I had a fabulous weekend in Nelson at powder Fest. What made it even more wonderful is that three days before the weekend I couldn’t imagine how I could pull it off..getting there, staying there, racing, partying etc without a vehicle and completely on my own…here is my story:
Sunday: I decided I wanted to go after seeing a poster at the Edge Climbing Gym….
Tuesday: I emailed as many people and related organizations as I could in order to find a ride…
Wednesday Morning: I got one response….I got a ride…
Wednesday Afternoon: I sent out another email to my friends to see if anyone knew anyone in Nelson as I totally forgot about accommodations and the little town was booked solid. My buddy Colin set me up with his friend Mike from Nelson…I got accommodations. Thank you Mike and housemates.
Friday 6am: Tired and a little nervous about heading out to a new town, with strangers, on my own I squeezed into the truck that had just rolled into the driveway. I am off to Nelson on a 9 hour drive with a relative stranger but soon to be new buddy…Derek.
Nelson is a small town tucked away in the mountains…the people are ultra kind, healthy, active and friendly (easy to notice when traveling on your own). Upon our arrival we headed straight for an outdoor shop called ROAM…they were sponsoring the race….we headed for lunch at a cute café with lots of organic and veggie options (actually most of the food in Nelson is organic and veggie….pretty neat). Friday night they had a film fest going on at the Rod and Gun club…This was a unique venue….one would figure a Rod and Gun club would be your typical all boys club but this was not so… the ceiling was painted baby blue with white fluffy clouds dispersed all over???…Anyways, they showed some great films about snow and skiing and got us all pumped up for shreddin the pow….I was lucky enough to win a draw prize (which never happens to me by the way)…and met some friendly folk to sit with and chat…
The race
Nelson was experiencing a dry spell with 5 or so days of sunshine and so in many cases the powder skiing was close to non existent…this proved to add a little difficulty during our race…the steep ups were icy and finding an edge was tough and the steep down was one of the toughest things I’ve had to ski down to date…it was chopped up hard ice with rubbles….nasty stuff…I managed to get down but there was definitely some snowplow, side slipping, praying action going on….the last up was up a blue run and there were some pretty steep sections where people were sliding down the up….trouble.. but I managed to pull it off and reeled in for a 3rd place finish…not bad for being a newbie to skiing, and racing with a fat heavy powder set up…..
Following the race I got to try out some Dynafit skies, bindings and boots and go hit the slopes with my new buddy Derek.
I truly believe in the little saying “work hard play hard!” …so it’s a must to après after a day on the hill…Yay for Happy Hour and friends with VIP cards. I also scored some shwag from a podium finish which is always a nice bonus…thanks to the sponsors!
Saturnight Night they held a buffet dinner and photo slideshow contest. The food was fantastic, the photos were inspiring and the local band kept the party going. As I returned back to Mike’s place I met one of his housemates…we sat around the kitchen table, ate some Mexican and talked about life, dreams, and stain glass…my specialties (except for the stain glass part…)
Telemark Skiing
Sunday I was lucky enough to get into a telemark clinic and use some of the demo skis that were around…It was great fun to learn something new and have a knowledge instructor doing it….
We (by we I mean Derek) had a long all night drive back to the city.
Monday 5am: snuggling into bed
Monday 8am: the alarm goes off…arg… I was back at work for my 9am meeting
…PHEW…an unbelievable weekend…
Live, Love, Laugh,…DREAM!
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