The only way to deal with an eight hour bus trip - turn it into a party... This was about half way through the drive down to Whitefish in Montana, and some skiing at Big Mountain.
First stop across the U.S border - the First & Last Chance Saloon - a very strange bar indeed. The border crossing wasn't too bad and the Custom's Officers fairly polite - especially considering they had to deal with a bus load of fairly drunk Canadians, Aussies and Brits.
Poor Duckie's corruption begins...
Some of the crew. It was nice to have the chance to ride with some guys you might not normally be up the hill with - eventhough we all work up at Sunshine. I think that the mountains off in the distance are the Rockies and part of Glacier National Park. The Park actually straddles the Canadian/U.S border.
Big Mountain is a great place to ski - long gladed runs and some easily accessible off-piste stuff. Unfortunately we were there just at the tail end of the 'mad' weather - so, while there were no freshies to be had, we did get some fantastic spring conditions. Almost T-shirt weather at the end of January, hmm.
A little Apres-ski. Duckie gets on it again - good job we were there to keep him company. The only Tex-Mex I've been to where they had run out of Tequila and made us some Margueritas with wine!! Boy am I missing Eldorados.... I've spared you the photos of Duckie drinking Moose Drool. Actually a nice dark beer that came highly recommended.
Probably good that there was no tequila to be had - we all made it back up Big for our second day's skiing. This is the start of our favorite run - this ridge lasts a good few hundred metres. You get a great view of some potential off-piste off both sides - I'd love to go back there after a decent snow fall.
Kyle gets a nice bit of air further down the run. Besides being really long and consistent in what it threw at you, this run had some great little drops and natural kickers to hit.
All about the style... No suprise that we're ski-bums and not models! The second day done and it was time for a bit of Dutch courage before jumping back on the bus for the return trip.
As active mountain people we are obviously very careful about what we eat. Roast chicken and donuts - now there's a balanced diet.
