My conference began today with a breakfast at 6:00 a.m. Needless to say I arrived a little late as I am rather allergic to setting my alarm at 5:30 a.m. to arrive on time to my semi medical-ski conference. The conference finished at 10:00 a.m. allowing me a full day to ski. However, with hard packed conditions until the sun softens things up, there is no point getting on the hill until 11:00 a.m. It was once again a bluebird day with sunny skies and temperatures of 10C. The temperature is supposed to drop over the next few days and we are expecting snow on Monday.
I received some nice comments on my blue, Arc’teryx ski jacket with one person noting that I blend in well with the sky. Wow.
Today was another blue bird day of skiing that you could only hope for at the end of March. I was not in a hurry to get on the slopes today as the snow is rather hard packed until the sun begins to soften it up at around 10:00 a.m. We had sunny skies all day with a temp of 10C and no wind.
I skied only on the groomers as the expert terrain was either closed or had too many rocks showing to make it worth while. Tree skiing was impossible as are the chutes. Nevertheless the sun and warm weather made for a good day of skiing. Half way down the hill is a huge igloo that you can walk through. A band was playing inside and people were dancing. There is a patio outside with sofas and chairs. Everyone was having drinks including white wine, beer and Veuve Cliquot champagne. Imagine that, in the middle of winter. I sat on a sofa, took off my ski jacket, wearing only a fleece and basked in the sun in an attempt to get a sun tan.
America is made up of 45% people of ethnic, non white origin. You would not know that by the crowd at the ski hills. Everyone is white and looks to be very successful. Skiing has become extremely expensive. In American dollars a day ticket costs $250. Hotels start at $600 a night. The ski prices are the same as in Canada except that you pay in American dollars. The ski industry must have been hit hard by the tariffs. Food prices in restaurants are unreasonable. There are beautiful areas with homes starting at $5 million and going up to $20 million. The rich and famous have discovered Big Ski just as the have discovered Jackson Hole.
On the other hand, everyone is very friendly. I have not over heard any political discussion. The chair lifts are for 4, 6 or 8 persons. The seats are heated. A bubble comes down if it is cold and windy. The guardrail pops up automatically when you arrive at the top. On the chair everyone wants to know ‘How are you doing today? Are you having a great day skiing today? Where are you from? Montreal, oh I have been there. What a great city. Do you ski at Mont Tremblant?’ It is really pleasant.
My conference starts tomorrow and I ate dinner last evening with a few friends that I know from previous conferences. We will be about 50 urologists and the staff looks to be excellent as usual. The conference is very family friendly reminding me of the times when I used to take the kids with me. I can remember renting a condo for 7 of us.
I left Montreal yesterday at 11:00 a.m. and arrived here at 3:30 a.m. Montreal time, a mere 16.5 hour travel time. That includes leaving the house to allow for 3 hours to go through American customs. No one is going to the States now and passing through customs took 40 minutes. The customs officials were much less surly than usual probably happy to have visitors to their country. I had 2 hours between flights and a 4 hour wait to catch a limo to take me from Bozen International Airport to Big Sky. The drive took 75 minutes and I was asleep on arrival here. I was so tired that I left my skis outside my door in the hallway, leaving me wondering where they were when I awoke in the morning. I slept 7 hours to recuperate and was on the slopes at 10:00, a little late for me.
Today was a ‘blue bird day,’ sunny with blue skis all day. I am happy that I brought my Salmon QSTs, 92 underfoot for those of you who are knowledgeable about skis. The snow was packed powder in the morning with absolutely no ice. By 12:00 it was spring skiing in February, unheard of in recent years. It was 10C so I had to take off a few layers and was skiing with my jacket open, no neck warmer and no long underwear. I sat on a terrace at noon in a tee shirt and sipped a $10 black coffee. The prices are outrageous here.
They have not had any snow here in 10 days. I skied mostly on blue, double blue, easy black trails and bowls. There is a lot of tree and glade skiing here but no one was skiing there as the snow was hard packed. They are really spoiled here. My Icon pass covers the whole area but you must take a gondola for an extra $25 to get to the top Loan Peak area. This is a black, double black and triple black area. There are also dozens of chutes but no takers as the snow conditions were not great and there are a lot of rocks showing. All in all, there was enough open trails to ski on.
I am in Trudeau Airport, travelling to Big Ski Montana for a medical-ski conference. The conference is from 6:30 am to 930 am and from 430 pm to 630 pm. This allows me 6 hours to ski. We are required to do 40 hours of retraining per year so this gives me 25 hours.
This is my 35-40th ski trip out west as I try to combine a medical-ski conference every year.
I will write every day and post 5-10 pictures everyday. You may follow me on my blog: gobriantravel.com.
As you may know, I spent 2 months in Israel last year and 1 month this year. I spent 6 weeks on an IDF base doing the type of work that my mother told me I would do if I didn’t get a good education. I spent 6 weeks on an MDA ambulance as a physician-para medic helping in the care of 150 patients. I detailed my 3 month experience in my blog and am in the process of finishing my book entitled: Swords or Iron, Israel at War, a Canadian Surgeons Perspective. The book will be available for purchase in 6 weeks. All proceeds of the sale of the book will go towards the purchase of an ambulance for MDA.
This my final entry for my journey so it will be a sum up of 3 weeks of travel.
I arrived in Sydney and travelled to Wollongong for the World Triathlon Championships, representing Canada in the 75-79 Age Group. I placed 21/21 in 2:12 hours.
I then flew to Auckland, New Zealand where I rented a Honda 500 CMX Rebel, the perfect bike for windy, tertiary roads.
New Zealand is a wonderful country. There are only 5 million people here, of which half are of white origin. The scenery is absolutely outstanding. The people are very friendly and helpful. You are safe anywhere you go. You get good value for your money. It is not more expensive than Canada for what you get in hotels and in restaurants. The country has everything that you could want, the sea for surfing and sailing, mountains for skiing, wine, a friendly laid back population, good service, and a stable government.
If I did not have a wife, 4 children, 6 grandchildren and was looking for a place to retire, NZ would be high on my list.
When I awoke this morning, they were calling for light rain. I reviewed my route with my GPS lady and opted for secondary roads instead of tertiary roads. That would save me 1 hour and 40kms. I would rather be on secondary roads if it were to rain again like it did 2 days ago. In the end it did not rain at all. I was treated to a wonderful ride in the country, 18C, blue skies with a few cumulus clouds and a good road. I am staying in a large house in the country just outside of Hamilton. The B & B is situated on several acres of land. There are horses, ponies, sheep and alpaca in the fields.
I decided last evening after a long, cold, rainy, windy day, I would go to bed early and wake up late (and refreshed). It was still raining this morning, so I took the time to catch up on emails. Eventually, when the weather cleared in the early afternoon, I explored New Plymouth. The downtown area is small and rather cute. The town is situated on the ocean. There is a 12 km path that goes along the seashore. The waves were crashing on to the shore all day.
I left Penny and Andrew this morning and before heading off to New Plymouth, I stopped by Clyde’s Place. Penny had arranged a tour of his incredible garden and motorbike collection. Clyde was once a ‘farmer’ with thousands of sheep and cattle on his 1500 acre ‘ranch.’ He has since sold off the sheep and cattle and concentrates on his garden and motorcycle collection.
First I visited his ‘garage’ where he has about 50 motorcycles all in beautiful condition and in running order. Some of the bikes date back to the 1930s. Others are from the 60s and 70s with a few more modern bikes. He has collected them for all over the world. There are Triumphs, BSAs, Jawas, Nortons, Ariels, Ducatis, BMWs, Moto Guzzis and many others that I am not familiar with.
Motorcycles:
Clyde’s motorbike collection
Clyde’s Garden Paradise
The rest of the day was one of the worst motorcycle days that I have ever experienced; pouring rain, sheets of rain, strong winds, but the road was not slippery. I arrived at my hotel in New Plymouth soaking wet. The water had seeped down my neck making my polo shirt and fleece quite wet. The nice lady at the hotel desk offered to dry my clothes for me. I will drown my sorrows in wine accompanied by a good meal.
I arrived in Whanganui 2 days ago and am staying at a wonderful bed and breakfast run by Andrew and Penny. The house is situated on 3.5 acres of land in rolling countryside. Penny is an expert horticulturist and has planted hundreds of plants in the garden. There are paths going through the secluded garden spaces where you are absolutely alone with nature. The garden has many sculptures of Japanese origin. There is a pond with ducks and many different birds. Most of what she grows here would have to be grown in a green house in Canada. The climate here is much more temperate than what we have in Quebec.
Yesterday, I drove around the area and visited the town of Whanganui. I visited the Māori Museum and a local art gallery. I then climbed up a memorial watch tower, 156 steps to view the countryside. Afterwards I rode down to the beach. It was blowing 40 knots with big waves. There were no sailboats out, no surfers and no swimmers. I walked out onto a stone peer and was almost blown away with the gusts. The sand is very fine and black in colour from the iron in the stones here.
Get your motor runnin’ , Head out on the highway, Looking for adventure, I whatever comes our way, Born to be wild,
I left Barb and Mike in Kuratau this morning and headed off to Whanganui today. The weather started off cloudy but warmed up as the day want on. At first I drove on a 2 lane secondary road and could do 85-90km/hr. My GPS lady said that I could do the last 97 km in 2.5 hours. This did not seem right if I could continue at the same speed. At that point just when I was doing the math, I turned off onto a small side road. I remained in 2nd and 3rd gear for the rest of the trip doing 30-40 km/hr with hairpin turns doing 25. The GPS lady was wrong. It took me 4 hours with stops to take pictures and have a coffee.
I met up with 2 fellows with 1600 cc Harleys at a lookout. I wear my Northface goretex ski outfit with a fleece and a t-shirt. I have a closed helmet, leather motorcycle boots and goretex pants. They were wearing open saddles, shorts, t-shirts with no sleeves and open face helmets. Clearly we were travelling in different climates.
gobriantravel 