Hey. How's it going eh?

Over the past three weeks or so we have been continuing our adventures in winter sports and also learning how to be a local by saying eh? at the end of every sentence. It starts to get a bit annoying after a while.

After being in Canada for nearly a month we decided that it was time to get on the road and check out some other "steep and deep" resorts in the region.



In order to ensure that we were in tip-top physical condition for the slopes our first stop in our beefed up hire car was some natural hot springs inside one of the national parks. It's what all true athletes would do, eh?

After that we headed to Kicking Horse, a resort known for it's extreme terrain. Sixty percent of the runs are black or double black diamond, and it even has a grizzly bear exclosure within the boundary. Some of the runs were a bit sketchy - imagine side-slipping along a very narrow ridge with extreme avalanche territory on one side and steep, icy, rocky slopes on the other - but we did conquer the Terminator Ridge, which required a six foot leap of faith to get on the slope! Here's Phil sat with his feet dangling over the entrance to the run.

After Kicking Horse we travelled on to Revelstoke, aka "the new Whistler" - except that it's only got three lifts and is half-built. It is a fairly stupendous mountain though, with over 5,500 ft of vertical and a longest run of 9.5 miles. After two great days there our legs had well and truely given up. We ran into some fairly interesting characters in our hostel, which meant that we had to go out on the town every night to escape the random kitchen conversations - not necessarily a bad thing!

This week we've been back in the classroom on an Avalanche Skills Training course, basically learning how to not get yourself in big trouble in the backcountry (off-piste). Today we were on a field trip digging snow pits to test the stability of the snow pack and taking part in a mock avalanche rescue, using transceivers and probes to find buried objects. It's definately been an eye-opening experience and has given us a lot of respect for the mountains out here.

Other news:

Canada is in the grip of Olympic fever despite there being hardly any snow in Vancouver. There was a rumour going round that the Olympic Committee were pinching snow from other resorts in BC, so people in Fernie have been on high alert for evidence of snow thieves! We weren't able to get tickets to the games, but we did see the Olympic torch come through our town accompanied by the High School Musical soundtrack. There's no accounting for taste.

Phil has overcome his loathing of walking and has discovered a new found love of hiking up snowy slopes in search of the perfect ride down. A group of us picked a sunny day to climb Polar Peak, one of the highest peaks in the Fernie area, and we were rewarded with some awesome views from the top (once we had stopped feeling really sick from all the exertion).

We've had one trip to A&E - taking in our mate who concussed himself on one of the beginner slopes in Fernie. Despite wearing a helmet he did himself enough damage to not remember anything from the previous five days - including the hike up Polar Peak! He's fine now though and has stopped repeating himself, which everyone else is very pleased about.

We've survived a couple of big nights out recently and have realised the locally brewed Fernie Ale is to be avoided at all costs. We have also discovered the delights of poutine and perogies as a post-pub snack - basically chips, cheese and gravy accompanied by deep-fried cheese dumplings sprinkled with bacon. It may even be worse for you than a doner but tastes super-nice!

On that classy note, we will leave you. Hope life is treating everyone well.

Lots of love, Susie and Phil xx