Big White Day 4 – Australia Day
Big White Day 4 – Australia Day
Today was our last day here in Big White, so we were very determined to spend as much of it as possible skiing. When we woke at just before 8:30am, the sun was shining and it looked very promising – although the weather can change very quickly in the mountains, and it certainly did this morning – by 10am when we were ready to leave, the weather had turned close on disgusting. Strong winds meant many of the lifts were closed, snow was falling heavily, and it was very foggy. Ed had been out for a while before this and advised that it might be better to wait until after lunch to head out into the elements, so this is what we did. Instead of heading straight out, we made the short trek to the village to indulge in one last Beano’s coffee. We managed to waste a good hour here and it was just after midday as we headed back out into the cold. It was Australia Day, so the terribly dressed Australians were out in hoards, making most people feel ashamed to be Australian. It was certainly a different Australia Day to the traditional BBQ and beach as would have happened back home, but whether it was better or worse to be surrounded by maniac Aussies in the snow was yet to be seen.
On the way outside we bumped into a friend of Tori’s who had flown into Canada just the day before, and spent another 15 minutes chatting here. Meanwhile, Ed skied another run to check the conditions, and returned a little colder and whiter than when he’d left. Regardless, we headed out with hopes of improvement as the afternoon rolled on, and skied many of the same runs as the days before. Because there had been lots of fresh snow both overnight and during the morning, most runs were fairly thick, so this provided a few additional challenges than had been there the last time we’d come through this area. Despite the thicker snow, Tori was feeling more and more confident, and started skiing through the trees behind Ed and I. This ended in a few small stacks, but it was a new spin on the runs we’d skied before. We continued skiing here until around 2:30pm, getting a little colder each run with considerable wind on the chair ride up. When we got too cold to be outside we skied one final run down to the Happy Valley Daylodge, where we’d had a close encounter the day before. Luckily today there weren’t any undesirables on the run, and we finished our day (and stay) without incident and without injury.
Although they were serving lamingtons and meat pies at the Happy Valley Daylodge this evening, we took a different route and had dinner at 6 Degrees – the same location as Tori and I had eaten at last night – but tonight we went with everyone. They had some Australian-ised specials, which many of us indulged in, but it was nice to have one final proper meal before our day of travel tomorrow. Dinner was (mostly) enjoyed by all, with the exception of a few minor complaints, and we returned to the apartment to spend the remainder of the evening packing our bags for the journey home tomorrow. Although this was surprisingly a lot less painful than we first anticipated, we managed to gain one extra bag since arriving here at Big White, so the transfer down the mountain tomorrow is set to be even more of a difficult puzzle than it was on the way up.
Tomorrow marks our last day here in Canada, and most of the day is set to be spent in and around airports, airplanes and other forms of transport. It’s set to be a (very) long day, and although it’s certainly sad after a month in the Great White North, it’s certainly going to be a nice change to sleep in a bed with a mattress worth more than five cents. We took a few photos today, but not as many as yesterday due to the slightly less impressive weather conditions. Take a look here, and make sure you stop back for one last time (for this time) in the next few days to here our travelling adventures (or hopefully lack thereof).
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