Powder, powder, powder...

Day 5, Feb 7th

Yep, we awoke to a foot or more of fresh powder everywhere, so what did I do? Spent 4 hours in Dizzy's getting a new pair of boots...lol.

We had a relatively quiet day ski wise, it was more about getting ourselves sorted out with hire gear, organising the kids into ski school etc. Everybody had a bit of a sleep in before we headed to the village about 10am. We had a look around the village which was abuzz with activity with demo stalls setup both sides of 'Main Street', the ski run which passes thru the centre of the village...

I was reading on the Big White website that there were demo days over the weekend. I strongly suspect that because of the dump which started on Sunday ensuring Monday was going to be an epic powder day, forced their hand and they decided to stay around for another day. From all reports, the lines at 08:30 at the Ridge Rocket chairlift were amongst the longest ever seen at Big White as every man and his dog from Kelowna took a sickie.

The 4 kids were placed into ski school for the afternoon and they will do full days in ski school for the next 3 days. Clive, Casey and Karmen bought half day tickets and headed up the mountain, although they admit the snow was well chopped up by that stage and being on first day ski legs, it was tough going. Lorraine, Brenda and Darren explored the village whilst Diane kept hold of the fort back at Raven.

I got out of the boot fitters at around 14:30 and $700 lighter, but equipped with the latest boots and custom made footbeds. I was lucky that because it was a powder day and most sane people were out enjoying it, the shop was fairly quiet. I obtained the expertise of the boss fitter, Lindsay Bennett who comes with a very very good reputation online as one of the worlds best fitters. He certainly spent a heap of time and effort, needing to re-drill a buckle or two because of my 'ample' calves and the custom footbeds were another big job for him to get my alignment right. It's not over yet though. I will ski a few runs tomorrow, then pop into the shop to discuss any sore spots, ski a few more etc. As he said, I have over a week to get them fitting like slippers so if I have even the slightest problem, pop into the shop, it's all part of the service and why you pay a small premium to buy on mountain.

We all met up at ski school at 15:30 and picked up the kids before heading back to the unit via shuttle bus. I took a few village and ski school snaps...

Kids Ski School..

The tunnel out of the village which heads down to the Ridge and Snow Ghost chairs..

Random Village accommadation..

Snowshoe Sam's

We had a great ride home in the shuttle. The driver was very helpful and advised us how best to ski home when we want to ski back later in the week. Our shuttle stop is about 150m from the unit, but because there were 11 of us, he turned into Snowbird Way and delivered us all to the front door. That is typical Big White service.

The plan tomorrow is up early and head to the village by 08:15. We can drop the kids at 08:30 and off we will go. I will probably take the camera out tomorrow, so I'll get some mountain pics and maybe shoot some video.

Later...