Mt Cain Telefest

This weekend Mt Cain telefest was the place to be! A group of adventurous skiers that we know from Vancouver and Victoria were all converging on Mt Cain, so Marc, Joan and I had to go and check things out! What started as a very small community event has gradually increased in popularity at this small skihill and on Saturday the hill was "packed" - with 400 skiers! Lift lineups are apparently unheard of, but given the perfect sun and snow I didn't hear a lot of complaining - after all, we all came on the busiest day of the year on the hill by choice!

The last few weeks the snow has been awful here on the island, so in time for the festival it cooled off and snowed for a week, which was greatly appreciated by everyone. Perfectly clear nights with a full moon and a great starry sky and sunshine all Saturday, no wind to speak of and tons of fresh light powder was enough to have Marc and I giggling all weekend. Since we don't know how to tele ski, being able to turn in giant fluffy snowbanks was amazing.

Saturday - the annual tele-race. Not just for people that know how to ski, somehow Marc and I were in this....  It was super fun, and we made a solid showing at the back of the pack. Did I mention we don't know how to tele-ski? The draw prizes at the end of the day were truly amazing - for a $5 race entry we ended up with a great ski backpack and a pair of bright nepali mittens!

Marc at the race start area

Marc, Suzanne and Meaghan on lunchbreak

What can I say about this one? 

Sunday had a lot less people, and we were floored by how tired our legs were given the easy day we had on Saturday! My left leg was definitely not up for anything anymore and spent the day snowplowing - snowplow left turn, attempt tele- to right, snowplow, repeat....  apparently works just fine! 

So, halfway through the day we decided to go ski the West Bowl! Brilliant idea! We had avi gear and the risk was quite low, the bowl "skied out" by fussier people's standards, but we have no preconceived notion of what it should be like so it was AWESOME! The east bowl and other areas were still pristine powder, but we had to stick to the easiest terrain for obvious reasons. 

Top of the saddle

View down the top part of the run

and then it got a little steeper!

Joanie giggling 

Coming down the bowl

View back up the bowl

 Wish there were more pics of Joan and Suzanne making it look pretty and easy! For obvious reasons my camera was buried in the bottom of the pack as I anticipated faceplanting and tumbling in my near future!

Looking back at the West Bowl and surroundings from the ski out

Suzanne never seems to be having fun.