Even though spring has fully sprungeth, I thought I'd belatedly share with you some wintery cool pics from my five-day business trip. Pretend you're in
Dr. Who or
The Sarah Connor Chronicles and are able to jump back in time...to the end of March. There yet? Good! Because that's when the Tourism BC team went on a Ski Resort "FAM"(iliarization) Trip - to four of the BC interior's top Ski resorts: Sun Peaks, Revelstoke, Silverstar and Big White.
Sounds dreadful, huh? ;-) It
was actually work - presentations, breakfast meetings, lots of driving, and what seemed like 80-billion accommodations to assess. But it's really a chance for the ski people to show us what they're made of. And let us do some downhill skiing. And snowshoeing. And cross-country skiing. And helicoptering.
Here are some Mikala-in-action shots for your delectation and delight! Come with us now on a journey through time and space...
...to the world of night cross-country skiing at Sun Peaks resort near Kamloops. Think flashlights, drunk people, and the president of the resort making us hot choco and Baileys along the run. And bruising our asses from falling over, 'cos you can't snow-plow in a x-country track... Oh and 2nd from left in this pic of my workmates? That's Nancy Greene. She's got a huge stake in Sun Peaks and has helped to promote it for aeons. She is also the 1968 Grenoble Olympic gold and silver medal winner for downhill skiing, STILL maintains a Canadian World Cup record with 13 wins AND was named the Canadian female athlete of the century. But her most impressive achievements? Helping Mikala on and off with her fiddly x-country skis, being generally mad as a bogbrush and a bit of a laugh! Give the woman another Gold!
Next day was skiing fresh powder, wide open spaces and best of all? No Whistler-style crowds, queues or slicing and dicing around me. That's me on the left, the Michelin Woman, looking not skinny at all because I'm wearing all of Dan's gear. But the ace thing about Sun Peaks is that it: a) is sunny b) has super powdery snow and c) is not overrun with posh twats or Japanese three-year olds who zoom by you. Good runs over three mountains too! Mountains a little more manageable than this one...
...at Revelstoke. This is a view from my hotel room balcony, by the way. Just a bit pretty huh? Rev was the next resort on our tour, and is in the process of being built (the resort that is, the mountains were there AGES ago ;-) but the runs have just opened. It's a little hill for those same posh twats I mentioned earlier - the serious Johnny Adventurers with money. Fancy a heliski? Cat-ski? Or a bazillion-dollar condo? A million black diamond runs? A super-fast gondola up into the heavens?
This will be the place to do it. In fact, it practically had a sign at the top that said "Mikala, dear, you're too rubbish. Don't even bother. Descend now and don't sully our pistes". So I did. Sadly, I didn't ski Revelstoke, though my colleagues did. But I did escape with my life and managed to save enough excitement for...
....our helicopter ride to the top of the peaks for a mountain-goat's eye view! That's me and Karen, one of our researchers. Note the look of glee as we take off through the clouds and to the very top ...
Wheeeeeee!The next day it was off to the Aussie-owned Silver Star and Big White Mountains to be wined and dined and put up in a posh condo with our own hot tub on the balcony. A view of nothing but mountains and trees. No, really, nothing but mountains and trees. So when the Big White people told us that we were in prime sunrise-watching position, me and a colleague Mark decided to drag our bruised arses out of bed at 5.45am and hop into the hot tub....
....And relax!
Not a bad job, eh?
Did I mention that work is also sending me to Toronto on May 29 (my birthday!) for a day of training? And that they're letting me spend the whole weekend and Monday there (as the trip overlaps with my government-sanctioned "regularly scheduled day off") - so I get to spend my 35th birthday in Toronto with my mum and mates?
No?
;-)
