I'm Getting Too Old For This Sh*t

Great line, great movie...

I used to be able to indulge in more than a few drinks, stay up all night, get up early, snowboard all day, then do it all over again. Ah, to be young and stupid. Well, in some ways I suppose I still am...

This weekend, we went out to our place in Fernie, BC for the annual weekend with our friends. It's a great little spot that we're very, very lucky to have, and we're even more lucky to have great friends to come with us! This is the fifth year we've gone with more or less the same crowd-- sometimes we ski/ride, sometimes we do more socializing than snowsports.

Since we would miss our 20km LSD training run, I had every intention of going out on my cross-country skis for a workout. But Saturday looked far too wet from inside the condo. So we watched movies, played cards, caught up, compared iPhone apps, talked about triathlons and how crazy we are for doing them... and drank. The road into town was closed for part of the day, so we didn't even visit the brewery or the waterslides, but we still had a blast. After a great meal, we hit the hot tub, sang some songs, and played Cranium. I was a wreck!

...but based on how much snow was falling all day, I knew Sunday would be epic. Usually the plan is to leave at a reasonable time on Sunday, but I was determined to break out my board first thing. So of course, I had to wax it. At midnight. After *ahem* a few drinks. I was very impressed with myself-- I didn't cut myself as I sharpened the edges, and I didn't burn myself or the board with the iron!

I've never had (and I'm sure I WILL never have) any problems getting up for powder. Because I know that if I just get out there, all the aches, pains, and hangovers will just vanish. Sure enough, this is what I was rewarded with:

Blue skies and powder!!

 I was too worried about dropping my iPhone and never finding it again to take many photos, but trust me, the powder was fantastic. There were a few runs where every other turn was a faceshot (ie the turn kicks up a big cloud of snow that smacks you in the face as you ride through it!)

These were on my favorite run (shh, it's a secret!), on the last run of the day at 1:00. We had to get home, and I was feeling so good at this point, that I thought I'd set up the spin trainer, ride for an hour, then dreadmill for an hour. Well. By the time I got back to the condo to Nicole, packed, and drove for thirty minutes (of a three and a half hour drive), I remembered that I was really hungover, and really tired! Thus the title of this blog.

So I missed the 20k run. And I was really looking forward to it!

Snowboarding in Fernie - Part 1

I don't know what it is with me and "multipart" posts lately...



Just got back from a weekend in Fernie. No real fresh snow, but the weather was warmer than it has been, and the snow was pretty good. On Saturday, it was pretty windy, which was not so great on the chair or out in the open, but was awesome in the trees, where the snow would sift and settle into the tracks and dips. The morning was especially great, riding with my brother and his friends-- great, but exhausting. Little bro really knows the hill, and the places where the snow is good, and I almost had a tough time keeping up! The afternoon, I found an excuse to go from black and double-blacks to ride more of the open spaces, and the wind was vicious, stinging, and made it really hard to see where you were going, because there was a thin, mist-like layer of snow blowing across the ground, plus the light was flat.


Sunday was even warmer (hovering around 0 celsius), which was nice, but the light was for the most part still pretty flat, and the snow was much heavier, though not quite slushy. In the afternoon, the clouds really moved in up top, and it was like being in a big fog bank-- actually, the clouds were just so low! Once again, the best riding was in the trees.

Looking forward to going back in two weeks!




Photos are: brother and friend at the base on Sunday morning (top), most of the crew, somewhere under the Bear chair, lower Arrow maybe? (middle) and me at the top of Timber chair, next to the Lost Boys Cafe on Sunday afternoon.