(freaking out on a bridge!)

Today held another unforgettable experience while in whistler and another item on our to do list that we could cross off… We went BUNGEE JUMPING!
At midday 14 of us met at the Whistler Bungee hut, filled in wavers (signing our life away) and loaded the bus ready to travel to the bungee bridge.
Once we loaded the bridge and we’re harnessed off we took it in turns to jump off and plummet straight down towards the water before being jammed back up and then plummeting down once more.
The men decided that I should fall backwards with my head back as they said I seemed confident and this was the most exiting way to fall (die). Feeling quite confident I boarded the platform but then made the mistake of looking down. Once the man had counted down three, two, one, I grabbed him and swore I couldn’t do it. After what seemed like hours (maybe seconds) of begging him to let me not do it or go forward, he stayed firm, shaking his head and counting three, two.. Then I fell back, head back, lying back, everything back, falling down down until shooting back up and then falling back down again.
Obviously this doesn’t seem possible with a harness attached to your legs but we all decided on the body harness so that the boys could try out their snowboarding tricks.
There were three highlights (obviously from the three boarders).
The first ran and dived off the platform with his arms out flying but plummeting down.
The second stood backwards and then back flipped off the platform.
And the last did the most technically hilarious flip imaginable. He jumped up forwards but kicking his legs up did a backflip, and unfortunately the bungee chord got caught between his legs. After falling when the rope became tight, the chord pulled from between his legs making him flip forward so so so quickly!!
All captured on video and camera for all to see!
An amazing experience, an incredible day and the photos will be up soon.

Yesterday we faced the minus 12 temperatures, wrapped up in as many layers as would fit under our ski jackets and headed out to face the snow and to hit some big jumps. After skiing from Rendevous down to the glacier chair lift and travelling up to the glacier, we found our first jump. After side stepping up the cliff and jumping off (hopefully looking like pros) we took the cattrack over to Crystal. Here we found another great jump and after hiking up again and again in order to take the jump lots of times, we realised we’d been jumping and hiking for over two hours and so headed up to the crystal hut for some hot chocolate.

The jumping pictures are on a big photography camera so as soon as I get hold of them I will upload them!

At 4pm my time it was midnight in England which meant… CHARLIE’S 21st BIRTHDAY!!
A big big happy birthday Charlie, missing you lots!!!

After a dinner at El Fernies and an evening dancing at MoeJoes we headed back to mentally prepare for our bungee jump today!!!

Today we had a relaxing day up the mountain with some chilled skiing and a long lunch. Although the temperature has rapidly and randomly dropped to minus eleven (!!!) it was a beautiful bluebird day without a cloud in the sky. The wind chill was freezing but underneath my 4 layers, coat, balaclava and helmet, the sun made the day even more beautiful.
This evening after getting some pizza from Fat Joes, we walked to the base of Whistler to watch the Fire and Ice snow dedicated to Chinese New Year. (Another thing ticked off the whistler to do list!) The fire and ice show is a freestyle ski and snowboard show entailing a giant fire ring at the end of a big jump and as this was an especially special one, there were also fire dancers on the slope and a firework display at the end! A great end to the day.

Yesterday we had our last day of training before our exam! We spent the day doing an in depth and detailed analysis of the different components of skiing and practised teaching the fast track to parallel to each other.
Pretending to be beginners so our friends can teach us is actually harder than it seems and guiding each other in snow plough, although funny, proved difficult too! Thankfully we had the whole day to perfect our lesson and fingers crossed we’re all ready for the exam on Monday – off to practise my snow plough turns and stops now!

Temperatures have rapidly and randomly dropped and today we had to prepare for the cold!

Currently in chickpea hut warming up from our mornings training!

After a day of not much technical skiing but lots of free/fun skiing, today we stepped up and got down to the business of passing our exam next week.
We started with video analysis, filming our best intermediate parallel and then looking at our flaws and working out how to improve them.
Next we learnt about the fast track to parallel – how instructors take their beginner pupils and teach them how to ski parallel in basic steps. There’s 5 basic steps which should be worked through: 1. Mobility 2. Sliding 3. Stopping 4. Turning 5. Linking
And once these steps have been completed, the beginner can now ski a parallel turn. We started by pretending to be complete beginners and then slowly taught and helped each other in a lesson situation.

After our fast track to parallel we worked on completing the perfect snow plough turn while demonstrating separation. We skiied in a snake trail down the mountain one by one behind each other until our instructor relived a childhood game of shark attack! (Where you ski in a line and when the instructor shouts shark attack the person at the back skis to the front!)
After an evening at buffalo bills, we headed home ready for an early night and a bigger day today!!!

Today, after remembering that our heads need to be above shoulders, shoulders above knees, knees above toes, I learnt that I need to bend my ankles more in order to create the angles and dimensions needed for a perfect ski position.
Once we’d practised our technique, our instructor decided to play a game of ‘can you keep up’ where he’d ski off as fast as possible between trees, through trails and off jumps and we’d see if we could keep up or even just stay in the same trail as him.
For lunch we went to ‘Dusty’s’, a local restaurant in creekside. Here we invented, explained and tasted a chocolate shot! We asked the waitress for shots of peppermint schnapps but then also had a shot of chocolate and so drinking them together tasted like an after eight drink – so yummy!
In the afternoon we were all very tired from our big (crazy) lunch and so, did some more can you keep up and some more technical exercises before heading back down the mountain for an evening of shopping!

The end of our shopping trip took us to Moos where we had to make the hardest decision so far in Whistler.. What Ice cream to have.
In the end I opted for: Moo York Cheesecake (a cheesecake flavoured ice cream with Oreo pieces and caramel) and then also a Wowie Cowie (vanilla ice cream with chocolate crunch and Carmel swirl)
The third flavour that didn’t quite make it to the cone but that I tried was the Nuffle (chocolate ice cream with marshmallow and peanut butter cups). Can you keep up?

After meeting our new instructor for this week, Mark, we set off to start our last weeks training before our exam. Since we only have 4 days to perfect our technique before our level 1, we don’t have much time to free ski so spent the day soon technique based exercises. Although it’s Marks first day with us, he quickly picked up on our strengths and flaws and set to work at setting the straight.
We had a ‘lunch vacation’ today and headed down the mountain to Portabello’s (the best sandwich bar in the world!) for lunch. OBVIOUSLY I had my regular, ham cucumber and tomato… Yumyumyum.
This evening we were all exhausted as we’ve had NO break these past couple of weeks due to the avalanche course. However we did have enough energy to dipdye my roommates hair purple which worked out surprisingly well!

VERY VERY VERY excited by the prospect of snow this week, even if it is just flurries. WE NEED POWDER WE NEED POWDER.

I will definitely be checking the weather forecast regularly for the next few days!!