Canada 07/08 – Kicking Horse – Day 5
Canada 07/08 – Kicking Horse – Day 5
Today was the earliest morning we had had while here at Kicking Horse, with everyone being out of bed before 9am – wow. We dined on the usual breakfast foods, in a bit of a hurry, as we were all itching to get out onto the slopes. We were expecting housekeeping to come knocking at any minute, as they were meant to clean the room on the 4th day – today. Ed and Tess, as always, were out first, followed not far behind by Pip and I. Their head-start was eliminated when they discovered that Ed’s goggles had gone missing, or had been stolen as he suggested. They eventually chose just to buy new ones, as they were unable to find the old ones – but Ed says that he was going to buy new ones anyhow… While they chose to take the gondola up for the first run, we took it a bit easier taking the Catamount chair up once.
After skiing Big Ben as a warm up, we took to the Gondola and ventured to the top of the mountain (in hope of clearer weather, more like the first day we had had here). While there was a mid-level cloud band, meaning it was clear at the bottom, and as we soon discovered, relatively clear at the top, the weather still wasn’t clear – and certainly not ‘perfect’. Pip and I completed one complete loop from top to bottom, before Ed caught us by getting on the gondola only a few cabins behind us.
From here we ventured to where we hadn’t before – up the Stairway to Heaven chair – taking us to the highest point on the mountain so far. This was a great run, and we enjoyed some spectacular views from up here, of the bowls that we had seen in previous days. It was just too bad the weather wasn’t perfect, otherwise there would have been many many photos taken, rather than just many.
By the time we had completed a run or two here, it was well and truly lunchtime. We skied from this location, the top of the hill, back to the base – which took nearly 30 minutes. Homemade lunch was the order, and as per my request, it was ‘Gourmet Sandwiches’. This was in addition to ‘alphagetti soup’, and many forms of bread. By the time we had finished, we were all feeling a number of sizes larger than when we started, but just as keen to hit the slopes again and ski the rest of the afternoon. By the time we walked out the door, it was 2pm.
Tess, Ed, Pip and I headed for the Stairway to Heaven chair, where we had been before lunch. Although the weather wasn’t as nice as it had been, and it was certainly snowing much more heavily now, the skiing was just as nice. We only managed to do one run here, before this lift closed at 3pm. Following this, we headed for the bottom, feeling like we may not make the 3:30pm deadline to do another round on the gondola. Unfortunately, this was all too true, as we arrived at the bottom only seconds too late to do this. We blame the fog we encountered half way down the mountain – it was considerably thicker than what we’d previously seen!
Instead of bothering about the gondola, Ed, Pip and I hit the Catamount Chair for one last run. If you’ve been following, you could probably guess that it was Big Ben – which wasn’t a problem, however, as it was a very nice run, albeit being rated as green. We all enjoyed the last run here, with nobody sustaining a ‘last run injury’.
We retired to the apartment for the last time after skiing, at least for this part of the journey, and enjoyed a bit of quiet time. TV was, as always, the go, as well as some packing preparation which was going on in the background. We decided to have dinner downstairs, again, as we had done a few nights ago, and as Pip and I did for dessert the night before. We all enjoyed the meals, once again, and also enjoyed watching the antics of the workmen trying to refill the Coke machines.
After dinner we returned to the apartment only to watch an episode or two of yet another CSI:MIami marathon on the A&E channel, and then hit the sack in preparation for our relatively lengthy travel day tomorrow. Although the transport isn’t early, it is a number of hours until we reach our destination – and includes a time change too. From here on, we will be on Pacific Time, and hopefully the clock on the website will change to reflect this (but possibly not immediately).
I have managed to upload many photos tonight, up until today’s ones. This should give you plenty to look through until I have a chance to update them again and put up today’s, and any days’ in between. You can check them out here!
We might be out of contact for a day or two, but hopefully there should be easy internet connections at our next stop!
Stay tuned – can’t wait to hear from you all again!
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