Christmas Eve Parade

Every Christmas Eve there is a big parade through the village of all the different groups of people who work on the mountain....snow hosts, instructors, lifties, snow cat drivers...the list goes on.  This year, for the first time, the school took part. They got their hands on an old school bus that had caterpillar treads and drove it through the village with the children hanging out of the windows throwing candy at the crowds, wearing elf hats and singing Jingle Bells.  The children are all exhausted and should sleep soundly when that special someone comes visiting later tonight, at least they'd better be!!

Christmas Eve

It was the weirdest weather today, almost mystical in quality, the mountain was covered in fog but as we climbed higher, the sun was visible through the clouds but not quite strong enough to break through.  We took advantage of the fact that this is the best visibility we've had for days and went to explore the newly opened Falcon Chair, the highest on the mountain at 7,606 feet. This chair doesn't usually open until February as it need loads of snow to cover the rocks up there, but we've had nearly 10 feet of snow already, almost half of the annual snow fall in the last 3 weeks, hence the foggy days!

Lucy and I were at the bottom of this run last Friday, waiting at the chair lift, when there was a loud whumph sound and an 80 foot tree had landed 6 feet from where we were standing.  What was really frightening was that until it landed I heard nothing, no creaks or shouts, there was no warning at all.  It was also the day the world was supposed to end...it nearly did for us!!
There are trees coming down all over the mountain, the massive snow falls are weighing them down and they can't take the strain.  Also, the snow came so quickly, the roots didn't have a chance to freeze into the ground.  It's going to be a continuous hazard..a bit scary, but lets hope lightening doesn't strike the same place twice!

Last Day of School

Finally, we've reached the end of term, and it has felt like it's gone on forever. Even though the children only go to school four days a week, they don't have a half term and so were all exhausted. I thought I'd escaped that end of term madness but I've now decided it's worldwide! The last day of term at Big White includes their annual school production, this year titled "Summer Vacation", strangely inappropriate considering there's 10 feet of snow outside! I did record it but the bloke in front kept wiggling about so it was really not worth posting on here, but I have got a photo...Ned, Charlie and Lucy were all fishermen!

However, after the production, Lucy's teacher did a presentation called "The best part of me" which was gorgeous, so here it is....

The Longest icicle in the world!

This thing is outside Ned's bedroom window... none of the other houses has one, just us... I think we're honoured! (and my camera missed off the top 2 feet!)

Skiing to school

Today was the first day that the children have been able to ski to school.  The weather has been so changeable, foggy one minute, howling gale the next and it's been snowing practically non stop for 3 weeks.  There are some parts of the route to school that are a bit flat, so if there's a foot of powder then it can make for some tough, time consuming poling.  So, the perfect day arrived and Ned and Charlie skied off on their own into the distance (not Lucy, she had left her ski pants at school the night before and was less than impressed that she had to go in the car!)
As I reached the car park by the school, I waited to watch them ski down the hill (and to check they were OK) after a couple of minutes I couldn't wait any longer as it would make Lucy late, so carried on to school...and there they were...all gloating and proud.  It was like some weird Top Gear challenge...can 2 boys on skiis get to school quicker than their mother in a beaten up Dodge Caravan?  Oh yes they can!!!

What a gorgeous way to get to school!