It was a great trip … we left Friday right after work and was on the highway about 3:30pm. The roads were great until just past Lake Louise where they started to get really icy and slippery. By this time, it was dark and I was freakin’ out. It took a little longer than we thought and with the time change, make it to the Resort with no problems. After checking in we headed over to the pub for a drink and appies with Matt, his family and the other winners.

Saturday was ski day … Tia and I got ready to ski the mountain while Nina and Donna met the instructor for their lesson day. I have to say that Kicking Horse really doesn’t cater to the beginner or intermediate skier … most of the runs were diamond or double diamond, in fact, they had more of these runs than the green and blue combined. Plus you had to be careful because if you took one of the blue runs, most of them turned into diamond runs. There was one run off the top of the mountain that was green (from the Gondola) and one run off the chair lift that was green. Needless to say, our options were limited. We skied for most of the morning and at around 11:30am, thought it was a good time to stop and have lunch. We all got together and got take-out from the Pub and enjoyed the food in our amazing room. After lunch, we all opted to relax in the hotel room … I was afraid I was going to wreck my skies with all the rocks and dry patches. Later in the evening, we were on our way to everyone at the top of the mountain at the 5-star Eagles Eye Restaurant … it was a 15 or so minute ride in the Gondola to the top of the mountain. The dinner was amazing, the service wonderful and we had the entire restaurant to ourselves. We all ate, laughed and had a great time. We headed back down the mountain around 11pm as we were all pretty tired.

We got up Sunday morning feeling a little bit sore. The weather was a bit colder and blowing snow. Tia and I are not expert skiers so we thought with the cold, the snow and visibility, we would sit this one out and get ready to pack up to head home. Given the weather, we wanted to get an early start … so we spent the morning having a bit of breakfast and leisurely packing up. We were on the road around 11am and boy are we glad we did … the roads were terrible, blowing snow and very icy, it wasn’t until we got to Banff that they started clearing up. On the way home, it was discovered that Nina had never been to the candy store in Banff. SERIOUSLY?!?!?!?!? Well, we all felt the need to educate her so we made a pit stop in Banff and loaded up with candy. Yummy. The rest of the way home was uneventful and made it home safe and sound.

I want to take a few moments by thanking Matt, his family and Amanda (JackFM organizer) for a fantastic weekend, it was really nice getting out and spending a weekend in the mountains. Also, thanks to Tia, Nina and Donna for spending this time with me.

Pictures are posted on the left.