kat

August...

2007-08-26T18:36:00.000-07:00

HI!!!!
I'm having a hard time getting this onto the computer so if you are reading this it means I haven't thrown my landlord's ghetto computer out of the window!!

Last week I went to a massive Roots and Blues festival in a random town - Salmon Arm, about 5 hours drive...we just finished the work on the campground so i managed to scam a day off...there were 6 stages and like 60 artists...during the day you cruise around and listen to heaps of different music and at night the big acts are playing...lots of dancing and good times...Michael Franti and Spearhead were AMAZING they played on Fri night so it wasnt too busy, we were right at the front! On Sat was Xavier Rudd, wow that guy was totally awesome, he can play like 7 different imstruments - he was playing the didg and drums or guitar and singing....(apart from the Aussie accent, ewww. Sorry Aussies, but you learn to strongly dislike Aussies if you live in Canada for long enough!)...and so far that was the last of the 35degree days:(

The girls dancing in the last of the daylight...

The crew...

This weekend we climbed the big-ass peak that overlooks Banff- Mt Rundle. From the top it is the coolest view ever, it drops off a massive cliff, like 1500m all the way to the valley floor, when you are standing (well, lying down actually because you feel like you are going to get sucked into the abyss) you can see EVERYTHING! Pretty cool. Then it started snowing! (yeah snow) The walk up was STEEP! We went with the boys from work, all of us had a pretty big night before so I cant really believe we made it all 1500m up!! The summit is 2900+ meters- so big climb you actually climb from the valley floor!

Did I mention that it was steep? But, what about my hangover??

The view of the Abyss from the top. I was scared for my life taking this photo! You prob can't tell but the green trees are 1000m below us...

Woooooh!!

Well, days are getting shorter, nights are darker...winter is on the way (hell yeah) though i think we'll have a few miserable days at work in the -20's before i get to ski though!!

2007-08-11T17:33:00.000-07:00

HI sorry long time no write! We have done quite a bit of stuff....after the Stampede we decided to take a road trip out to Vancouver to drop Em and Joe off - and also catch up with Cam, Parker and Lauren (HELL yeah) one night of drunken madness in Cam's house (which used to be McIvors-sick-there was a hidden staircase!) also the most rediculous house any of us have ever seen. There were 8 bathrooms with showers! and the hot tub had LIGHTS that you can change colour!! Ah, well being the west coast it pissed down the entire time we were there, but it was a nice change from the month of 30+ temps in Banff...Whistler is another story - WOW. I thought it would be a touristy shit hole, but it was amazing! It was so green (the rain...) and pretty! And there are lakes....and sick as montain biking....and a good town (expensive!!!) The crankworks (mass bike fest) was on, the slopestyle is the one you see on TV, pretty much in the centre of town - massive - everyone was covered in dirt! The coolest thing is in Whistler you can go into the shops covered in dirt....!Cam took us out to see the dogs for the dog sledding company he works for...these are pretty new puppies: they are named after all the Harry Potter characters...OK kinda creepy - they have blue blue eyes! I guess it's part of one of the breeds they have in them, creepy though...sooo cute!

Anyway, recently Reubs and I have been working out in a campground in Field, BC (in the middle of nowhere really) redoing this campground - there are 60 sites, it is beautiful out there - not a bad place to be working! We took 60 picnic tables outta the ground, planed, sanded, painted and put them back!Oh what a shit job...

Well the sickest part was the boss shouted us a round of paintball cos we have been working real hard: the landscaping crew against the lawnmowere (man, we got our asses handed to us!) I dont know what it's like in NZ, but here there were like 10 diff courses, you play capture the flag. We played in the woods, and another one with big forts, and another in a field with tires and old school busses...you can play till your credit card maxes out on paintballs. SICK! There were free hot-dogs too!! except it was about 35deg, no wind, and you gotta wear this massive heavy black camo suit (i wore body armour too) and a full-face helmet...soooooooo hot!

(I still have a massive bruise on my arm) The boys also decided that head shots count...I scream like a girl....
The landscaping crew pre-shattering defeat. (Spot reuben, ha ha!)

Emerald Lake, pretty close to where we work. I am officially a crap fisher-woman. I would rather drink wine and eat the fish....

A Moose!! Ha ha look at it, looking at it makes you laugh because it is so ugly (sorry moose) So this guy (massive by the way, like taller than a big ass horse) just strolls through us while we are fishing!! They are tasty though....

On a more random note: I finally got the underwater pictures off Joe from Thailand. Here are some cool fish!

CALGARY STAMPEDE

2007-07-15T20:31:00.000-07:00

HI!!

Just pulled in the door from a hectic weekend in Calgary where we went to the Calgary Stampede the "greatest outdoor show on earth"...It started off feeling pretty lucky, i made a sign for hitch-hiking and fortunatley we got picked up in 5 mins!!! Record breaking! And they dropped us off right at the hotel!! Nice!

We met up with Joe and Em-actually it was classic, we got to the front desk and asked if Joe Wilson had checked in, the dude said yes - Stephanie Wilson (so we naturally assumed Joe put it on Mummy's credit card...) walk in there, I'm using the bathroom, and Reubs is like KAt, do you recognise any of this stuff? And I'm like no-not really?? We are just about to drink a cold beer we have assumed Joe has left on ice for us.....Turns out it is the WRONG ROOM, we are sifting through other people's gear......hmmmm, beat a hasty exit from that scene before we could get busted! Funny start to the weekend. Tragically Joe had just had the van towed, costing a bunch of cash they didnt have, bad story...

We beat it to the Chuckwagon racing where they do a bunch of random stuff, chuck stuff in the wagon, race around poles, one dude leaps onto another horse...??They race around the track...it is super super gnarly, tragically horses die every year....Then afterwards they have this amazng broadway kinda show-with EVERYTHING, singing, dancing, tap dancing (sick) these dudes that climb up these ribbons by wrapping them around their bodies and spin through the sky...backflipping motorbikes...and the best fireworks i have seen in ages. it was really amazing...

Had a few expensive beers, a bit of a late one...train runs right to the hotel door!! Next day checked out the RODEO!!! Sweet so hardcore!! Here are some pics.

The bare-back bull riding...

Honestly I don't know how they do it...the coolest thing is the cowboys that round up the raging bull at the end and get it off the stage. Sometimes they have to lassoo them!!

There are heaps of different rodeo events, it was really cool to see them all. In this one the dude has to chase a calf, lassoo it and tie it's legs together once it is on the ground. When I say calf I mean a big one with little horns and suuff (steer??) Yeah and the dudes were doing it in like 7 seconds!! It was incredible!! There was one Kiwi dude, we cheered really loudly for him!

The grounds themselves are really cool, it's kinda like a massive (kiwi's) A&P show with all types of rides and games, wow it is HOT though man, it hasnt got below 30 deg all week... anyway ended up having a pretty random but MASSIVE night and now I have to go to bed, cos I think I'll be lifting heaps of heavy stuff tomorrow!
The team in the stand, (drinking illegally sumggled in rum slushies!!)

Summer life in Banff

2007-07-05T16:08:00.000-07:00

Well fiNally i moved into my new house, and even went back to lake louise and got all my stuff, so now i have more than one pair of pants to wear, although still no shorts and it was 32deg today damn hot. had a bit of a mare this week, should have known it would go downhill when the element caught on fire at 6am when i was making a cupp of tea...I was working in a garden in Canmore when i got atung by a bee/wasp and ended up in hospital, as soon as i got there people were freaking out and attached me to all this beeping equipment, face mask full of steaming stuff and all, i was trying to tell poeple not to worry so much but apparantly i was quite baD....anyway at home now feeling shitty, but now aware that i am apparantly pretty damn allergic to bees!!

O n a better note i had monday off (paid!!) cos it was a long weekend canada day...

Look at Reub's hair. The Angel Reuben!!

We bunped into a friend and he told us there were fish in this lake but unfortunatley we didn't have rods but DAMN the fish were everywhere we could see them swimming around and jumping outta the water.....

We camped right by this lake
Sweet waterfall on the way up. The trail starts in Johnston's Canyon (mssive tourist area) then goes up the valley behind it. The first like 4kms are concrete!!
There are lots of bears out at the momentt. Most people carry bells to warn them you are coming (gayest thing EVER) and some people even have bearspray - its like concentrated pepper spray - on their belts. Lame and expensive!! of course reubs and i had neither, we didnt even see one bear!! You have to hang your packs up in trees at night 4m off the ground. You cant even have lip balm or tooothpaste in your tent cos the bear will smell it and want to eat it!! (They don't have possums!!)

Yeah!!! My new camera takes photos underwater. I am now a half-out-half-in photo geek. Cool though ay? Shame you can't see the juicy delidious Spearhead Trout in this one...

REUBEN'S B-DAY WEEKEND

2007-06-02T22:22:00.000-07:00

HI!!

So I guess you all know by now Reubs and I have broken up, I'll leave it at that...we are still hanging out and we'll keep in touch....

The mountains around Jasper where we work....

This week i have been doing some cool stuff, we got to drive the bobcat 4WD through the bushes-i had to drive in with a bucket load of cobble-stones-it was gnarly. Cool. I also had to do some dumb stuff - reubs and i mixed 3 10 hour days of concrete by hand in a wheel barrow- most of you will know how gay that is but hey, we did it for 3 whole huge days!! but we made some sweet stairs!! We even had to hike in the water!! But the driving the bobcat made up for it!

Reubs' birthday weekend was cool, we went to the Kootenays-a big area in BC with lakes everywhere, we went fishing yesterday, lost heaps of lures, didnt catch anything, went swimming heaps, was 32deg in the shade way way too hot for me!! Went downhill biking for the like 2nd time yesterday in Golden, holy shit it was gnarly, borrowed a buddies bike that was awesome so had a great time, everyone was in full face helmets and pads and stuff!! It was super gnarly (well maybe not but i thought it was!!) And man it was HOT!! another 30plus day!! Made me wanna buy a bike and take up a new sport!

Fishing in the Kootenay Lake

Reubs was feeling lucky cos he saw 6 bears on his birthday - including the tiniest baby bear anyone had ever seen, the Canadians recon it was only a few weeks old! We drove past them and the baby bear climbed up the tree like it was a cat! It was amazing!!
The mama bear is taller than Reubs when it stands on it's back legs, when she is standing like this it is at least up to your waist, the little baby is about the size of a fatty cat or small dog! oooh...

Our buddie caught a fish for lunch-a Bull Trout, pretty big, fed 6 of us, yummmmm...

OK well good to talk to yo all

keep commeting!!

xx KAT (and Reubs)
I am officially retarded. I guess once you put a picture on here you can't take it off ay? Ok well, here's me (sideways) rallying through the National Park in a Bobcat. And my cobblestones!

Spring!!

2007-05-20T11:00:00.000-07:00

Hi well, first summer in pretty much ever...before my degree anyway...Got a sweet job landscaping for a company based outta Banff...the boss is totally rad which is awesome, one of the best bosses i have worked for...we are living in a tailer in Jasper at the moment, which is ok, we are getting paid $40 a day just to stay up there, which is good cos there is nothing to spend it on, and I'm not paying rent anywhere at the moment! We are working on doing up a site in the NAtional Park, a waterfall, we are building new railings and that sorta stuff, also re-doing the carpark and picnic areas, i get to play with lots of power tools which is fun...long days and good pay and nothing to spend it on (except paying dad back for my flights over here....) good weather summer is nice! Hopefully getting in one more day skiing tomorrow - it's the last day at Sunshine and the "Slush Cup" so costumes, drinking and crazy antics, then back up to Jasper on Tuesday (it's a long weekend here.) The end of the season was a crazy crazy time of drinking, skiing, BBQing, drinking, working hard, drinking and partying...and some rain which sucked!

So might be moving to Banff soon, it will be nice to live in a town with a supermarket and night-clubs - though Banff is some CRAZY tourist destination and i think it's a gong show all summer long. Went out the other night and there was some possibly Kiwi band doing Fat Freddies covers! It's great to be back in civilization!! So don't expect to hear too much, hopefully going on some road-trips to America soon if work permits!!

Here is a photo of the falls where we are working:

PS: Check out the next blog for PHOTOS OF OUR WEEK IN THE MOUNTAINS!

PHOTOS

2007-05-20T10:34:00.000-07:00

HI, sorry this took so long...

oooh the peak....yeah, i think i told you but it was so good we had to ski it twice!

Some of the crew lining up in front of one of the lines we skied called "Death Gnar" (named by the guy in front-Marty - his parents own the cabin)

on the way up to the peak...that's the peak in the distance...

Did I mention that it was kinda a long way up?

Shannon and myself standing at the bottom VERY excited!!

Returning home to the cabin (the triangle building!) after another long day...

Aww, flying home...

2007-04-23T12:04:00.000-07:00

hi sorry guys we havent been near a computer for ages, our room-mate moved out with the internet, so we have been slack...im on the dispatch computer at the moment so this will have to be quick and also no photos but stand by there are some coming...

so...one of the reasons for slackness is we have been in the mountains for a week, our friend who patrols with us here at the lake's parents own a back-country chateau that you have to fly into...so reubs and i got a helicpoter in...and it was PUKING so we were gonna get a heli-drop but the pilot couldnt see, anyway it was sick the boys were chopping down trees for firewood and the helicopter was long lining them right to the front of the chateau, while it was windy and snowing!! he managed to drpo like 20 trees at the front door-step in a tidy pile it was awesome...so we didnt get the heli skiing but we were touring for 7 days...the chateau is called "Blanket Glacier Chateau" - google it for photos...so it is right on the edge of a big glacier...it was dumpng for the first few days so we skiied the glades around the cabin - steep and deep...then we finally got to climb the peak... even though it was white out but hey, great skiing anyway...800 vertical meters of amazing fall-line skiing (that's like big mama twice)...so it was sooo good that when the sun broke through two days later we had to go and try again, this time cos of the visability it was one of the best and most memorible skis of my life! pictures to come later sorry...

so we flew out in a snow storm again, the chopper pilots over here are crazy, we couldnt believe some of the conditions they fly in...

did i mention we flew in a keg?
oh, luxury in the backcountry....there was a sauna and a shower(watering can filled with warm water!)

photos to come
xxK

the time has come...

2007-03-20T19:54:00.000-07:00

Well, we don't really know where to start... Maybe a quick overview of the month, we have had sweet weather, it was +7 at the base the other day, which made us feel like we were on a tropical island, and today we were slaying sweet pow, got face shots this morning! Good times...Have tomorrow off so will prob spend morning skiing...Today Reuben was my boss that was pretty funny but i got to see what he does all day....

Here is a picture of Whitehorn 2: You can ski everything you can see in the photo - it's all inbounds and you can ski back to a lift! We were lucky and we were asked to "ski cut" a gully each this morning for avalanche control....maaaaan was it goooooood!

So, we got pretty bored on our day off, it was raining or something pretty lame, so we invited Joe and Em around for some Bacon and Egg pie (yum - with KETCHUP -not tomato sauce, which is what you put on pasta as i found out the wrong way!) We dug out a back porch for the springtime sun...

Take note of the beautiful hair in this photo...

Well, the time has come...Reubs decided he needed a mullet "a stylish one" he asked for. HA ha how does one combine "stylish" and "mullet" in one sentence Em and Kat ask...Well, mullet he recieved...

"Oh my god look at that huge chunk of hair in Emily's hand!"

"Ah, guys can you stop cutting now?....What have I done??"

Yeah, so this is how we spend our weekends in a very small town with 3 lame bars that are expensive, RAIN, and no TV or car.

Luckliy the rain didn't hang around and we have been skiing pow all week! Sometimes you have to do drastic things to get the snow to come back, I guess Reuben's hair was a good enough sacrifice!!

Take it easy team, keep the comments flowing!

RED & WHITE

2007-02-25T19:02:00.000-08:00

We had our mid-season ski patrol party in Banff this week...the theme was RED & WHITE: I have to say, even though dress-ups are by far my favourite, this one was by far the best one I have ever been to...
Reubs dyed his hair BRIGHT red, it was awesome!I don't think I have seen this many people this messed up before too, ha and to think most of them have work the next day (not us - thank God)

Ha ha look at Reubs and one of the dudes he works with!! What babes!

Check out this chick, she had the best outfit of the night (that I can remember anyway) she had this disco ball (a real one!) strapped to her back so it hung over her head all night. Well, not all night at all, she lost it pretty quickly...Ha this is one of my favourite photos look at the expression on Reubs' face!! Checkin out that disco ball...

I was very excited cos this was one of the few times (I can count them on one hand) that I have worn a handbag. DO you guys realise how cool it is to wear a handbag?? All your stuff is RIGHT there!! So, I had my camera all night!! By the way these are VERY censored photos too...

Buying shots at the bar. Every opportunity is a photo opportunity!! Sorry about my snout....(self takes!!)

Ok one last look of the craziest night in a long time...We partied all night and relocated to a friend's crazy flash appartment right in the centre of Banff with a HOT TUB! They cooked us pancakes at like 4:30am. Awesome.

Kat's Birthday!!

2007-02-19T18:54:00.000-08:00

We went down to fernie BC for Kat's birthday, it was excellent timing, after raining the past week and then freezing conditions wern't the best but luckily it snowed at least 25cms the day before we arrived and kept snowing the whole time we were down there!! So we slayed heaps of pow, happened to randomly meet up with a few people we knew who showed us the goodness...

Reubs slaying the gnar in Fernie. There is some pretty sweet terrain there and the conditions were SO GOOD!!

We were staying in a place with a hydro-slide (water-slide for North Americans) Yeah, that's RIGHT a water slide...so i got to test out my new water-proof camera by taking water slide film footage, but i don't know how to put that on here sorry-so you get a photo...

AAH, so we started the day with a Champagne Breakfast which turned into peach schnapps, jagermeister and baileys, (not at the same time!) and the boys cooked up a great eggs benny which probably saved the day! Here is a photo of 'lunchtime' (Beer) at a little hut in Fernie which has a fireplace and you can just hang out and try to keep warm (it was cold). After that the skiing went downhill pretty fast so we had to head back to the hotel...

Kristin, Kat and Reubs. Lunchtime!

We went out for dinner (always tricky on valentine's day) and eventually ended up in some random downstairs bar, which due to the horrid V-day, turned out to be a Lingerie party! Funnily enough we randomly bumped into another dude we met in NZ! Got pretty wasted and Buck got us up very early the next morning because it was PUKING and we had to go slash some more pow in Castle mountain-this resort out in the middle of NOWHERE! WE bought the patrollers some beer for free tickets, they were awesome and took us around all day to show us the pow stashes. They have the longest T-Bar in North America (thank GOD cos we were so hung over we needed the time to recover) I have a pretty sweet bruise due to hitting a tree at high speed and not being able to turn...anyhoo, another week at work, it has been dumping so we have been shredding! YEah, good times in Canada...

2007-01-26T19:20:00.000-08:00

HI, well nothing really to report, been getting up to our "normal" shenanagins, and by this I guess we have been pretty good kids, we have been detoxing (don't worry, that's over) and enjoying the days clear headed....Had an awesome weekend - three days - and it was ZERO DEGREES, so basically the jandals, boardies and singlets came out. Ok not really, but man, zero is pretty warm. We went touring, but this week we aren't going to bore you with scenic shots of the Rockies. Ok, one...

The boys at the top of the Emerald Lake Slide. 1100m vert of pow skiing below us!

So we thought we'd incude some photos of us cross-country skiing today 'cos it was bloody halarious, these things don't have edges or any control at all so we were sliding all over the place. They groom tracks through the woods which is good, or otherwise we wouldn't be able to turn! We both ate shit on flat ground. Who knew going down hill could be so nail-biting??

Reubs demonstrating good "classic" cross-country technique.

Hangin' in the arvo sun. This bit was by far the sketchiest bit - see how steep that down hill is? And the massive drop off??

Look how skinny those suckers are...

Self takes are fun...

This winter rules!

2007-01-15T17:27:00.000-08:00

Well what can we say... since our last post Kat and I have skied some of the best snow we have ever come across, its hard to say if its the best we've ridden cause we have had our share of epic days but a couple of days last week definetly made it into our top ten.
Sunday week ago it started snowing high season was over and we were back to having bugger all people on the hill yeehaa!!!! freshies, work was put on the back burner and we all took turns lapping the fresh goodness. Monday it wasn't snowing but we had a decent amount of fresh on the ground, so morning work was done quickly and it was back to slaying the powder (our bosses are so awsome they tell us to make the most of it when its like this so sure enough we did!!). We wake up Tuesday and holly shit its dumping, being dumping all night and we've got like a foot on the drive, our streets down to one lane and we are all freaking out!!!!! So work is another day of shredding pow!!! This day was the most epic so far it puked all day and the only people lapping it were patrol and my trail crew buddies every lap was super fresh and getting deeper by the minute. We were getting face shots and riding through pockets that were up to our chests....madness. We finished the day so tired after getting paid to shred powder for the last 3 days. But no rest for the wicked Wednesday dawned blue bird and our day off so sure enough we went up the mountain for another day of fun in the -20 temps and beautiful snow. I watched Kat have the most amazing crash thankfully she resurfaced with a face full of smiles!!! (i had my share to but nothing like kats one).

Hanging out with the cutest dog in the world. 4 months old and already going ski touring!

Thursday well what else to do but go skiing Kat and I and our friend Shannon and her beautiful dog Mischa went touring up at Bow Summit. It was Mischas first ski tour and she was so cute as you can see. This was our rest day just a short day cause the dog was getting cold not us of cause....

Laughing at Kat 'cos she nearly fell over taking this photo-those cheeks are about to snap-freeze at below -20!

Peek-a-boo. oooh, the cutest dog in the world again...

Friday Woohoo Kat, Shannon and I went up to Rogers Pass one of the most amazing ski touring spots around. So great to be up at this place another place I'd heard alot about. Put the skins on skis and off we went, so great to be on skis i could have never done this mission on my

snowboard... skiing is the way for touring!!!

This is like New Zealand but grander
So yeah we got to ski some amazing snow and hang out in some incredibly impressive mountains mmmm can't wait to go back to Rogers Pass!!!!
So after the days off it was back to work for rest until our next days off and our next adventures!!!

happy new years

2007-01-03T12:49:00.000-08:00

hi everybody
wow-what a mad couple of weeks it has been...Reub's friends Jase and Olivia are over here and they have gone up the mountain, but i am so tired i couldn't make it, so here i am, first time in weeks not skiing! We drove in from calgary this morning, i bought a new digital camera and I am very excited because it is shock-proof and water-proof (pretty much everything I need i think) but it's on the charger at the moment so no photos to show off the new camera. It is very shiny.

OOO h and importantly we have a new cellphone everyone check yo emails for the number, and for goodness sake write it down!!

So I guess i should get started on the update...Chrissie morning our flat ate Reub's traditional brekkie of toasted croissants with brie, ham off the bone and tomato (yum) followed by other traditions of sparkly wine with peach schnaps...We had a tree not cut down from the national park, it was beautiful and perfect! Good job room-mates, with lights and everything! My first tree in like 3 or more years! yay...so, I guess we went to work all pretty boozy, (and it was still dark!!) and the bosses over here are super cool, we drank all day!! We each had a bottle of frangelico or baileys etc for our coffees, and we cooked and ate french toast up the mountain!! Sugar overload though...For dinner Reubs and I went to Kristin's place, her parents are here from NZ and we ate MOOSE roast! (Hell yeah) It was really good, shot by a friend's 15 year-old brother (can you imagine shooting a moose, oops sorry don't think about it, it was really tasty) you go in a draw here and a small handful of people get a licence to go out and shoot moose and other big game. OOh we just saw a big-horn sheep walking down the street! Ha ha random, looks like a goat.

Sorry I'm starting to lose concentration. Will get back to ya.

Hi, sorry about that...Well we went touring on a pretty classic tour called the Pumpkin traverse, it starts from the ski area and goes round this masssive mountain -Mt Redoubt, in a 13km loop. Im gonna put heaps of photos cos it was amazing.

That's me in the distance! Look at all the beautiful snow!

We actually had our skis off for quite a bit of the journey and were hiking...

We went past this bowl and couldn't resist putting some fat tracks right down the middle!

The walk back outta those nice lines...

The view...

Just after lunch, we walked out of this valley here for a couple of hours till we kinda poped back out near the ski resort...

I thought the trees were really pretty...these are Larch trees, they are the only deciduous conifers in the world!

ok this is the last one. lookin back up the valley we walked outta. sunset on the peak (yeah, sunset, we still had about 3 kms to walk, woops. got back in daylight though)

oops i put this in and cant delete it!

Bye everyone hope to hear texts from all of you!

Red & Whitewater

2006-12-23T09:29:00.000-08:00

Hey everybody!

We jsut got back from a 4-day roadtrip to southern BC, small cute little alpine towns Nelson and Rossland...they are right down by the USA border maybe 10 mins! It was a buddies birthday so we packed the van and drove about 6-7 hours south to stay with another mate on his farm in a town called Fruitvale (he he) - he is turning it into a vineyard, it is pretty beautiful down there.

We went skiing at Whitewater the first day, which is a pretty classic little ski hill, it has two double chairs, which kinda go up a little way, leaving all the good terrain above you (sort of like the Remarks) But all anyone does down here is hike. There were like, 20 cars in the carpark! We skied about 3 runs in bounds then hit the "back-country" which is a big long ridge off one of the chairs and you can pretty much drop anywhere and ski down to the access road. We skied pretty deep tree pow all day! (Which is awesome cos Lake Louise dosn't really have that much tree sking it's all alpine.

This is Whitewater lookin straight up from base, it's all hiking. Pretty sweet ay!

The next day we cruised to Red mountain (which both Reubs and I have wanted to ride at since we were teenagers) AND this mountain is SICK!! It is pretty massive, there is this big peak in the middle that you can ski off pretty much 360deg. One side is the steepest tree skiing I have ever done! And, there is really easily accessed backcountry, including this huge face that looks over the mountain super steep, that's where they have the Canadian open big mountain comp! 30 min walk! Once again super-ghetto chairs, which was great! The top chair (the 'Motherlode'-ha ha) is so long! The terrain under it is super-sick though! AND it was warm there! Like around zero all day! The sun was out for the first time in ages!!

Kristin and Buck on the Motherlode. Look at the pow!

We drank beer all day and then had to help patrol with sweep. It was pretty funny, we were all ranting shit, I'm sure they thought we were the most friendly people ever! We got tickets to both places by bringing beer to patrol. It's pretty cool over here!!

The back country off Red. MMMmmm, sun!!!

Then we partied pretty hard in a funny town called Field, which is so pretty but has a big-ass wood mill thing RIGHT in the centre of town spewing out smoke and chemicals!

The classic double chairs at Whitewater. Reubs was snowboardin so he could keep up with the big kids! He got given a Ride Timeless which is pretty sweet (but then his Eldo got nicked by some punk...)

Good times in the warm temps at Red Mountain. That ice-cliff is one of many in-bounds! Too bad they sold out to some rich americans and it's gettin comercialised, they are already puttin in a new lift and buliding heaps of condos...

PARTY

2006-12-13T17:17:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone!

We had our first house party the other day, the kiwi house hosted the first of many fooseball tournaments, the entry fee was $10 per team, winner takes all! Of course hardly any of us could actually play fooseball, but that was completley irrelevant. Oh yeah- you had to dress up in teams!

If you can see the classy people in the background that's me and reubs! We don't quite know what we are... Very drunk perhaps?

Apparantly the noise was heard down the street and we could have got kicked out (whatever, it was in our basement!) Well, Reubs and I got out on our first round...but the winner wnded up taking away $120. Not bad ay!!

This is me and my awesome buddie Kristin looking ready to party!

These are Reuben's two bosses. All our bosses came and got wasted with us. They are awesome! Everyone here loves to party and ski hard...

And, on that note today was an epic pow day, Reubs and I got to ski all day (he is rippin pretty good on the skis) And it was amazing yeaaaahhhh! We skied the most amazing light fluffy pow fresh tracks all day and now I'm really tired my legs are going to fall offf!

XX KAT AND REUBENNNNN>>>>>

COL*D

2006-11-29T15:54:00.000-08:00

Well...today we felt lovely and warm, apparantly the temps were 10degrees warmer than the rest of the week...finally the sky was blue-bird and the snow so so epic! Ok...the temp was -20 today, can't believe that feels warm, but all week we have been braving around the -30ish temps...you can't even really hang out outside, if you have any exposed skin it FREEZES! Yeah, crazy ay! We usually wear 2 thermal pants, 3 ice-breaker tops, fleece, maybe down jacket and gore-tex to work, PLUS you have to have a layer covering your nose and cheeks or your flesh BURNS (ewww) apparantly it's quite gnarly and gross....

We went back-country (slack-country really, we didn't have to walk that far) and reubs experienced the beauty of skis - he is fully converted now - touring on a snowboard is a complete waste of time & energy!

The terrain here is SICK! You can access all these lines within like 5 mins walk from the skifield. Today we skied a bowl called Pipestone...the views from here are epic too...

The little village you can see is Lake Louise, that's where we live. The massive mountain on the left is over 3000m - Mt temple. You can ski off it, apparantly it is hard core! The town is about 1500m. This is what the views are like 360 degrees no kidding! THE rockies are AMAZING!!

The track out from where we went touring was super-gnarly! It was like a luge track on skis, winding through the forest and jumping off rocks and over creeks...

This is reubs and dave lundin at the top about to drop into a sick, perfectly creamy, amazing bowl of powdery goodness!

Anyway, next week is supposed to be warm, i think like -7, so that will be a nice change, maybe we can play outside for more than 10mins! It's wierd when its that cold, your skis stick to the snow and you can hardly move - cos its SO COLD!!!

Peace

2006-11-23T17:32:00.000-08:00

Had a pretty sweet day the other day, it has been dumping with snow over here for the past - well - since we've been here really... I got to go out with the Avalanche Control team twice last week! (it's a pretty big event if you get to go with them). one of the days was really amazing weather...

There was fresh powder EVERYWHERE, oh yeah and i gotta throw 3 bombs too! The guys are real cool and make sure that you do everything properly - though it always scares the hell outtae standing there with a big, lit bomb in my hand! This is the guy i was working with hucking his bomb into a chute...

oh yeah by the way our uniforms are bright the FUCK orange ay!! ha ha

ok enough from us, oh yeah...

Reubs bought skis and is now skiing all the time haha he's actually doing a pretty good job too, he has to carry all this heavy as hell stuff all the time, but he's loving it!

Lake Louise update

2006-11-19T09:49:00.000-08:00

OK, so i guess i'm not that good at this! Here's attempt 2:

So i'll just update to all what Reubs and I have been up to. We arrived in Canada about 3 weeks ago i guess, to -30 temps, still in our jandals from Taiwan (which was awesome) and it's been snowing since we got here! We fianlly sorted out our oven the other day so now we can bake muffins and pies. And cheese scones! We decided to drive from Vancouver to Lake Loiuse (which by the way, is quite far!) Ooh yeah we also have a fooseball table in our lounge! Yeah, it was in the house - Awesome! We somehow got super lucky and are in our own house, away from the massive housing lodge (which mostly contains 18-year olds who have never seen snow before - over half are aussies -aah)...We had training for a few days - here's a pic of the base building which is a massive log cabin. The best part of training is gondola evac

You get to ride down the cable and climb onto the roof of the cabin, then climb down, kick open the doors and lower the people inside one by one! They had to do one for real last year!

So, after training (by this stage reubs was working his ass off walking to the summit everyday from half way and digging all day) i got to go touring in the backcountry for a couple of days...

It's awesome, you literally park your car and head straight up into the hills! Usually you kinda walk up through the forest then up into the alpine area. Skiing out is fun, you follow your tracks out winding back down through the forest to the car...

OK, well we haven't got a phone yet (useless) but write comments or email.

xx Kat and Reubs

CANADA

2006-11-17T18:52:00.000-08:00

Been arrived in Canada, prob been here for a week - got this idea fro tania, just testing the blog cos me and reubs have ben trying to sortit out for about one million hours!! ha ha stand by for more photos and good times

kat