Snowboarding will not be available for the forseeable future........

The end of the season was nigh. In many ways I was actually almost glad that I had broken my board. It meant that I couldn't work on the glacier for the last few weeks of the season, which, by all accounts was a blessing in disguise. I was beginning to get a little fed up of working on the glacier, as although I was on the slightly less labour intensive t-bar, I still had to do quite a bit of work each day to salt the lift lines and put up fences, which I had had enough of through the winter and spring!

Working on the glacier became even worse as the snow continued to disappear. Apart from anything else the riding gradually got worse, with more and more of the glacial ice appearing from underneath the snowpack. This meant that the public park was getting smaller and smaller. Admittedly this situation was made slightly better when the camp of champs closed down, and the public park moved onto their patch. Anyway, no matter how good the riding was, because of the disappearing snow it meant that the snow on the lift line out of the glacier had disappeared. This meant that the only way out was a sizeable hike up the cat track, and for those working on the glacier, there was little or no chance to go for any food.

So I was glad to be lower down the hill for the last week. I was generally chilling out on the lifts, having a laugh with the guests and generally taking it easy. Probably just as well each day was pretty easy, as it was during that week that for some reason I decided to sign up to work every single day!

I had decided that I needed to try and get that little bit of extra money, and I wanted to try and get a free Crankworx t-shirt, so I decided to volunteer for parking / customer service duties for the event. Of course, as things turned out, I didn't get a t-shirt, but I did get the fun of standing around in the car park, choking on dust all day, baking in the sun! What fun. Actually it wasn't too bad, as I did each day with friends so I basically stood, chatted and waved my arms a bit!

I was going to have the entire Saturday off, but when I ran into Shaun, suggested doing a night function, I jumped at the chance. Night functions have to be the easiest way to get some money. I sat around, ate the food, and read some magazines, until about 1am when I got to chat and laugh at the drunken wedding guests as they stumbled there way out into the late night. Luckily no one vomited, but the number of glasses that I got hold of was incredible!

This left only two days worth of work left, which passed uneventfully if quite amusingly! I even got roped into another evening function on the Magic chair, which involved two groups of 8 people plus bikes in 3 hours! Sometimes it seems that people are desparate to pay you overtime!

So that was the end of my working life in Whistler. I must admit, although I was happy to be able to live a life of relaxation for a week or so, but the time did feel a bit empty. I think there was a mix of reasons, primarily the fact that without work, there was no snowboarding to fill my time, knowing that I was leaving soon and the need to finish my packing, and the fact that a lot of my friends had left. Although I was happy to have this little bit of extra time to explore Vancouver Island, to spend with my friends, and finally travel to Toronto, I did feel that I wished I could just head home there and then, and avoid all this extra hassle in a way!

But, I'd booked tickets, it was all finalised. Off to Vancouver Island I go......