The Ski Week Canada

This trip was by far my favorite vacation I’ve ever taken. Nonstop action from the moment we hit the road in our rv.

While looking for a group to join for 'The Yacht Week' I came across a post looking for crew members to go on a skiing road trip in Canada. We would spend 2 nights at 3 different mountains, and sleep in a RV for a week. I figured it would be a good chance to practice snowboarding, while seeing some new mountains, so I booked me a spot in a random RV.

I flew direct from Denver into Vancouver on Air Canada the night before, because we had to pickup the rv in the morning and then drive 4 hours to the first mountain. After I checked into my hotel, me and the other people in my group met up for dinner and drinks so we could get acquainted. I shared the rv with 2 other guys (one from the UK and one from Miami). Halfway to the first resort, Sun Peaks, we stopped at a Walmart, so we could get all of our groceries for the week. All I wanted was omelette ingredients and chips, so I could make breakfast in the morning and have something to snack on at night.

When we arrived to Sun Peaks, the hosts had already set up an inflatable igloo and a bonfire so we could hang out and mingle with the other guests. I stayed by the fire as much as I could, because I packed poorly and didn't bring any regular boots to wear when I wasn't snowboarding. At one point my feet was completely frozen, so I decided to stick them in the fire to let them thaw out. I thought it was a great idea until my shoes started to melt. After that, I thought it was a good idea to finally call it a night. I got to sleep in the master bedroom, because I drove from the whole way.

Day one on the mountain, one of the trip leaders invited me to ride with him and a group of others that were planning to explore the mountain. I accepted, and I was glad I did, because I got to see 2 guys go all out with no sense of fear. Nicknamed "The Jersey Boys", they were inspiring to watch, and I progressed just from copying them. Before the slopes closed for the day, we had a top to bottom race. The winner was a girl from Australia, who just so happen to race while she was growing up. She would be known through the week as "Champion". After the race concluded and everyone made it down safely, we went straight into partying. We didn't change out of our gear or anything. We went straight to the bar and started buying rounds. I ended up joining one group for a drinking game called 'pass the pitcher'. We all continued to drink until the bar closed, then we went back to the RVs and drank some more.

The second day we all woke up bright and early, like nothing happened the night before. We got our passes and headed to the lifts to try and get first chair. I decided to board with the group I was drinking with the night before, because we all really got along and it was a half and half mix of snowboards and skiers. We rode the mountain for about 6 hours, before we all headed back to our RVs. That day we had to drive to the next mountain, so we decided to leave before last chair. Revelstoke was only about a 2 hour drive away, but we also had to take car of the RV. We had to refill the propane tank, fill the water, and drain the sewage tank. Luckily for me, one of the other guys volunteered to take care of it. When we arrived at Revelstoke, the hosts set up another bonfire like opening day, but they also brought in a taco food truck. It was a definitely one of our chill nights of the week.

The first day boarding at Revelstoke, I decided to continue riding with the group from the day before. One of the guys lives in Vancouver, and Revelstoke is his favorite mountain. He knows all the best spots off-piste, and we even got fresh tracks that morning. Riding with them helped me improve drastically. Revelstoke was the steepest mountain I have ever been to. Riding in new terrain with unmarked obstacles is definitely something I wouldn't have done by myself, but I had them to push me to continue to get better.

This group is where I get my snowboarding drinking traditions from. Now whenever I go to the mountains, I try to have a book bag of cheap beer and personal bottle of fireball. The start of the day your bag is heavy, and you move more careful to make sure you don't damage the alcohol. By the time you're almost finished with all of the beer, you feel lighter because you're not carrying all of the weight on your back and you're filled with liquid confidence, so now you're ready to try some stuff!

The second day at Revelstoke started out like the second day at Sun Peaks, but this was definitely the best night of the trip. We got in another 6 hours of riding, and then headed for the next mountain. Right before leaving Revelstoke to go to Silverstar, we got a warning to drive safely, because the roads that we were going to be driving that were featured on a Canadian documentary tv series called 'Highway Thru Hell'. I wasn’t too worried about the drive, but the amount of 18 wheelers and tankers speeding on the highway made it really sketchy.

Everyone made it safely to the next mountain, so everything was all good. This night the hosts didn’t organize anything, because they wanted us to have a chill night and rest up. They gave us recommendations for dinner, and let us be. The night started calm, but after everyone ate and their energy returned, it quickly turned into an unforgettable night of partying. It was kicked off by an Irishman playing a drinking game. He asks you five questions and your goal is to get them all wrong. The loser has to buy 2 shots. Before we left the restaurants, almost 50 shots were purchased. The worst part, they were all shots of gin.

We finally decided to move to the bar, and that’s where everyone proceeded to get wasted out of their minds. It was still the Irishman leading the charge and buy everyone shots. When you heard his catchphrase “Shagggaaaa” you knew you were in trouble. He would grab you and walk you to the bar and make you take a shot with him. Its a miracle we all woke up the next morning without alcohol poisoning.

Most of us didn’t go to sleep until 4-5 in the morning and we had to meet with a couple of the hosts around 8:15am, because about 30 of us signed up to have bubbles and brunch in the mountains. We rented snowshoes and hiked about 30-40 minutes to a cabin in the mountains. Surprisingly enough, the one with the most energy was the Irishman. This guy was nonstop any time you seen him. He was throwing snowballs, tackling people, untying their snowshoes and just having the time of his life.

After brunch, most of us headed to the mountain to get a couple hours of riding in before the night party. We were going through the trees on the backside of the mountain and ended up getting lost. Somehow we ended up behind the parking lot with all of the RVs, so we had to run to catch the last chair before they closed since the party was at the top of one of the lifts.

By the time we made it, the party only lasted for maybe another hour. Then the plan was for us to all ride down together. The run was supposed to be a green, so beginners could join in and have fun to. The run turned out to be for advanced people, everyone was drinking and we have about 50 people all bunched up to do the same run, at the same time. It was a perfect recipe for disaster. Instead of spacing out, everyone went down the mountain together. One of the beginners who happened to be in the front, wiped out and took out some other people in the process. I was able to react quick enough and swerve to get out of the way. One of the Jersey Boys that was next to me, jumped clean over one of the guys without any effort at all. Luckily, everyone that got caught in the pile-up was fine. We proceeded to end the night by getting drunk once again.

Our second day at Silverstar was our last night together. We hit the slopes, doing all the expert runs and trying everything we could for our final day. We only rode until about 2pm, because they organized an ice hockey tournament for us. We only had 3 teams, so we just did winner stays up. I’ve never been so sore in my life than after that day. However, my team was crowned champions. The ‘All Blacks’ with a record of 3-1 finished the day in first place.

After our tournament we went back to our RVs to get ready for the closing party. The hosts talked for a little bit, and then we did what we do best. We got drunk and partied until the closed the venue down. We did learn to a Canadian line dance just for the occasion. The next morning we had to drive back to Vancouver to return the RVs. Most of the us headed back to the airport, while some people stayed in Vancouver to spend one more night together. For me it was the greatest week ever.