How Aboot Canada, Eh

A month ago, my two brothers, Shane and Dustin, my friend Brandon and I hopped in Brandon's LAV (a Subaru Outback wagon) and drove umpteen thousand miles to British Columbia for a stellar weekend of skiing. A bitter irony, proven repeatedly in my life, is that I travel to ski but the best snow falls within the Oregon borders. Mt. Hood was sitting on multiple feet of new snow on top of their already adequate base, whereas Canada had only a small amount of dirty white stuff with rocks creeping under the powder waiting to rip my new skis apart.

With that in mind, the trip was great! Brandon drove the entire way, allowing us three brothers to sleep as much as our hearts desired why he pounded away hours of asphalt. Great snow is fun, but great company will always trump lack of coverage.

We visit four resorts, Crystal Mountain in Washington (near Mt. Rainier), and Big White, Silver Star and Sun Peaks resorts all near Kelowna B.C. (about 4 hours by car from Vancouver, B.C.).

The best snow seemed to be on the closed runs and at risk of getting kicked off the mountain we skied many such runs. On the last day we found a nice run that could easily have been opened up but was not. Even so, we got first tracks and found a fun little kicker. Here's Dusty showing how you do it after skiing nearly 100 times last year at Mt. Bachelor.

All in all, a great trip. Maybe we'll get to do it again some year and take the wives and kids. Or maybe we'll visit and stay in one of the fancy ski in/out resorts before driving over to Whistler for the 2010 Olympics, I never dream small.