We finally got to Fernie and checked into our hotel, the Wolf’s Den. I know it was early season (before Christmas) but there was just about nobody there! I can’t recall seeing anyone else in the hotel besides the front desk lady actually. Up early the next morning and out to the hill for two days of skiing (and snowboarding for Steve and Molly). There wasn’t a ton of snow, but looking around on the mountain revealed all kinds of exciting stuff if with some more snow. Nate and I sidestepped/straightlined down a rocky chute that would have been way easier given another foot of white stuff. As it was I was happy to not eat it in the bowl below trying to slow down. We did manage to find lots of gullies and glades to play in, and I can’t remember hitting anything solid (which doesn’t necessarily mean I didn’t, just that I can’t remember ever doing so). The on-slope fun didn’t end there, though. One of the nights, after our fair share of Kokanee (the Canadian Coors Light), we all thought it would be great to put our ski clothes back on and hike up the slope with snowboards in tow. Only these snowboards were not for snowboarding, but sledding. Steve had one monster snowboard that two of us fit on. The thing was almost as long as my skis, and I still don’t understand how he can turn it, but he assures me it rips in powder. His other snowboard didn’t have bindings on it (due to a K2 warranty issue), which left nothing to hold on to if you crashed. I managed to crash on it, and only saved the board from careening into the trees with a full on Pete Rose head first dive, catching it with the very end of my fingers. Everyone ended up covered in snow, and Kona ran up and down the hill all night. She had the wonderful trait of swerving back and forth in front of us out-of-control sledders, but never got hit.
On the third day, with no set plans, we packed up and headed on over to Nelson to look for some better snow. The journey involved a (very chilly) ferry ride and took us past Ainsworth hotsprings. Though fully developed, with an associated hotel and restaurant, the hotsprings were a lot of fun. The had a plunge pool (45 degrees) right next to the hot pool (108 degrees). The guys, of course, partook and the girls intelligently declined. Steve, who is from Minnesota, dealt with the cold much better than my wimpy California-bred fortitude.
The next morning I had a flight back to Palo Alto to spend Christmas with Ritu and her family. The only bad part was that the flight was at 6:30 am. And it was about two hours from Nelson to the Spokane airport. Ouch. Nate and Jennifer were nice enough (or nuts enough) to get up at 2:45 am to drive me down. I don’t know about you, but getting up at a that time is just wrong. And to make it worse, the border crossing we planned to use was closed. “I’m sorry, the United States is only open for business between 8 am and 5 pm. Please try back later and someone will let you in.” What?! So we detoured to a different crossing which added an hour and a half to the drive, and I totally missed my flight. I got standby on the next one though, and it was off for Christmas break.