Journal of a Sysadmin

And a good time was had by all

• 4 people with gear
• a car with 1640km to drive
• 3 seperate ski resorts
• 5 days

That’s what it has been since last Thursday. Yesterday we finished our last (and suprise) day at Sunshine as a fantastic ski vacation came to a close. Each morning we drove to the ski hill of the day and each evening we drove back to Calgary to eat and crash at the house.

Day 1: Nakiska
We skied Nakiska which is a small hill about an hour outside Calgary. The hill was a bit icy in places, but as the sun warmed things up the top of most of the runs broke up and it became more decent. It was a good place to start, get used to the skis and jhb could practice her boarding. The temperature was about 12C and it was sunny. I did manage to also take some photos of the day as well.

Day 2/3: Lake Louise
Having never skied at Louise I didn’t know what to expect completely. At 11am we were supposed to meet a co-worker at the bottom but unfortunately I missed him. Sorry Mrrrr, one of these days we will get together at a hill! I really enjoyed Louise as it has long runs and a lot of them. On day 2 I skied mostly with jhb while dwmw2 and phooka skied on their own. The green runs are really long which is good for beginners as they can then right once up (a gondola) and then come down at a slow pace for a long time. I did manage to get a few good runs in and even on the front side of the main mountain it was really nice.

Day 3 was amazing. jhb took a rest day and dwmw2, phooka, and I skied all over Louise. From the Larch area you can easily see Chateau Lake Louise on the other side of the valley. The runs were really good, even the bumpy ones =).

Day 4/5: Sunshine
Day 4 at Sunshine was really good. I have to admit that my favorite is Lake Louise but, Sunshine is almost as good and is about 50km closer to home. I spent 1/2 the day sking with phooka and dwmw2 and 1/2 the day skiing with jhb. The sking was really good, a bit icy but overall well worth it.

Day 5 was a suprise day (sorry no pictures, too busy skiing). dwmw2 didn’t have to be on a plane until 8pm so, instead of sitting around Calgary all day we went again to Sunshine. Instead of using my Salomon Prolink EXPs PR8s (210cm circa1999) I rented a set of parbolic Salomon Crossmax Pilot mid range 175cm skis (108,62,102 17R.). These things rocked! It was like I was a completely different skier. Instead of having problems in the moguls and rough terrain I was able to navigate anything I tried (perhaps with less finesse then others but still I could do it). Where my larger and heavier skis had difficulty these shorter lighter skis would carve into the bumps by just leaning back and into the bump. In a word, WOW. So now I’m convinced I need to buy some of these new skis in a 175 or so length. I should also then get newer boots as the ones I currently own are really old and heavy (less weight means easier on my legs =).

Over all the 5 days of skiing were great. There wasn’t a single thing I didn’t enjoy and driving to the hills, packing lunches, and making dinner at home saved us all a lot of money. Cost, including lift tickets was less then $350 CDN for 5 days. You really can not beat that.

We’re already planning our next outing and will be taking the kids I think, likely to Sunshine or Louise in the very near future (if of course we can afford it). If you have a chance, go! Sunshine or Louise offer really really good spring skiing.

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