode with me during the season I will never forget, The competitors of the Big Mountain Battle, Every single buddy I made in Revelstoke - you know who you are, The touch footy lads, The Yorkton crew who party like rockstars in Nelson Lodge, Alex and your sled - thank you for the experience!!, The Sasquatch crew including the Yorkton crew, The Zalas team, Suzzie with her little critters, The wonderful lady who had me rake her lawn, got me stoned and talk politics for hours - I still don't know politics very well, Whiskey the mountain biking chasing machine, Angie and Chad and every fiend and family member, the HOG group - thank you for the intro - I am hooked!, Herb and Helen posing in a picture with my Granny and Pop in 2003, Daisy and Tessa......and every other person who is escaping my thoughts right now.

And of course the beautiful Amanda, thank you for being you (xx). Angie, I will return her to Canada. Oneday.....:)

Canada isn't going anywhere, Revelstoke isn't going anywhere, but unfortunately a lot of friends won't be here when we return. Life of the transient town huh. That's what makes leaving hard, the people. But to all that matter, we will see you again and until then, I CAN'T WAIT! Right now I have to immerse myself in the beaches of Hawaii, Fiji and Australia. Not such a tough road ahead.

Miss you all already

Copperstain Mountain

Summer rolled in a bit late this year which maybe kept us from fully getting our hike on earlier on however in the past few weeks the sun has been beaming and temperatures have been up making it ideal to get out and explore.

We have done a few of the hikes in the immediate vicinity of Revelstoke however with a bit of drive and motivation we started getting up earlier and driving up the Rogers Pass to attack the Glacier National Park. It only took one hike to get us hooked on the majestic walks with the amazing views and stunning mountain features. Simply amazing! We have ticked off a number of the hikes up there, started with the Glacier Crest hike, followed by the Hermit Meadows hike and then Abbotts Ridge. All of these were amazing, anywhere from 6-10km long and usually gaining about 1000m vert. They set us up for the biggest hike we have done yet. Last Thursday and Friday we headed for Copperstain Pass.

Amanda and I set off on Thursday morning. We were told not to expect to see too many other hikers simply because it is 13km of forest walking before you pop out into the sub alpine to finally get some views, and really another few kms before you get the similar stunning views you get on many of the other shorter hikes we had done. So typically it wasn't a day hike. We got into it, the forest was incredible although due to the activity of bears, and the river and cabins up that way all sharing the name 'Grizzly' we were somewhat anxious some of the time. We must have been about 10km into it in a dense bit of the forest when we both heard very deep growl, not loud from afar but really quite close and intimate.... Amanda asked if my stomach growled and while I told her no we heard it again. It was really quite terrifying as it seemed to definitely be close by and a 'move on from my territory' kinda growl!! We never saw the animal as it was too dense at that point however we couldn't think of anything else it could have been but a bear! Its fair to say the Bear Spray was at hand from that point onwards!

The rest of the hike was filled with more friendly critters, squirrels and groundhogs, little buggers like that. Just funny curious animals. We got to Copperstain Pass which is where we set up camp. About a 16km hike in, a bit over 1100m vert gained for the day. We took it easy for the avo and bunked down to a cool night at an altitude of 2000m. Even though it is very much summer we woke up to a blue bird morning which was stunning but the tent had frozen over.

At about 630am we were up and hiking to get the blood pumping nd to warm up. We had a short push from the camp to get to the summit of Copperstain Mountain. Maybe about 2km but up to an elevation of just over 2600m. Once out of the alpine meadows of where we camped the big view started to become evident. We had 360 degree mountain peaks around us, not a breath of wind or cloud to be seen. It was 8am when we got up there and it felt amazing. The Bald Mountain Range was the closest to us and just beamed in the early morning sun. It was incredible.

From here we had the hike back down to camp and the walk out which was easier than the hike up but still tough. The coffee and muffin you first get after a mission like this always tastes incredible, and this was no exception.

There are 2 big missions left in our last week here in Revelstoke. On Wednesday we are attempting to summit Mt Begbie, then Saturday is a hike up over Balu Pass (which means bear...), down into Cougar Valley and into the Nakimu Caves and return. Cougar Valley is a restricted area as it is habitat for many Grizzlies. We are fortunate there is a guided trip before we leave which includes 3 hours in the caves, the 3rd biggest cave system in Canada apparently! Pumped for it!!

Till next time, wish us luck!

Pics from top to bottom:
+Lunchtime up the top of the Hermit Meadows
+Getting down with nature up the top of Glacier Ridge
+Up on Abbotts Ridge
+On top of Copperstain Mountain
+The moody twilight skies over the meadows of Copperstain Pass
+Copperstain meadows
+Arriving at the meadows of Copperstain Pass
+The return journey through the forest from Copperstain Pass

The Revy Assault on Sasquatch

Sasquatch is a 4 day festival held at The Gorge in the state of Washington, which is an amazingly beautiful setting. During the winter a good few months back one or two of us had just discovered the artist Matt + Kim. When the lineup for the festival got released with Matt + Kim included we simply lost our shit!! We were sold, tickets were bought, the lineup grew and grew with amazing acts from all over, more friends from Revelstoke got tickets, 2 amazing friends from home got tickets (yeah boys!! amazing).......The festival had grown to an explosion point even before it had begun!!

So on the last Thursday of May a convoy of cars headed south from Revelstoke, down through the beautiful Okanagan and across the border into the US of A, a couple more stops to take advantage of the stupid cheap prices for many needed items, a regroup in a town called Quincy and to pick up my buddy Aids who patiently waited as we were 4 hours late, and then we arrived at The Gorge!!!

The crew of people we had for the festival really made it awesome. The energy we had was unstoppable and gaurenteed such a fun time. The beers were out as soon as we arrived, we joined the tent city and the mayhem literally begun right away.

The festival started Friday avo. In the morning energy was high, beers were out and meke was introduced to the crew. This is a basic yet AWESOME dice game which involves the loser of every round usually consuming at least one full beer. As the festival went on more rules were introduced including a jail rule which enhanced the fun......and drinking!! Fridays lineup was a bit short as it didn't start till 4 but it was epic. We got in and amongst the front for this night. The Bronx put out a banging show and started the night of jumping about and banging into others, which was followed up by Death From Above who carried the mood through. However the big feature followed this. The Foo Fighters were the biggest name on the lineup and by the pushing up the front everyone was stoked they were there. Literally for 30mins before they came on you could barely raise an arm! We managed to be about 3 rows off the front for these guys, and when they came on it was so worth it!! They led with the first two tracks off their new album. 'Bridge Burning' was the opener and it was perfect, so rocky and amping!! 'Rope' followed this which goes good too. We bailed from the front to watch the show from a bit more of a relaxed posie. Foo Fighters put on a show that was a step up from anyone else that day. They were such a rocking and professional act. Taylor Hawkins rolled about a 4 or 5min drum solo which lead straight into 'Hey, Johnny Park', an absolute favorite of mine. Definite highlight, definitely stoked!! Day one was done.

Day two promised to be the day of the festival for me, and I'd have to say it did not fail! After a few beers, and more meke to get Saturday rolling we were ready. We had an amazing spot in the camp area for pre festival prep, right next to a busy road. We had people walking by, stopping and chatting and high fiving the whole time. I don't think I saw one angry or negative moment from anyone, stranger or friend for the full four days which really made it great. Anyhow, a band a few of us recently discovered was first on the list. Local Natives put on a super sweet set. Personal highlight of the festival was them banging out thier tune Who Knows Who Cares second to last and then absolutly rocking Sun Hands for their last. If you do not know these guys then give them a go!! You will not be disappointed! We caught a couple more acts at the main stage before shifting to another stage for Matt + Kim. These two were hands down my number one act to catch. Amanda and I charged in the act before and managed to get right up the front. Matt + Kim exploded and set such a happy and energized buzz which I felt set the tone for the rest of the festival. They were amazing! Saturday night ended with an experience I will never forget. A DJ by the name of Bassnectar (good name) was up. This long haired hero built up to his first bass drop of the night, when that happened the stage lights stayed dark and I would say about 5000 glowsticks were thrown up in the air as bass ripped through the crowd! It was so electric!! His set ripped. I have never seen anything like it!! We danced, we laughed, we could barely contain ourselves! Bassnectar knows the art of one man entertainment with massive bass beats and unreal visuals. But the night belonged to glowsticks......haha loved it!

Sunday started once again with more........MEKE!!! I think the beer funnel was introduced this day, and thankfuly. I lost the biggest round of the weekend.....2 and a half beers in one go was the losers take. Took me back to my uni days. I held it together.....just! Sunday held the biggest group dance for our crew when Flogging Molly came on, and Irish punk band who have been around for years. It was foot banging and jumping chaos. The whole crew hung back and had our own party right in front of the sound tent which had become our spot. By the end we had quite a few additions jumping around with us! Following Flogging Molly were Flaming Lips who I am not even going to attempt to describe their show. If you don't know them youtube them. All I will say is HOLY SHIT! I have never seen an opener quite like it, and it didn't let up! Modest Mouse was may last show for Sunday night. So good too! Yeasayer were my only disappointment at the festival, however Kiwi buddy Jeff had the call of the festival during their set. After their opener the singer announced they were going to play some new stuff to which Jeff yells back in his NZ accent "Oh, don't do that! Play something we all know!!" Nice Jeff!

By the time Monday came around the mornings were getting a bit rough. A few, including me hung off a bit, however eventually everyone was back at the MEKE table and geared good to go!! Monday was a day of surprises for me. I discovered a very cool band called Foster the People, so rad! Rodrigo Y Gabriela are a duo on accoustic guitars who turned out to be one of my best dances. They owned maninstage!! Then we saw 2 very amazing sets to finish, Skrillex and Major lazer were 2 and a half hours of mental dancing and jumping. Fair to say I couldn't hear much after that and my feet were a wreck. yeah.

All in all an amazing time. The drive home was tough. We must have looked real ratty at the border back into Canada as we got a full search done on the car. No worries though. My first multi day festival - tick. Check this list of artists I saw, if only for a few songs for some of them:

Biffy Clyro
Bob Mould
The Bronx
Death From Above 1979
Foo Fighters
Local Natives
Wolf Parade
Pink Martini
The Antlers (yawn)
MATT + KIM
The Glitch Mob
Robyn
Death Cab For Cutie
Bassnectar
Beach House
Cold War Kids
Flogging Molly
The Flaming Lips
Yeasayer
Modest Mouse
Chromeo
Guided By Voices
Sharon Jones and The Dap Kings
Foster The People
Rodrigo Y Gabriela
Skrillex
Major Lazer
Wilco

An amazing festival with an amazing crew that couldn't have bought any more coolness to the game. You all made it an experience I'll never forget!

Photos top to bottom:
+A fair chunk of the crew with some new buddies from Yorkton
+Wicked lights during Major Lazer
+Me and my amazing girlfriend Amanda who bought unbelievable energy to the four days
+Main Stage with The Gorge in the background. Unreal beauty for a festival!
+Me Adrian and Hadyn, the Queenstown trio who managed to meet in Washington. Props boys!!

Mission Out East

Two Australians, a Canadian and a Kiwi, 3000km in 11 days, was always going to be a grand time!

Amanda, Soph Rob and I left 11th April. The trip began with a stop off at Subway, still in Revelstoke when I remembered I left food in the oven at home! Good start!! But better to remember here rather than 2hrs short of Calgary! But we got going a touch late to set off on our loop. Revelstoke - Medicine Hat - Yorkton - Saskatoon - Edmonton - Jasper - Revelstoke.

I was pumped, I hadn't been further east than Calgary. Many people that came from east of Calgary told me there was nothing to see, it was going to be flat and somewhat boring. It was flat but until you have seen something how can you not be super curious to see it and experience it for yourself! The trip was miles off being boring!

The purpose was for Amanda to return her trusty winter Ford Explorer to her parents and steal a very cool and economical Ford Tempo for the upcoming summer. Great trade and very generous parents!! Along the way we were to meet friends and family and generally just scope out another piece of Canada and its lifestyle.

First pullup was in Medicine Hat. We met and spent two nights with Amanda's Aunt and Uncle Alexa and Jason and their five kids. Highlights were watching the local hockey team play one night. They were going really well in the league they were in. Not to disappoint there was biff within 35seconds, and huge biff on fulltime! The atmosphere was awesome, the beers were delicious and the Tigers won. Great night! Another highlight was the tallest teepee in the world! Medicine Hat was great. Alexa and Jason made sure of that for us!

Via Moose Jaw and Swift Current where we met up with another Auntie and family of Amanda's, and her Grandparents we eventually made it to Amanda's home town of Yorkton. The 3 foreigners on the trip were made to feel very welcome and at home. Amanda's parents Angie and Chad were amazing and such a pleasure to finally meet as Amanda had told me so much about them. Angie cut straight to the chase about our plans to go to Australia! I was a bit worried about the conversation of me taking their girl away however I think(?) it went well! We met a bunch of Amanda's friends who are a bunch of great people. Food was shared, a few drinks were drunk and a whole lot of catchup took place. We stepped out to check out the nightlife one night which was a tonne of fun, with some interesting moments........there may have been a nude run home.......! Yorkton was great, Amanda's friends and family were all so kind and lovely, and it was great to see the love that surrounds Amanda.

We had a teary goodbye in Yorkton. I'm sure it was the same for Rob and Soph but I left feeling very happy to have met such a great bunch of people. From here we drove to Saskatoon to visit our wirlwind buddy Trista! We arrived late, bbq on, drinks on, all crashed out except Rob and Trista who managed to (and I still don't know how you managed!!) to get to the bar that night. Props!!

We left Trizniz and made tracks to Edmonton. West Edmonton Mall was calling. This was a huge shopping mall which the girls loved, however what made it epic was the attachment of a water park and themepark. The girls went shopping while Rob and I managed to find some black light mini golf, followed by the movies, followed by foodcourt time! Good times! We got amongst the themepark at the end of the day. Was a rad way to finish a days shopping with a couple of rollercoasters amongst other things to get amongst!

From Edmonton we went to Jasper. Jasper is north of us from here in Revelstoke but still in Alberta, it is very close to the province line of Alberta and BC. It was quite the drive heading back into the mountains. Jasper is a beautiful town and actually became a bit of a sanctuary as we were all a bit tired and run down after some abuse via booze and shitty 'on the go' food. Was a cool place to chill for a night and rest up before the most amazingly scenic drive down through the Columbia Ice-fields and the Rockies on our way back to Revelstoke. That day of driving would easily be in the top 3 drives I have ever done, if not the best! Queenstown-Glenorchy drive possibly even got beaten!! It was a great way to finish the trip. The Rockies are so different to the mountains we have in Revelstoke so we were all noses to windows for the drive. I think we were all stoked to be back in the mountains and happy to be nearing the end of the 3000km!

East was very flat, but very cool. Good to see, good to do! Also a great trip to do right before Soph left us! Good times.

The Drawn Out End to My Most Epic Season

I have been holding off writing this blog as I still haven't packed up my snowboard and gear from the season as there is still more hope of riding yet.....even though we have started June already! But here is a summary of my most epic season to date!

I have been based in Revelstoke for the duration of the season, which is a truly unique ski field from my experience, in that your riding big mountain terrain, or you can feel you a million miles from a commercial ski field, all the while you are in bounds (or not far from it) of the ski field. Revelstoke isn't too far from many other fields in BC offering good missions elsewhere. But probably the best and coolest aspect of this place is its accessibility to world class backcountry, all around it!!

The ski hill reported over 11m of snowfall for the season, which started the beginning of December and ran through to the end of April. It seemed to become a pattern where we would receive 10-20cm overnight, then the same the following night, then again.......and again. Due to the hill being so big and having a huge 1700m vert combined with such a small crowd on it made for back to back pow days. Tree riding, groomer (with fresh sitting on top) riding, alpine riding were all amazing. Riding adapted to powder riding quickly, and features that seemed bloody big became achievable as often the consequences of mucking up and stacking were tiny in such soft dry pow! The lack of park does not matter at all as the amount of natural features is ridiculous, and although there are many different opinions on this I feel that a park is very unnecessary here. The image of Revelstoke riding (purely in my opinion) is about gnarly big riding in a wilderness wonderland where you can go as big and/or extreme as you want! For most of the season we were able to ride the full 1700m vert, which is enough for you need to unblock your ears by the time you are at the bottom. Epic. The amount of times I climbed "day of my life" up there was a fair few. Without experiencing it for yourself I will never be able to describe in words just how wonderfully epic the ski hill here really is. Its that simple!

I got out to another few ski hills. Lake Louise, Big White, and Silverstar. All were fun and it was good to get a little park fix a few times. The atmosphere on these hills were much different to Revelstoke. I guess the bigger crowds and older (more established) ski fields allowed them to be much more 'cemented' in a way. The village at the bottom of Big White was a lot of fun after a days riding. A lot of people hanging out, a few beers flowing and the night riding really made it fun. I guess in time Revelstoke may have something like this. After riding all of these resorts I looked forward to getting back to Revelstokes hill again.

I have a post about our biggest backcountry mission for the season up to the Asulkan Cabin so won't write about it. Revelstoke is so fortunate to have the accessibility to amazing backcountry. Just 20mins drive down the road is what is called 'The Fingers' which is a series of avalanche paths that come together at the bottom, hence its name. Just 45mins drive is the top of the Rogers Pass which is a playground for touring, and it is well documented and mapped making it very accessible for someone new to the area. Just behind us in Boulder mountain which is a sledding hill, however once up there it is a crazy playground of such a variety of terrain. As it stands up Boulder mountain was my last day of riding. My buddy Alex took me up on his sled. This was late May. We ran shuttles once up there until about 930pm when the sun went down. The riding up there was unreal spring fun, again with some very awesome natural hits to play on. Hopefully we will get up again. We probed at the bottom of the run we were doing.....my 240cm probe did not hit the ground! Such a huge base up there!! I feel like I have licked the tip of the iceberg of the terrain to play on around Revelstoke, but what a glorious taste I got. I'm sold on the potential of fun to be had!

So all in all an epic 6 months! I think I got about 75 days of riding in. I am now broke, hoping my little knee niggle comes right but oh so happy! If you ask me for any ideas of where to ride should anyone be heading to BC, you know exactly what I will say. I am not sticking about for the upcoming season, however I have no doubt I will return! As I saw on a bumper sticker......"My life is better than your holiday - Revelstoke, BC", couldn't have summed it up any better.

Next, Revelstoke summer.....

The Asulkan Valley and Hut Mission

Five of us set out on Monday to skin/snowshoe up through the Asulkan Valley to the Asulkan Hut for the night. My housemates Pam, Rob and Jere came along as well as a new buddy Austin.

The hut sits at 2100m and the hike started at 1200m. It was just shy of 8km in distance from the carpark to the hut, which is long enough on the snowshoes! The first 5km was a gentle gradiant only gaining about 200m vert, but this bought us to the 'Mouse Trap'. This was a tight little gully that gained its name from the several avalanche paths directly above it that can come roaring down upon you. Apparently the upper portion has filled several times in the last 20 years, with at least once being plugged up about 2/3 its length! Basically it wasn't a place to hang around and all attention was very high going through there! Even with the 'low' avalanche rating for the day we were heading up there had been several solar avalanches on southern facing slopes in the days prior, including a cat.3 avy the previous day so we kept our minds on the job..!

Smoked through the Mouse Trap and the started to really climb. The weather for most of our morning was clouded in or overcast, however for the last hour of our climb the skies opened up giving us glimpses of some of the biggest alpine terrain I have ever felt the presence of, it really was MASSIVE and for a lot of it fairly gnarly! No photo or explanation will ever do the surrounding mountains there justice. Unforunately once we got to the cabin the cloud came in and we were reduced to a flat light. Rob and Jere got just up above the cabin that avo for a line while the us other 3 took advantage of chillin out in the comfy cabin.

The cabin itself is amazingly well set up. All propane heating cooking and lighting. Kitchen, fire and communal tables downstairs and all the bunks upstairs. We chilled the night away, think I managed a solid 12hrs sleep up there. Glorious! Had another 6 stay there that night who were all great to talk to about the area and backcountry travel. Seemed they had all had their share of experience in the mountains!

The following day we woke to fairly cloudy weather but about a foot of snow had fallen and up as high we were it was gloriously light and fluffy. We hit a morning tree run down through what is known at the Tree Triangle. Was great to be getting back to some deep turns and face shots. Seemed unreal it was as late in March as it is after that run! We only dropped 300m vert and charged back up to the cabin. We rested for a bit here before hiking further up from the cabin around the backside of a prominant mark known at the 'Pterodactyl'. From here we geared up for our long run out, back to the cars! What we were dropping were know as the 'Seven Steps of Paradise', and this it was. The turns we got up there were some of the best turns I have had this season. Deep and good! The really good snow started to get heavy around the 1600 or 1700m mark but even with the snow heavier it was still good terrain and too much fun! After getting through the Mouse Trap it turned into tough work as the gradient was super mellow and the snow super sticky. But we battled down to the cars, and it was so worth it!

All in all a good trip, beautiful terrain which I imagine I will attack again a couple more times before its too late. Fortunately a lot of the slopes up there have notherly aspect meaning the snow will stay nice and for longer!! And the cabin was awesome!! Good backcountry mission! Good crew! Happy me!

Pics - Top to bottom - Asulkan Cabin - Pam on our hike up with some of the inspiring alpine behind her - myself, Austin and Jere about to drop the Seven Steps of Heaven with the Pterodactyl behind us - on our climb up to the hut with the Asulkan Valley behind me - the crew just starting to pass through the Mouse Trap on our way up to the cabin.

Spring Time Is Oh So Chirpy

Since last post things have started to warm up and really change. We got our fair share of winter pow pow and now we are being treated to some fun slush and warm sun. Loving it. Done some cool shit in the last half of the season that will make this Revy season very memorable:

BIG MOUNTAIN BATTLE!! - Teams of two having to find markers, ride all lifts, and do a couple of hikes.....over the entire mountain, in any order they want. 3hr time cap..........go mental!! Amanda and I became Team Fryknots and Rob and Sean became team Mass Production. Made some kick ass team shirts. Was rad, me and Amanda did all but one thing in 3hrs while Rob and Sean did just a bit better finishing 4 places ahead of us in 15th. Still owe you boys a box of beer for that too. Amanda and I did win on GNAR points however. Epic day!!

GRIZZLY SHOULDER UP ROGERS PASS - Have done two trips up this shoulder. It is epic. Feels great being out backcountry. The hikes have both been about 4hrs. The feeling to stand on top of the hike, have mountains as far as you can see and knowing you are about to get awesome untracked steep lines is so sweet. Very different riding though as you are constantly evaluating the terrain to avoid any avalanche danger or some big ass cliff you could easily come across. No ski patrol out there.....! But have loved it and pumped about many days to come, hopefully through May and June!!

CARIBOU CABIN - Five of us (Amanda, Rob, Robo, J Rod and I) ventured up Mt Revelstoke which we live at the foot of. Climbed up to a hut which is at about 1500m so nestled real good amongst a SHITLOAD of snow. So at the start of the hike it was easy going, a well packed down path in the snow. However, a few hours later a whole lot further up it had been snowing, heaps! We were breaking trail in knee deep pow and to find the place we just climbed until we were crossed the 7th road (closed for winter). Somehow we thought we were lower than we were and got a bit lost for a while. We made it though, after about 6 hours of pretty intense snow-shoeing!! Unfortunately I got a bit crook and didn't really didn't join in the nights crazy festivities that the others managed to have in a Cabin in the middle of the woods! I think there maybe been a few trees harassed, some roof jumping into bottomless pow, and maybe a little walk which included a creation of a huge spiral in the snow......but the others can tell you more about it. Was tough to listen too!! haha The hut is such a rad setup. The toilet gets a worthy mention. It has 3 doors on top of each other. At the moment you access it from the top door because there is that much snow (!!!), and inside its got a ladder down the side to climb down to the dunny itself. Crack up!! The mission out was easier going but we got more snow the night we were there so was still tough trailbreaking till we got lower down!! Good mission.

SEATTLE/MT BAKER 48HR MAYHEM - Sean had to take his girlie Delia to Seattle to catch a flight so Rob and I jammed in for the roadtrip. Left Revy at 7am, drove down to Seattle. Got there after a couple little stops at 715pm. Checked into a hostel that had free grub on that night. Mint. Got beer, played games with a few people we met at the hostel, before you know it we are closing the bar after an epic night. Drunk story 1 of blog - get to hostel at some late hour pretty boozed. Realise all of us have left our phones in the car so no alarm clock. My drunk solution was to head down to reception, steal a bunch of baggage tags and some scissors and cut all the little bits of string together, then tie one end to Robs wrist because he was next to the door in our dorm room and have the other end running out under the door into the hall. Then ask the reception guy to come and tug the string to wake Rob at 7am. Ridiculous. I was about to start cutting all the baggage tags bits of string off when the people we were partying with walked past, apparently in the same room with a phone for an alarm. I was so close to wasting an amazing amount on time on the worst drunk idea ever! Idiot!! haha Early start next morning, got lost in Seattle (wrong highway and shitloads of traffic....and extremely hung over....) then discovered Mt Baker is way further away than first thought, but we made it just after 12 for a good avo of riding. Sum up Mt Baker - sweet resort that seems to get dumped on, with what seems like slackcountry galore, and no lack of surrounding backcountry but in the middle of nowhere, which I think is cool in its own way! After Baker it was boost home. After some good laughs, a few snoozes and a bunch of shared driving we were home in Revy by 11pm. Fair to say it took a couple of days to catch up after this trip!

Drunk story number 2 for the blog. - I got lost in my own bathroom. Yep. Home one night after a boozy night at the rail jam. All lights out i decide i need to pee so get up and go to the bathroom which is directly across the hall from my room. Make the decision not to bother with the light (switch is outside the bathroom). Do my business in the dark i guess, I don't remember very clearly. But I couldn't find the way out of the bathroom (regular rectangle room....). While trying to get out i manage to take the top of the toilet tank off and drop a magazine on the floor, mess up the rest of the bathroom. Amanda heard the banging in the bathroom then it just stopped and she heard a 'can somebody help me outa here?'. haha she came and turned on the light where I had a stunned look on my face and said 'oh my god!' and charged by her straight to bed. She came in laughing a storm to which I got annoyed at and told her that I was really lost in there! All I really remember is being lost and really cold! What a clown. Another reason I should prob quit drinking! oh dear.

Heading up to a backcountry hut in the Rogers Pass tomorrow for the night. Will post about that trip on its own real soon, have a feeling its gona be epic... Check the middle picture on this page http://www.splitboarders.ca/index.php?special=Lodging, think that's it. Boom!!

Pics - top is Team Fryknots and Team Mass Production ready for battle at Big Mountain Battle and lower pic is all the competitors just before the start

Peace