Coachella here we come...

So after a $30 cab ride to our hotel we decided it'd be much more cost effective to hire a car (yet again)...

Having a swim now then we're off to the festival...

On the way finally...

So we dumped our van in Canmore...turns out that as well as the fuel pump there were major oil leaks and some coil thing wasn't sparking in the distributor so we cut our losses and went to the car yard at night, stripped it of our worldly possessions, took some final photos and dumped it there...Fuck you Bow Valley Ford we're not paying anything more for that piece of crap...
Anyways, after being stuck at the manor for another few days, being the some of the last Nakiska kids there, we were frantically searching for a hire car, there being none available in the whole of Calgary, let alone one wayers, we were about to buy flights when good old Travelocity came to the rescue with a hire car that would cost less than flights and allow us to do the Banff/Jasper National park drive that we intended on doing from the start...
Ends up we're driving a Lincoln town car back to Vancouver! What a tank! But, a luxurious tank...auto everything, leather (heated) seats and wood panelling, will tell you how far you've got until you run out of fuel, your avergae fuel consumption and everything else that you did or didn't want to know...so we ended up having a very comfortable drive over here...
Tomorrow we leave for Coachella, it's a bit exciting!
Not looking forward to the full body cavity search...but am looking forward to seeing a bunch of bands.

So plans for after this...

We're gonna take a greyhound back up to vancouver, hang about for a few days, maybe go up to Whistler cos I just haven't done enough snowboarding yet...
We booked our Contiki last night which starts in London goes to Amsterdam, Austria, through the Swiss Alps and ends up in Paris. From there we head to Barcelona and to the Prima Vera Sound music Festival with the most awesome line up, actually putting Coachella to shame this year, then back to Frankfurt and then to Berlin, probably hang out for a week or so there then to Frankfurt again to get to Thailand...

Got to go catch a plane now...I think our hotel in Palm Springs has data ports so hopefully on a better connection...

Depression sets in...

So our van has crapped itself again...

We were driving to Calgary yesterday to get a board bag, get a new windscreen, put our final pay and bonus money in the bank as it's all in cash. Then after getting onto the freeway for a bit we're driving at around 110kmh and it stalls!
So we go ok this isn't good but forge onwards anyway after about 10 minutes as we had an appointment to get to.
To cut a long story short we ended up turning around heading back and it took us about 2 hours to get down a stretch of about 15-20km to the highway 40 as we were driving for 3 minutes then stalling and having to wait 15 while it cooled down or whatever it did. We decided to dump the car at the highway 40 junction for the night and hitch back to res.

Thena Khan somehow sweet talked the lady at the mechanics and she traded some of her insurance points to get the car towed there...so now we wait...wait...wait...it's supposed to be getting looked at today but i think we maybe stuck here for the next few days as it is Friday. Now, at this point I'm hoping it's a faulty fuel pump or fuel filter in which case we shouldn't have to pay anything as these were both replaced in Feb.

Worst case scenario is that it's something expensive. If it is we're going to go to Canmore tomorrow and hock it to a used car place for as much as we can get for it as is. Then we'll be going to Calgary and flying back to Vancouver instead of doing our planned drive back through Jasper and Kamloops which I was really looking forward to.

Khan's really depressed about it all and we've had to move out of our room in the Manor and are now on a different floor with a single bed and no phone connection, so I'm sneaking back up here with my computer to use the net. I'm remaining optimistic and trying to just take it as it comes...

Kicking Horses, Big Cat rides and End of Season shenanigans...

Fun stuff...
Ok got a bunch of stuff to write as i haven't done any entries for a while and lots of stuff is happening or has happened around here...
First, Kicking Horse. Went there with Bryan, Grace and Khan...our final trip away andwe got it pretty cheap as it was a couple of days before they closed for the season...we were not overly enthused when we got there as the whole lower hill was brown...buuuttt...then we went up in the gondola to fresh pow pow everywhere! They had 8 cms the first night we were there and 18 the second...we had lots of fun but most of the terrain was really difficult...we're talking nearly vertical drop ins and lotsa moguls...anyway we had heaps of fun weaving through the trees and doing this 10 km cat track which I think ended up in us snowboarding over 100kms in the 2 days we were there...Also dined for lunch at the highest restaurant in Canada apparently over 2300 metres up...but unfortunately it was snowing pretty hard so we couldn't see much out the many windows...





Erm...then after we got back, went up for a ride with Bryan in the cat which was fun...pushing snow around and grooming the runs...there really is an art to it, so many controls and if you don't do it right, you can end up with big lumpy bits or big holes instead of nice flat cordurouy (or however you spell it).






Oops! nearly forgot... The same day I managed to get a ride in the ski patrol toboggan, you know the ones they ferry people who have injured themselves off the hill with...it was cool, took a video the whole way down...here's a photo of Cam and Trent who went before us...Trent got thrown out cos Vicky went way too fast over a roller...none of the rest of us got thrown...




Easter Sunday was the last day of the season...
Ski school dressed in pink 80's one pieces, the easter bunny went snowboarding, we got shirts that say liftie scum with all our names on the back (and yes mum I know it should be 'lifty' but we're lucky we got that much and had a party on the deck of Chaos for last run.
There was a massive party and everybody got completely wasted...much fun was had...oh and both Khan and I were named on the 'Nakiska All Star Team' for the lifts department and got $100 each...nice little bonus...it did however cause a lot of controversy though as there were a lot people who'd put in a huge effort over the season and were not recognised. Also the whole snowmaking department got forgotten so there were a lot of very unhappy snowmakers that let their feelings be known to management...











So the majority of people have left or are leaving tonight and tomorrow. Last night we had dinner at Woody's for our floor and then went to a bonfire at the trailer park. We spent the day helping take chairs off Gold, got half of it done today, will get the other half done tomorrow, then, we pack up our stuff and we're off probably on Thursday! It's kinda scary but i think i'd go insane if i had to stay here any longer...
I'm going to try and get another photo album up before we leave, but i apologise if I don't...
Must run...going to have some beers with poeple who are leaving tonight at Woody's

Mum, you have to take the cats with you on the boat...you told me all along that's what you were going to do...you can't get the girls put down...they haven't got that much longer to live anyways...let them have some good final days...

Before and after...

Before last nights dump...


and after...


there was soooo much snow up the top of gold...over yr knees and so hard to get through...everybody was stacking everywhere but it didn't matter as it was so soft! It was the biggest dump we've had this year...
We were going to go to Calgary to replace our windscreen but there was no way we were missing out on that...
A lot of it has already melted at the base and there's water gushing everywhere...but the majority of people on the hill were staff...they screwed up the snow report (maybe on purpose..) and said there was only 8cm in the base and 12 up top when it was closer to 20 in the base and 50 up top...

Anyways, we're off to Kicking Horse for the next 2 days so la-di-da...

It's winter again!!!

Ok, so it was forecast for rain today so we were all thinking the worst...It was raining at the base today and then bam! It starts snowing...
Right now there is about 10cms outside and it's still puking!
Wierrrrrddddd...
Bryan came home a while ago saying there was about 30-40cms at the top of the hill, so much snow that he couldn't groom it as it was piling up and creating big humps everywhere, so they've had to stop!

All the people from around here have all talked about the final dump but witht the weather as it was we thought it was all over red rover...but here it is...

Khan and I were going to go into Calgary tomorrow to get the windscreen on the car replaced but I'm not so sure now...I think tomorrow might be the biggest powder day of the season. Surely one not to miss out on...

Btw...new roster means got friday thru to Sunday on...I think Dee tried to roster on as many people as she could for the last day just so we could all have a bunch of fun...there's already talk of a party up the top of Gold...all the staff taking the last run down at the end of the day/season half drunk...it's gonna get messy...

4 work days left!

Found out today that the lift both Khan and I have been rostered on for the weekend most likely won't be running on either day!
That means only tomorrow (sunday) Monday, tuesday and Friday we'll be working...it's kinda wierd thinking you'll never do this again at this place ever in yr life when it's become such a regular thing...ah well...such is life...

Kicking Horse on Wednesday and Thursday...our last trip away from the Manor!

Mum say hi to Nanna for me...

Oh, and Soph i didn't forget yr birthday I just forgot to email you...sorry, i'm a slacker i know...

Just a short one this time...

Meow meow...

I miss my boys...can sombody send me a pic of 'em for me?

Er...stuff happening here...it's raining and is getting hot so all the snow is melting...we're digging trenches all around the place so the water can drain out...oh and today the hill had 59 paying customers, yesterday was 81...so it's kinda good, it means we get a lot more rides and everybody is a lot more relaxed and is hanging out...

We were told the other day at a team meeting that we weren't allowed to throw snowballs...and if people from other department throw them at us we have to suck it up...what a joke...talk about fun killers...anyway, the Nakiska season officially ends on the 17th...we're flying out from Vancouver to Palm Springs on the 28th so we've got a bit of time to check out Jasper National Park and the glaciers and stuff.

Today we went to Lake Louise with Bryan, had a bunch of fun in the snowy rain...as soon as you got past a certain point in elevation the rain turned to snow but the visibilty was still really low so we stuck to going through the trees...where we found a lot of untouched powder....noooiiiceee...through which at one point we lost Khan who got stuck in a tree and then me when my board did a tail dive into about 3 foot of snow and i couldn't move...It took me about 5 minutes to dig myself by unstrapping my board and then another 3 minutes to clamber through the snow with my feet going straight down til it was up to my thighs...I couldn't stop laughing but was exhausted by the time i got out into a clearing...oh and i somehow managed to bruise up my knees again...

Would be fun to go back there but i'm not sure we'll get to...It's kinda sad in a way that we'll be leaving everybody...we're trying to convince Bryan aka Truckman to come out to aus and drive cat at Perisher for a while...or just to hang out...I think Khan and I will miss Bryan a lot...he's cool to hang out with and cool to board with...I think we're also going to have a reunion type thing at Mt Buller as Anna is working there and there's a whole bunch of people from around Melbourne and a bunch of boys from the mines who have a fair bit of money behind them that could make a trip down...should be cool...

Anyways,
Need to go to bed as I'm working tomorrow, if there's any snow left...