So on the eve of the comfortable roof collapsing, I will try to summarize the last few weeks at Red Mountain and the goings on afterwards, which there wasn't much of.
So lets start with the slush cup. I am lead to believe that most ski resorts do this. Create a pool of water with a bit of snow in it and a jump at the top of the pool and let people try to ski across the pool for the amusement of others. This happened at Cypress Mountain last season, well the nordic area anyways, maybe the downhill area didn't do it. Whistler must have done this, or at least used to do this.
Red held the slush cup sometime at the end of March. I am not too sure what day, but it started out like any other day of work. I showed up, now I did bring a towel just in case someone needed an extra towel, but I was not prepared for what was about to occur.
So myself, Jaimie and Stibby were working this one fateful Friday? Saturday? Maybe it was a Sunday afternoon when Jamie mentioned he was going to go in the slush cup. Good on him. I kind of wanted to but not really, Stibby wanted to as well. The full time ski tech, the one that repairs the skis and all that, Rory, had built a "Ski Bus" the year before. The ski bus consists of two long, probably around 210, skis mounted with three bindings each. This means that three people could ride these skis at the same time. Myself, Rory, and Iain had tried this ski bus out earlier in the year in a mogul competition with disastrous results. I was on the back and just fell off the ski bus at the first mogul and jump and they took off down the side of the course. But this day was all about the slush cup, just a straight run into the jump and into the water, no moguls to ski around, no jumps, well maybe one big jump into the water, but a soft landing.... hopefully.
So around 10 am, maybe noon, maybe it was the coffee that made me agree to be the third stooge in this mishap of an adventure. We all suited up, myself in a purple/blue one piece, Stibby and Jamie at this point in their regular clothes and we go for one run down the bunny hill outside of the rental shop. No worries at all, we were under control, had the pizza, french fries going, turning left, turning right, straight, no worries. So someone suggested, lets go up the lift and try it out on a real run. Okay, so up Silver lode we go, they had to stop the chair for us to get on and off because we couldn't be on the skis to get on the lift. We got off and strapped up and went down a blue run. A few carves in the snow and some straight stretches improved our confidence in our ability to hit the slush cup with the ski bus.
So 3 pm hits, the start of the slush cup, and Stibby has suited up in a "Stay Puff" marshmallow man, Jamie wearing a dress, and myself in the purple onny standing at the top of the slush cup run looking at this pool of cold water and huge jump that calls for us. But there were a few competitors to go over first before us, skier after skier after boarder went down, trying to get across, a couple did, many did not with much fanfare. After each participant to go down only increased mine and Jamie's look of "are we really going to do this?". Stibby was fine, no nerves no nothing, he wanted to go higher on the hill to get more speed into the jump and actually try to make it across.
We settled on a position in the middle of a steep hill before the official start of the slush up run. Well, finally our number was called, the ski bus, from the rental shop. Three people on one pair of skis. I suspected we were going to hit the jump, each one of us fall out of the binding and be embarrassed and encouraged to jump into the pool on our own. Stibby was confident, Jamie was quiet but I think confident. So.... the crowd cheers from the bar above the pool. We strap on the skis and with me at the front, Stibby in the middle and Jamie at the back, we slowly direct our skis downhill and onto the jump and ultimately the cold pool that lied just beyond this daunting jump.
We hit the jump, get some serious air but the skis stay on miraculously. We glide on the water a bit and I just remember falling forward, face getting tons of water and the skis coming off. What happened!? I am soaked, the cold water a shock on my chest but I manage to get above water and breath and look back. Stibby right behind me high fives me. I threw my goggles in the air and Jamie is somewhat subdued in the back but pretty happy. No one died, we hit the jump, glided a bit on the water but never made it close to the end of the pool and ultimately all ended up in the water as was predicted. But the crowd went wild. So all in all pretty successful right? Pretty much, Jamie with a bruised knee, Stibby with a charlie horse, must have happened when the boots came out of the bindings when we hit the jump, but we all survived, soaked, boots soaked everything wet and cold. We went back to the rental shop, changed, laughed, and breathed again. Next thing we know we are being announced as a winner! We won something! Awesome, a kokanee beer t-shirt..... wicked.... The real winners of this competition were the ones that made it onto the pool and skied across to the other side of the pool. So we didn't do that so we couldn't win.... ah well next year?? Thanks to the photographers, Todd and someone else who I am not too sure took the wicked action shots!So that was the slush cup. What else happened the final weeks of the hill? Well the final day was pretty sweet. Tons of powder still and still snowing hard. The hill was closed for customers on easter monday and the staff had red mountain to themselves on the Tuesday. Pretty awesome, lots of good lines and Rory, the one that built the ski bus mentioned earlier, had friends that built a cabin on the backside of Red out of bounds. So we stopped in there with lots of "stuff" bought with tip money from the generous customers over the season. There was a jump over a fire pit that was attempted by many. I told myself not to do it but after some persuasion tried and ended up in the trees with a sore shoulder. All in all a good end of season!
What have I been up to since? Built a bed in the back of Ol' Betsy and am ready get 'er out there on the road and stop paying rent! So I am off tomorrow, going to explore some ghost towns of the Slocan valley and then eventually make it to Pemberton again and do a bit of farm work and hopefully make a bit of money.... We shall season how the summer plays out!
Thank you to anyone who still reads this!
