Thanks!

Left this behind... still haven't figured out why...

Without any hesitation I can state that this was the best experience of my lifetime, and there are many thank you's that are due for making it one that I will never forget.


Firstly, thank you to the guys at Nonstop who made it all possible and especially Jenny, our course hostess, who helped us out along the way.


It's been a pleasure to ski with our instructors, Wendy and Dwight, day in day out for the last 6 weeks and we have all learnt so much. The standard of skiing they display is incredible and has been a large part in helping us improve our own technique. Looking at the group now from when we first started, we've all upped our game massively. You guys have also been great friends, and I hope we cross paths again in the future. Many thanks to you both!


The other instructors were awesome. Shaun taught me a technique that transformed my skiing in a total eureka moment. It was great skiing with Luke just for his freestyle experience and with his local knowledge of all the jump spots, following him round the mountain was great fun. Steve Ruskay was a great guy and made it a pleasure to take the avalanche training with him, even in the 2 days we were with him we learnt so much. Steve Kuijt truly was the man of the mountain, whether it was ski touring, snow pack analysis and avalanche safety, mountain handy man or backcountry powder hunting, his expertise were of no question. Even whilst recounting stories of antics with Bear Grylls and saving a woman from a car fire before taking us touring, his down to earth attitude showed us he was just here for the same reason as us. A pure love of the mountains.


Of the whole of the six weeks, the highlight was unquestionably the Boulder Hut. Of course we had perfect snow conditions, but it was so much more than that. A massive thank you goes out to Mark, Sarah and family for opening up their home to us. It was an amazing experience and I can only admire the life you have built for yourselves out there. The thank you is obviously extended to Ben, Shirley and Fernando for the part they played in making our trip as good as it was! Hats off to Shirley, who managed to single-handedly cook incredible food for more than 12 of the hungriest people in BC every morning, afternoon and evening!


The biggest thank you though, goes to the 2012 Masters of the Mountain. It was you guys that really made the trip that little bit more special, hopefully we will be able to smash some pow together again sometime.


It's been a trip of many memories and whilst the great ones will last forever, inevitably some will fade, which is why I am so grateful to have thousands of the stored on my hard drive! The photos and videos everyone has captured serves as a euphoric reminder of the good times we had. None more so than James's photos, which tell the story of our time in Fernie perfectly. I want to give a huge thank you to James for the time and effort he put in to stop and take photos of us all. There are definitely a few going up on the wall...


Keep in touch, Trig

Forget Sophie's Choice. This is Leon's Choice!

Awesome sunrise that Katie captured this morning!

Doomsday has arrived. I had a casual breakfast to try and see everybody before they went up to the hill (only about 5 of us left today!) and we left for Calgary. This meant hurriedly packing everything in the last half hour. At this point Leon was intent on staying, but between here an the lobby he had changed his mind and went to tell Jenny that he would be getting on the shuttle. However, since it was happening to Leon, it was never going to be as simple as that. It was now out of his hands whether he was staying in Fernie as the transfer had been booked to exclude him, so was questionable whether he and his luggage would fit!

This could only happen to Leon...

Fortunately, after a logistical nightmare (and a quick foosball game), the luggage was in and we were on our way, watching the mountains we called home vanish over the horizon. The flight left on time and soared over the outskirts of Calgary at night time, giving a gorgeous view of the illuminated city and a final glance at the world famous Saddledome before fading to black over the desolate flatlands of Alberta. 

Farewell Canada. It's been a pleasure!

Fernie high street looking up to Lizard bowl

Monday Mourning

Everyone was up early. We were scheduled to meet our instructors, Dwight and Wendy, at 10am for our final lesson. None of us expected, or really wanted, a proper lesson with them, just a final chance to rip up the mountain with the people who, over the course of the 6 weeks, have become close friends. Before that though there was an hour of skiing to be had, and we were determined to make it count. As we were skiing, the silence was being punctured by the unmistakable sound of the patrol bombing both Lizard and Curry bowls. This is promising. We were all just praying that the sign lines would drop this morning. Our freeski was quickly over and we headed down to meet the instructors and Jenny who was ready with a camera for a final group photo.

One big happy Master The Mountain family!

Wendy, Ruben, Me and Leon

After a few runs Jenny was given the responsibility of taking us to a secret spot, which she excitedly did, exclaiming that she bets there's still first tracks in there. To her credit, she was right and as we dropped into the darkness of the trees, the whoops and hollers rang through the air and told the story of how much joy a little snow can truly bring.

Will jumped off the cat track into the deep pow at the bottom but paid the price when he had to swim out!

We lapped the T-Bar and headed up the Bear chair, at which point we heard that lower Lizard was open. We bolted over but in 5 minutes the whole place was trashed. I found a little bit to play in but we were too late for the good stuff. We met up at the Bear again and found Will had deserted the group in search of powder in Curry bowl. The rest of us followed suit and thanks to the lift priority for being in lesson, soon overtook him in the queue. Fortunately for him he is immune to public disgrace and quickly ducked the ropes and rejoined us at the front! We headed over to Cougar Glades and took it into Stag Leap, which was great fun. A bit choppy, but full of facials if you picked the right line. I think Leon had a sudden realisation that today was his last day (maybe) and smashed his line right down to the bottom at top speed!

We managed to get separated from James, Will and Ruben, who chose to try Easter bowl instead, and it definitely looks like they had the right idea.

Ruben in Easter. Not jealous at all!

We had our final Corner Pocket lunch and skied out the day in style, even managing to find a couple of runs we hadn't done before! I would never say 'I'm glad today is our last day' but it came as a big relief knowing that I didn't have to ski tomorrow, my legs were destroyed!

The MTM farewell party was held at the Old Nurses Home tonight, as a last chance to recount the amazing times we've had over the past 1 1/2 months with the amazing friends we've made. In true apres ski party fashion, Jenny brought some 80's ski wear over for us!

Matt, James and Will in 80's style

Fiona, Katie and Ness

That new Euro ski instructor gets all the girls!

Ruben and Mav Attwood - straight from the set of Aspen Extreme

Ness and Dave

Gav, Simon, Leon and Phil

James actually didn't dress up, these are his own clothes!

Katie. Pure filth!

My pants were TIGHT. Jean Claude Van Damme's got nothing on me!

Extreme measures for holding piggy Will back!

Will manned the barbeque and soon 20+ steaks had appeared on the table. The beers were distributed and we all settled down to watch some of the GoPro videos and photo slideshows that have been taken over our time here. Here are the ones I can get hold of:

Touring For Powder - Will

Ruben's first video

Ruben's second video

As the night passed we were presented with our Avalanche Safety Training level 1 certificates and our Nonstop hoodies, whilst we presented the instructors with their gratuities we had collected as a thank you. We took a final group photo and hugged goodbye to Wendy. I had a proud moment as she told me I was the most improved skier in the group!

Skiers

Snowboarders family portrait

As normally happens, people disband and the remaining group head to The Royal. Most people kept themselves topped up enough to stay suitably merry, but in his typical fashion, Leon kept knocking them back and was soon to be seen 'dancing' on the stage wearing Martins 80's jacket and shades! Honestly, we've come to expect nothing less. I can't forget James though, who was throwing the shapes like no other man can!

Leon. Nuff said.

The boys

And that was that. Fernie Master The Mountain 2012 was over. God i'm gonna miss this place.

Super Sunday

Last night we toasted the Griz with every raised glass. So much infact that we made him throw up 55cm in the space of about 12hrs. Unfortunately, we broke Ruben and he missed out on a great day on the hill. The hangovers were put on hold and after a quick visit to The Loaf we headed up on the 10am bus. The eager boys had already headed up and ripped up the fresh snow in Timber bowl and Cedar ridge, which were the only bits of the mountain open, so we had to get creative. There were still plenty of fresh lines for the people who knew where to look. Me and Matt headed up the old side and found some untracked lines under the Elk chair, before lapping Cedar ridge and improvising a few lines at the bottom, straight lining into the powder field beside the T-Bar and plunging into the white room once more. Face shots in resort with people whooping from the lifts is a pretty inspiring thing! 


We picked up Leon and Will at the base and went to new side. By this time Siberia bowl had been opened so we hiked up and skied Morning Glory. We all rallied it down and after Leon had dug himself out of a tree well, we smashed the broken pow on falling star back to the Timber chair. We continued all day as we knew tomorrow would be our last. Leon said it was the best day he's had in resort all season. As a finale me and Will headed for Triple Trees, the location of Dylan Siggers's first video. That boy has got some skills, 100% commitment required in there. Its a place where you know your going to fast but can't do anything about it! Dylan put together an edit from today, so stoked when I remember I was there this time around!

90cm with Dylan Siggers

It seems wrong to say that group 2 would already be back in Fernie after the Boulder Hut trip, as we effectively stole half of one of their days, but we had agreed to meet up tonight for a social dinner at the Brickhouse and catch up. All except Gav that was, who had retried the bagel challenge. Unfortunately he couldn't beat his previous time and came away $28 poorer. Although by Leon's logic 'It's just like eating a fine $28 steak, except its a bagel...'


We swapped stories over dinner and toasted the Griz for our last day of skiing to be a good one. It was certainly shaping up to be, patrol hadn't opened Curry, Lizard or Cedar bowls this weekend and everybody was concious that there was 50-100cm lying in wait, ready to be smashed...

Rally It!

Just to make up for the fact that we weren't at the Boulder Hut, The Griz decided to cheer us up by dumping 40cm on Fernie last night. We were all up on the first bus and smashing pow by 9:15am. The freshies didn't last long however, as the weekend crowd from Calgary soon had the mountain cut up so much it was just a load of powder moguls by noon. It was at this point that we had a choice; feebly make our way around them or man up, get loose and rally it like a boss. I remembered something Jens said to us on the first day: 'The aim of this course is to give you the ability to ski the whole mountain, in any condition, and ENJOY IT!' After 5 1/2 weeks of practice in all types of condition, the latter option was the only one that would do!

I think it snowed...

This is what happens when it snows at the weekend...

We killed it all morning and early afternoon, but Matt and Ruben who are staying on after the course, headed back on the early bus. I wanted to make the most of my last days and saw it through to the end on my own under the watchful eye of The Griz. As I headed up the Bear lift I noticed the patrollers opening up the sign line to feed lower lizard bowl. SCORE! It had been closed all day so it was just a blank canvas waiting for human contact. I straight lined down the lift line and was one of the first in to get my powder fix. The run was only short but those turns are priceless. By the time I got to the top again there was nothing else to be had, so headed back down for the bus. At the bottom I ran into Leon, who had been abandoned by the powder pigs and left to ski alone all day! Gutted!

Tonight is Riders night!

Tonight was our last time at the Fernie Ghostriders game so we were eager to make it memorable. The support team was on form and the goal tender, Shaberhorn, barely got a quiet moment to himself all game. 'My nan has coupons that save more than you Shaberhorn!' was a personal favourite!


It's the playoffs so the win was critical, thankfully they obliged and post game celebrations got underway. We hit the Raging Elk and Matt decided we were having a big night by buying a pitcher of beer just between me and him. From there, it moved to the Royal for 7 Jagerbombs in a row and drunken dubstep dancing. Tonight just added even more justification to the phrase 'Nothing good ever happens in the Royal!

Friday Fir and Film Festival

Feeling revived after a good nights sleep in a proper bed, we all headed up to the ski hill to make the most of the time we had left skiing together as a group. Kirsty also joined us today. I first met Kirsty in a shop on the mountain as she was kitting up with some new goggles ready for the first day of her 2 week improvement camp. Today was some 3 1/2 weeks later. Turns out she has well and truly caught Fernie fever and has delayed her return flight indefinitely, meaning she will probably see out most of the season here! This is the common effect that Legendary Fernie has on people and what can turn a person into a ski bum in a single faceshot.

'The ski bum trades security for face shots, the future for the moment. Considering how hollow the promise of a corporate career has become, who can say the ski bum is not the wiser investor in his/her youth?' - Unknown.

Dumping again at FAR. The seasonaires gear up for another epic day

We all had a great day skiing with a good lunch in Corner Pocket and were about ready to call it a day but everyone agreed a run down Lone Fir was on the cards before the weekend rush came and tracked everything in sight. This decision almost proved catastrophic for James, who caught an edge halfway down and spun round in a reverse snowplough, then finding perfect balance on one ski with the other trailing in the air, hurtling straight down the mountain mere inches past the rest of the group and eventually stacking it in the clearing below! It could have been really bad, but his head popped up straight away and shouted 'where's my other ski?!' Fortunately I was tail gunning and managed to collect his poles on the way down, but he was understandably shaken and we all decided to head to the Griz bar for a beer.

James in stage 1 of his epic fall

Kirsty coming down just seconds before

Tonights entertainment was scheduled to be at the Fernie Film Festival, so we headed out to the Brickhouse for another 'best burger in town' before it began. The first film was a little hard to get into, something about female Spanish climbers, but unfortunately that was the feature film so had quite a while to wait for something a little more exciting. The next one fit the bill a bit more, simply called 'WOO!', which becomes pretty self explanatory within the opening seconds. A feeling every skier/boarder will know only too well when they step into those bindings on a powder day... 

WOO!

Chasing water was about the Colorado river and how it no longer runs to the sea, and another about white water rafting which was pretty crazy! To finish they played Danny MacAskill's brilliant 'Industrial Revolutions' and some arty short that I didn't really understand. Another day in the life of a Fernie Alpine Resort resident!

Danny MacAskill - Industrial Revolutions

Back to reality

It's a sad day today. Although we got more than we bargained for by staying an extra day, it's hard to leave a place where some of your greatest memories have been made. The skiing has been excellent. The location, food and company likewise, but the main factor that made it as special as it was had to be the hospitality shown by Mark, Sarah and family. They invited us into their home as strangers and for those few days we were made to feel just as welcome as they were.

Traditional group photo. Great memories...

With a bit of time to spare, we helped shovel the snow off the wood shelter roof, followed by a commemorative last run down the luge track. 10am rolled around and soon the sound of the helicopter making its way up the valley came into earshot. As before the turnaround was critical and there was just enough time to hug it out with a couple of the newcomers. We didn't even need to say anything, our smiles told the story better than words ever could. With that we boarded the chopper and after watching them draw a 15ft penis in the snow, headed off back to civilisation.

New Arrivals!

Jenny was waiting patiently for us in the bus, along with the slightly less patient Fiona, Shawn, James, Tom and Gav! Soon enough they were called up and within minutes had disappeared over the horizon and once the other half of our group had landed, we set out back towards Kimberley with heavy hearts and incredible memories.

The trip back to Fernie consisted of excitedly telling Jenny all our stories (typically it wasn't long before the origin of my new nickname came about), rocking out to Johnny Cash (Tom excluded!) and necking the box of Nerds if found at a service station. We even saw/drove into a herd of deer in the road eating the salt. Clearly not scared of vehicles, even the horn couldn't get them out of the way! Must have been good salt!

Oh deer!

The rest of the afternoon faded away into nothingness as we reluctantly returned all our touring equipment, phoned home and sat down for an unusually sub-par dinner. It was no Shirley that's for sure! We drowned our sorrows with Fernie Brewing Company's finest and cured our foosball withdrawal before hitting the sack.

The boulder hut was over. Gutted.

Three Little Pigs

The day began as usual but seeing as today was supposed to be our leaving day, we had some simple chores to do before the next guests arrive, such as tidy the casa, shovel some snow and do a wood train to restock the fire supplies.

Gathered around the breakfast table we only had one thing on our mind. The view out of the window was obstructed by the onslaught of new powder - it was up to nukin' and there were wind gusts on the ridge of up to about 100kph. Surely the heli couldn't fly in this!? Mark and Ben were on the case. We finished the chores and got ready to go up the mountain. Regardless of flight delays, we still had half a day of ski touring to fit in. It reached 10am and as we were skinning up in front of the hut we got the call. 'The heli will not fly today!' This was the stuff of dreams! My thoughts went back to reading the Whitelines magazine before the trip, where the last line warned of such an event, but apparently we were the first NonStoppers to have the privilege (Sorry group 2!)

Enjoying our last night

On paper, today should have been epic skiing, with a dump of over 40cm overnight and still going. The temperature was high though, and that layer of 40cm was heavy. About 15% density in fact, which as it turns out is pretty tricky to ski in. The old skinning trails had completely disappeared by this point, so it was up to Mark to break trail again. A few of us wanted to prove our worth and take the load off Mark for a change so decided now was the time to spend some time up front. First Martin had a charge, followed by Ruben, then I took over for the last stint. It was definitely a good experience to try and it certainly makes you realise how much effort the guides are putting in on a daily basis. When it opened out into a clearing, we watched as Ben dug a snow pit and relayed the snow pack analysis back over to Mark. The avalanche risk at the moment is high in the alpine and considerable at tree line, which is why it pays to have expert guides here. Mark and Ben both did a fantastic job of keeping us safe.

Taking the lead!

As we headed further up into the City Park area, Mark reported hearing 3 'Whumpfs'. A whumpf is the sound that the ground makes when a weak layer deep in the snow pack collapses due to the pressure of the skier on top. This layer of hoar crystals is arranged like dominoes and when they collapse the whole slab above it drops. These are critical signs of avalanche danger, so Mark lead us into the trees and to a safe spot where we could de-skin for our first run of the day, or as Ben would say 'SMASH SOME POW!'


What happened next was quite the opposite. The pow well and truly smashed us. It was so heavy that even pointing straight down the hill you would come to a complete stop! With a lot of effort we made it back down to the point where the snow pit had been dug, then eventually found our way to the last pitch we skied yesterday behind the hut. This was still very hard work but had more of the bottomless powder feel we were so accustomed to by now. At the bottom it was already half 12 so we headed into the hut for lunch, admittedly a little disheartened. We were given two choices to ponder over lunch:

1. Session the last pitch for the rest of the afternoon and peel off back to the hut when we've had enough.
2. Call it quits and find something to entertain us at the hut.

A few PB+J sandwiches later, motivation to struggle around up on the mountain had disappeared and the call was made to finish up there. The plan instead was to use the plot below the hut and build a dual luge track! A couple of hours later and the mental schematics of the track had changed and had ended up as a joint effort on one bigger and better track and even a powder booter at the bottom. Good times! IT was the most childish fun most of us have had in a while! A bit later on Aldin came down to give it a professional test. First time down no-one knew he was on track, so nearly harpooned Rosie and forced me to dive over the top of a berm into the pow... The kid is nuts!

Aldin climbing the walls of the Boulder Hut, another of his talents!

He also went down with Ruben, but it ended in tears. When Mark arrived on the scene, Aldin stammered 'I got a face shot!' to which Mark replied 'Stop crying Aldin, that's just adrenaline. You went to the white room!' Love it!

Parenting: You're doing it right!

Sledging in the only way we know how - smashing pow

Mark had just sent it into the fresh powder off the jump at the bottom!

The evening passed by pretty quickly and once we had finished off the roast beef dinner planned for the second group (sorry guys, but it was really good!) and seeing as we had an extra night, the honorary powder pig was to be named. Martin was the judge having been the pig for today. In his elaborate speech he referred to several occasions over the last few days where he had observed the powder pig growing inside this person, and on one occasion was spotted unashamedly poling to get to in first, even denying Fernando his first tracks. The highlight though was a memory dating back further than the Boulder Hut, to when Martin suggested 'Lets go out and have sex with strangers tonight' and the reply came 'Nah bud, tomorrows a powder day, i wanna get the first bus!' And with that Martin produced the powder pig and completed the handover to...

...ME!

Three little pigs in the house made of sticks!

Later on Mark appeared with his guitar and exclaimed 'I heard there are some players here' to which Ben responded 'I'm a player! ALRIGHT!' He did actually mean guitar players, and inevitably that meant me. I had a quick play but Mark stole the show with some soulful blues riffs. In the end we had a little jam together, including one of his originals and a blues version of Jose Gonzalez's Heartbeats and Metallica's Nothing Else Matters.

Mark Jammin'

It was a great mellow end to the night and essentially our stay at the Boulder Hut. The time has gone so fast!

The Powder Hound

Although it seems like no time at all since we arrived, today will be our last full day at the Boulder Hut. We would still have half a day tomorrow but it was still a bitter pill to swallow after yesterdays delirious highs.


Breakfast today looked pretty ordinary; cereal, porridge etc. That was until we were introduced to the ingenious creation that is the 'Egg Bomb', which are basically cupcakes made of eggs wrapped in bacon. Definitely one for the UK cookbook!

Full of win

The snow last night didn't last very long after we retired to the Casa du Suenos (House of Dreams) so there was only a light dusting by morning. The main difference was the temperature. It was getting concerningly close to O°C and in that range the snow pack settles and becomes a lot heavier. This is exactly what happened and all 65 glorious centimetres from the last 48h had quickly bedded down into about 25cm of much heavier stuff. Snow snobs i know! The conditions were still amazing though, and just required a slightly steeper slope angle to stop us getting stuck in the deep snow. This is Marks back garden and he knows every pitch, traverse, gully and terrain trap in this place, meaning he's the perfect person to have around. His challenge was to get us into slopes with good skiing without exposing us to the ever increasing avalanche danger. For this task, he was the man, and there would have been no-one I'd have trusted more. 

Earn your turns!

Again, we skied all day (except Tom who had the day off to rest), enjoying powder run after powder run. The last two of the day really stood out though. Firstly we hit a traverse to find two steep pitches with enough space for about 5 fresh tracks in each. We split up into two with myself, Will, Ruben and Matt following Ben down. Having gotten fed up with Wills powder poaching behaviour yesterday, the powder pig inside me which once lay dormant, was now alive and squealing and had been set loose all day. This however, was the run of gentlemanly conduct. It was decided that Ruben should drop in first and get a blank canvas for a change. I went in ahead of Will, having strategically positioned my powder start in a more convenient location! It was a really nice run down and the steep pitch made the skiing effortless and really fun. Turns out Wendy Mac was right: 'powder skiing is a lazy mans sport!'


It was at this point Matt had had enough and decided to head down to the hut. I probably could have joined him as hiking up mountains all day is a sure fire way to burn up some energy (i've heard the figure 8000 calories thrown around for a hard days ski touring!) but i knew that if i heard reports come back of it being an awesome run, i wouldn't be able to forgive myself! So instead, i skinned up my skis once more and went in pursuit of Mark and the others, who were headed towards City Park, and boy am i glad i did!


The final run of the day started with James offering to take some photos and of course we were grateful for him to do so. I started this run with honourable intentions. It began with Will asking me to wait and tell him when his GoPro was on, so i obliged. That was, until out of the corner of my eye i saw Leon frantically poling from mid pack to get his fix. I was having none of it and instantly bolted, putting me back on pole. It was a job well done as I got some lovely fresh turns in before gliding past James in a cloud of powder and dropping into the traverse at the bottom.

Initially we thought that was it, but Mark had other ideas. He wanted us to weave our way through the trees and pop out at a nice pitch right at the back of the hut. Sure enough after a bit of gardening we found the pitch and set off skiing down it until we popped out the bottom next to the weather plot. Some people choose to come here unguided, but with Marks level of knowledge of the local area I can't see any reason why anyone would want to. None of us would have ever found that little gem otherwise and it made for the perfect end to another great days skiing.


We arrived back at the Boulder Hut truly beat, and found Matt at the table gorging himself on one of Shirleys concoctions. To my delight it was a wheel of warm brie with chopped walnuts on top. HEAVEN. If there's one thing i'll remember about Shirleys cooking it'll be that brie...Ok and the egg bombs... Simple delights for simple beings!


There's one member of the touring group who has been widely overlooked so far, yet has been there all along and not missed a single day, or run for that matter. She goes by the name of Rosie, and she's a dog.

Rosie is as much a mountain dog as we are mountain men (and women). She is also as much a powder hound as we are powder pigs! All too often you'd be gearing up ready to drop in, only to have her walk across the front of your skis and merrily bound off after Mark and Ben. Going down the deep powder runs, she was queen of the faceshots, with every jump burying her deep into the powder before bounding back out again. The way up was no different, she would bide her time behind you, whilst getting as close as possible to the tails of your skis before slyly overtaking as you were struggling with and awkward kickturn. It's a marathon not a sprint, and she won every time! The relentless pace tired her out too though, and she would regularly dig a Rosie sized snow pit for a quick power nap whilst we were changing our skis over.

 

 

Rosie guarding my skis...

Rosie is mainly there as a guard dog for the kids, warding off any local wildlife that passes by the hut. She's also a great family pet though and took a liking to all of us...

The time for the powder pig presentation was here again and after a delicious meal of stuffed garlic chicken, Martin was crowned the new owner. There's a reason Martin hasn't been mentioned yet as a line poacher, and that is because no-one notices. He's strategic, calm, always ready and most importantly invisble. Whilst stood next to you acting out the Mr. Nice Guy routine, his inner pig is working away, figuring out ways to slip past unseen. At the top of most runs, all eyes are on Will, allowing Martin to glide off into the distance without so much as a farewell. And for that, Mr. Vaivods, you are the powder pig!


An interesting development came into effect last night. It started nukin'. Looking at the forecast, it was a huge storm from the pacific and the weather model didn't show any sign of it letting up throughout the whole of tomorrow... Our flight day...