Gee, It's Grouse On Mt Grouse

21 February - Did I say Cypress Hill, I meant to say Cypress Mountain. A less than informative person on the helpline from Cypress neglected to tell me that the last morning shuttle to the mountain left at half ten and we arrived at Lonsdale Quay at 11 which meant that we weren't going to be getting to that mountain until late afternoon. Still, there was a bus to Grouse Mountain leaving in the next 15m so we took that option instead. The transportation to the mountain is brilliant. We got the Skytrain from Broadway to the Waterfront, the Seabus to Lonsdale Quay and then the bus to the bottom of the mountain. It all took a little over an hour including waiting time and we were enclosed the entire time. The conditions were not great - there was a thick fog and visibility was rarely more than about 10m and the snow was like rock. As soon as I got there I hired a pretty crappy snowboard with impossible to negotiate bindings - I gave it about half an hour on the ropetow near the chalet but after almost snapping my leg when I got dumped at the top and not being able to stand up for more than a few metres before wiping out and then having to flip myself onto my stomach and heaving myself up on my aching right wrist and very sore left knuckle I decided that snowboarding was for the birds. Mark was pretty patient and gave me a few tips but it was just too much trouble and I didn't want to spend the entire day falling over so I swapped the snowboard over for a pair of skis. It took me about five minutes before I got the hang of skiing again and then I was off like the proverbial frog in a sock. There were some pretty good runs and I got some excellent speed despite of or perhaps because of the poor visibility and the ice - it wasn't long before I was outpacing Mark every time. He had a few bad falls in the early evening but we still stayed until well after dark and the fog lifted a little bit so we did some excellent night skiing as well. Alittle disappointed in myself for not sticking with the snowboarding but I have no board sport history and i'm a fairly decent skiier - I'm going to have a lot more fun on the skis than i'm ever going to have on a snowboard (also, according to one of my co-workers all the kids are flooding back to skiing after the mass exodus to snowboards throughout the 90s). Interesting to see that a lot of people were wearing helmets - all the kids and a fair chunk of the adults as well - the last time I skiied in NZ I did have a fairly bad fall where I hit my head on the ground after my legs came out from under me and I saw a flash of light (which you sometimes get from a sharp blow the head). However, aafter I saw the flash of light and my eyes adjusted it was still really really bright and it was a few minutes before my muddled brain realised that it was because the blow had shattered my goggles. No hits to the head this time but I suppose it's probably a good idea (i wear one religiously when I ride a bike and a wipeout on skies just as likely to shake the brain as one is one from a bike). The lowpoint of the day was the worst asian (not even inspired but more suggested by asian cuisine) meal i've ever eaten - I remember Thredbo food as beingoverpriced and awful but this was beyond anything i've experienced. The various parts were probably cooked days ago and they were assembled by a spotty worker wearing a paper chefs hat (an insult to all that the the puffy hat stands for). With the cost of the life ticket and the rentals it was a pretty expensive day but its so easy to get out there that i'll definitely be doing it again very soon. It will definitely be worth checking out the cost of second hand skis as well.