Date: 20th of December 2007

Hi Everyone,

A well deserved sleep in was in order this morning with the wakeup call coming at 8.30am this morning instead of the regulation 7.30am . Breakfast was from 8.30 to 9.00am and both the skiers and boarders decided to go out for a couple of hours in the morning and then take the afternoon off.

The mogul group headed out to hit the aerial site again this morning. After having her boot blown out last night Brighid was feeling a little more up to it and began working on taking a small amount of speed onto the air site while Kate was ripping it up taking some substantial air onto the landing hill.  After picking up his skis from the shop, Jack caught up with the group some 15 minutes after we reached the site. He proceeded to work on his T sets and made some great progress and thankfully has given up his ambition of becoming a national snow diver and landed on his feet every time. Brodie and Bryn worked T sets for the first 4 or 5 jumps and then moved onto 360’s with Bryn pulling out some pencil straight spins. The crew had a good morning and made some great progress. The group had the afternoon off to rest some sore bodies with some of the kids enjoying a movie while others (namely Jack Thorburn) maxed out at the gym.

The freeride group headed out and straight to the backside to see what powder they could find.  After a warm up on a groomer and after a good stretch at the bottom they headed off and hit up a run off Sunny Ridge which was filled with sweet fresh powder  with Conrad and Hamish not holding back.  The girls were taking it a little slower trying to figure out their balance and get into a groove.  The long powder run proved to be a good leg burner for everyone and they then headed back to the front side to check out the park which is almost ready for opening.   They did another couple of runs through the trees and then it was over to Attridge to find another run that had just opened today.  It also had some great powder, but still had a few trees which made it a bit of a maze.  On the way in for lunch they got the run of the day down the front face of Attridge where the group was the first ones. Excellent morning!!!!

The racers once again spent the morning doing drills and working on technique. They are aiming to move into stubbies over the next few days and be in the gates just after Christmas. In the afternoon they were over on the back side doing some technical free skiing on the steeper terrain. Pez caught up with Sam for a few runs and snapped off a bunch of photos of her ripping it up in the fresh snow.

The boarders had a little sleep in and then headed out for a casual morning of jibbing. All the guys were taking it pretty easy after such a big week, so Beggsy decided to take them back to basics.  They  spent the morning on "over the hill" a green run mastering their switch riding, nose rolls, tail rolls and buttering, all skills that will come in handy when the park is up and running.   The guys had a few of their favorite hits along the side of the run so there were a few tricks being thrown but it wasn't spin-to-win day rather the guys tried to get technical.  Kane, Jack and Jay were trying switch 180s off a flat board as well as off their heels and toes. The entire group had a go at backside 180s off a small cat track, with Oli having the smoothest one of the day giving the group something to cheer about. The guys had the afternoon off to rest up so they are fresh for training tomorrow. The good news today was when the group went on a reconnaissance mission to the park to find the Silver Star park crew hard at work putting in rails and boxes, so it looks like the park will be up and running for Christmas.

Lunch was at the regular time so everyone headed downstairs and filled up on sanga’s and Emma’s now renowned homemade soup. The afternoon was very relaxed for everyone with some heading down to the village for some retail therapy or to have a coffee or hot chocolate while other relaxed back at the lodge. A group of the boys set up a jib in the car park but were shut down not long after their session started by ski patrol who were not overly impressed.

Dinner tonight was a little earlier than normal at 5.30pm as we had to depart early for the activity which was the movies down in Vernon. Back to Dinner though and we had an awesome Greek night extravaganza! Chicken souvlaki with pita bread, savory rice, falafel and Greek salad – once again Emma excelled!

The activity as mentioned was movies down at the cinema’s in Vernon. The movie of choice was ‘I Am Legend’ which had mixed responses from the group. As usual the crew invaded the concession stand with king sizes popcorns and cokes the order of the day. All but two of the group headed to the movie so the lodge was pretty much deserted for a couple of hours. The silence was a nice change!

Pinky today goes out to Rowan Cozzella for one of the unluckiest incidents we’ve had on the camp in recent years. Rowan was riding with the group on the way in for lunch this morning. They were on a green run practicing their buttering (type of spin) when Rowan caught an edge, fell over and landed on his arm. After a trip to the docs, and x-ray things are looking better than first thought and he’ll be back in a few days. Bad luck buddy!

Tomorrow it’s business as usual with all groups back on snow training.

That’s it for today,

Stowie