(This post was supposed to be put out on Monday night - I think, but apparently I left it in draft status. So, chronologically it should precede the last post, if that makes any sense.)

We are live from Canadia. God is apparently good here as well. Very good.

We arrived to stormy weather. Rain, lots of it. Which meant above 800 meters, there was snow. Lots of it. This weekend Whistler got the best single snowstorm they've seen in 2 seasons. Monday morning it began to taper off, right about the time I clicked in. By 10am I was in line at their peak lift, waiting for it to open.

I've skied powder this deep and delicious before. But something about BC powder made it unique. I think it tastes different. I had a few good runs of fresh tracks off the peaks before it began to look tracked out. I sneaked in a couple extras by hitting some couliers that were a little sketchy up top, but held big payouts for those willing to commit. But perhaps the nicest thing was to be back on a serious hill, one with finer sportsmen than myself on the attack. While we were watching tough guy after tough guy drop the 20-30 foot ridge near the bottom of the peak, some maniac threw the most insane dinner-roll cliff drop I've ever seen from a tree-lined ridge about 150 feet above the same landing zone we were hitting. He was moving like a rocket, and under-rotated, landing him on his shoulder, roughly. Thanks to the deep, he came out alive. And you don't need to land a flight like that to get the respect.

The one bad thing I've experienced in showing up just in time to get the freshies is that you don't get a day or two to warm up to the mountain. There's two downsides here - your body is neither acclimated nor toughened up from a few days of beating, and you don't know the lay of the land so well. I had to ski a little more pensively than usual, even in the deep, as I sometimes had no way of knowing what kind of drop or rock outcropping may lay behind the next ridge. And as of this evening, my right leg is noticeably more sore than it should be this early in a 5 day stretch.

I think I'll survive with a couple days of cruising before I take it big in the end. Not as big as usual, but bigger all the same - find the stuff I like and really go for it.

Traveling wasn't the greatest (I prefer it alone) but I knew all day yesterday that one thing would cure it, and it did. Once I get on the white stuff, everything is right. Waiting around to teach friends snowboarding (when I'm on skis), taking an unexpected digger, rude French people who either don't understand or don't care about basic line etiquette, spending the evening sitting in the car while people shop for gear, none of it matters. Heaven on earth hosted you all day, and awaits you again tomorrow. You have no worries.

That's the update from here - we've cooked some incredible meals - tomorrow we're going to head back to Vancouver for dinner and pick up a friend arriving late, Wednesday is BBQ'ing on the grill, and Thursday we're getting a nice meal out. Basically its ski all day, eat in the eve, and follow it up with some Playstation or perhaps an early bedtime. Or some stretching and a hot tub soak.

Guess where I'm going.