Banff Leg Of

The Search For...

Canada 07 Tour

Day 11 After a few running repairs on rockets snowboard we were back on the mountain once again. A fresh covering of snow overnight made the slopes unreal and it wasnt long before Rocket was getting his confidence back and back in the groove. Another brilliant day up the mountain, it was sunny and visability was great except for a period of about 30 mins when the clouds rolled in and dumped a couple of cm and then it went again and sunshine lived up to its name once again. Thursday night stu cooked up some dish that i cant remember what he called, he wasnt happy with it but the boys didnt really care. Might have missed a few things here but cant remember so will leave it at that. Oh yeah the cd from Victoria of the band Marmade Duke was given a run when it was quiet in the afternoon and the cd was terrible. The band really sucked. But surprisingly on the night they were good and after a few beers they dont sound too bad.

Day 12 We headed up to sunshine for the third day straight, we got there late and found that we werent on the list for cheap tickets and cause we were tired we decided we could use a day off. This day turned out to be a real rest day. We watched highlights of previous winter olypics which included Australias favourite winter olympics moment of all time, Steve Bradburys Gold medal in the speed skating with all the front runners falling over on the final turn and Braddles coming from last for the win... Rare Gold...but not quite Perkins like in Atlanta. s***e this thing has got a bit of length about it. Em air... Rocket cooked up an omlette while the lads watched a movie and then we had a few drinks in the kitchen. Things started to heat up a bit. Out with the boys tonight were johnny boy, dory and TJ and with dory bringing a couple of friends for gibbo to sort out it promised a good night. We checked out a couple of pups which were too packed and eventually arrived at Wild Bills. Bit of a saloon style pub and it had a live band playing some decent covers so it was pretty cool. The chick lead singer of the band was bloody hot. Dory started the dancing off with a 75 year old from wagga wagga, not sure why he would be in Banff but was proably an adrealin junky or something. By this time gibbo was getting quite cosy with one of Dorys friends. Despite the fact that he bought 4 random welsh people drinks and not the chick one he was doing alright. General looseness on the danfloor followed with jones dancing like a duck for the most part and johnny using the irish fishing rod to no avail. The band was playing some good tunes and we had lots of fun. By the end of the night gibbo was trying his best to get the girl home with him but that didnt happen, surprise surprise. Gibbo and stu kicked on for abit and then lost each other on the way home. Gibbo had to go back out looking for him, found him cold and shivering like a little kid. What really happened was that Stu was trying to cal Mel for her birthday in only a t shirt and Gibbo was lost after smoking some of the good Stu and stu found him. It was a quiet night downstairs but things were heating up upstairs. The lads had gone to bed early to get some much needed sleep. The other bird staying at the house Fi came home with her boyfriend and slept in the boys room. The problem wasnt cause they were getting frisky, it was because they both snored like banshees.

Day 13 Stu and Gibbo didnt sleep much and they were pretty pissed the next morning. For stu to complain about snoring it must be bad cause he wears earplugs. Anyway the bloke, wildebeast came down the next morning for some awkward moments in the kitchen before making a hastey retreat. Then when Fi was leaving everyone thought she had left the house but hadnt and everyone was bagging her out, bad khama there guys. Slack saturday. Snared a few gifts and stuff then went for a walk along the river to the Banff Springs hotel. We took the magic carpets and had a few runs down the hill there. Stu and Gibbo were underprepared and were ready for home pretty early due to the cold. Gibbo needed a happy snap in the spring hotel so we checked that out. The place is pretty high class so we strolled in there like we owned the place. Gibbo and Stu sat on the big marble bears on display to buy, highly illegal one senses. We got back did a whole lot of not much for the afternoon. We went and got some cordial of the alcoholic variety and other essentials. Then around dinner time things started to warm up. The lads brought home some steak from the shop, just for something different. They also brought home another bottle of JB, to make it two in two nights. Rebecca arrived and the party was in full swing in the kitchen. Gibbo and stu were drinking out of yard classes as was rebecca. Then things started to get a little loose. At about 10pm rocket decided it would be a good idea to do a nude run down muskrat st at -10 degrees. Mez was up for it too and the commentary from the lad on the deck was proably more funny than the event itself. Rcket was deckout out in kangas jumper, aussie falg as a cape and nothing else, the snag was out but only just due to the cold. Mez was decked out in assorted flags and techincally wasnt at all nude but good effort all the same. We headed back to wild bills for another night of gassing and dancing. Looseness alround on the dancefloor. The same hot bird was singing again, man she was a belter. Kahlua and milk copped abit of a hiding, as did JB. With dust falling we called it a great night.

Day 14 We woke up late doors due to the amount of dust accumulation overnight. TJ snapped us all into action, it was the first time we had company on the slopes, Rebecca and Tj were joining us, pressure. By the time we had got there, hired some gear we needed it was 11.30 so we got an afternoon pass. It was an unreal day, blueskys and sunshine at Sunshine. We took a few green runs to start with. TJ was showing off, but thats ok, she should, she has been there all winter. We took a few videos and some great photos of the mountains. Then we headed up to have a crack at the world cup downhill run. Its a blue run which gets pretty steep in a couple of spots. It wasnt as bad as it looked, it was quite a wide run and we could follow each other down without cutting in on each other. Last run of the day TJ took us on a lift we hadnt been on before. It was only a green run but not far down Gibbo and TJ thought we had gone the wrong way and were now on the ski out. So we took a short cut through the trees to get back on the run. Turned out we hadnt gone the wrong way and now we were in thick trees with a track about as wide as our boards. It got pretty dodgey in a couple of spots but we got out with all limbs still attatched and it was a lot of fun. During the day we saw some pretty solid crashes. First of all Rocket went for a double forward summersault with twist and lots of laughterin front of TJ. Injuries were minimal because of the deep powder. Then gibbo topped that when he crashed and took out a snowboarder. There were poles, skis, boards and bodies everwhere, it looked like a train wreck. On the ski out a snowboarder took TJ out from behind and she hit her head pretty hard. After a minute rubbing her head she was back up and stylin. Rebecca had a couple of falls and hurt her neck which ended her day early and stu opted for the gondola on the way out de to numerous injuries including a ruptured pectorial if thats possible. Regardless it was our best day on the mountain and a great way to spend Rockets last day in Banff. When we got back we went out for a meal at Tommys?. The dusty boys ordered steak sandwiches which proved not enough so we had a second one and then Gibbo couldnt eat it so he got it packed up so that he could eat it for breakfast. We had a few beers, shared jokes and stories of the tour, had a team photo and then the tour curtain came to a close. Must say that i had so much fun with Gibbo and Stu, true dusty travelers and great to travel with these blokes. Would like to thank Chris in Vancouver, Rebecca in Calgary and the Dustettes in banff for there hospitality and local knowledge.

Keep Trekkin

Rocket and the dusty travelers