If you're getting rad and there's nobody there to see it, are you really getting rad?*

*title and most of content stolen directly from G.N.A.R. (Get used to it. I plan to steal the rest of my life from G.N.A.R.)  For those of you unfamiliar with this ski sensation, get familiar with it!


G.N.A.R. - movie trailer from UnofficialNetworks.com on Vimeo.

I just spent 10 days with 10 people in 2 RVs (Again, stealing from the movie/movement because it's way cooler, we nicknamed our motor homes The GnaRVs).  We drank 5 cups of coffee per day, slept for 3 hours less than we should have and shot off 2 roman candles each night. 

For a full run-down on snow, conditions and galleries of hot photos - see www.snow-reports.ca (my new fave website!).  Our trip stories are there for Castle, Whitewater and Red Mountain.  It is very helpful to have a new friend who can not only forecast weather (and make a killer cup of coffee!), but who pays attention to the lifts we ride and the direction we turn when we get off the chair (and then writes it all down for us!)  I actually only ever care about people, and about what I'm experiencing in any given moment.  (This may be why I am lost most of my life, feel shocked everytime I land in an unsavoury situation and am perpetually having to think on my feet).  Hopefully the above reporting will help to make sense of the garble below for anyone who doesn't think the way I do.

If someone from another planet happened to drop onto the Powder Highway** and directly into our GnaRVs this past week, they would have discovered that the most commonly used words in Canadian english are (in order):
Rad, and bro. 
Oh, and gnar.
This interplanetary interloper would also discover that:
60% of people are engineers.
Events only really matter if they're captured on camera (ideally video).
The best way to communicate is through 2-way radio. 
And avoiding face to face communication is key to maintaining good relations.

Now, back to the title of this post.  It's not what you do.  It's who you do it with.  (Or who's there to see you do it.)  I just experienced one of the most amazing trips of my life.  The mountains beckoned, the snow was deep and the food was taste (thanks Mikey F! You've seriously upgraded my vocab this week).  What made the trip sensational were my travelling companions.  They kept their eyes out for me as we skied between tight trees.  We laughed from the moment we opened our eyes in the morning until we fell exhausted into our bunks at night.  We skied and rode as hard and as fast as anyone I've ever met, and on our one rainy day, we rolled out onto the hill (literally) and pulled all our park tricks out of the bag.  

Here is the crew, one by one.  The new wolfpack.  I'd go with them anywhere.  But only in a GnaRV.



K Sesh Freaky Fresh

Trip organizer, rad rider, and...alpha male of our wolf pack?  Debata-bro! Likelihood of visibility on the slopes behind him = zero %  (You'll be buried alive in his powder slash)  Luckily, he's very fast and nobody can keep up with the guy anyway.


Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiick!
 



K-Tron 

Alpha female of the aforementioned wolfpack?  Awooooooo! Skis with perfect form at all times and can rattle off a retort or debate on any topic.  Even mid-line.  Just try her on The Spanish Inquisition.


K-Tron, doubled over laughing.  As usual.

 

Mikey F
 

King of the hill.  Grows the best 'stache west of Moosejaw.  Spits rhymes like a genius. Fond of the gratuitous use of 2-way radios, huge air, bathroom breaks and the word gratuitous.  See:

gra·tu·i·tous

/grəˈtuɪtəs, -ˈtyu-/ Show Spelled [gruh-too-i-tuhs, -tyoo-]

adjective 
 

1. being without apparent reason, cause, or justification: a gratuitous face shot.



Yet another gratuitous sponsor shot by Mikey F

 



J Chip

Breaker, breaker.

J Chip, one of two Turner siblings to rock the GnaRVs.  Their ability to shred the gnar on snowboards one day and huck trees on skis the next labelled them the 'AmbiTurners'. Why does J Chip get more photos than anybody else?  Obviously because I like her the best.  Get over it.


J Chip on a ski day.



AmbiTurning



Ghost?  Nope.  Just one of the AmbiTurners....Big B getting rad.  Again.

Big B being kind and hanging out with his weird cousin.

So Big B can not only shred anything, huck anything and ride anything, he can also build whatever he wants to ride (ie. Skis, snowboards, skateboards, wooden horses...).  Also, he's nice.  See above.  I love the guy.  But then again, I'm biased.  He's family. 


C-Tine

The nicest gal you'll ever meet on skis.  Check it out.  She's even smiling mid-photo.  Getting rad with a smile.  And she teaches yoga.  Siiiiiick!



 

True love.  Ski hill style.

 

Up there is M.Ski.B.  He's too cool for a caption.  I mean look at the guy! I almost hate him.  But he has that same super power that all the ridiculously talented people have - the epically nice gene that keeps them alive.  He's the sickest skier I've ever seen. He built my fave website (have I mentioned?? www.snow-reports.ca??)  I could go on.  But I can't stand it.



K Tine

Then there's K Tine.  She gets rad (see above).  I'd add in another photo here.  And I really, really want to....but then she'd have to explain it to her parents.  You can thank me later K Tine.



Lil B!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I left Lil B til last.  That guy is up for ANYTHING!  He's the champion of the face shot (see above).  He also penguin slides like no other.  And that guy can FLY!  I can't include another shot of him.  You'll all just be too jealous.

 

This is me.  I like to get rad.

 

Posse out!

 **Powder Highway = Highway #3 as it winds through interior British Columbia, flanked by amazing resorts and some of the dreamiest skiing you'll experience in a lifetime.  Sometimes (like this past week) very deep snow falls in the area.  Hence the term 'powder' in Powder Highway.  Sometimes the temperature heats up (like this past week).  Hence the terms 'rain' and 'snow-like-hardening-concrete' in Powder Highway (the terms 'rain' and 'snow-like-hardening-concrete' are silent)