Monday March 26, 2012

Still here in Revelstoke, British Columbia. I got up early and went to the Revelstoke Mountain this morning. I knew I was only going to stay a few hours at most, so I wanted to get the best I could. What another unique mountain. So many mountains are just vast expanses that sprawl on forever. This mountain is apparently very new and still in development, but already beloved by the local people. This place was recommended to me by at least a dozen folks I spoke with. There are only 3 or 4 lifts on the entire skiable area. The ride down from the top takes forever. It does not seem or feel like it should be that long, but this mountain boasts the longest vertical descent in North America. Fun facts are fun. The place was empty, oddly empty. I was the first person on a couple of groomers as late as 10am. It felt like I was trespassing. The entire place had the feel of someone’s private mountain, but that person said, sure come play on my mountain. The base area is nothing more than a hotel with some retail on the ground level. I read that there are plans to build the place into a giant resort with condos, golf, etc… Right now the entire town is in the middle of nowhere, even the locals will tell you that. I went top to bottom a few times and a few different ways, and then decided I would be done for the day. As I got to the bottom I saw a sign that piqued my interest.

It was an advert for tandem paragliding. Spoiler, I didn’t get to do it. After I saw the sign, realized I had the rest of the day free, and spoke to the chick who sells it (and also done it a few times), I was ready to sing up. My timeline is very limited, so I was being greedy with when I could do it. After finding out that I couldn’t do it until a couple weeks from now I wasn’t too upset. There are 3 pilots that do it, one had a family emergency, another was in Brazil flying, and the third was away on holiday. So I don’t feel like I just missed doing it by a day or two. She showed me some pics and video, it looks amazing. You get into the air by running and jumping off one side of the peak of the mountain. You wear your skiing gear so when you land you land on a ski slope and just take off downhill. I have been lucky enough to check almost everything off my list of things I wanted to do this winter. If all goes well the last thing will be checked off the list tomorrow. That means it will be time to make a new list. I am adding both the paragliding and whatever the hell this is. I saw a couple guys on a frozen lake riding snowboards with giant kites. I guess it is kite snowboarding. I had to stop and take this video. It looks completely safe in comparison to downhill riding. The only danger is possibly plunging below the surface of a frozen lake.

I did see something that I thought very inappropriate. The top of a mountain is a very serious and sometimes unsafe place to be. I do NOT think this is the way anybody should be acting at the tippy top of a mountain, especially when she is supposed to be working. Worse yet was that this gal was hanging around this sign, and yet not at all on guard.

But then later I saw this TV commercial while having lunch and all was forgiven.

Speaking of dogs, I saw these 2 dogs today. This is more proof that Charlie could have come with me. There are plenty of doggies that just hang around and wait for their skiing companions. Seems like it could be a good life for a mountain dog.

And finally I got this sticker for my board. It is definitely the best one yet. Today was a very doggie oriented day.