Tag Archives: snowboarding

Merry Christmas!

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100_0839Today is a great day. It’s Christmas eve, we all stopped working early – I went for some more turns in this epic snow we’re having, I’m looking forward to Christmas Eve service at Lynn Valley Full Gospel Church tonight and birthday cake tomorrow… oh yeah, and I’m going to Cancun!!!

My morning started out with some Christmas baking… I like it when I get fudge for breakfast. What can I say? I’m perhaps a bit of a glutton, but really trying to keep to just a taste this year. I am going to make a very concerted effort to get my body back to pre-mini-man shape now that he is coming up on 3 years *blush*.

Then my boss says to go home… at, like 10:30am SWEET! I ended up grabbing my board and checking out the hill. With over 150cm of snow now when it just started snowing about 2 weeks ago, the conditions are fantastic. The snow is so deep that it’s a bit hairy and requires quite a bit of concentration (unless you get first tracks, of course, which I did not at noon) and the blowing snow and fog made it a wee bit hard to see, but all in all the snow is just fantastic.

I was saying this morning that I used to be that person who would only ski when it was sunny out. Not only did I not know what I was missing, but I really didn’t care. If I had known then that the snow is infinately better when it’s snowing than it is when the sun is beating down on it, I would have changed my tune years ago. Plus, there are usually no bodies on the hill. I didn’t have to wait more than about 4 chairs to get on the Screaming Eagle today.

dscn0105Being Christmas Eve, we’re going to church tonight at 6:30pm. There are 3 services to choose from – 5pm, 6:30pm and 8pm. The Christmas Eve program is always fun – full of music and stories for people of all ages.

This year we’ve decided to go ahead with an idea that I heard on Praise 106.5 FM: someone called in one day and said they do birthday cake for Jesus on Christmas day. What a great idea!! So we’re going to turn it in to a tradition and bake a cake in the morning after opening presents, ice it in the afternoon during that usual downtime (my brother and I used to go to the only arcade in Vancouver that was open that day – Lesters) and then have birthday cake for dessert after a traditional turkey dinner (well, it will be more like a ceremonial taste at that point, but we’ll try).

We’re also going to spend the night as a family at my mother in law’s house. We didn’t set up a tree at home this year, and we’re going to do our celebrating there anyway, so we figured we’d all spend the night and get up and do Christmas in our jammies like we used to when we were all little.

dscn0134Sadly, with the snow this year, my parents aren’t going to make it over to the North Shore for Christmas dinner with us, but they have been invited to their next door neighbours’ house so I’m grateful they have someone nearby to celebrate with. We also all got together for dinner just a couple of days ago and now I’m glad we did. I got some great photos of my son with my mom… good for keepsakes.

And lastly, this morning big-man and I decided to book another holiday. We’re going back to Cancun to stay at the Crown Paradise Club for a week in January. We stayed there last year and had a fantastic time, but this year we’re bringing our son to enjoy it as a family. Crown Paradise Club has a kids club for children as young as 18 months whereas most resorts’ kids clubs only take kids 4+.

We’re already planning a day of wind surfing and one day trip to Cozumel… preferably via catamaran from Cancun. I’ll see what I can find. I can’t WAIT! Big-man will be starting work in northern Alberta in late January, so we figure now is a good time to get away as a family because we don’t know when we’ll be able to do it again.

Anyway, I am praying for health and prosperity for all my family, friends and readers now and in the new year. May every day of the year ahead be filled with joy and laughter and many, many blessings.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Grouse Mountain: Winter Season Opening Day

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grouse-mountain-opening-day-2008-michelle-evans

Note: This isn’t a sponsored post, though I do work for Grouse Mountain. I may be a little biased.

So I couldn’t help myself. First tracks of the season are awesome no matter what the terrain.

So the decision was made first thing Friday, December 12th that Grouse Mountain had received enough snow to open and would begin winter season operations on Saturday morning, December 13th. Many of the employees had been speculating all week since the significant snowfall on Tuesday, but it was Thursday night’s dump that sealed the deal.

We were ready for it.

One of the biggest perks of working for a ski resort is getting out on the slopes. For those of us who work in this industry I think it’s really important we continue to enjoy it in the way we did when we were first breaking in. I ended up going three years without snowboarding up until last spring. It was only on the staff day at the end of last season that I finally got out on the snow for the first time since mini-man was born. That’s just not right.

I can safely say the hiatus is over.

grouse-mountain-opening-day-2008-thecut-snowgun

The mountain opened this morning with the new Greenway Chair and Paradise open. While I hear there were a few technical glitches with the brand new Greenway Chair, by 2pm The Screaming Eagle Quad was running and, with it, The Cut and Side Cut were open.

grouse-mountain-opening-day-2008-thecut-chairliftI got out for a few turns in the afternoon to warm up my early season legs and see if I could remember how to get down the hill. There was a super great buzz about the mountaintop – everyone seemed more excited and friendly than I’ve seen at times before. Must be because we’ve all been itching to get out in the snow, the lineups were reasonable and we were just happy to be finally on our boards.

The snow was good. Very few pebbles, a couple of icy patches, but all in all super for just a couple of feet spread out by the groomers. There were even fresh tracks to be had if you ventured to skier’s right of the Screaming Eagle and were willing to brave some of the tall grass and shrubs still poking through.

My legs held up and I didn’t have to find out how well my new pants would shield me from a roll in the snow. I did, however, determine I need to go buy some new long underwear. I am currently without a decent base layer and it was WAY colder than I’d thought it would be. I picked up some new goggles at Outfitters because I couldn’t find mine and the snow guns were blowing like crazy – in fact, I counted 9 on The Cut and I can’t stand riding without goggles.

On the way back to the Skyride I couldn’t help but pull out the camera to catch a little video of the vibe at the ice skating pond. It was packed and people were having a great time.

[video]

I also just happened to swing by just as Karen Magnussen was starting to give ice skating tips as part of The Peak of Christmas celebrations – notice Santa’s Workshop in the background.

I think I’ll head back up next weekend with mini-man in tow so he can check out Santa and the reindeer… and I’m definitely going to have to work a couple of runs into each work week as a little reminder of how fun my job is.

The Pursuit of Passion: grousepark.com

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grousepark-facebookI’ve been so busy as of late I haven’t had much of a chance to write anything here. One of the most exciting projects I’ve been working on is the new Grouse Park Sessions blog and the search for the next great snow industry bloggers who also happen to ride right here in Vancouver.

Have you ever thought about a future in the Snow Sports industry? Ever wondered what it would be like to work for EXPN, Transworld Snowboarding, Newschoolers, Snowboard Canada or SBC Skier? Do you want to build skills that will help get you on the road to where you want to go?

We’re looking for 5 great park riders – snowboarders or skiers, guys or girls – to hone their skills as Grouse Park Blogospondents and network with the best in the industry. [grousepark.com]

This idea came out of my trip to BlogWorld in Vegas in September. Last year’s Build Your Own Parks opened the door to having those conversations in public and really answering for our choices to a group of very passionate and vocal individuals. This new blog will give local riders an opportunity to voice their opinions in an even more detailed way than through surveys.

But for me this project brings me back around to the post I wrote about young people and their ability to change the world… I recognize that influencing some terrain park features isn’t changing the world, but these young people who ski and ride here have that potential and I like the idea of nurturing it and helping them to find their drive to do something great.

When I was a kid I had no idea what I wanted to do. I always felt like I was sort of average at everything – I wasn’t the best musician, I wasn’t a socialite, I wasn’t a stellar athlete and I wasn’t brilliant… well, except for in physics when I scored 100% on my final exam for advanced physics taught in French, but that was just weird. But I digress. I didn’t excel in acting class or writing; I didn’t like English literature; I barely understood calculus and chemistry was a complete unknown for me.

While I knew all these things I wasn’t good at, I never really figured out what I was good at.

There are great young minds out there who are struggling with those same thoughts… “What do I want to do with my life?”… “What could I do?”… “What are the options?”… “How can I turn something I’m passionate about into a career?”… just like Sean Aiken from One Week Job, and I’m hoping that Grouse Park Sessions will be an avenue for even one of these passionate idividuals to find their outlet and a passageway into the snow sports industry and a career they can embrace and enjoy.

So grousepark.com just went live on Thursday and received over 500 visits within 24 hours. By end of day Friday I’d received the first blogger applications. I find my work so incredibly rewarding in so many ways and this is just another example of why I want to share in the reward and help people find what drives them.

Now if only it would snow.