I made it to Calgary. Arrived here at 8am yesterday (Sunday) morning. It was a long trip. But I’m glad Jenn was on the bus. We stopped in Salmo and checked out the El Matador and Bull Mountain Inn. Yee. I love Out Cold.

Scott picked me up from the bus depot. Lorie was in bed sick, so I spent yesterday with Brittany and Bryan. We checked out the Market Mall and I bought some Circa Lopez 805 shoes, an element hat, and some movies – Beerfest, Accepted, Donnie Darko, and Zoolander.

They’ve got me doing chores here but it’s fun…for the most part haha. I just got in from playing hockey at the outdoor rink with Britt. We’re going to shoot the puck around tomorrow afternoon too.

I hope everybody made it home safe for the holidays.

I’m pretty stoked right now. I was fingerboarding in the caf today at lunch and landed a couple new tricks. Kenny, you’ll like these… I landed a kickflip to front board on a cafeteria tray and a kickflip to melon! I love fingerboarding! Yee!!

So Saturday was opening day at Whitewater (WH2O) which is the ski resort in Nelson. I couldn’t have asked for a better day—blue-bird skies, nice temperatures, and knee-deep powder. It was just amazing. Almost the whole SROAM (Ski Resort Operation and Management) crew was there too.

It was a busy day. Only the Silver King lift was operating, but there are countless lines available in the trees. It took a bit of exploring, but we still managed to find some untracked pow at the end of the day.

Here’s a shot of the Summit lift line which opens next weekend. I can’t wait!

Here’s Mike (my landlord), Jen and Jacob.

Here’s one of my roomates, Bailey, ripping through some pow.

Matt looks badass in this picture, but he’s really harmless. Here he is catching some turns in the pow.

Here are some nice shots of the mountain that I took throughout the day. Check out the wind on top of Ymir Peak! I’m going to hike up that bad boy this season—just have to wait til I get my Avi gear.

They call me the HAMBURGLAR with my ketchup jacket, mustard pants, and relish gloves. Check out the icy hair after a nice day of riding!

So it was a great first day of the season! It was a great first time riding real POWDER!! Let me tell you, it’s not easy to ride pow. It kicked the shit out of me. My legs almost collapsed after three runs! It’s going to be a great season at WH2O.

Me, Bailey, Jason and Jes hiked to the top of town before sunrise this morning. We rode all the way back to town. It was awesome!! It was like an 8-10 minute run. So much fun. Bailey took a video of his run with his headcam. This is just the last part of the run, near our house. Here’s the link:

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE VIDEO

I know I was suppose to post pictures from our field trip a few weeks ago, but I’m lazy haha so here’s the rest of my post:

As most of you know, I like to go for random walks late at night. I did that tonight and it was just beautiful out. I went for a 3-hour walk around Nelson. I went all the way up to the Santa Fe Railway and over to Rosemont (FAR!!).

It was snowing the whole time. They must’ve gotten about 6 inches up at the top of Uphill and Rosemont. I found some really nice looking rails for jibbing too. I was talking about this with Bailey the other day how we want to snowboard/ski from the top of Nelson to Kootenay Lake at the bottom. And I think the best starting point is at the Santa Fe Railway. There are some nice hills coming down from there. We just have to wait for a little more snow.

Anyway, it’s 4:45 in the AM so I’m going to hit the hay.

Hi everybody

So here I go, away on my fall field trip with the whole SROAM crew. We’ll be hitting up Panorama, Sunshine Village and Banff, CMH (Heli-Ski Operation) and the Calgary Ski Show. I’m hoping to meet up with Brittany, Bryan, Scott and Lorie and Baxter while I’m in the C-Spot.

I wish everybody a great week and you’ll be hearing from me late Sunday evening.

Hi People. Thanks for being so patient with me. My workload for school is pretty intense right now. A few weeks ago, myself, Alex, Guillaume and Nick hiked up Elephant Mountain. Look a few posts down–it’s the mountain across the lake from my house. Like I mentioned before, it’s 3000 vertical feet and we made it to the top!! It took us roughly 3 hours to hike up and 1 hour to run down. I was the goose. I fell the most on the way down.

This was our first stop. Pulpit Ridge or Rock or whatever it’s called. Beautiful view, but we still had more than half of the mountain to climb.

Definitely needed to take a few breaks along the way.

Some mountain tops with snow. I can’t wait to start snowboarding!





Here’s a view of most of Nellyville

I just got home from my Tourism class. We talked about our future in the ski industry and it got me thinking.

I have so much potential. I’m a kid, but it’s time to buckle down and become more responsible. Big things can happen in the near future that can affect the rest of my life. One decision that has already done so is committing myself to the ski industry. Now, as most of you know, I am relatively new to the industry, as I’ve only been snowboarding for 4 years. But that doesn’t matter. With my life experiences, I know I can succeed.

This is to my family. This list would be very lengthy, so the people I want to thank the most are my Mom, Warren, Austin, Dad, Grandma, Grandpa, Grandmaman, and Nanny. You have all helped me so much. I know that no matter what happens, you’ll always be there for me as I am for you.

Kenny, Torrin, Baxter, Bearzy, and Caron…I can’t say enough about you guys. What started out as a group of friends getting together to raise money for a local skatepark, turned into so much more. It helped us become even better friends. I’ll never forget the times we had in Terrace. They were, without a doubt, the best times of my life.

Wayne. I learned so much from you in the little time we had together. You’re an amazing friend. You had to go through and overcome so much in your life. And I am so grateful for knowing you. You are truly an inspiration.

Kristian, I’ve known you for the longest time. We had some great times in the Sault. You brought me to my first punk show, which opened up so much to me. I wish you the best in Halifax and I’ll always be here for you if you ever need a friend.

Scot, Theo, Jay, Lee, and Jer, it’s more than music—you have been real life heroes to me. We’ve had some great times at shows in the Sault, in Sudz at that ridiculous 12-band show, in Terrace Bay, and in Thunder Bay. You are all good-hearted people and I won’t ever forget you. Oh, and by the way, I’ve already made up my mind and FFH will play at my wedding—a one-show reunion. FFH and sTs back again. You can only imagine the good times we’ll have.

To everybody that I met this past year in Thunder Bay, Scott, Storm, Matty K, Gardner, Tutt, Chris, Andy C, Ruberto, Mikey, Taryn, Chels, Mitch, Madi, Julia, Abby, Howie, Griff, D, Roy, Megan, Eric, Angie, and Ryan, we’ve shared some great times. I miss you all already. If any of you come out West, let me know and we’ll ride the mountains together.

I have to get back to music. It’s such a big part of my life and I would really like to thank Anthony, Mr. Gurney, Santos and Pare and Dru from Truth Explosion for all of the knowledge and amazing opportunities you have given me. I’ve learned so much from setting up concerts in Terrace Bay and Sault Ste Marie and from taking photographs for Truth Explosion Magazine. I’ve met some of my favourite bands and some great people doing this.

And to my new friends of the Ski Resort Operations and Management program, I feel like we’ve already grown into a big family these past few weeks. I’m grateful to be able to share this next year and a half with you all. And I can’t wait for the deep powder days.

No matter where we end up in the future, we will always have eachother. I’ll cherish our memories forever. We all have such great potential. Don’t let that go to waste. Stay true to yourself. Keep your family and friends close. Never forget. Keep your mind on track, show enthusiasm and stay positive and you will be rewarded as things start to unfold.

From after an awesome time at Taffy Jack’s with pretty much everybody from my program, I come home to Bailey passed out on the front porch! So I ran inside, grabbed my camera and snapped off these pics of Sleeping Beauty here haha.

So here’s Bailey just peaced right out!

His eyes are open but he’s not awake!

But don’t worry…I got him in safe and sound.

This actually happened one week ago on Sept 3rd. Like I said in my last post, I’ve been keeping busy here and surprisingly don’t want to be in front of a computer all day!

Myself, Mike (owner of house/roomate), Bailey (roomate), Jason (roomate) and a few of Mike’s friends, Justin, Nicola, and Geoff hiked up to get a view of the Kokanee Glacier. We started early in the morning. We drove 30 minutes outside of town then another 30 minutes up a dirt road (uphill the whole time…I’m still getting used to this whole mountain thing and I love it). We got to a parking lot at the end of the road and started our journey. It was definitely a good introduction to the area. The landscape is just amazing. We hiked up to the Slocan Cabin and got a beautiful view of the glacier. The whole hike took six and a half hours. I was so tired near the end of it!

Here are pictures from the hike:

Bailey and Jason looking at some of the mountains in the area.

We started down near that lake.

I love this creek. We refilled our water bottles here.

Here’s the gang hiking down to this rest area. It’s amazing how many alpine lakes there are! Here’s our little ground squirrel buddy. Let’s call him Marty.

I was so stoked to be up there.

Here’s a random picture of Mike.

Here are a couple more alpine lakes.

Apparently a group of hikers saw two grizzley’s on the trail the day before. Then as we ventured up further, there were some hikers on their way back down who said they saw a big grizzley just up the trail. I was excited to see one and had my camera ready, but we didn’t see one.

Here are some pictures of the gang hiking.

Those are some pretty big mountains!

We’re getting closer! (You can see part of the glacier on the top-right)

And there you have it, the KOKANEE GLACIERRRRRRRR!!