i arrived at the vancouver airport around 7:45pm pacific and ran into my friends adam c and hilary who were waiting for me near the baggage claim. after dropping my bags off in their car, adam and hilary took me to see the bill reid sculpture in the vancouver airport called the spirit of haida gui.
this is the image on the back of the new $20 bill. made out of molded brass, the piece is a brilliant fusion of traditional and non traditional first nations art.
when i think of adam c, i think of the guy who held my hand when i was introduced to the world of raving. he showed me that the ideals that hold raving together aren't just for ravers, but can be applied everywhere. he was the one who gave me my lowrider just because it was 'we love norm' day. he is the originator of the dress shirt and tie phenormenon that swept across the raving community and the plastic chain posse (p.c.p.). i shit you not, he was the first to say 'fuck the corporate world' and wear a shirt and tie to a party. anyone who has a tattoo on his stomach that says 'fucker' that he got in detroit jail doesn't fuck around. gawd i love this guy. and yes jail does change you.
it didn't take long for me to pass out on the sofa at adam and hilary's cozy apartment in kitsilano. the day had been overwhelmingly intense for me. from opening presents with my family...
saying goodbye to the best of friends...
and landing in british columbia to start a new life...i was beat and had a very intense day ahead of me. i was going to live out my childhood dream and shred the shit out of whistler blackcomb.
we woke up at 5am to start getting ready to head to whistler, a two hour drive from vancouver. we were up and out by 6:30am driving the windy and often treacherous hwy99 north to whistler, british columbia. the sun had not yet risen and we were already on our way. riding is life, everything else is just details.
the base of whistler was 1 degree and raining. it was wierd seeing no snow in the parking lot. we suited up and headed towards the whistler ganjala. i mean gondola ;)
being above the cloud line for the first time was an experience i'll never forget. i haven't had to pop my ears because of the elevation since lake tahoe in 2000. i could barely contain my excitement.
after a quick look at the whistler blackcomb atlas, yes the mountain is too big to have a map...
there was a blizzard at the top of the whistler peak, and the flashing light at the bottom of the peak chair meant the peak was open only to experts...but hey man, we're fukkin EXTREME!!!
the visibility at the peak pf whistler was next to nothing. the snow was blowing so hard you could barely see in front of you. the temperature was freezing, the wind was blowing like mad, and snow was everywhere. i really felt the disadvantages of having tinted lenses when the visibility was nil and the light flat.
the whistler bowl is at the top of the map. it was the most extreme run i had ever done in my life. there was a small steep chute leading up to the bowl, and just standing at the top of the chute was nutz scary. i had never ridden whistler before, never ridden powder of this magnitude, and it was all about to become a reality for me.
the run was steep and covered in heavy powder. the visibility was next to nil, making it difficult to negotiate what exactly was coming up next. what a fukkin intense run. i don't think the adrenaline in me has ever been that high while snowboarding. nucking futz!
i stopped half way down the bowl to wait for adam and hilary. adam started riding two years ago and hilary just started riding last year...so riding down a black diamond run at whistler was pretty challenging, even for me.
as i waited, another snowboarder stopped near me to catch his breath. he was riding a race board, on the whistler bowl! that's definitely a guy who is confident in his riding skills. i told him i just moved out here from toronto and was moving to nelson. his recommendation was for me to buy a snorkel. he said that the powder in nelson is so light and fluffy that when you stop in it, a huge wave of snow covers you making it hard to breathe. he says that the locals there use a snorkel and cover it with their scarf so that they can breathe in the world famous nelson powder.
i thanked the guy thinking to myself that he looked a lot like olympic gold medalist ross rebagliati...then again all white people look the same to me in a helmet and goggles. it wasn't until another group of people came up and asked if they could take a picture with him that my suspicions were confirmed.
thanks for the tip ross. you fukkin rool man!
we spent the rest of the day riding incredibly diverse terrain on whistler mountain. the runs take so long to ride that you need to take breaks on the way down just to catch your breath. and the conditions were so diverse. from a blinding snowstorm at the peak to rain, grass, and slush at the base. it was the most epic day of riding i had ever experienced in my life.
soaked from the rain and completely exhausted, we tossed our wet clothes in the trunk and headed back for vancouver. but my first day on the west coast was far from over.
adam and hilary dropped me off at my friend dawn's place on commercial drive in vancouver. she was having a pot luck, and the group she invited were all omies from toronto who now call the west coast home. it was awesome to be surrounded by familiar faces and more importantly people whom i love. i got to relax from the most incredible day of snowboarding with my friends margaret, markus, liz, steph, and dawn in a chill environment. i could not have asked for a better community of people to welcome me to the west coast. thank you guys. i love you so much!
i even got to try on a corset at dawn's place. actually, the corset wasn't big enough for me, so instead we put it on dawn's roommate, ariel. i have yet to find a corset that fits me...it may be the lack of boobs thing, or me not being a skinny little girl...but it sure looked fukkin hawt on ariel.
corsets...the oldest form of bondage *drool*
after a great meal, many tokes of the bc kind, and a spirit or two, i jumped into a cab and headed back to adam and hilary's place for a well deserved night's rest.
that had to be the most intense 24hours of my life. i packed my life up into a suitcase, snowboard bag and backpack, jumped on a plane to the other side of the country, rode powder at whistler, met ross rebagliati, kewled out with loved ones in another area code, and passed the fuck out.
i love it out here...
~*...normaste...*~
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