I miss Mat and Jordi.

Our toast lasts so much longer without the toast/grilled cheese mongrels in the house…But we all miss them, playing songs over and over again until they die.  We’ve certainly lost some vicariousness around the house. Can’t wait to see them back at the end of the month. They sadly have missed my first attempt at a huge batch of chili, Ross asked his Dad to explain to me how to make his magical chili and was sadly surprised when he told me all the things I had already assembled for our own, only to be crushed by the food networks show good eats… their episode on chili made our chili look weak in comparison…on the bright side everyone has had praise for my chili and Ross said it almost beats out his dads’. Adam sadly is not a huge fan of the spice and in combination with him being ill, it was not the most well placed dinner in his diet….Too bad though we have enough chili for 4 more nights at the least!

Over the last few days we’ve gotten almost 2 feet of fresh snow in town and tons of pow on the mountain. Sadly I have not been up there in  a few days due to working on getting a job before my training started, but of course I’ll be ok now. Colton is playing out his last week out in Revelstoke for a while due to lack of fundage so we’ve been busy using our precious 4 hours of sunlight from 12 till 4 everyday to walk around town and hand out resumes to hopefully extend some our tenants’ stay . My job finally gave me hours for training on the weekend so rent does not seem as impossible anymore at least in my case.

To all my family that have been asking what I wanted for Christmas and I rudely forgot to reply, I’m sorry. For Christmas I really don’t need anything up here, now that I have money coming for me in the future. I only ask for patience to pay back those I have borrowed money from to keep up here.  As for Ken, I expect those skis in the mail pronto…so I may burn them, or try them…I dunno depends on my mood. I hope that when  I return I can continue working on piano, as a piano was a Christmas gift I was hoping on asking for but sadly do not feel I deserve at the moment.

As for the boarding and snow bit of the blog, the mountain is fantastic and I’ve only rode the top half of the mountain since the bottom is probably opening up next week. The mountain is certainly a leg burner on all accounts and offers lots of fun terrain…I’ve been burning down Snow Rodeo and SWF on my time up there but the Separate Reality Glades on a good powder day looks like a lot of fun but it was really tracked out last time I was riding. Overall for the difficulty I was expecting from the Stoke Chair I was pleasantly surprised how many good runs there were ranging in difficulty from beginner all the way to advanced.

Through the suggestion of Dave Maier I will be posting some local restaurant reviews in my utmost honesty…And as my family and friends know, it’s probably good that I’m posting it here and not saying it while at the restaurant…even though I tend to do that normally. I think I’ll start with Parmajit’s Kitchen, a German Indian restaurant in town that I absolutely adore.

I’ve been there now on 3 occasions and every time has been awesome. The first time I went there I had seen some friends dining in there and upon arrival I saw all the delicious food they were eating and decided I wanted in on it. The restaurant is a casual take-out or eat-in , fresh fast food restaurant. I only say fast food in its truest sense, the food was fast and of amazing quality and freshness. I had a wonderful Souvlaki Lamb wrap the first time I was there and it was so juicy, fresh and tasty that I fell in love with the place. The owners are wonderfully friendly and efficient and the nice view out onto the street gives the quiet little establishment a nice atmosphere to it with all the wonderful spices and aromas in the air. The 2nd time I was there I had the butter Chicken Roti Wrap when I was showing Jordi around town, she was stunned at how good the food was. My personal favorite is the Butter Chicken Wrap but I’m sure I’ll be back to try some more of the German food they serve as well when I have some more money. And of course my personal favorite about the place, it’s cheap! The wraps with a little salad was 7 dollars while with some soup or naan bread it was 10. There were plenty of options to add rice and salads and daily soups and wonderful fresh naan bread. For now I’ll give this place 5 stars..or whatever because I have never seen anyone not enjoying food in there, nor have I ever been dissapointed by them.

Cheers, will add some more content soon, sorry about the break in posts, laziness is a bad habit.

First accident of the year happened on our usually calm and safe Beer Pong Sunday. Jordi, the newest addition to the house was running downstairs in the dark to grab her camera to take some pictures, she was doing fine until on the final step she mis-stepped, and hit the stair at a bad angle, proceeded to fall at a worse angle and the next thign we know we hear screaming coming from the stairs. After we tried to determine the extent of the fall we decided it would be best to call an ambulance. Paramedics arrived and took her off to the Revelstoke hospital. We quickly followed in a cab as she asked us to come be there with her. Of course we made a good time out of it all, taking pictures and joking around to try and cheer her up, We got to the hospital and noticed quickly that it was nothing like an emergency room back home in Victoria where you could wait hours just to see a doctor even if you had broken bones. Here we went in and she was the only patient. The doctors threw a temporary tensor bandage cast on her and sent her home after an hour telling her to come back in the morning for an x-ray. The next morning I woke up, and came downstairs to Jordi sitting on the couch with a bright green cast propped up on the leg rest. Doctor says she chipped the front of her Tibia, minimum of two weeks in a cast and he’s consulting a doctor in Salmon Arm for another opinion for a true timeline. So Jordi has been dubbed Turbo, because she is the slowest person I have ever seen on crutches and so far I’ve had to piggy back her around town just so she can keep up.

Big news coming tomorrow! and Big stuff happening in the house…I guess some stuff

When Colton first pitched me Revelstoke, he was also getting me into some of this year’s current snowboard movies. After watching Videograss, That’s it That’s All and a few other randoms he showed me a teaser for this film. Let’s Go Get Lost by the German snowboard crew Isenseven. He also showed me Teenage Love Graffiti. Both of these vids have got excellent music and amazing riding from all disciplines and forms with amazing video editing that makes most snowboard movies look like they’re ten years old. Well after almost half a year of waiting the movie came out and we found it. I just watched it last week… And this was the opening part…just imagine how good the rest of the movie is just after this intro.

and if you liked that. Check out my 2nd favorite part from the movie here on Vimeo!

Lets Go Get Lost – Ludwig Lejkner & Torgeir Berre Isenseven 2010 from Shred Buddy on Vimeo.

He sent me this vid of himself holding his blackberry while ripping down Mt. Washington. In sense I am supposed to brag about him right here and explain how good of a skier he is and how much I thank him for helping me learn how to snowboard during some of my first few times up on the mountain. So I will. He has lived at ski resorts for much of his life and has done some pretty insane stunts in his days so I have a lot of respect for him. He’s a great guy who I’ve known for at least 5 years who never ceases to amaze me and make me laugh. By day he’s a car dealership general sales manager for BMW in Victoria, by night he’s a smooth talker who skis and drives like a pro… Is that enough Dave?

Well I guess I’ve been getting lazy around here with  the blog. With the addition of a 6th person to the house and the mountain opening up it’s tough to keep up on here while maintaining my daily routine. Colton’s pops is staying at the house this weekend and is just as lively as I remember. He reminded me today about the potential of a blog like this in small town like Revelstoke. The only other blog I’ve seen running in the area is the official blog for the mountain and I’d like to fill in the gaps that blog has missed.

Food, Bars, Music, Drinks, Movies…etc.

So I plan to overhaul the blog and make it more deep and make it more interesting to read.

So I started to fool around with Vegas the last few days as I am hoping have it practiced enough so that by the end of the season I can make the sickest videos possible for your entertainment and mine. I enjoy the program just as much as many other people but I find it limiting still in the effect department but maybe that’s just my lack of skill. What do you guys use for snowboard vids? Still sporting Windows XP Movie Maker? Avid? Mac users: Final Cut/Pro? Adobe Premier Pro? After Effects? What does it for you in a video editing program in general?

Well after many days of boredom and still a lack of a job, we decided to use some of the very little snow in out backyard to make a drop in ramp and a jib off of an old broken mini fridge. It worked pretty well, but we need more snow for the shot to be video worthy. Stay tuned to see that thrown into a video in the near future and of course our final product.

As winter is coming, the cold fronts are as well. The negative 16 weather at the summit of the mountain is a sure fire indicator of the cold to come. Sadly this diminishes our chance of moist snow dumps or snow in general in the near future. I’ve been bundling up pretty hard but my face is still lacking a decent neck warmer or bandanna.

And a final note, if you read this blog or have  read it and enjoyed it, I’d love to hear back from you via comment or email, if you have had a less than pleasant experience…please let me know how I could improve it… Yes that means you family members and friends, you are not exempt from comments and feedback. Check the site over the next few days for big updates and some aesthetic changes.

Cheers, Chris

Snowtunes PT.5 Preview

Bloodmeat- Protest the Hero
1901- Phoenix
Stone Cold Crazy- Queen
Medication- Queens of the Stone Age
Seeing Double at the Triple Rock- NOFX

Pictures from Colton’s dad’s Blackberry of our daily waxing and board servicing.

Thinking of starting a a video reccomendation/review section to help perk your snowboarding curiousity in between each one of our ‘epics’…but seriously watch the pros at work.

The closer clip from Burton’s new aptly named movie, “The B”.

Well after a few days of absence from the blogging scene I am back. It’s been a little different around here with the lack of Ross for a few days and the addition of Jordi to our household. Like I have said before, every person brings a different thing to the table in consideration to personalities and talents. With Jordi comes a seriously needed kick in the pants in the cleanliness department. I’ve had the kitchen on lock down but she now rules the bathrooms with a bottle of knock-off oxy clean.

So now that’s off the chopping block. We had our 4th/5th (unsure) weekly get-together at the house and have started to make a name for ourselves in the town as the place to be on a Sunday night…yeah Sunday. I’ve met many wonderful people in this town, and it only reminds me of why I love to travel the world, meet new people and have good times with those people.

As you may have seen, I have left last week’s Snowtunes unfinished due to serious forgetfulness and I guess…laziness, but I am determined to keep that going as it is the most viewed thing on this blog. So as of…soon! I will add 5 more songs and add reviews for the last 10 songs as to keep things going.

You may have already read Colton’s wonderful description of opening day, but I’d love to give a separate point of view on the whole thing, my point of view. I am what you would call a …noob to snowboarding. I was up 8-9 times last year and most of those times were spent learning the ins and outs of snowboarding and the fine mechanics behind it. After the end of the season last year I though I had seen mostly everything a mountain could throw at me besides park and backcountry, but I was wrong.  I got to the top of the highest chair at RMR and I dropped down into whiteout conditions with waist deep powder that cushioned any unlucky fall or mishap. Consequences were reduced severely but my god was my back leg burning by the end of the day. The sheer chore of carving and turning became a volunteer torture by the end of the day. Everyone congratulated me for ripping like I did down the blacks and blues of RMR with the finesse I shouldn’t have had after only 8 days of boarding experience so it wasn’t all bad. I won’t lie it was a lot of fun, but I will be working for my fun this year. My view of snowboarding is: risk everything, fear nothing. So when I’m staring down steep icy slopes, unmapped glades and pillows of fresh pow with legs burning I will not chicken out. Payoff comes with work, hopefully this will accelerate my learning and allow me to roll with my peers…with less falling and less embarrassingly.

Yesterday was opening day for Revelstoke, after weeks of hearing about other people already riding, and us barely getting by hiking in the woods for snow, it couldn’t have come soon enough. I have to say, it was the best opening day I’ve ever experienced. We got there around 7:30 lifts ran at 8:30, the first group in line was at the gondola at 4 in the morning waiting to ride. We got there at just the right time though, about five minute after we got there the line began to grow, and grow, and grow. After getting off the gondola we proceeded to the aptly named Stoke Chair, going up all we saw was nonstop powder everywhere, people were dropping fresh lines and whooping it up it was amazing. We got to the top and dropped into at least a foot of crisp blower pow, things could not have been any better. The rest of the day we still managed to find powder despite the massive amount of people riding.

Now we have to wait four days to ride again, RMR is shut Monday to Thursday for some final touch ups and opens fully again Friday the 4th, just enough time for some more powder, and I can’t wait.

Haven’t updated the site for a while,Chris has been doing a better job then me.
We did some more hiking today, I threw together a quick edit of the shots we got, we weren’t out long so it isn’t much. Highlight of the day was Mat MJ sliding my board as I held it up, took a couple tries but we got the shot, enjoy and let me know what you think.

Chris’ Edit.