Whistler

4 March - My deal with Shadow had been that he would sort out a daypass for me if I paid for his bus ticket and he came up with the goods in the morning (i was starting to suspect that it was a deal that was going to fall through but I was very pleased to be proved wrong). A friend of his, Carter, a rather mysterious and kind of upleasant snowboard instructor from the village provided me with the ticket as well as getting me some discounts on a few essetnials I needed to get to complete my skiing inventory. One of the nice girls at the rental place also remounted my boots to my skis for free, which was about the only free thing that you can get at Whistler (well, beside a free lift pass i uess). One thing I can say about Whistler is that the mountain is BIG. I've been to a few ski resorts in the world and I had fun at all of them but the slopes on Whistler are just gigantic. Shadow, who I may have neglected to mention is absolutely fanatical about BMX bikes (he'd forced me to watch a BMX video the night before which was admittedly incredibly impressive, the extreme athletes of today are coming closer and closer to the prowess of their video game counterparts) was determined to rent a snowbike and after much wailing and nashing of teeth he managed to rent a bike and sort out an instructor at the last minute (normally, it needs to be oranised a day or two in advance). I had some great skiing despite my skis being a little longer than i'm used to (found myself crossing them accidentally and having to really dig my heels in to uncross them - a bit difficult when you're hurtling down a mountain at breakneck speed) and i only had a few bad falls. One time a snowboarder ran straight into the back of me and, panicking, grabbed around my waist to balance himself sending us both crashing into the snow and sliding about 10m down the slope. Rode on the 2010 Olympics slalom site a few times which may have been a bit beyond my ability because i also had quite a few wipeouts there but managed to prevent any serious injury. By far, the best run of the day was when i finished on the mountain and had to ski down into the village, it took about 30m from the top and could well be a contender for the most fun i've had on skis (night skiing in NZ is still right up there). Had a rather execruciating trek back to the house carrying all the gear and my left shoulder is aching from lugging the skis and boots all over the village but one doesn't go to a mountain to relax. The other thing that one notices about the village is the ridiculous number of Australians who ar up there - i've become so accustomed to beingsurrounded by Canadian accents of various types - the Eastern accents are particularly amusing, but up on whistler everywhere I went I would hear people speaking Strine. There are a couple of Australian couriers and a few of the receptionists are Aussie as well (the girl frrom Cobs (Bakers Delight) and Force Four are two that stand out) but for the most part we're in the minority down in Van and as such I feel like i'm a bit special. Not so up on Whistler where there ar so many australians that most of the locals consider us pests who are tolerated (because they work for little more than food, a bed and a free lift ticket) but ar certainly not loved.
That night Alex cooked up barbecued venison backstrap and roast venison with a homemade blueberry sauce, which was delicious. The meat was from a deer he'd shot and butchered himself last year and it was absolutely delicious and shortly after that we headed down to 'The Boot', one of the local bars where Alex worked at and we were given free booze all night. I'm still unsure as to how propping up a mostly empty bar whilst drinking one's self into a stupor can be described as 'partying' but that's how it was described to me. Far too much marijuana and alcohol consumed in the evening but great day nonetheless.