Ski trip & our first white Xmas

Finally, we got to our last Friday of work for the year! Yahoo

This Christmas is our first break outside of Australia, and we headed on a ski holiday with a group of friends to the inner BC area.

Saturday morning we woke in standard Justin style at 6am and were on our way to Revelstoke. The road to Revelstoke was closed on Friday due to huge amounts of snow, glad we didn’t leave on that day. We were a bit nervous driving the section between Hope & Merritt, it is called the Coquihalla highway, and often gets large amounts of snow very quickly. The road was a combination of ice, slushy & compact snow – it was very, very slow driving indeed. At one point, Justin pulled over to let some traffic pass, and we had to drive out through some high snow in our little Toyota echo. This cause the fan belt to start squeaking a lot which we just thought was water at the time.

Once we got through the Coquihalla and arrived at Kamloops, we stopped to get some food. Justin had a look at the fan belt and discovered it was almost off the pulley! At 10am Saturday, we were pushing our luck to find a mechanic but we found one who were happy to help us! We got some lovely friendly Canadians. Long story short, they had us up and going again within 3-4 hours. Good on you Franco’s mechanic in Kamloops! But seriously, this is the second time we have needed mechanical assistance in Kamloops, I cringe at the word “Kamloops” now.

We plugged away at the last 3 hours from Kamloops and arrived in Revelstoke. Man they had a lot of snow! It was piled around 2m high in some places off the road. A totally different vibe to when we visited in May & August in the summer. We checked in, had dinner & early bed for us for the night.

Blue sky, fresh pow, mountain views. Revelstoke (Revvy) certainly has it all. We had a great day with lots of skiing, practicing tree runs and accidental cliff jumps…! Ellen thought she would follow a family of four (kids younger than 12) through a little tree run. Little did she know they went over a small cliff, stuck the landing and kept going. Ellen full face planted, lost both her skis in the snow, had to dig them out, and came out covered head to toe in snow. Key learning of the day, no matter how small the child, do not follow them – they are much better than you.

We went home, warmed up, ate and went to bed. Sore but stoked!

Sunday morning drive on to Fernie. This is where we are spending the next few nights and Christmas with a group of friends from Vancouver. It was a stress free drive and we arrived mid afternoon. We hung out for the night with everyone, playing board games and drinking bevvies – big day skiing again tomorrow.

Only a few of us went up skiing the next day as the others were worn out from their previous 2 days worth. There wasn’t as much snow here as Revelstoke, but we still had a good day out up the top. There was also the Currie Bowl, which opened for the first time during the day. We headed over there to check it out and it was worth it! Almost better than a nice bowl of Panang Curry with Coconut rice from “Bob likes Thai Food” but that is another story. So much fresh pow pow. We both got stuck so many times, we need some wider skis! We had another night in consisting of board games and beers for Xmas eve, and hit the hay relatively early 🙂

Xmassss! Ellen was awake at 5am waiting to open her presents. She is a kid in an adults body I swear. We did the Xmas present trade at 7am, thankfully we had some gifts from the family back home (thanks Lou & Sporty!) – and then swiftly headed to the chairlift. First chair here we come! We wanted more of the Currie Bowl we tasted yesterday. We skied until around midday, blue skies were almost out – it was a great Xmas morning.

We then showered and headed over to where everyone else was staying for some Xmas lunch. What a spread! Board games, snacks, Kris Kringle and lunch. It was a great Christmas away from home. We went back to sleep at around 8pm, very early night but this trip is a marathon, not a sprint!

Boxing Day, we packed and left Fernie, heading to the town of Golden which sits at the foothills of the Kicking Horse Mountain Resort. On the way there we stopped and looked on in awe at the Worlds Largest Paddle! It is bloody big I tell you that. Justin forgot his boots so couldn’t walk through the snow to see it – so he put his skis on instead! Any excuse to whip out the skis. Video in the photo link below.

The next three days is a bit of a blur – lots of skiing, board games and late nights.. repeat. Kicking Horse is an advanced skiers hill, so Ellen & I were put through the paces thats for sure.

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On the 29th we decided to go to Lake Louise to see the lake frozen and have a skate. We also hired some hockey sticks and a puck and played a match with 3 random Canadians. It was so much fun, with some epic stacks. The pro’s make it look so easy! We also stopped in and had a look at Johnson Canyon, the waterfall was frozen solid! It is a bit fresh.

On the 30th we decided to head back to Vancouver and take advantage of the good driving weather. So tired, but stoked with the trip – glad to have been lucky enough to be around friends for the festive period. Another holiday done and work starting again on Thursday.

More photos and videos here.