Sauna house life

ive been in St anton for nearly 2 months now...........

and i love it
living in the wooden shack that we do rocks i mean check out this picture of it!













its a shame about the snow though its a really slow winter weve had maybe 2 or 3 powder days

but weve made the most of them. Even on a transfer day where were not allowed to ride we made a little kicker on the hill down from the sauna house and were hitting it.

I got a sweet picture of old haz ( one of the roomies ) getting a sick nose grab off of it.

 I managed to get out here christmas eve and so had a great christmas day helping out in the 24 man chalet Garry had made a great christmas dinner, including an amazing sausage and herb stuffing that went down a storm and we just beasted out dinner service then headed into town for a few brewskis.


 The big night in St Anton though is new years eve and we hit it hard as we had the next day off.

Its mental with everyone partying in the tiny main street letting off fireworks all around you from the middle of the crowd. We carried the party on back here and poor Kiera passed out pretty early and the first game of rodeo of the year happened.

The picture doesnt do it justice as 5 minutes after this she had ski's snowboards fire extinguishers on her too.

A couple of weeks ago we had a vally rally which basically involves getting dressed up in some fancy dress and then going round the mountain in teams doing challenges and having drinks along the way. As i lacked fancy dress i was handed a fantastic team russia one piece to wear and i wore it with some real style as you can see here.





with the past few powder days we have been hiring the proper avi gear and going hiking and making the most of it. But a day after a huge pow day ange and i had a chilled out ski round just enjoying being on the mountain in the sun


right ive got to go to spar now to go get some minced meat for tonights dinner a tasty lasagne for my american guests. 5 17 year old lads who just want a couple of courses a night of filling tasty food.

U turns or us

Ive had a pretty big u turn since september

I was really not enjoying uni and had no motivation to finish so with the help of the rents i suspended the year ( gives me the option to go back and finish 3rd year in september ) and moved to the alps

I got a job at super short notice as in interview one monday got the job friday and a week later hey your off to france for the winter

it all happened really fast but there i was heading out for training in Val D'Isere and then to work in Tignes as a kitchen / night porter

Val D was a great place to train in and we had a solid couple of nights out as well as a couple of hungover days training. The whole Val D crew were wicked to hang out with unluckily though we didnt have lift passes so couldnt ride. It was like the worlds cruellest strip tease....

And then before you knew it we were heading out to Tignes to move into our ski lodge the lodge was really nice except for the staff accomodation.

It was literally a shoebox with 3 hairy smelly blokes squeezed in. There was no heating ventillation and to get any sun from the 2 tiny windows we were having to go and clear snow it was pretty gross.

Working in the kitchen there when you were on days was a laugh having good banter with the lads and lasses was great and you just got on with it finished rode and worked again.

Nights on the other hand was a wierd experience the only highlights being drunken colleagues climbing in through the kitchen windows to find something to eat.

7 nights on the bounce though really sucked and I wasnt super happy there

luckily Ange's bosses in St Anton needed a chalet host for a 6 person chalet so christmas eve 2013 I finished work and hopped a bus over to Geneva then trains on to St Anton

Ive been here a couple of days now and love it

Only issue is im waiting for a lift pass again bugger

3rd year : life gets serious

Its my 3rd year at uni

How the heck did i end up here? Its only 5 minutes ago i started first year at Plymouth

since my last blog ive been boarding a few times Ive held down a desk job all summer ( ive never felt like someones stolen an entire summer before )
Ive moved into a new place and currently have a Norweigan room mate asleep on my bed.....
How do you get a Norweigan off of a bed

Ive also now got windows 8 and a new laptop wohooo but windows 8 is really confussing me it seems to have a mind of its own ......

I also had a wicked few days in scotland this summer with Inga we partied up at the Braemar Highland games and it was such a good weekend. The weather held for the most part and the colours and sounds of the game were fantastic. The highlight has got to be the mass pipeband , imagine over a 140 men women old and young playing pipes, banging the drums and marching around in all their finest tartan and shining silver wear.

The funniest bit has gotta be this lad in the picture with me.



He had been piping all day and was getting paid to play outside one of the nicest restaurants in town. We were having a bite to eat and a beer in the place opposite when his drunken pipe master starts shouting 'ehhhhhh Jimmmy lad yourr drooonnneeesss shitttt!' so this lad goes about messing with his drones whilst the old pipe master is pissing himself carrying on the abuse.

Then the old guys turns to us and says ' ohh he's a fair wee piper shamee his pipes are foooked '

 so despite having my summer stolen from me I still some real fun. Even wheeling Jonesy through Tesco's after he'd broken his ankle whilst he chatted up every female member of staff.....

Third year started like 3 days ago and since its been hectic with a whole bunch of coursework im working on and a dissertation to write.

Its kinda overwhelming already haha I just wanted another relaxed year throwing mad shapes in the clubs and chilling out with all the peeps.

But no University of Plymouth has other ideas for my spare, or what used to be spare, time so Im off to go research for an essay on '3 clauses you would add in to the New Engineering Contract which also comply with enviromental legislation' fun fun fun

2012 - 2013

wow its been ages since i blogged anything

i guess dani ditz got me back into doing it her page is so sweet

(check it out at likeridingabicycle.com)

so 2012 was a pretty hectic year i turned 22 didnt get any more mature

learned to wake board, fixed stuff in north wales, partied just as hard as before, got some snowboarding in with uni again ! great trip

swam in a lake river sea or just anywhere every week this summer from cornwall to wiltshire to up north just everywhere . was a real good feeling

what else happened
well i got a girl lost a girl then got a new one hahah just how it goes eh

jonesy picked me up a hammock and my god that thing is my saving grace sometimes ; just go and swing in it for a while when things get mental 

 This was from a trip up to scotland for a friends 21st : we took a minibus up with 6 of us and had a mental 3 days up there, id never been before but just loved it. And i even got an invitation back wicked-wackady-sha!

the fiesta died , on route to gramps house with erica in too so after pushing it off a roundabout we ended up getting pocco the polo. Who broke down new years eve on the way to woolacombe ( unimpressed ) managed to fix her though and its been running round since with that cable tie holding the accelerator cable together haha

On the subject of cars i got clipped by a taxi for the first time but it resulted in the 3rd ankle / knee injury ( to the same dang side ) of the year im sure the hospital records thing im a mong hah

 Just chilling with the guys in plym: we headed down the hoe one eve to check out the light and it was fricking grand- i love plymouth ghetto by the sea even though it rains hard as nails most of the year



We had some good family news with lil stan being born but sad news in that great nan died. It was a real nice funeral and ma did the whole family proud with her reading just about nana's values virtues and how she wouldnt want us sad and how even to the last she was an independent woman passing on in her own bed in peace.

North wales river crossing ; what do you think of course i had to do it forwards backwards all ways hahah

Right 2013 is going to be a fun year hopefully gin will be over this summer and for the first time in a while im going to try to earn some yen this summer ( snowboardings a fricking expensive hobby same as wake boarding)

Uni

Its been a while

Im at uni now down in Plymouth and im really enjoying sat in the library right now and can see the sun so im going to go find these books im after and then bussle on out

and last night me and the guys won a hundred quid on the bonus question in a pub quiz

first time ive won something in a pub other than the meat raffle in spooners ( miss that raffle )

the scary thing is im doing alright at this uni lark even helping other people out with work ...

getting good results in maths ( Liz Jones its all for you ) and the other more physics / maths based stuff

my report writing still leaves something to be desired though ....

anywho peace

wagons wagons wagons

To the left members of the big wagon weekend with the Gwr wagon and the Lnwr wagon

wagons wagons wagons

so its the end of the summer
just the last week to go
and we will have got another 7 wagons into back into the train
tomorrow we will get the old lead wagon 256 back on some good wheels
then its just a case of putting the freshly turned wheels that have been welded up by will high and his mate paul
under the other 4 wagons of the these there is a gwr with brake gear attached just a cheeky lil bit to finish on that
we need to bend the brake gear hanger as on one side the brake block doesnt sit fully against the wheel
this one is painted in black with grey uprights and looks very nice
one of the jobs on the welded wheels was to redrill centres in the journal so that the wheels will spin centrally on the wheel lathe this was another of the jobs done over our big wagon weekend over august bank holiday

also done is an lnwr wagon with the sexy brass axle box cover although we are awaiting on a few parts such as brake blocks before we can refit all the brake gear
we are going to let this run untill the next wagon bashing weekend though as it looks fantastic in the black paint with the middle side rail in white

Here is a picture of the lnwr wagon pre white rail with a set of 'ambulance' wheels under it

going through the painting and finishing shop at the moment are another lnwr wagon ( unbraked though ) and an fr wagon shown to the left on the works van

They just came back from shot blasting and they had a basic red oxide primer layer sprayed on on these two we need to paint another coat of black paint on and then change the wheels on the fr one we also need to make a pair of coupling pins for it.
As the old ones were wasted to nothing.

A couple of weekends ago we had a big wagon bashing party with different jobs going on all over the workshops there was wheel welding , hot riveting painting and various finishing jobs


We were riveting in 4 road we had around 50 or 60 rivets to do and we got them all done on the saturday we actually ran out of the rivets we had ordered in specially at the start of the summer. It was hot sweaty loud work but with 4 of us working on it led by Tim Elsby and having the current works apprentices we got into a good rhythm and ended up bashing through the lot quite quickly. We all had our separate jobs with Huw heating up the rivets and carrying them across, Rhys getting a block and bar on the end of the rivet with a head on it to lever it against the air riveter. Tim and myself switching between helping Rhys and doing the riveting over of the heads. We riveted in new corners on 2 different wagons with one wagon needing all four internal corners replaced.
This is a pretty standard repair this summer a new rail spine ( essentially find a knackered piece of rail and cut it to the right length ) with new corner plates to hold the spine in to the left you can see part of the corner piece which we have riveted in.

half century

so this is my 50th blog
seems pretty apt that im back where it started at the world famous festiniog railway

so lets do the apres canada bit quick
got home
2 days later got a job
moved plants , planted plants, watered plants, got a little bit sunburnt for 6 weeks at a local garden centre which was rather good fun
caught up with alll the important people that i hadnt seen in forever
destroyed a certain butler at mah jong

then i jumped in the fiesta and headed on up here
with a couple of brake problems on route

to start with i was just firing a whole bunch as we were short of crews
and i had some great days ( full main valve from ddualt ) and some terrible ( ray ive run out of coal.......... ) in the rain

for the past 5 weeks though ive mainly been fixing the old slate waggons
its a heritage society funded
The first 'fix' we did ( myself and tim ) was to 857 and it needed some spine repairs so we knocked up a couple of fish plates and then had the joy of having to gas axe a hole in the old spine for the new bolts to go in as we lacked a mag drill that fitted in the gap
so a bit of swearing later ( and a bit of die grinding to ummmmm make the holes a little rounder )
we had a nice little fix
although me and a coupling did have a disagreement ( well i just put it on upside down .... doh )

the next day we fixed a couple of faults from the book one of them being some of the brass spacers in one of the couplings on a 3 tonne wagon was absolutely shot to bits luckily tim found a couple of spares in our racking in the hlf shed so after cleaning up the buffer we fitted them and roberts your fathers brother we had got 2 done in a weekend

the next wagon to be fixed was another gwr wagon which needed a similar repair to 857 and me and bruno knocked that one off pretty quickly

the wagon after the gwr one was a lnwr wagon with an interesting lms axle box ( complete with brass cover phhwwwooooarrrhhh ) this one was a little more complex as it needed an entire new spine and frame stretchers
as the original spine was made of rail we decided to make the new one out of rail
so off me and emma went to go steal an old piece of double head rail
it cut in the band saw nice and easy but that was the end of the easy bit
due to the lip which the floor sits on we had to cut a corresponding bit out of the rail and which took a while due to all the rust and just the thickness of the material
then we made new plates to hold the spine in to the old substructure and we had to make new keep plates to go over these
emma was fantastic with her doing all the welding
we had various cleaners / younger volunteers helping us out on these wagons teaching them the first steps needed to keep the fleet running

in this time those last 2 wagons have gone for shot blasting
weve run a gravity train
got nearly 4 more wagons ready for shot blasting but ive got to go as ive got some wagons to fix

im home

so there we have it
im home
that was anti-climatic
I had a fun last few days in vancouver , I hung out with Claire and of course we paddled in the sea
I also spent time with Saskia and went to a frat party which was pretty terrible
then I ended up staying with gin my cuz for my last couple of days and we had a great time we listened to records drank some beers and went and saw the vancouver white caps footie team and it was a great day out

Then came the rubbish stuff flying home
and i had phoned up the company we had booked my flight with to confirm the baggage allowance and i was under the maximum
but they run flights with thomas cook and thomas cook has a different allowance
so i got screwed over got to the airport and the little asian bloke said ' ahhhh mr rumens that will be one hundred fifffffty dolllah' i was like what why?
he explained
oh well ive got 35 bucks in my pocket and i havent had breakfast yet buddy
ohhhhhhhhhhhhh
well ill go repack
so i repacked and was then the proud owner 2 pairs of underwear
i had to leave a load of underwear teeshirts even a 300 dollar pair of snowboard boots as my others fitted better
i was not a happy bunny
and id even shown up 15 minutes before check in even opened soo much for being on time
the irony is i got bumped up to premium class
cheers thomas cook
so i got home
decided i had too much crap in my room and started to get rid of it
so did that all day till pub time then saw the boys
and since then my feet havent really touched the ground
i got home the monday morning
by weds afternoon i already had a job
im working in the local garden centre doing potting of plants moving plants and just general dogs body work but its full time and they pay me each week so im loving it
and since then ive just been seeing people sorting stuff out and yeh getting on with earning money
as im heading to north wales again in 2 weeks time for all summer
so yeh its good times at the moment
oh yeh its okish to be home well its nice to be fed and have my clothes washed so cheers mum and dad

im in van couvvvee tric!

hey guys

greetings from the mainland

its strange to be off the island

ahh well i'll be back on the uk soon enough

so anyway

the victoria saga dun dun duuuuunnn

read the previous post for the prequel

im stood at the door to my old place in vic and i walk in hollaring

hunnnnnny im hommmme

only to find kyler isnt even home yet

but jer was

sooo we had a few beers

then the boys got home accompanied by jesse the white tooth! and Karin

it was really good to be home again and seeing the guys

we just kinda hit the beers hard and then the whiskey as jer's boss had given him a bottle for his birthday

and played a great game called apples to apples

its a game where you get an adjective card

and multiple noun cards

and play the noun that goes with the adjective

ok so that doesnt sound fun but

when you have words like

furious

and the nouns that people play include

giant squid

pirates

tommy lee

etc

it gets pretty fun

so we played this till i dunno was probably around 2 am

then me and jesse slept on my old mattresses in the middle of the floor

so woke up with a rather sore head

and had to mission it all the way to america ( with a stop on route to print off my flight details )

this was going all to plan until the us homeland security guy took a dislike to me

it went along the lines of youve only got 5 mins till the boat leaves

then you stink of booze

your drunk

my reply sorry im late officer i was drunk last night i havent had time to change and what do i need to fill in

oh some forms you wont do them in time

so i filled them out seriously quick then had my prints and photo taken and i ran and got the boat just as it left

beauty

coming back into canada was easy just the printer died so we had to go across to the vehicle check side

where i bump into some lasses who had been riding during the week and recognised me

so with 10 border guards around me we start having a laugh about how id been having to drag them out of the way when they bailed off the green chair

it was obviously a current office joke as everyone was pulling their legs about it

i then went for dinner with dani , our old couch surfer,

and it was awesome we went and got kd and made deluxe kd ( kraft dinner , its mac and cheese in a box ) with onion and real cheese and red pepper and fake chicken ( dani's a veggie )

and it was delicious!

then we sat and drank beers and put the world to rights before i headed off for my next engagement

it was a beer with brit ( a fellow sport checker ) actually she got my old friday and saturday night shifts poor lass

and it was great we bumped into kabuki colin from last summer and chatted to him for an age

then it was time for a beer in swans

and man id forgotten how busy bars in vic get on a friday night ( yeh i had completely forgot it was friday even now im on mountain time so i have no idea what day it is )

i still had my bag with all my crap in

we eventually found a table

and it was great we just chatted away had a couple of beers and it was such a nice evening

then i headed home

well got home at gone midnight

doors locked

no one in

no spare key

bugger

phone was dead so headed to a call box tried calling kyler and ohh it went to his voicemail damn it

so trekked back to dtown vic

grabbed a beer and decided to stay in the hostel for a night

rocked up at like 130 am

was needing to get up at 4 am so was like hey guys can i crash on the couches

no bueno i had to purchase a bed for the evening

so did and then stayed up chatting to the nice german and dutch girls in my room till about 2 30

then got a nice little nap

then up again and off for the bus

yay

so back up the mountain and i had a great days riding

well a morning boarding then an afternoon planking ( skiing )

i rode every lift and ripped it up

plankings easy me and simon found it a little more social able than boarding as we wernt just racing straight down the hill

saturday night had a fannntasstic sleep

it was awesome to be back in my own rock hard bed with no heat in the room :)

sunday woke up to go riding and it wasnt nice out

was even worse up the hill so did a few runs then called her a day

and that was the end of the season 107 days not bad really

when i got home me and tyler just hung out and drank some beers watched some how i met your mother

was good end to a great season

monday i started packing

tuesday

myself si shay;lee vani and edd went to tofino for the day

and it was gorgeous

tofino is a cool little town right on the west coast of the island and its canadas surfing mecca ( yep i know its not what you imagine in canada )

anyway ill finish tofino off soon

its late and im going to sleep on the sofa bed so gotta set it up

night yawwwwlll

i come from a land down under

ok so im sat at home ( courtenay )
im listening to men at work i come from a land down under
where women glow and men plunder .....

ok back on track so the past few weeks have been crazy
since my birthday weve had spring break here which has equalled non stop 6 day weeks and even a 9 day stint
so im glad the season ends tomorrow just so i can get a real rest and a lie in
its still been snowing regularly with a dump predicted this week so the mtn has decided to open next weekend too
but my work permit has run out so i cant work

ok so the real craziness started on the last tuesday of march
vania my adorable Chilean roommate told me that there was one last CASI level 1 snowboard instructor course being run that weekend.
so i talked to tom the lad running the course and hey presto i was on it
it was running friday through sunday
unfortuantly i work friday saturday and sundays.....
so after a frantic searching of someone to swap shifts with johno the other chair boss on the green agreed to trade his weds and thurs for my fri and sat ( thanks johno i owe you big time for that ) so this was my 9 day stint
then i did the 3 day course and i passed
i must of had good karma that day
on day one we worked on our riding skills in the morning
sorting out our balance and stance on the board and then moving upwards
we then worked on our pivot and steering which was getting out weight onto the front foot in the start of the turn and just adjust it back a little
then it was onto edging control which as it sounds was having the board on a edge
then its pressure control which is all about absorbing bumps and changes of terrain
and finally timing and co ordination which basically is putting everything together and just having a good flow and nice symmetrical

this took all morning and the next 2 days for me as my riding style was horrible after 7 years of no lessons and 99 days riding that way this season
i had my weight too far back and i needed to stop breaking at the waist and keep my body more upright and my head up more

then in the afternoon we all rode switch ( so your wrong leg forward ) doing a beginner lesson to remember what it was like
so we went through the basics putting on a board skating around slide slipping etc

by this time all our brains were fried ( there was 7 of us )
out of all of us about 4 of us worked on the hill the other 3 i knew 2 simon and maddie

day 2 started and it was gorgeous outside blue skys and super warm
we finished off the second half of the beginner lesson with learning to turn and linking turns

then it was our turn to teach
si nailed the basics
then elmar rocked the skating part
i had slide slipping
it was going well until tom told the group to just follow the fall line and i hadnt taught them how to control direction yet so i ended up with them all scattered over the bunny hill doh
then we went through the rest of the lesson and ended the day with some blasts down the hawk

day 3
i was completely bricking it as today we were teaching 2 lessons each and riding and being evaluated all day
to start the day we were given a class to teach
for my first one i had a private with a 16 year old lad who wanted to go on to riding park
i had a couple of minor things go wrong but it was a pretty solid lesson

for my second lesson i had the basics for a group of 30 somethings on a stag weekend
and i nailed it
we had a great time as a group the 3 lasses joined in and pretended to be guys and we were all laughing and having a good time

and so i passed despite messing up my last run

anyway i then worked my last 3 days of the season mostly on the green chair with johno and german mel and we had a blast
on my last day mel rocked up with a load of naachos for us all and yeh it was just a super fun time and way to end the season with my buds i worked with for most of it plus any day with johno is always hilarious

so on thursday i headed down to victoria as my work permit ran out
i headed up the mtn and did a couple of runs and was going to get the ski shuttle bus down
but the bus wasnt running on thursday
so at 330 i started hitch hiking
first ride was just down the mountain to the highway and maintenance guy mike gave me a ride down
then i started to walk with the thumb out 10 mins later i got a ride from a guy who had a super sweet dog ( taz ) who was an aussie desert dog and had a light gingery and white coat in splodges
he gave me a ride to cumberland which is only 15 mins down the road but every little helps
my next ride was from one of the liftys em who gave me a ride all the way to qualicum beach
so this put me about 12 k's from parksville
i walked about 3 k and then got picked up again by a nice teacher who drove me all the way to the northen side of nanaimo
i then got another ride through nanaimo
and had to start trekking again
15 mins later a nice old bloke in a pick up picked me up and we drove all the way to duncan
this is when i hit trouble
it was getting dark and it was about 830 or 9 so my hopes of getting a ride wernt too high so i started trekking again
and probably got 5 ks before i got a ride
just before i got the ride i was at the point of just jumping the side barrier and going to sleep as i was hella tired and thaught i would have better luck in the morning
luckily a stella lass picked me up because her brother was hitch hiking in the other direction and she thaught it would give him some good karma also she said i was damn hard to see in the dark and she didnt want to be killing anyone tonight
we had a great time just chatting the entire way to victoria she was studying opera at uni
she was nice enough to drop me right to the door at my old place

right thats half the story more to come tomorrow

the thursday after

so the thursday after wednesday night fiasco
we had an amazing powder day
it was truely mindblowingly incredible
fresh snow
blue skys
my best bud
oh yeh i had to get my ski pass un 'red flagged' i had forgotten to take some rental gear back oops silly me
but after it was alll hunky dorey
and yeh me and dear mr butler shredded all morning
and fair play to the boy he rode the back side of the boomerang on snow blades
yep double black diamond powder days
on snow blades
we needed to stop at about 11.30 for a little break as both of our legs were burning and we both enjoyed a well earned ham sandwhich which i must say was rather tasty so big thanks to young mr b for providing the catering expertise
we did laps with various people and i think i did some of the best riding ive ever done.
i hit this sweet turn just it was right underneath the lift line
and due to the amount of snow weve had it has a section above my line roped off
this is there to stop people getting nailed in the head by others riding the lift up
and guess what
a skiier nearly took my head off
but it was ok i shouted sorry man and he was all dont worry buddy yeeooooooowww nice line
i got all excited then
and made mr b take a pic but as he has forgotten his cable for his phone we cannot let the public see yet
so the pic will be in a post to follow
by mid afternoon the weather had turned a bit and wasnt so nice so we finished around 3 ish and went and had a coffee in the cafe
it was nice various people came and went
although chelsea was there all the time as she had buggered her knee up again ( the poor lass literally hurts herself every other day on the hill )
but we spent the day exploring the glades and getting stuck
i really am getting more and more like me father
it'll be ok we'll go this way
oh bugger thats a bit tricky ahh well ill bash on through next thing i know that little drop is a drop into a tree well with a big ol wind lip out of it and i get half way up and bugger im stuck
oi buts dont follow me down here
he just stops in time
that happened quite a few times
the backside of the boom was going off again but i found some trees tighter than expected so it was a case of turn into one which smacked my front edge
this kind of pushed me backwards
smash
that was the back edge of the board into a tree
im glad i wear my helmet as those tree branches have been getting mighty close
it now has a plaster on it mr bump stylee.
Friday i had to work
luckily i had been over looked on the schedule so ended up at the boomerang
me and fabian the crazy french man ( he is a fantastic skier and a helicopter pilot ) went to the lift first thing and did set up
we were sceptical about opening as the winds were gusting around 50 mph at the top and it was snowing rather hard
we did our setup and just waited for a descision about 3 hours later the word came through we wernt opening. we had to tell around 20 or so members of the public with probably 5 being iriate and f'ing and blinding at us
we just calmly explained that we were sorry its the mountains choice not ours and it didnt matter that youve been on more rickety lifts in worse winds and snow but this is mount washington and this is what we do in the conditions . ( one guy was so iriate that when we bumped into him later he continued to rant at us , not cool )
we were instructed to head back to the lift hut so we did
just in a more round about way
seeing as the 8 lifties that were working that day just happened to all take the same route back and the route included 8 black clad boarders ( oh well 7 and a skiier ) ripping repeatedly through the glades all weaving in and out of each other in fresh sweet fast champagne powder.
so after the first run we ditched our bags on the hawk and procceeded to whoop and yeoooow our way through the glades again ( repeat this 5 times or so ) and youve got us all bursting out

( well minus caitlin and ed seeing as caitlin had followed a line with 3 rollers on it and she jumped big on the first, on the second things were starting to get loose, then the third just threw her as she pretty much landed from the second one onto the top of the third , this was truely hilarious for the rest of us , ed had ended up in a similar situation)

onto sunset with a snowschool instructor there and me and al being all thats how liftys rolllll
then we ripped down for another ride

the general idea was that we would all ( al myself fab caitlin ed connie shauna and aussie ) head to aussies for pre beer pong tournement beer pong , you know to get our eye in ,
so we jumped on the 1 15 bus down and thank god we did as after we got down they closed the road up the mountain as it was snowing so hard
so all the other busses were delayed till about 9 o clock

so this runied our plan so myself and butler chilled at home having a few beers with tyler and then the girls came home and we had a couple more and put on the new jackass 3d movie and pretty much chilled all evening watching it and drinking more beers
was such a nice evening
house full of laughter

saturday was the afterdark invitational big air comp
and it was amazing
snowing and the riders were going huge
one of the new lifties timmy was part of it and he pulled a 1080 back flip off thisss hugggggeee jump
we went pretty wild
the night ended up with butler and cheeko (who has somehow become our 3rd amigo ) tackling me into a tree well and us wrestling in there till i ended up using the 2 of them to push myself up and out of it ( to avoid snowy hands )
then sunday was my birthday so thankyou for all the cards and greetings
i had a good day at work a couple of complaints about the new guys but i talked to them and they understand what they had done wrong so hopefully we should all be hunky dorey now
and i had a really good ride with butler
we only had time for one run but it was so nice and cruisey
we hit some trees
some powder a groomed run and yeh was nice
i was doing little 180s off the sides and stuff and laughing lots and lots with the boy
then in the evening we just went a had a few beers at avolanche with team france a few lifties and it was nice and relaxed evening kinda perfect
so im sat here on monday morning
skyping a couple of people
so chow
x

snowballll

snowball
snowball snowball snowball
thats pretty much been cheeko butler and myselfs past hour
weve just had an epic 7 block snowball fight
including a mini mission into a hostel where we may or may not have attacked certain amigos of ours with certain snowballs
the fact that this was cheekos hostel was beside the point he still wanted to mission it home
this included mutliple skirmishes against each other
at one point we called a truce
that cheeko decided to break with a shot at butler
i think the best moment was i was being chased by the two of them and then i skirted round a building ( avoiding the fresh snow ) and snuck up on them
well i thaught i had then a certain hobbit cheeko then snuck up on me being sneeky and pounded me while i attempted to nail buts in the face
my best shot must have been when i absolutely nailed cheeko in the face from about 30 metres back
also this was over into a parking lot while i was on the street so an added point for difficulty haha
so to cheekos reading this over my shoulder and agrees whole heartedly while eating my cookies and drinking my vodka
but its ok as its dan's sprite as a mixer
and in his defence we did consume his rum and coke while him and myself reigned supreme at table football at the cona
we beat team butler and flaveian ( one of the new french lifties ) last night 2 games to 1 with the final game being an epic comeback from 7-3 down to a mighty 10-7 win
and again tonight we destroyed them
butler isnt particularly happy as he's pretty competitive and he has been comprehensively beat in the past 2 one on one games
anywho
were off to watch the end of bill and teds bogus adventures
we're wild stallions !

fluid??

so that is the question do we go to fluid tonight or not
it is margaritta night as vania quite happily pointed out
now i have one Daniel Charles Butler with me
and its awesome
first time weve hung out just me and him since ummmm last february and that ummmm adventurous trip to plymouth
so he arrived in country on the 22nd
and dearest chelsea kinda forgot we were going to drive to nanamio ( where you get the ferry to vancouver from ) together and so i had to take the public transit and impliment plan B
so it started with a 30 minute trek
then a 2 hour greyhound ride in gorgeous sunshine
then another 30 minute trek
then a ferry ride to horseshoe bay
and we were late so i missed my bus so i implimented plan B version 2.0
so had to get the next one
which was absolutely packed no one else could fit in ( this was due to it being a vancouver vs montreal hockey game that night which the habs won the sods )
we then proceeded to travel from west van to downtown
hitting a car on route so everyone fell over in the bus
yep then into the middle of vancouver to take the sky train ( like a tube ) to vancouver airport
at this stage i was 40 minutes late and ready for butler to rip on me for always being late
and low and behold the little sod wasnt even there ( haha i win )
so we end up staying at my cousin gins for the night on tuesday. we also hung out with my buddy saskia and had beers and nachos while watching the game
then on weds we did the opposite trip
but the road from parksville to qualicum beach was supppper snowy and took like twice as long so we didnt arrive back till later than planned
we just crashed weds night
then thursday i had an epic day working at the boomerang then back to home to grab a butler then head out to troys birthday shindig
this included a 30 minute freezing walk while consuming a few bevvies
it was good fun we all had a few jars butler met the gang and then we missioned home as i had work the next day and dan wanted to go ride
so d b had a great day riding as it was blue skys and i had a hangover
and a hella busy green chair but i worked with cheeko and maxime ( 1 3rd of the french invasion ) and cheeko was his normal bubbly self we were sword fighting ( with ski poles ) and then a guy had a tiger hat on and i had to come out with a classic monty python quote
( from the meaning of life )
a tiger in canada
and then cheeko proceeded to shout get back get back while jabbing his ski pole at him the guy just laughed
anywhos we are going to the bar
so peace

damn Cheeko

so as the title says

damn Cheeko

him and myself decided on the bus ride home today ( i must mention after a couple of beers ) that it would be a good idea to hit up the local all you can eat fish and chips place tonight

seeing as it was only 10 dollars each

so we did and between us demolished 14 pieces of fish ( ive got to say im a little disgusted by the amount we ate ) and chips

and now im definatly in a food coma

i feel super sluggish and sleepy

darn boy

so its been a while and weve had epic powder now

yay

last weekend so the weekend of the 11th 12th ish of feb it just started bucketing snow ( courtesy of El Nina ) and it didnt stop for pretty much a week so weve had all the powder hounds out here every day

I got super lucky with my days off and scored tuesday, which just happened to be the day the boomerang finally was open ( the black double diamond runs ) , and even more luckily i was out riding with benny, chelsea, sam , em and maria just as the boom opened so we were in the first probably 20 people to get back there, it being benny and mine's first taste of the back side of the boom on 3 days worth of untouched powder

and it was incredible probably the best snowboarding ive ever had

riding in a crew with everyone getting fresh tracks and just exploring while ripping down super fast ahhh it was soo good

i only did a few runs then headed over to the front side as every man and his dog headed onto the back side and the front side was nearly as epic the glades arent as tight as on the backside so its a bit easier and it was just super fun , quick rides down and then a short 3 minute ride back up.

The next day i was working the boom with em who challenged me to a table football rematch ( at the meet and great i kind of completely destroyed her at least 5 times )

so after another great day where i got fresh tracks again ( it was equally as good as the frontside the day before ) we had a solid hour of playing hacky sack after me and big steve finished our beers ( we had decided to climb onto the lift hut for a better view and we found one so we sat up there ) see picture , shauna joined in as did grady and a couple of others after this picture was taken

so me and em went to the cona and played it was super fun then we remembered she had her hola hoops in her car so she decided to teach me how to

i kind of got it...

but im still pretty bad

i then worked thursday through sunday on the green chair and it was probably the busiest ive ever seen it

even busier than christmas week

but i managed to keep calm and not kill anyone

i even enjoyed it most of the time

except for the instance when i had to grab a young lady from falling out of the chair and shove her back in ( at head height ) and while doing this her board swung round in a perfect arc and cracked right into my ribs

i went down pretty much like a sack o spuds

not so fun

but today was on the boom and had a real good time i was working with one of the new french lads so was trying to speak some french and darn im rusty im going to make a good effort to speak some french each day to polish off the old grey matter

and then again after work someone busted out the hacky sack

and streuth me and grady were on it as was man tracker

was some freaky zone we were in when man tracker flicked it up to me and it went over my head so i turned and bicycled kicked it and grady some how managed to keep it in play for us to go around the world again

man tracker managed the same move later on

but the amazing one was cheeko

who joined in on his crutches .... ( he fractured his ankle hitting a tree stump )

and managed to kick it with his good foot, while his crutch dug in spinning him off balance, kind of fell and then managed to kick it with his bad foot for man tracker to keep the sack up

was incredible

and on the subject of injuries

ive managed to stay pretty free ( touch wood ) but a few of the boys have gone down hard this past week cheeko with his ankle rutter did his knee cap ( surgery jobby as the cap moved but the leg didnt ) and flo who has broken his humerous cleany

ive just tweaked my knee so im back to wearing the brace

anyway

peace

hallo

righto

im sat in the kitchen of my new place

well room in a new place

its a nice little place ( emphasis on little)

im sat drinking a lemsip with honey and a little fireball ( local whiskey )

as im still trying to shake this cold which has been festering since pretty much christmas

but luckily i have the next couple of days off so i can look after myself a little

so last time i was in victoria

im back in courtenay now

on the corner of 11th and fitzgerald

its good to be out of the hostel its my first night in the new house and im enjoying the just quiet

also im looking forward to a good kip with no peruvians snoring or drunken aussies stumbling through the dorm with their ipods blaring

im still really enjoying my time here snowboarding most days

got my knee crocked again yesterday just as i was getting it back to where it was before it got crocked first time round

this time i was helping up a youngster and said youngster flailed around with their snowboard on getting what i must admit was a fantastic arc on it straight into my knee

oh ho hum was the exact phrase used

so staying off it will help

the snow here is pretty icey at the moment

we had 5 cms a couple of nights ago but we could really use a good dump

im getting rather excited as a certain mr butler junior is coming out in a few weeks to help celebrate my 21st

dad always told me i would be lucky to survive till 16 so 21 really is a milestone for myself

its been pretty much all work for the past couple of weeks other than the few days off when ive just snowboarded really

i find that if i spend a day where i dont up to the mountain i get fidgity and wonder what the snow is like and how the visability is

i think im turning into what is known as a powder fiend

all the liftys seem to be a little down due to the lack of powder at the moment

same syndrome as surfers when the seas flat

weve had a good couple of nights out as a group

one for doms 19th (legal drinking age here)

and another was a nice little shindig at faffo's to celebrate getting paid so we had a few drinks at her place even the bosses showed up it was a nice chilled evening

we had a mount washingtons got talent event the other night

where the liftys very own mr p rudder came a creditable second before getting kicked out of the bar for ummmm de robing

truely hilarious

ive started hitting the features in the snowpark

one of the english instructors , jay, is also a park instructor so he took me and a couple of others through the park to just show us the basics

so we hit the medium stuff straight off

and now im trying the small stuff and cant seem to do it

just over jump it or in the case of the box it just kicks my arse everytime

im super glad im wearing my helmet its saved me a few times now definatly my most sensible purchase in 2010

weve endured temps as low as minus 15 in the past couple of weeks its been freezing luckily my new favourite hoodie is quilted so it keeps me resonably warm

anyway time for bed

cheerio chaps

oh this is a picture of my christmas eve 2010

before i lost not my camera

but somehow just the battery

blaah

happy new year

happy new year guys
so its 9 am im sat in vic drinking a cuppa at my old place
i got here 12 hours ago as both my knees are a little knackered at the moment so coming down here for a couple of days will stop me riding and give them some down time
also my good friend em is heading back to aus on the 20th and i wouldnt be able to get down here between now and then to say ta rah
i had a strange christmas and new year
it was the first one away from home and as all the guys were working all the time ( its the busiest time of year for the mountain ) it didnt really feel like christmas
me and the guys partied most of the time to make up for this so a few hungover days at work lead me to taking a couple of weeks off of the partying
give the organs a little time to relax

so we had that fantastic snow all the way up till the holiday break and then suddenly it was bright sunshine for literally the entire christmas and new year period perfect conditions
all the groomed runs were super fast and i was so glad that ive taken to wearing a helmet after a few ass over tit bails
one of them was literally 3 full rotations
the neck did feel a little compressed after that but after a good nights sleep it was fine
at the time i did think that man if i was a gymnast that would have been a perfect ten score

so i ended up working about 12 or 13 out of 14 days which just left me dead but it was all good fun as everyone was as busy so we just got on with it
although as i got the green chair boss position ive spent most of my time either picking kids up at one end or throwing them on the chair at the other
needs a lot of patience and im learning to just roll with it

i did get angry at one pair though
but after i had vented everything else was finne
although the buzzer in the top lift hut is right at ear level and on new years day the buzzer was soo piercing and i did wince every time it went off
said buzzer has now been covered with a sock just to take the edge off

some of the sunrises and sunsets ive seen from the top of lifts have just been beautiful views of the mountains and sea with scenery that looks like someones photo shopped it
the best is the backside of the boomerang
a lift that goes up and over a peak
you can see all the way across to mainland bc
and the rockies
and just breath taking

i officially love tree runs now
having spent the past couple of weeks on groomed runs as soon as we got some fresh snow just 25 cm or so it was straight into the gladed areas
i had the day off along with cody and english edd
so we went
shralpin ( riding )
we started off trying out the frontside of the boomerang ( the double black diamond only lift ) and the glades there still needed more snow so we went lower to the riptide glades ( single black diamond ) and just awesome boarding in there
we were playing follow my line
everyone trying to take an even more squirrelly line each run
as well we were playing lets see how fast we can do this
so a hella lot of fun was had
my favourite line was probably the one were we dropped down the steepest part of the glades through the tightest trees ( generally about 2ft gaps if not less ) and then out of nowhere there was a good 5 to 6 ft drop
didnt realise
hit it fast got some air and managed to keep it was awesome feeling
anyway
peace guys
happy new year

powder powder and ohhh umm more powder

first things first
ryan kessler just scored an awesome single handed goal to put the canucks up 2 1 against columbus
woooo
so myself disco and sammy are sat watching the hockey
its pretty much the standard evening 3 times a week a couple of beers while watching the games
love it !
secondly
im acheing all over
2 huge party nights the rookie party ( messy night white tee shirts and permanant markers were the name of the game ) and the meet and greet ( where the table football machine got dominated my time in sixth form obviously wasnt wasted ) as well as 2 days of solid powder greatness
so yeh not a lot of sleep with 6 hours of snowboarding a day in deep fresh crisp gorgeous powder and im pretty much dead
but ive got a 6 day on the bounce stint on the lifts
im really excited for my ride breaks tomorrow as when i left the hill it had been snowing for a good hour and was coming down hard so more fresh powder will rock tomorrow
im working the sunrise lift which so far is my favourite (despite it taking 2 good shots at me and it knocking me head over tit and the resulting shoulder hurting like a bugger )
its got some of the most full on fun runs on the mountain
i think im going to session my fave little loop of lintons into the cat track ( a thinish winding track through the trees, which is primarilly a snowmobile route ) and then onto invitation which is a steep wide blast straight down with a few big old rollers to get your air on
i could sesh that all day
haha so i had a great day today
i spent pretty much all day riding with little jorden
shes a super sick chick she race's moto x and is just always happy and positive its infectious
But before i went riding with her me and little cody had a couple of runs through the glades
was fun but we got super stuck at one point on a little roll into an uphill bit and darn it was hardwork

so yeh riding with jorden was awesome she was just like lets go here i think i rode here before
and that was the start of our powder adventure
through the trees just bombing it off little jumps and stuff sooo much fun
all though we got lost a few times it rocked

then we bumped into english edd and his mate tom so we rode with them off of the hawk lift just bombing the runs sometimes through the trees sometimes on the groomers but hell it was fun

one time off the top of the lift i bumped into rudder troy and nic so we went and had a fun little sesh just looning around getting the surf style going

we were just loving hitting big back side turns and sort of bashing lips just spraying everything everywhere
i wish we had got some pics of that

then the day was over so we dropped off our gear and headed to fat teddys for a well earned beer

awesome day
awesome snow
awesome company
just awesome

tj

the aussie invasion

hey guys
so its about the 8 of december
have been in the courtenay area since the 22nd dont quote me on that though.
My conclusion is i love it up here
got a great crew of lads and lasses most of them seem to be those aussies though
so ive learned how to say i am from australia from cam
it goes something like this
im frommmm 'stralllliiiaaaa
he's one of the cona lads
The cona lads being Cam aka disco Austin aka snowflake ed aka ed... (hasnt done anything stupid enough to get a nickname) sam (the one local guy in the entire hostel) and myself aka weasley (we could all see that one coming)
The crew has changed a little from the start we lost dando, flo, zac and will various houses around town but they still pop in for a little table football session or if theres something going on in an evening this seems to be the converging place.
so to work
we've opened
did that last friday (the 3rd)
luckily i had the day off so with austin and johno ( my future roomie up on the mountain ) we spent the day boarding and we had blue sky weather
it was fantastic
hit up the powder for the first time ever in my life and darn its fun just hearing that crumple crumple under your feet
takes a bit of getting used to but im starting to get it
friday night was chilled as we had been on the beers on thursday as we had the day off on friday
then saturday had my first real day of work
i was on the hawk lift ( its a high speed 6 pack lift ) its possibly the busiest lift on the mountain as it gives access to the boomer lift (this is the lift to the back side of the mountain which is full on double black runs ) but also has a couple of super easy green runs and a few fun blue runs so every man and his dog and his kid come through this lift as it has the most varied terrain.
and it was awesome
another blue sky day
there was 6 of us working it instead of the usual 4 just because it was opening weekend so we paired up into 3 teams
me and dezy
austin and the south african girl
then the 2 aussie lasses faf and caris
so that made 1 brit 1 south african and 4 aussies a nice commenwealth team
we did all the set up put the gates out sorted the ramp out stuck up the signs tested the instrument panels worked and they we fired her up
me and desy took first shift at the bottom with faf and caris up the top
austin and his partner went for a ride break
then we rotated so me and desy were up the top with faf and caris riding
we kept rotating throughout the day
it worked a treat
so got in a good hour and a half of riding in total
was stokkkeeed
sunday i was on the whiskey jack with dave'o mattie and ed
sunday couldnt have been any different to saturday
cold winds fog and snow
the best place to be was at the top of the lift in the drive station hut
it was soooo warm
due to the weather and the lack of people coming on the lift we just had a half day so we were all done by midday so riding was the name of the game
sunday night we ended up at faf's place and we had a little gathering
monday was a day off so rode all day
monday night was karioke in the avalanche
it resulted in someone deciding that we (as a group of lifties ) should sing bohemian rhapsody
only problem was when it was time only me and alex went up with the rest of them either being wusses or out having a fag
so we were left up there to die untill suddenly the other 8 of us ran up jumped onto the stage and we rocked it out haha
tuesday was more riding but we had this horrible super wet powder that just stuck so you couldnt get anywhere fast and as it was snow/raining you got super soaked after a few mins so after 4 or 5 runs me and ben (aussie ben) decided to go sit and drink coffee / hot chocolate in the lodge
it was a great idea got warm drank free hot chocolate
and i even bumped into mike the mechanic from kabuki
was good to catch up
and thats that
love
x

weekend off

hey guys
so this is the first post of the Mt Washington BC era
im still in the cona
and will be for a month which im excited about as we have a great crew of guys here some Aussies a couple of Brits a German or 2 and the token Canadian.
We've done our lifty training which included char lift evacuations which basically meant half the group sat up on the lifts for 45 mins to an hour (we of course were second to last so it was an hour) in a blizzard.
I was on a chair with Austin and Ed and unfortunatly our chair was missing the safety bar and as te chair stopped austin looked down and mentioned that heights wernt really his thing.
a load of waiting around later heckling the people saving us we were rescued
this involved throwing up a rope to the haul rope ( the heavy cable the chairs are attached to) and then a kind of wooden chair gets tied to the rope
then you get on the rope and are belayed down to safety
well thats the plan but our guys struggled a little the fact that the girl who was belaying us deffo didnt weigh as much as us resulted in someone having to put weight on her.
All down safe then we swapped round
A bunch of us have got nick names already and then range from the obvious oi weasley ( or weasel ) to me to disco for cam ( a result of him crip walking through every dance floor he sees) lens cap for conrad the big ol kiwi who took 150 pics on friday night with the lens cap on. Then theres ryan who looks scarily like mc lovin so that was a given
you guys get the idea
As we've had early starts in a evening its been pretty much grab a beer and watch the hockey or play some table football (im the cona's undisputed champ atm )
but we've been told that the starts get even earlier
as the bus that runs to the mountain leaves at 630 am
ahh well just means late nights are off the cards a lil more
the liftys have got the party rep already after friday and saturday with other departments trying to organise stuff also but they dont seem to be able to
50 lifties hitting courtenay on friday was a sight to be seen

anyway i think thats about that

oh yeh 42 cm of snow on thursday and another 30 cm on friday morning
and another 20 cm last night

so we are opening on the 3rd :) woop

peace

snow snow snow

so so so
i am currently in the cona hostel
in courtenay
and i start my job tomorrow at the ski hill
i got here eventually
so got the greyhound
it has snowed so much in vic that we took like 3 hours to get out
so we were told no more buses north of nanimo today
so was already to get a hotel
then a nice guy called dan was getting a ride from his bro so me and my new german friend lisa were going to get a ride with him
by this time we had bombed it to nanimo
and when there we were told one more bus would run to courtenay
so jumped on this
but by this point i had lost my ticket
so bought a new one
so half way to courtenay and the roads are super icy wer going super slow
and guess what
i find the bloody thing
so thats another 25 bucks wasted
but im gunna go to the depot tomorrow and try to get a refund
so yeh im officially not living at 811 any more which im choked about as had a great 5 months living there
anywho night chaps