Waaay back in February I was taking some classes at Selkirk College and skiing almost everyday (obviously). We went through a big high pressure pattern combined with a really stable snowpack for a week or two in the middle of feb so I spent a lot of time skinning to earn some turns in our unreal back/slack country.
Record Peak on my 20th Birthday
Panorama from the top of Grey Mt.
Big Tuna having a little nap in the Credit Union after the Karaoke guy gave us a ride back to Rossland from the Crown...
A rat I dissected in Biology
A failed attempt to ski Old Glory with Colston
Then the snow came back.
In March I headed out to Lake Louise for the Smith Optics Freeski Competition. I hadn't skied in one since 2009 when I was still a Junior but I figured it would be rude not to go check it out and say hi to all my friends in the Rockies. Zimmer and I left from Rossland, picked up one Mr. Siggers in Fernie then proceeded to Golden to stay with my good friend Brenna (and her cats) for the night. Yes, we stopped at every single Tim Horton's on the way.. (it was "roll up the rim to win" season...)
Yes, the three of us drank a lot of coffee.
Brenna's kitty, named Daisy I think?
Daisy hangin on Siggers
The next morning we came across good hombre Jayden Starnino at nowhere other than the Golden Tim Horton's so we drove over to Lake Louise together and checked into the little hotel room where we were all staying.
It was small.
We decided to go ski a lil and make sure the venues hadn't changed too much in the past few years. they hadn't.
So we found a....
Megan Gunning!
The next day was qualifications and I did the exact same line as I did as a Junior competitor there in 2009.
The main feature on the Quali run.
As it would turn out, I ended up in 5th place after the first day which I was pretty pleased with after not competing at all for 3 years, and for my first old person comp, and for skiing without an ACL or MCL.
Zimmer was right at the top of the next page too in 10th place I believe. Unreal for his first Freeski comp ever with over 50 competitors.
Me, Jay, and Siggers watching Zimmer drop into his run in the Finals.
Just skiing and wrecking skis like usual at Lake Louise
There's my run from finals. It looks really mellow but you have to remember we're skiing on a slope that has been skied a couple of times each by over a hundred people in the few days leading up to it, making for some super firm conditions. Factor in that a fall up top would result in tumbling over a couple hundred vertical feet of sharp rocks and hopefully people can understand why it looks like we're skiing so slow and going so small.
I ended up moving up into 3rd place though! Felt great to be back on the podium even if it wasn't on top.
I ended up moving up into 3rd place though! Felt great to be back on the podium even if it wasn't on top.
Medal and shot ski trophy.
Mine and Siggers' shot skis.
I was stoked so I gave my hair a lil trim into mullet form for mullet March.
We had to celebrate so obviously I brought my flip cups to the bar. They got taken away soon after though..
This guy fell off the bridge and got stuck.
The next morning we packed my rig back up and hit the road to the nearest Tim Horton's.
Which happened to be in Banff where Zimmer put on a parkour show.
Instead of driving home the fast way through Radium, Invermere etc. we decided that there would be far more Tim Horton's to stop at if we went through Calgary then the Crowsnest. So we did. Aaand us rural BC kids managed to get pretty lost in the big city..
We found the Apple store though.
Then got out of the hell hole that is Calgary no where near as fast as I would have liked. What would normally have been a casual 6 hour drive ended up taking a much less casual 15 hours due to our little detour through Calgary, numerous stops at Tim Horton's, and by far the worst driving conditions I've ever seen on the Kootenay pass. If Tim Horton's didn't exist I'd probably still be driving.
Managed to get home alive, make it to my 8:00 class the next day though, and continue on with my winter.
Skied the ol beast that is Microwave just about everyday.
Dug out my tramp for my first bounces since September of 2010.
I always have fun on closing weekend.
And what's more fun than skiing in minimal clothing?
Skiing naked obviously.
We skied a top to bottom Link's Line including the bowl jump and stupid chute. The chair lift loved it.
Ski season wrapped up so I did a bit of touring to get some turns in. Mostly just ended up doing typical Rossland stuff like lighting fires doing backflips off little bumps around the hill.
With and without clothes..
I've actually really wanted to do a naked backflip on skis for a long time. But unfortunately when the air is warm enough to handle skiing naked, the snow is in melt-freeze cycles and falling on those little ice crystals results in some serious wounds to any exposed skin. But I finally sacked up and gotter done. Probably the pinnacle of my skiing career right there.
And here's a little POV edit I put together from a couple days of skiing this winter. It's far from being up to par with my usual work but it is what it is so check er out!
I found some girls to put the shot ski to use.
Then the next weekend Raine, Marshall, and I decided that it was about time that we did our first solo skydive. We took a nice casual drive out to Vernon, leaving Rossland around 10pm. Obviously we took a mandatory stop at everyone's favourite strip club in Kelowna - The Cadillac Lounge for a cahj beer and dance before continuing to our scenic sleeping spot next to Okanagan Lake where the three of us managed to get somewhat of a sleep in Raine's lil Celica..
Cute morning view.
We headed on over to the Vernon Airport bright and early to meet our instructor and go through the solo jump course. The course basically teaches you all the things that can go wrong and all the ways to deal with each situation. Skydiving is actually really safe if you know what you're doing. It would take a whole combination of errors/failures for you to hit the ground without one of your chutes opening.
Since we're all full of brains, we finished the 6 hour course in about half the time, and were allowed to jump after lunch..
Top Gun.
Then we jumped! Unfortunately we couldn't bring GoPros or cameras of any sort in the plane or for the jump, but let me tell you.. it was one of the most exhilarating things I've ever done. The only scary part is really climbing out of the fuselage and onto the landing gear to hold onto the wing while flying. Think of when you stick your hand out the window while driving on the highway. Then imagine climbing out of your vehicle onto a wing... It really isn't that hard but it sure takes you by surprise. After that just letting go of the wing you're hanging off is a piece of cake. Well, in theory it is anyways.. I ended up upside down somehow, with a nice little twist in my chute lines, it was cahj though, I just spun right out of it. I was really surprised at how much fun it is to fly an open chute, it's really like you're flying! I soon found out that you can get fully sideways in turns and do cool spirals down to your landing zone. It was one hell of a time let me tell you that. I think everyone should go at least for a tandem jump if you aren't into the solo thing, it was very worth it.
That was definitely one of the bigger highlights of my summer but I'm not done this post yet...
Raine and I on a midnight cruise in electric shopping carts in an American Walmart.
Yes, chocolate wine exists and it does magical things. Tastes kinda just like wine mixed with chocolate milk and baileys..
That's a rainbow, if you didn't know.
Sunset in Ladysmith on Vancouver Island
At the end of July, a sizable crew from Rossland headed out to Kimberley for their annual Julyfest (Beerfest). We arrived in Kimberley with nowhere to stay so of course we set up camp (beerpong/flipcup table) in the overflow parking lot for a nice looking Church, conveniently located within about a block from downtown Kimbo. Many games of flip cup were played with complete strangers who happened to be walking by which let us meet a lot of cahj people.
That's 1.5L of beer.
Some kids.
Most of the stories from that weekend should just never see the light of the internet for various reasons. But I can tell you that somehow a few of us managed to end up riding a train in the parade through all of Kimberley. That was definitely sweet as.
We somehow made it out of that little slice of heaven alive and out of jail so you will certainly see me back there next year.
Back in Rossland I...
Took a cahj trip to Wilson Falls with a Jessie. (Ask her about a magical place called mudfoot beach)
Swam in tailings ponds on the back of Red.
Marsh drank outta my shoe.
I ate a messinator, yes it's just as good as it looks.
This Jord laced into one too.
Climbed Old Glory one morning with Brodie, Dane, and Marsh.
Shot a startail photo.
Ran a few km up Record Ridge to shoot a photo of this sunset.
Then Nathan came to town!
So I taught him how to drive standard.
He has a sick 360 degree film camera.
We went to Nelson one ill fated evening..
And met some nice homeless fellows.
I won't go into details but basically one of our posse came out of this night with a fractured skull and I had to sleep at Steve Beers' house (a park bench).
The next morning we did some lake stuff at my Grandparents' place on Kootenay Lake.
I water skied for the first time in 5 years and Raine was pretty stoked. So was I.
Then Nathan left but we still did fun things.
Then all my friends left to go to school and I stayed behind to work for a couple more months before I head off to Costa Rica for 7 weeks with Evan. Just took my first Malaria pill and I'm leaving in 4 days. Stoked!
That's where I'm at now, definitely left out a bunch of stuff from this post but it's way too long as is. Sorry for taking so long to update this but check back regularly for updates from Costa Rica and some of the stuff I have lined up for the wintaaah! Feel free to follow me on both Instagram and Twitter while you're at it, @JCAmantea for both.
I'll be back,
Jeff.
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