The Northwest!

We are in WA now, at the Nordlies' house. So good to be here again! Its been a little while since the last post, so I need to back up a few days...

We skied at Revelstoke on Wed., and it was totally unbelievable! There was no crowds. The terrain they have there is some of the sweetest I've seen, with really long steep chutes. They have the biggest vertical drop in N.A. at over 5600' (more if you hike). We skied the backcountry and the snow was great! We also ended up skiing an out-of-bounds tree run which dumped us off at a river that we had to cross. We then hitched a ride back to the resort. After skiing, we made the 6 1/2 hour drive to Whistler, BC.

Whistler was sweet as always. We did a few runs on Whistler and then rode the Peak to Peak gondola over to Blackcomb for lunch and did a few runs on Blackcomb. The ride on the gondola was totally awesome! It spans across the valley between Whistler and Blackcomb. At the highest point, you're dangling 1500' over the valley floor. It was so cool! Again we were able to find good snow and had a great day. Down in the village, they were celebrating the Olympics being a year away, and we watched a big-air exhibition. That was pretty sweet; skiers and snowboarders were hitting a 35' gap jump through a ring of fire. After the festivities, we drove down to Vancouver.

On Friday the 13th, we headed back across the border into WA! We spent the day exploring Whidbey Island... tide pools and old growth rainforest. From Whidbey we drove to Mt. Baker ski area and spent the night.

Skiing Mt. Baker was totally awesome! We hiked and skied the backcountry and the conditions were really good. We met a guy named Ross and he showed us around a little (thanks again man!). The views there are spectacular of Mt. Shuksan, Mt. Baker, and the N. Cascades. After skiing we drove to the Nordlies' and went to Saturday nite church.

From here we plan to see the rainforest on the Olympic penninsula, ski Crystal, Alpental, and Stevens Pass... then head south. Thanks for checkin' in!

Lets capture the dream,

Ben Hanson