resistance to persistence

See all my >> photos from the week.

Wow. What an amazing week. I’ve never had so much powder in my life. Run after run of fresh untouched powder. And so light. I’m used to heavy, wet powder on the west coast. This was fresh, light, champagne powder. If you carved a turn in it, the snow would fly up in your face.

Friday/Saturday – hit the airport for a long overnight flight to Munich, followed by a long wait at the airport, and a bus ride for a couple hours into Innsbruck. We (5 of us) arrived in the city around dinner time, exhausted. We grabbed some dinner, explored the city and had some drinks ready for a solid week of snowboarding. The city was great to hang out. Temperatures were around -6 C or warmer most days. It was only slightly colder in the mountains which made for great conditions. Such a beautiful city with mountains surrounding you.

Sunday – Off to Stubai Glacier. We lost one guy already. The city nightlife was too much and he never woke up until noon. We couldn’t get a hold of him in his room so we were down to 4 guys. More fresh tracks for us then. The drive there was amazing – so many massive mountains surrounding you. 10,000 feet at the peak of Stubai. The highest elevation I’ve ever been riding. Some altitude sickness crept in for one guy at lunchtime and made him sick. The jetlag and dehydration contributed. I think I felt a bit on our final day as well, but kept riding. The snow was crazy. Deep powder lines through rock chutes. Untouched bowls of powder. So much space to ride, and everyone stays on a groomed run down the center of the mountain while everything off to the sides stayed untouched. Photos from Stubai

Monday – Off to Axamer Lizum. Another great spot. It was the location of a few races in the Innsbruck Olympics in 1964 and 1976, so you know it has to be great. High speed powder runs in the morning with a powder dropoff. We met a skier from Geneva (originally U.S.) on the bus by herself and joined us for the day which was welcome company. The afternoon was more winding runs down to chutes and powder bowls. Photos from Axamer Lizum

Tuesday – Nordpark. We caught the city bus to Nordpark for the day. It’s funny seeing business people riding in the seat next to people with skis and snowboards. The public transit is free for anyone in ski gear. Nordpark was cloudy and blowing at the top. We took the gondola all the way to the peak looking for runs and couldn’t find anything that actually looked like a run. You had to hike out and the runs didn’t look like actual runs as they were so steep. Combine that with 5 foot visibility, we couldn’t find our way down. Along with everyone else, we took the tram back down. That’s when we saw the warning sign – “Runs are extremely dangerous. 70 degree slope. One fall could result in loss of life”. Definitely not the first run you want to start your day with. Nordpark has an amazing snowboard park. Hugh kickers. I saw 1080’s & backflips off of here. Amazing. We rode the halfpipe a few runs as well. After spinning and landing out too far from the wall twice, I returned to regular riding – no sense hurting myself so soon and missing out on all the great freeriding. The lower mountain was fogged in, but the upper mountain was bursting with sun. My freckles are back in full force. T-shirt weather. The remaining rideable area was only serviced by a double chair, unless you wanted to go all the way to the bottom, so this made runs slow. Nordpark was fun, but not as good as the other hills.

Wednesday – Schlick 2000. Best name for a hill. I think this was the most fun I’ve ever had in my life snowboarding. Unfortunately Ben took the day off to rest up so he missed riding with me. Just me, John & Al. I found a bowl that emptied out into a long set of powderfields with rollers (picture big snow waves) you could ride up and over and surf like a pipe. It was so much fun. I rode that all day and gave up on the rest of the mountain. I timed the run top to bottom and it was a constant 10 minutes of fresh powder. That’s as good as heliskiing and you can get on a lift right away and do it all over again. I shot video with my camera of a run, with me screaming and laughing all the way. We also met some Aussies who had just come from the Torino olympics and watched the snowboarding events there. Photos from Schlick 2000

Thursday – rest day. I had to take a day off. I rode Schlick until I could barely stand. I knew it was my best day, so I gave it my all. I slept in a bit, went to an internet cafe to email home and wandered the streets taking photos and exploring the history. I rested up for one final great day of riding.

Friday – back to Stubai. It was gray and overcast in Innsbruck, but when we arrived at Stubai, it was puking snow. Large fluffy flakes. So light you thought you were riding on feathers. A few times I got buried and had to undig myself and walk out at the bottom of the runs. Fresh pow up to your knees that had drifted to almost 2 feet in spots. A great way to finish off an amazing week.

I’m working on collecting everyone’s photos from the trip and putting them together along with my videos into a DVD video for each of the guys to have. This is something we’re gonna want to remember for a while.

If you can afford to hit Europe for a week of skiing/boarding, you have to do it. I’ve been to Whistler on many occassions and as much as I love Whistler, this was WAY better. And to visit Europe at the same time, see new cultures and languages – makes it even more fun. Next big adventure – South America (Chile/Argentina) for some summer snowboarding.

snowboarding, austria, innsbruck, travel, europe

it’s now been over 2 weeks since my father passed away in a tragic swimming accident. my parents were on vacation in the dominican republic. early in the morning they were in the water and got pulled out too far by a rip current. my mom wasn’t out as far and fought her way back in, but my father was unable to make it back in. he was bravely pulled into shore by a passing kayaker but dad had taken in too much water at that point. my mom was very strong in taking care of getting my father home in the following days along with great help from the hotel and travel companies.

all of my mother and father’s siblings flew in for the funeral so we had great family support. i can’t thank them enough, along with so many friends of my parents – amazing what they did for us. also, my friends have been amazing offering support every step of the way, as well as attending the wake and funeral. i’m lucky to have such great friends. i also met at least 300 people who came to the wake and funeral to show their condolences for my father. i never knew how many lives he touched until it was too late. since my father was in the military, we grew up all over Canada and we met many people across the country. and a lot of the country was in contact with us. as well as so many people in our home city. my dad always said hi to anyone he met and would joke with anyone he could. i think it’s the eastern canadian “down-east” influence. i remember as a kid walking down the street in north sydney, nova scotia and my father would say “hi, how ya doing today?” to complete strangers. i always found it strange, but it’s the down-east hospitality… nobody is a stranger and everybody is a friend. and he carried that hospitality and charm with him wherever he went. i think that’s why so many people liked him so much.

the funeral was very sad, but it was also great to see the turnout. we knew there would be a lot of people attending, but were overwhelmed by the numbers that turned out. the very large church was packed and people even had to stand in the aisles. since my dad was an instructor in the military, they shut down the school for the morning and bused all the students in to attend. seeing row after row of military there for him was a great honour.

it’s been a hard struggle every day. i wouldn’t say each day is easier or harder…they’re just different. some days are hard in one way and the next day will be hard in a different way. focus and concentration are difficult. different thoughts or things you do each day trigger different memories. the last thoughts in my head at the end of the night and the first thoughts when i wake up in the morning are of my dad so it never goes away. in a way that is good because i don’t want to forget, yet sometimes you just want a break from the pain. i can only imagine how my mom feels. if i lost my wife after 32 years of marriage i don’t know how i could face each day. but she deals with each day as it comes. i’m very proud of her.

when i think of how hard it is to cope with the loss of my father and why it happened to him, i think of a story my dad’s best friend told me recently. my father was diagnosed with parkinson’s disease almost 10 years ago but still remained very active and thankfully still didn’t have a lot of the problems associated with the disease. but at no point did my dad get down on himself, nor get depressed and say “why me?” he simply said “this is what i’ve been given, this is my fate and i’m going to deal with it”. so i know that he would expect me to be the same way about his passing. this is my fate and i’m just going to have to deal with it and move forward in my life. slowly and sadly.