Ready To Go!

Well, we’re happy to report that we’ve pretty much returned to our typical Big White routine. Our building at Stonegate is back up and running (see last year’s recap), so we were happy to return to our newly-refreshed condo this year along with the condo down the hall. The past few trips, we’ve come during the Easter break in late March / early April, which seems like it has become the new normal. The snow and weather have cooperated nicely during this time so we’ll likely continue!

Jenn was in Las Vegas with friends leading into the trip this year, so I flew up with just the kids on a Saturday – we spent the night at a hotel and did the grocery shopping on Sunday before Jenn arrived later that afternoon. We met her at the airport, transferred all our luggage and groceries to a Big White shuttle and off we went!

We were joined by Jenn’s usual family crew, we started the trip out with our customary kick-off pizza party on the first night. We were dumb and waited until Monday to do ski rentals (was busy!), but soon enough Jenn and the kids were off on the slopes. I mentioned last year I had bought used skis, so I spent some time that first day getting new ski boots purchased and fitted so I could complete my transition to being a skier… though I’ll keep the board around and use it from time to time. 😉

As it was my first time (ever) on skis, Jenn, Ryley and I did a few ski lessons to start off on the right foot – happy to report it went well, I am officially comfortable on skis. Josh of course was off hot-footing it right from the get-go, I’ll need to put in some work to catch up to him again!

The snow was great as per usual – so much so that even as a new skier, Tim and I took a few runs down the steep black-diamond section of the mountain called the Cliff. I hadn’t ever done the Cliff chair before so I was stoked to achieve that milestone this time around! The sun was out a lot as well but it stayed a nice temperature, we didn’t ever really have bad conditions – it was pretty awesome. We spent lots of time over at the Gem Lake side this year (usually the first area to close in not-great weather) – the kids were happy about that as the Beavertails food truck is parked over there, and of course we had to visit our snow unicorn (a unicorn-shaped ‘snow ghost’… a tree caked in snow)!

And Now… We Ski

While out and about skiing, we’d often dip in to see our lot and future home of the Wilson Ski Chalet! I mentioned last year that we were looking up there and ultimately we purchased lot #44 at Feathertop (check out the whole mountain map, Feathertop is on the right side between the Bullet and Black Forest chair lifts.) We don’t have plans to build quite yet, but perhaps in the near future… 😉

Beyond skiing, we enjoyed a few other things as well. The horse-drawn sleigh ride guy (Jim from Stettler) was making this his last year so we made sure to do a final ride one afternoon. We also did plenty of hot-tubbing, puzzle building, and we made it out snow tubing as well (to the delight of all the ‘kids’ young and old!). We celebrated Easter while there with an egg hunt in the condo, we ate SO much chocolate…

So another awesome Big White holiday is behind us. We always enjoy the skiing and time with family; the kids are getting older and thus are enjoying a little more autonomy on the ski hill, but as they get older we can explore more and more of the hill with them – I think we explored more of the hill this year than any other year in the past! I’m glad they still hang with us old folks – hopefully they will continue to enjoy our company as we do theirs!

Until next year!