March 31, 2006
Snowboarding
I've been remiss in keeping this up to date. I wanted to make a few entries on our recent trips, so I've decided to combine them together since they all involved snowboarding.
After a successful trip out west for Jason & Chrissy's wedding where we did a day of snowboarding at Lake Louise, our next trip was to our condo in Mont Tremblant. Back to the scene of the crime as it were.
My sister and her husband were able to come up for the weekend. I think they got the best skiing in as it started to rain on the Sunday, and it took a few days for the conditions to get back to par. We also got in some cross country skiing in on a lovely sunny day. Its a great park with a cabin at the furthest point in the loop that we do. Always nice to take a break and warm up by the wood stove. Pat and I decided that we wouldn't snowboard on Thursdays since that was the day of the accident.
I had been up to Blue Mountain a few times snowboarding this year. Once with the guys from Synopsys and a few times by myself. Pat and I decided to take a day off work and go since she had never been and she was feeling a bit jealous. The place has been bought by Intrawest and they are dumping millions of dollars into its development. It looks very much like a small Mont Tremblant or Whistler.
We had such a good time, and since it's only a hour and a half drive from our house, we decided to start looking for a condo at Blue. Prices are fairly deflated right now due to the amount of buildings that Intrawest is putting up. We closed on a small 2 bedroom ski-in ski-out condo in Chateau Ridge. We take possession June 1st. I think we will leave it in the rental program over the summer and possibly in the winter, although we'll try to go up every weekend. If it doesn't make enough money, we'll take it out of the program so we can decorate it with our own stuff.
Also, we had such a good time, Pat didn't realize we were snowboarding on a Thursday. So that superstition has been discarded.
The last day we went up to Blue Mountain, our friend (who also owns a condo) went into the Liquid Launch. It's a contest sponsored by Appleton Jamaican Rum. They set up a pool about 70 feet long and the goal is for the participants to try to ski across. Chris didn't make it, but I think he made the biggest splash, and finished third. Awesome job! I have a short video of it here.
So next winter we should be doing a lot more snowboarding. Hopefully every weekend. But I won't be doing the Liquid Launch.
-Walter
