Red Mountain

Red, Red, Red. 

I am in Red Mountain in Rossland, BC. I felt that it was apropos to write from here, as this place has been pretty amazing so far. The week, though, held some pretty crappy news. A friend was dropping in and got a little too far forward, hooked his ski’s, but the bindings didn’t release. He ended up breaking his shin and had surgery the next day. That is pretty unusual to have happen and he’d been complaining of bad shin pain for the last couple of days, so we’re pretty sure that he had a bit of a stress fracture and that just pushed it too far.  Another good friend hurt himself pretty bad as well. He was having some pretty bad pain in his leg from falling on the same spot several times when we went to Powder Keg mountain on Thursday. Powder Keg was pretty good, very small, but they have night skiing, which not too many had done, so it was a good time with a pub crawl on the way back. In any case he fell over and hurt himself in the same spot and that pretty much put it over the edge. He was taken to the hospital in Fernie where the Doc to him that he had a Hematoma in his leg. The doctor said it was the biggest one he’d ever seen. Unfortunately, Hematomas are extremely painful and there isn’t much that they can do except make sure he’s as comfortable as possible and give him some pain killers. I think they said that the worst of it will be over in 5 or 6 days and then it will be tender. Red wasn’t too kind on the injury front either, though. A snowboarder hit a kicker that threw him off and he ended up landing on and breaking his shoulder blade. Here’s to a quick recovery to all!

Other than an injury filled week, Rossland has been pretty cool. We took off Friday around 10:30 in the morning and we all pretty much slept and had a relaxing bus ride to the Kokanee brewery on the way.

Nice View!

The majority of the place smelled like stale beer, but the hopps smell wasn’t too bad! We did get a beer at then end of the tour, and I have to say, it was probably one of the better beers I’ve ever had. Just… Fresh. 

The rest of the trip went by pretty fast and we were in Red before we knew it. We had heard that the place we were going to be staying was sweet, but I didn’t know just how sweet they actually are. Ours is actually 2 stories and has about anything you could want. Not a bad place to be holed up for a couple of days!

Complete with an outdoor hot tub and all. It was late by the time we got there, so there was no skiing or anything, but we did head over to the day lodge for some meet and greet with the Red Mountain Nonstop crew. There are only 40 or so of them, so we kind of overwhelmed them as far as numbers go. It was a decent dinner though and we had a good time that night, hanging out in one of the rooms with a bunch of people. 

The next day everyone went out and I had a relaxing afternoon. We (again, by we, I mean Malin and Hannah) made a nice pasta dinner and besides the people in our house, we had a couple others joining us as well. We also had a bit of wine that wasn’t too bad. I hadn’t had any in a long time and it was a relaxing top to the dinner. 

That night there was a party in town. It was called the ‘Whiteout’ party and we all were supposed to wear white. The room was filled with a bunch of black lights, so it was a pretty cool effect. The evening was completed with some Ski-shots, that is, 4 shot glasses attached to a ski and 4 people have to take it at the same time. Good fun!

This morning I woke up kind of late and most people had left for the hill already. More hanging about for me. There were lots of leftovers, so I had a bit of that for lunch. Everyone is back now though and the bus leaves in about a half hour, so I’d better wrap this up. 

I have been putting together some video and pictures to music, so I’ve been keeping myself busy with that. It should turn out pretty good when I get done with it. 

I do have a doctors appointment this Thursday, so that should be informative. Hopefully he’ll be able to tell me how it’s healing and if I’ll be able to drive out of here as well. I should be a big step closer to figuring out what I’m doing after this by Thursday night. 

St. Patties day is coming right up as well, along with a couple of birthdays, so it should be a good week coming up. 

Only 2 more to go!

Grizz Days

The last weekend was quite the time with Grizz Days. The Grizz is a mythical character here in Fernie and supposedly he’s the guy that brings the snow. He’s been fairly stubborn this year, but a festival in his name must have made him a little happy, because it dumped pretty good this last couple of days.

Nonstop has become a pretty big part of Fernie and so they had decided to be in the annual Grizz days parade, which everyone enjoyed. Basically it consisted of everyone piling in to one of the Nonstop busses and screaming our heads off. 

Oh, and also dressing like idiots, I forgot about that part. The theme was supposed to be ‘Eurotrash’, but we decided that ’70’s Eurotrash’ would be more fun! Plus, these will double as our Hot Dog Day costumes as well. Afterwards we went to the Underground and then over to Annex 8 for a rousing good time. 

The next day we decided to check out some of the Grizz Days festivities, but after a late breakfast and going back to Annex 8 to pick up some Charlie and Claire, as well as a stop at Subway, most of them were either winding down or were over. They had quite a bit going on… a dummy downhill, snowmobile drag races, street hockey tournaments, arm wrestling competitions… lots of stuff going on. We did get to see some of the snow sculptures, which was fairly lame, but it was a pretty good time none-the-less. 

A couple of nights ago we made (by we, I mean Malin and Hannah) a Swedish dinner with rice, chicken, peanuts, curry and bananas. It kind of sounds like babootie (for those of you who remember that debacle) but with the large exception that it tasted good. Good desert as well, all for $5. I’m very much going to miss dinner with these guys. 

We’re all starting to realize that this thing is kind of on the downswing, and no one is ready to come home yet. It’s been such a good time up to this point and there’s 3 weeks left to go. The rest of the time is sure to fly by like the rest of the course seems to have. It’s comforting to know that there’s a pretty good group of people coming back next year, or at least are planning to, myself included.

Calgary, Cowboys, and Vivid

The week (and some change) has been pretty sedated with the exception of last weekend when some of us took the Nonstop trip to Calgary for some good times. I’d relay everything that happened, except that I already have on the Nonstop website in a bit more ‘Official’ format. 

Last week Jenny, the ski host, asked me to write a blog for week 6 for Nonstop to put up on their website, and that’s exactly what I did. The link to the blog is here. As I write this, mine is the last one as you scroll all the way down, although if you just look for ‘Week 6 by Brad Nicolai’ that’d be the one. 

Other than that, It’s been a pretty good couple days since then. We did go out Monday night to the pub for some good times and then back to Annex 8 and Tom, Charlie, and Jonny’s place for some shenanigans afterwards. It was raining / slushing out on the way from the bar to the annex and that was pretty strange to see. I honestly haven’t ever seen anything like that before. The next day (yesterday) everyone said that the conditions on the hill were absolutely horrible, but a few stayed up and Dan even said that it was one of the more fun days he’s ever had. That just goes to prove that even on a crappy day, Fernie still has some good times to be had. 

Already into week 7, lots of people have finished applying for jobs, and a few have even had offers already. All of the people who have applied or gotten offers have been looking in New Zealand for next summer. I am not going to be able to pull that off this year, I don’t think. I have decided that next winter I do want to come back to here for the season. Maybe I’ll start out as a liftie for the beginning of the season, or something like that, and then work toward my level 1 and level 2 instructor certifications over the winter. It’s a little longer path than I had planned, but there are a few things that have happened this year that I didn’t plan on. C’est la vie, I suppose. 

That still leaves me to figure out what I’m going to do this summer, and I have had a couple ideas. I do know a lot of people in England, and that might be cool to go live there for a summer, though I’ve heard that it’s pretty tough to get a job there at the moment. Living in Sioux Falls might be an option for the summer to regroup and get some cash saved before heading back here for the winter. I’ve looked into working in a national park for a few months, but there’s really no money to be had there, and unfortunately, I do need to make a little money. I’ve even thought of trying to get a summer job in Okoboji, or some other lake resort-ish type of town. I might not make a ton, but I’d have a great time. Anything that happens though, I need to have the 3rd week in June off because I am definitely not missing the Kasstle this year.

Either way I need to start making some decisions so I can get a bit of a head start. The big deterrent in all of this is my leg though, and unfortunately I have no idea what’s going to happen. I’m not even sure yet if I’m going to be able to drive home from here. I think I should be able, but there’s no guarantees. 

Though, it seems that there isn’t much point in making a plan anyways. The first one I had for the winter didn’t exactly go as expected, but I can take some comfort in knowing that even if it didn’t go quite as I hoped, I’ve still had an amazing time… and there’s another 4 weeks to go!