Big White Photo Gallery

Just finished up the Big White photo gallery — Week THREE & FOUR of our mega ski trip. We took lots of photos and had a really great time. The skiing ranged from slush to powder to packed powder to hard pack to powder on hard pack. We had snow and sunshine with temperatures around 32°F. We skied, snowmobiled and tubed. We had soak time, followed by Happy Hours, followed by dinners in our condo. We did dine at our favorite restaurant, Kettle Valley, and experienced the unique gun barrel coffee and chocolate at Snow Shoes. It was an amazing week. Catherine and Gene hung around for another week with Shirley. The season ended with the usual Dummies Downhill. We are another great Big White trip coming up for 2010. We plan to cruise for LA to Vancouver days before the start of the Olympics. We will then bus to Big White for 5 days of skiing while enjoying the Olympics on the Big Screen. Since we will be in Canada we will definitely catch the Olympic fever. Prices will be announced soon but you can get a sneak peak at Big White Olympic Fever.

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Week Sixteen: Photo a Day 2009

Here is WEEK 16 of our "Photo a Day" project. This was week FIVE of our month-plus long ski trip. We were in Big White for two weeks. We skied everything from slush to fresh powder to ice to packed powder to powder on ice to firm pack. The last day stayed cold and we skied on some pretty firm stuff that was unbelievably fast and fun. The trees were skied out. We hung around Big White for another couple of days to clean, repair and schedule repairs. We love our home at the Stonebridge Lodge in Big White.We are still in catch up mode. Catherine has a bunch of "ski club" awards stuff to administer while Gene is refurbishing his rental unit for new tenants. We have another week before we cruise to Alaska and visit McKinley and Denali.

Paper and elements from Nicole’s Digi-Designs by Nicole “Summer Days.”

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Week Fifteen: Photo a Day 2009

Here is WEEK 15 of our "Photo a Day" project. We are in week FOUR of our month long ski trip. We have been in Big White for over a week now. Claudia & Robert flew out on the 13th as Shirley arrived in Big White. Tom, Shelia and Amanda left on the 14th. We've had spring skiing and cold winter storms. We even had 10 cm of fresh powder one morning. It's been fabulous.Paper and elements from Vicki Parker's A Work in Progress "Lucky Fish.”

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Ski Canada with Pacific Rim Alliance

Pacific Rim Alliance Ski Club has two snow ski trips going to Canada in 2009. There are still openings on both trips and air has not been cheaper in a long time. And because flying into Canada is an international flight, you get to bring two bags, one of which can be ski equipment (boots, skis, poles), for no additional charge. In addition, the dollar has gotten a bit stronger than the Canadian dollar so if it holds, the cost of the ground portion will decrease.

* All air prices quoted are for round-trip and includes all taxes and fuel charges.

You can download a one-page information sheet here.

To sign up for these trips you need to get your own air and then send Pacific Rim (10818 Viacha Dr., San Diego, CA 92124) a $200 deposit. Final payments will be due soon. We are in the process of finalizing the costs and should have them in a week.

Big White—
April 5-12, 2009 or April 6-13, 2009
These dates are flexible. You can elect to stay April 6-13, 2009 to take advantage of the lower air price of flying on Monday. Ground price of $650 includes 7 nights in hotel room (dbl. occ.) with microwave, refrigerator & fireplace, 5 days lift tickets, round-trip transfer from Kelowna airport, nightly cocktail parties and one dinner. Air costs on January 10, 2009 for one stop flights were as follows.

• Alaska changes planes in Seattle.
• Air Canada changes in Vancouver.

Mon-Mon: April 6-13, 2009

• Alaska: LAX from $425*.
• Alaska: San Diego from $522*.
• Air Canada: LAX from $334*.
• Air Canada: San Diego from $334*.

Sun-Sun: April 5-12, 2009

• Alaska: LAX from $627*.
• San Diego from $612*.
• Air Canada: LAX from $334*.
• Air Canada: San Diego from $541*.

Kootenay Safari—
February 28 - March 8, 2009
Ground cost of $1,299 includes 3 nights in Fernie, 3 nights in Golden, 2 nights in Kimberley (dbl. occ.), 7 lift tickets (3 Fernie, 2 Kicking Horse, 1 Panorama, 1 Kimberley), transportation from Cranbrook and to each resort, and nightly cocktail parties.

Air is on Delta through Salt Lake City into Cranbrook. Prices from San Diego or LAX are currently $305*. Check the Delta web site for other cities.

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New Year's Resolutions

I do not make New Year Resolutions, at least not on a conscious level. My honey gave me a clipping from the local throw away newspaper and highlighted a few items I need to work on. I returned the list with some highlighted items for him. It’s a good list and the right things to do. So here is my highlighted list. In the New Year… Mend a quarrel • Write a love letter • Share some treasure • Give a soft answer • Encourage youth • Keep a promise • Find the time • Forgo a grudge • Forgive an enemy • Seek out a forgotten friend • Apologize if you were wrong • Try to understand • Welcome a stranger • Listen • Dismiss suspicion; replace with trust • Manifest your loyalty in word and deed • Examine your demands on others • Think first of some one else • Appreciate • Be kind; be gentle • Laugh a lot • Deserve confidence • Express your gratitude • Make a date to spend with someone special • Gladden the heart of a child • Take pleasure in the wonder of the earth • Climb, ski, or just visit a mountain top • Speak your love • Speak your love yet again…

Layout used elements and paper from "Flower Child" by Stacey Towers. Photo of our friends, the Loyd family, courtesy Big White Ski Resort, B.C., Canada.

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Big White Skiing

We finally went skiing yesterday and it was wonderful. Temperature was around 15°F most of the day with a light snow fall. Visibility was good and the snow was soft and fluffy and well tracked. Last night we went to Big White's 1st Wine Tasting event. It was great with good pick food and outstanding wines from the Okanangan. Today we are headed to Kelowna to replace the DVD player we broke. Monday we hope to ski again. I am out of shape and my legs are definitely feeling it today.

Here's Gene at the top of Kyle's run. This was my favorite run of the day. As you can see there was no one else on it so we had some good untracked powder.
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Big White Open

After a beautiful sunset last night, we woke to a snow fall that has been coming down steady all day. Right now there are only 4 lifts open and 5" of new snow. We were suppose to leave today but our renters rescheduled their trip so we can stay a week longer. So instead of skiing, Gene has spent the day installing the wide screen TV we just bought for the unit. We probably need to go to Kelowna to get the better cables but... It's snowing in Kelowna too. And we will probably want to ski tomorrow so... At least we have another week now to get everything done. This was the view from our living room yesterday! Tomorrow it's suppose to get really cold, like -20°C or for those of us not on the metric system, -4°F.
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Prayers for Peggy

We are snuggled in our condo in Big White with the fireplace blazing as we watch the snow fall and wait for the lifts to open. It is so very beautiful and peaceful and gets us thinking about our recent ski trip to Bariloche and our friend Peggy who is struggling with cancer and chemo. She has a really hard-to-treat cancer but is fighting the fight. To date, she's had two chemo treatments with four to go.

There is a great organizations called Caring Bridge that facilitates a blog for those like Peggy with cancer. You can leave a message of hope and read her journal to catch up on her progress or check out her new do. If you know Peggy or just want to leave encouraging words, visit her here. Our prayers and positive thoughts are with her always.
I made this layout for Peggy. The pink is in honor of her valiant fight. The layout was made from bits and pieces of stuff I've designed over the years.

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Big White Snow Play

It snowed on and off all day at Big White yesterday. When the sun peaked out we were able to watch the "kids" walk up and hill and slide down on skis, snowboards, sleds and platters. This young lady was most entertaining as she did a header as she went off the run. It's suppose to snow again tomorrow with the mountain opening on Wednesday. We can only hope and pray. At least it's cold enough.
We have been putting our time here to good use. We are headed down to Kelowna later today to buy stuff to fix our vacuum and dish washer. Good thing we were here when they broke.

Our ski club, Pacific Rim Alliance, is running a ski trip to Big White April 5-12, 2009, when the skiing and weather is at it's finest. Click here for the details.

Pac Rim also has a ski trip to the Kootenays (Fernie, Kicking Horse, Panorama, Kimberley) Feb 28 - March 8, 2009. Click here for details.

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Big White Snow

We've been in Big White a week now and it just really started snowing today. It's frustrating that the mountain has not opened yet but we've enjoyed the peace and quite. The mountain is hoping to open on Wednesday but we need colder temperatures and more snow for that to happen.

Here's the view of falling snow from our unit looking towards the main Village Center. Although it's been snowing and blowing all morning, not much snow is expected. We continue to pray anyway.
Our ski club, Pacific Rim Alliance, is running a ski trip to Big White April 5-12, 2009, when the skiing and weather is at it's finest. Click here for the details.

Pac Rim also has a ski trip to the Kootenays (Fernie, Kicking Horse, Panorama, Kimberley) Feb 28 - March 8, 2009. Click here for details.

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Pac Rim Argentina Photo Gallery

It's been a long time coming but I finally have Pacific Rim Snow Sport Alliance's Argentina Photo Gallery up and available for viewing. I will be working on the DVD for participants and hope to have it done by the time I return to the states.

It's been a bigger job that I had anticipated. Collectively, our group took more than 9 GB of digital photographs—that's more than 6,000 shots! Don't worry, they are not all on this web site. To make viewing more manageable, slide shows consisting of about 50 - 100 photos have been created for each day. I tried to pick the best of the best and concentrated on the people. Hope you enjoy. It was a truly great trip.

Our ski club, Pacific Rim Alliance, is running a ski trip to Big White April 5-12, 2009, when the skiing and weather is at it's finest. Click here for the details.

Pac Rim also has a ski trip to the Kootenays (Fernie, Kicking Horse, Panorama, Kimberley) Feb 28 - March 8, 2009. Click here for details.

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Big White Announces Exciting News

We are still on the road. Spent the night in Yakima, WA and should arrive in Kelowna in time to hit the Costco. Just before we left San Diego, Heinz, a Pac Rim member, sent us an article on Big White that appeared in the December 2008 issue of SKI by Ken Castle. Interesting.

What we did know is that a 17-story hotel-condo-casino-convention center is being built at the bottom of the Ridge Rocket Chair and is expected to open in 2010. The construction at Big White looks to be outpacing many other destination resorts, and the real-estate boom could soon be matched by an equally ambitious skiing expansion, tentatively called East Peak. According to this article, the resort is about to unveil a master plan that proposes the addition of 2,000 acres of intermediate and advanced terrain on leased provincial land, with construction of the first lift on East Peak to begin in 2010. Plus, the plan makes room for a second-base, another residential community and even a golf course. Even more interesting.
You can download the complete article in pdf format here.

Our ski club, Pacific Rim Alliance, is running a ski trip to Big White April 5-12, 2009, when the skiing and weather is at it's finest. Click here for the details.

Pac Rim also has a ski trip to the Kootenays (Fernie, Kicking Horse, Panorama, Kimberley) Feb 28 - March 8, 2009. Click here for details.

Later.

Welcome

I am a first time blogger and decided to set up this blog since I've renewed my interested in scrap booking while reading other people's blogs. While I love photography, creating art, and digital scraping, my real passion is skiing— either on the water or snow.

Later this week, a group of us will be going with the Radar River Rats to the Colorado River for the last water ski trip of the season. Afterwards, my significant other and I will be heading to Cabo San Lucas and then Hawaii for some fun in the sun before we start snow skiing.
Our first snow trip will be to Big White, BC, Canada, where we will be skiing the first three weeks of December. Big White is probably our most favorite place to ski. The snow is awesome, light and dry, including both the early and late seasons.

We normally travel with Pacific Rim Alliance Snow Sports Alliance and will be returning to Big White with them in April as well as skiing the Kootenay resorts of Canada with them in March.

Later.