80cm in the last 7 days!!! - Awesome 9 yr old skier girl.

Winter has been a bit odd here this year (apparently). Much warmer than normal, But it looks like the snow has finally started to catch up!

A few days earlier, sitting above the clouds at the top of a run... Very bizarre snowboarding down through a cloud!!! But what an amazing sight!

POWDER
With 80cm in the last 7 days and a bunch of powder that i have gotten to hit it has been fantastic!!!

A couple of days back on a short back country hike this is what it was like!

Then another 30cm over 2 days and another back country area to get some snow like this!!!

Waist deep!!! Pitty that it wasnt like that all over!


I have some video from that day but i dont know if i will get it up or not. See how my time goes and if i can be bothered. Might just save it for my heliboarding trip! :D (which is 11 days away!!! OMG)


Next week i have plans to get to Kicking Horse and Revelstoke which everybody raves about! So that should be awesome!


Park Update
I am getting much more comfortable on rails and boxes now and have started doing the rails you have to jump up on to, Not with great success but its a start and lots of fun! :)

I worked up the courage the other day to hit the line of "Large" kickers (jumps) at  Mt Norquay. Unfortunately i did not have my gopro with me.

But this is them

There is about a 10-12m gap to clear to make it to the landing.
I worked up the courage and just went for it :) 1st one went so smoothly i just kept going and did the 2nd and 3rd one too!!! :D Was such an adrenalin rush!

Having an awesome time over here and still trying to meet some new people. Just under a month until i am back Home in AUS.

In 1 hand i cant wait to get home and see all my family and friends again and in the other hand i dont want to leave here!!!

Awesome little skier girl! - 9 Years old!

Now today at Norquay, There was this awesome little girl, She was really cute and only 9. She did a FRONT FLIP off the first large jump (as pictured above with the medium jump just beside it)

She was a champ and this was the 2nd one she did, the first one she landed a bit cleaner. Most impressive thing i saw all day!

3 words.... Desert Eagle .50!!!!!

So...
Went to Edmonton, which was a 4 and a bit hour drive and wasnt too bad, the little mazda 323 held up very well. :D

So first day of the mall I went to the Shooting Range :D WOOHOO

Got to shoot my first gun, and more importantly they had a Desert Eagle there!!!

For those who dont know... Like this

Unfortunately they didnt have the chrome version so it wasnt *as* pretty hahaha.

Its basically a semi automatic pistol with a massive barrel (its like 10 inches long or something) and a hell of a kick back for its size.




So anyway, rock up to the mall and do some looking around. Got some breakfast and headed to the shooting range :)


The list of guns i ended up getting...


Desert Eagle
.38 Special - Revolver
Hi Point - Rifle
Beretta Storm - Rifle.


All in all i had an awesome time and it was so much fun! Got some decent aim in on my target to :)


Here is a video from some of the guns :)

Sweet woodfired pizza restaurant
Stopped in at this woodfired pizza restaurant in Red Deer on the way to Edmonton.

They were done up as like an old school rock kinda place and had rock playing... Looked awesome so thats why i went.


Food was pretty good and the price wasnt bad.

West Edmonton Mall


The mall was pretty huge! Lots of stores, and there was an amusement park and water slides and this big ship in the mall in like this water world type area.

Lots of fun :)


Had a great weekend though and a really fun night out meeting up with someone i had met in Calgary that lives in Edmonton.


On the way home, stopped in Red deer and went to "its all greek to me" which was this greek restaurant to get a coffee and ended up getting a really nice Baklava!!!

30 Days on the snow! and food, chipmunks, water slides.. my first turkey!

Today marks 30 Days on the slopes
This is the most days i have ever snowboarded in a short time. And is equal to roughly half of what i have done in the 6-7years i have been snowboarding.

I am a whole lot more comfortable on the board now, and getting relatively comfortable hitting boxes and board sliding, but still have lots more to go!

Wacked my left shoulder again yesterday (same one i injured about a month back) Slammed it into the rail on my last run through the park, also wacked my left knee :(
That hurt... and was hard to move my arm for about 5 mins after it... Got back down the bottom of the slope, Contemplated getting the gondola back down to the car park, Thought "screw this, that thing is so slow" So got up, started moving my arm a bit and went down the ski out!
No pain no gain right? hahaha
Surprisingly it isnt too bad today, sore when i do certain movements, but still did a half day in the park and had a couple of pains when i did a couple of stacks. but also beat my fear on a box that you have to jump up and onto (its about 15-20cm above the ramp.

Went to jump on it and go straight, but came on from the side and ended up doing a board slide on it (where you are at a right angle to the rail and then you turn back to land) So that kinda surprised me but then i was stoked that i pulled it off! haha

Decided to check out the indoor water slides in town 1 night. Met a friend who works there so i got free entry! Score!

 It was pretty cool, Only 2 slides but they were fun. Something a bit different

Chipmunks!
Saw a little chipmunk on my way to the post office one day. These things are so small and cute! Really quick too!!

I invented an eggplant base pizza.. Which didnt turn out really well. Well staying in the form of pizza didnt work out cause the eggplant didnt crisp up at all, but damn this dish was bloody delicious!!!

I picked up a 5kg turkey for $15!!!! It was awesome.
They call them "utility turkeys" cause they usually have something missing. i.e. a wing or something, Mine was in pretty good order and for the price im not complaining!

Raquel helped me with some bits of it, and also showed me how to make stock from what was left of it... WHich was awesome!

So from half the meat (which i had 2 massive containers of) Made a huge amount of turkey soup with lots of veggies. And im set with food for almost 2 weeks!
Also used some turkey meat to make some burritos! :D

Random pic of a tiny frying pan that my house mate Wayne picked up from somewhere. Its like a single egg fryer, its awesome :D

OMG FINALLY SOME NICE COFFEE
I spent a night in Calgary and went to this "lady bug bakery and cafe" They are a cafe that uses pretty much all organic ingredients. They had some awesome bakery stuff too.

I was pretty skeptical about getting a coffee there (cause of how bad every other coffee i have had has been) But i bit the bullet and was pleasantly surprised at my double cap. It actually tasted good! :D
The food was pretty nice too, i got a crepe and my friend got a quiche

So Rewind slightly to back to superbowl sunday and the all you can eat chilli dogs for $6.99.

I ended up being able to make 7 chilli dogs and 2 beers!
The game was pretty fun to watch in the atmosphere and very close in the last couple of mins.

Thanks all for reading,

Im off for a 4 hour drive to Edmonton and going to see the largest mall in North america and it has a water park and roller coasters inside the mall!!!

Pics to follow after the weekend

Best powder i have ever had... yet... and some Back Country boarding

Over the past 7 days there had been 83cm of new snow at sunshine village!
Tuesday the 31st a friend and i went out to sunshine to go boarding for the day.

Got there about 10:30 and the snow was AMAZING!
Numerous amounts of powder covering all of the mountain.
After a couple warm up runs we decided to hike out to "Wawa back door" Which is the back side of 1 of the slopes and it is back country.
It was about a 10-15min hike out to hit, and well worth it. We got first tracks on that day in about 30cm deep powder.
INCREDIBLE!!! One of the best snowboarding experiences i have had yet!

So soft and fun to ride in.

The conditions were still pretty good the next couple of days as well.

Friday and saturday i spent the day doing runs through the park, working on boxes and rails.

I would go from the top of the chair lift, working on carve turns and then through the park. Praticing board slides and rotating while on the box, and also got confident enough to jump onto the rails from the side.
Making some great improvements and loving where it is taking my boarding skills!

No videos of those days as i just went out, but the weather was incredible. between 5 and -5 and sunny blue sky. Was great to board in.

It is now Sunday, Superbowl sunday at that!
I am going to head out to Wild Bills after i finish work and get into their $6.99 all you can eat chilli dogs that they have put on for the superbowl. Apparently like 23 different toppings or something. should be fun followed with a few drinks.