37 Years between Slopes

In 1974 and as a sixteen year old schoolboy who knew absolutely everything he needed to know about the world I travelled to Bulgaria.  I did so with about 30 schoolmates and under the management of three schoolmasters from John Fisher Grammar School.  Wearing loaned ski regalia I was obviously Val D'Isere himself; never mind ther fact that my ski pants were actually ladies ski pants if I recall correctly.

Having landed in Sofia and boarded our grey bus; to travel through a grey landscape in a grey and very communist country, we remarked on the absence of snow.  Our guide informed us that at least 24 inches of the white fluffy stuff would arrive overnight so fret ye not.....

We were greeted at the hotel reception in Borovets with hot fresh baked bread and a hot non alchoholic toddy of some description.  That was to be the last non alcoholic toddy like thing for the next week as I and my classmates discovered Mastika Brandy and that pretty unclad girls on playing cards fetched a rare price on the Bulgarian black market.  Good job I had some with me.  We skied each afternoon and took lessons each morning and gradually climbed higher on the slopes as we became more competent.  I recall failing to detach myself from the chair lift at the intermediate disembarkation point and arrived at the top of the mountain and a route down that could only be described as bloody scary.  Got down eventually but only after deliberately falling over as few times to avoid plummeting down over the steep cliff like moutain edges.

I remember having a fantastic time and recall very clearly the Russian Army Officers who stood guard on numerous gates in and around the resort.  Very cold war and very KGB.  I was glad to be there to experience it.

The reason for blogging this long ago event is to report my second visit to a ski resort just 37 years later than the first trip.  Mildly more mature but no less susceptible to an alcoholic toddy I again boarded a bus, this time in Mission British Columbia.  No classmates within a continent but colleagues from the local Chamber of Commerce.  The event was a business after business get together for networking and socialising.  $10 per head covered the bus trip, fresh pizza and hot chocolate; lift passes, equipment hire and a hot food buffet after a bit of slope action.

Hemlock Ski Resort is about 45 minutes from home in Mission and the switchback climb up the mountain is quite hairy particularly in a bus and on compacted snow.  The temperature up the mountain was reported to be -30.  That on the face of it sounded rather chilly but in reality and without any wind it did'nt feel as cold as the Mission we had left behind.  In fact for the first time since I arrived here in July 2009, the Fraser River had frozen over.  No mean undertaking when you consider it is every bit as wide, if not wider, than the River Thames in London.

Not quite a lithe as I was in 1974 I passed on the ski-ing and snowboarding and opted for tubing and tube races.  Great fun; fast paced and with a tube lift to get back up the course not too strenuous. 

All in all it was a great experience and a reminder of 37 years before.  On this ocassion, though, the chances of a rapid return are great.  Having a resort like this pretty much on the doorstep is huge.  Being gifted a free tubing pass for family also makes it likely I'll take Kim with me sometime soon; don't think I'll be around in another 37 years time for visit three......