And back to Badger

collected Badger from storage this afternoon and he seems to have fared quite well this winter - a couple of areas where water has driven in through the windows but onto plastic trim so easy enough to clean up. No signs of problems with the plumbing - i remembered to disconnect the icemaker this time - and electrics, although I did have to link in the house batteries as the chassis batteries were low, but he started up on the first turn again.

It was looking iffy at the US border again - the border guard let us in on his discretion but said because we are not going home between trips it does look like we are trying to play the system to stay in north america. And as that is now probably on their computer it means we may have to change our plans for summer 2017.....lots to think about....

Done with Whistler

107 days - 4 more than last year. Theoretically I was here for 12 days more this season than last as we were here when the mountain opened in November, but a combination of illnesses, injury, mountain closures and the Banff road trip pretty much wiped that out. According to the mountain stats page I did over 1000 lifts and more than 570km of vertical, but I know it is definitely missing a few lifts where the scanners are a bit slow. Didn't quite get the skiing down to $10 bucks a day or a dollar per lift, but wasn't far off.

Its been a mixed year. The season started really well with lots of snow and very cold temperatures in December, and we got to ski runs on the lower parts of both mountains that were never opened last season, especially the whole of peak to creek. Then the coastal mountains reverted to their usual tricks of rain, and when we did get snow there were very few big snow days but rather small amounts every day as every half arsed weather system off the pacific rolled over us - grey skies, low cloud/fog, poor visibility, bad light and just enough snow to make the pistes lumpy and slow without being enough to freshen up the bowls. Technically it's been a good snow year in total, but I think I enjoyed last season more and did more actual runs and miles.

We did finally get some blue sky days in April, but accompanied by very warm weather and very little fresh snow - I think 2 minor falls all month - so the past couple of week have been very slushy and an early finish with nothing to help bind it together and freeze it in.

Banff next year will be very different. Definitely higher, probably colder and with drier snow. Whether the weather pattern is any different we will have to see - some people have said its a more european style with only the occasional big storm making it over the rockies, and with clear spells in between, and others have said its often grey and cloudy like here. The main ski area is called, Sunshine - lets hope its more a statement of fact than just wishful thinking.....

We've now got 2 days to wash all my ski gear, pack the car up and clean the apartment before heading down to the US on saturday morning to reclaim badger. A few days getting set up in Bellingham and hopefully a trip out to see Orcas before we hit the road and head inland.

Booked for Banff and belated big birthday bears

Well, Canmore actually as we are not allowed to live in Banff due to parks canada restrictions allowing only people employed in the park to live in the park. 

We've agreed a contract on a 2 bed apartment on the outskirts of Canmore, comfortable and spacious and located so Maria can walk into the downtown and to the supermarkets as well as along the bow valley trail. It's about 11km from banff but the ski hills are actually out of town anyway, so wherever we stay it means travelling to the slopes.

And having agreed to be here from November 1st, we've found and booked a day trip from Calgary to Churchill for ‎Nov 5th to go out on a tundra buggy to see polar bears as they congregate waiting for Hudson Bay to freeze over - its supposed to be one of the best places on earth to see the bears in the wild. Maria wanted to take me for my 50th but we changed our itinerary years around so we could meet the reynolds out west last summer so just pushed it back by a year. But it's all worked out in the end :-)

Iceberg

Came down my favourite run on Blackcomb to find someone had parked this in the middle of the piste....

We've finally had some sunshine and good weather in the past couple of weeks after ‎a season of a lot of grey skies and poor visibility. Yesterday turned out to be almost perfect after a little fresh snow on tuesday had been groomed in overnight, so I managed to set a new personal best of 24 lifts and 12km of vertical in a day. ...fun but my legs were jelly by the time I got home