Snow Mobiles Can Dint Your Truck & Ice Can Dint Your Bum!

They say you learn something new every day so....What have i learnt over the past few weeks? 1)Having my whole family in a 2 bedroom house can be cramped but wildly fun........but really cramped 2) Falling over on ice pretty much feels the same a falling over on cement except slippery (owww my coccyx!) 3) Driving a snow mobile up a ramp and onto the back of a truck can be really really bad for the truck if you don't know what your doing. 4) Snow boarding and pub crawls do mix very well together contrary to popular beleif.

The adventures all started when my family arrived 2 weeks ago for their first ever trip overseas. Mum, my step dad and my two brothers piled into our cosy little place. The month before they had arrived it had snowed almost every single day and was actually whistlers snowiest january ever recorded. We had powder day after powder day but the day they arrives was crystal clear skies and beautiful sunshine and it ended up staying that way the whole time they were here....not one drop of snow for 2 weeks!!!

Family Highlights .......

Snow mobiling on cougar mountain for the day was amazing. We each had our own machine and we explored beautiful forest trails through the mountain and saw breath taking scenery from the peak. We also had lots of fun little races and mum rammed the back of step dads snow mobile because she wanted to go faster...he he he
Tobboganing with them was cool too. There is something really cool about seeing your mum speeding down a snowy hill at top speed giggling and squealing and trying to dodge tourists.
Long talks in the hot tubs, snowy forest walks and some nice dinners out were also really great and unforgettable memories.

While my family was here i tried to spend as much time as possible with them but there was one event i could not miss. The mountain pub crawl!
This event had been in the making for some time. We had the idea that we could have one drink at each pub on the ski hills of whistler and blackcombe in a day. I think there were 8 or 9 fine establishments in all and the only way to get from one to another was of course to snow board. It was such a crazy adventure and was heaps of fun. By 1pm we were pulling the lifties into the gondola's, yelling out the windows to skiiers below, mooning eachother on the chairlifts and slurring our words but we managed to stay upright on our boards and make it to each pub in one peice. We probably shouldn't have gone in that half pipe at the end of the day because matty kept catching his edges on the blue runs but hey....we were all ok. It then turned into an all night crazy party back at our place with my family for the rest of the night with my mum being the wildest one there!

I have to say though, that the day that really stands out as an amazing adventure in the past weeks was our Valentines day wich was 2 days after my family had gone home. We have a truck and our own snow mobile here so Matty and I decided it would be fun to go on a back country mountain adventure on the snow mobile with some champagne chocolate and sushi. We had all our supplies ready and we headed off. We stopped of for gas on the way and matty gave the car some oil while we were at the gas station. 4 litres of oil to be specific!! Now Matty admits he doesn't know much about cars but he did think it a bit odd that it took that much oil. Anyhoo, as we started off the truck started violently billowing offensive amounts of black smoke wich we thought was a very very bad thing so we took it to the mechanic who told us we had flooded the motor with oil and the only way to get it fixed was for them to put it up on a ramp and drain it. The wait would be at least an hour. Doh! Anyway we just laughed and went to a cafe and chatted for the hour but when we came back the car hadn't moved. double doh! They said it would be another 40 mins and we were unsure that we would even be able to take the snow mobile out because we may not have enough time before dark. We found a nice spot by the river and ate the sushi lunch we had prepared and then eventually we got the truck back in working order and sped of to bradywine where we yanked the snow mobile off the back of the truck and after rugging up with plenty of extra clothes (it was minus 14) we took off on our adventure.

You know those moments in life that are so perfect?- the ones where you think to yourself "this is what it is all about"? This was one of those kind of things. Well i'll never be able to quite put this in words that discribe how amazing it was but i'll try.

We drove the mobile along a deserted snowy trail that wound up through the frozen pine forest at brandywine as the sun was begining to think about setting so there was all this dappled light dotting the trail creating such a pretty effect. Everything looked so full of life. There was nobody out there but just us. We kept driving and matty kept getting faster and faster and going over bumps and rises so fast my tummy would tickle and i would squeal half in fear and half in delight. As the trail wound higher and higher we rose above the tree line and to the top of the mountain where we had the most spine tigling, surrealy stunning views of the mountain ranges all around us. We stopped the machine and popped our champagne and toasted and kissed and then nibbled our chocolate and watched the sun start to set and turn the snow orange then pink and we just sat in silence smiling for so long it seemed like for ever. It was so magic!

By the time we got back to the car later it was almost dark and we were both really cold but happy. I couldn't feel my toes at all! Now it was time to get the snow mobile back onto the truck and this is no simple feat (although matty had led me to believe it was easy)
To cut a long story short, there was a wooden ramp that was sitting in the car park down there so we decided it was the best bet. We lined up the truck and had two tries at getting it on but it was hard because it would lose traction as it started to go up the ramp because of the angle so it couldn't make it up unless matty really gave it some speed. 3rd time luck aye? Well sort of - he went up with so much speed that the mobile rammed into the roof of the truck and ended up half off the right hand side therefore dinting the *#^# out of the truck...he he he. lucky it is a beat up old thing anyway. We had to push and pull at the mobile to get it properly in the trailer. The truck is so dinted and the paint job is now very unique too. Boy, what a day!