Spring has Sprung

The great melt has begun! The temperature is now consistently above freezing in the village, and great slabs of snow have been falling off our roof over the last few days; we've also had the novel experience of walking on dry roads once more. Spring skiing is certainly different to what we've been used to; while the snow is still decent at the top of the mountain, the lower runs are somewhat soupy by the end of each day, bringing back fond memories of skiing in the Alps. This weekend, in a bid to avoid tiresome weekend lift queues, we all took up some food and a few beers and built a jump in the middle of nowhere and spent the day going up and down, with some spectacular results; Jonny tried a backflip for the first time, and escaped with just a bloody lip - Ross cracked out a pair of mini skis and attempted various tricks, with limited success. All in all, it is nice to see the sun again, and we are getting increasingly competitive about our goggle tans...

Mumps update is as follows - having taken Kara's name in vain in the previous blog, the mumps have continued to spread, with Kara first on the list. Katie was next to fall, and while they haven't quite experienced the swelling levels of Jonny, they've both had to have time off work and also off the mountain, much to their displeasure. The rest of our house had a group trip to the doctors last week for a mumps booster jab in an attempt to avoid joining the growing list - unfortunately, the nurse informed us that it was likely we were already incubating, and if so the jab would make it worse! I wake up each morning and the first thing I do is stroke my chin to check for swelling - as of yet the rest of us are all clear, long may it last.

Our house has also had the first serious injury of the season (about time too!!) in the last few days - whilst flying down a tree run in typically reckless fashion, Emily had rather too close an encounter with a sizeable evergreen, and broke her wrist in two places. Having been seen by a frustratingly unsympathetic ski patrol bloke, Em skiied down and self diagnosed a sprained wrist, and resolved to see what it was like in the morning. As she continued to wince with pain every other minute, she eventually went to have it looked at, and the doctor gave her the bad news (for a sizeable fee, of course), and she is in a cast for the next few weeks. Every cloud has a silver lining, however, and in this case that silver lining is the assortment of lewd messages adorning the cast - classy. Our immediate reaction when she got home with her fresh cast was to provide some liquid relief, and she's still loving life despite not being able to ski - she's still able to work luckily, and remains firmly on board for our Vegas trip next week.

We've had a fresh raft of house guests over the past couple of weeks who, as ever, keep things interesting at 8566 Buckhorn Place. Katie's Asian friend from home, Chonger, deserves an honourable mention and goes down as one of our favourite visitors so far - he was here for three weeks and quickly adapted to the Whistler way of living, skiing hard in the day and doing his best to defy his Oriental roots when the drinking began in the evenings. Emily's friend Trev also provided some unquestionably memorable moments - alas, he too has now flown the nest.... We've also just welcomed Kara's friend Vicki, who stayed with us over New Year, back into the Buckhorn fold. A second trans-Atlantic holiday in three months may seem extravagant to some, but we have all been glad to see her, and when there are strapping young men like Leo on this side of the Atlantic, who can blame her.

I'm currently enjoying my first day off in a while, having worked the last ten in a row, and Coote is stuck into his usual weekend double shift routine. We have still been finding time to party, with a big few days for St. Patrick's Day and Chonger's last night in Whistler last week. During this time, we spent quite some time developing our artistic talents, thanks to Chonger and Emily's inability to remain conscious after a night out - as some of you may have seen, Chonger got particularly well covered - having used permanent marker, he did a good job to scrub it all off by the time he boarded his flight the next day. Emily was less successful on that front, eventually giving up and leaving for work with 'THUG LIFE' still firmly adorning her knuckles. Tonight, we are venturing out to see 'A Skillz' on Emily's recommendation - previous recommendations have received a mixed reception, so who knows what's in store tonight...

Kara's Mum is currently in town, so Kara's been enjoying living in luxury post-mumps. She did, however, choose a somewhat unusual way to welcome her mother to Whistler - a few catch-up drinks at Brandy's turned into a few more... which turned into getting cut off (refused service). Having been dropped back to her mum's hotel room by Jonny, she proceeded to wander into the night - never a good idea in a ski resort. Jonny, having almost arrived home, got a call from Kara's Mum asking where she was and, being a true gent, went off to search for her. Having stopped by a few of our usual haunts, Jonny arrived at the hotel at a loose end, but thankfully found Kara soon after.... passed out, on the sofa in reception. Welcome to Whistler, Mummy!

We also had a house 'Swap Day' in honour of Laura's birthday the other week - boarders skiied and skiiers boarded - just to spell it out. All in all, the day was a success, and most of us enjoyed the swap more than expected. While Leo backed out as he couldn't bear to be separated from his skis for more than five minutes, Coote and I struggled our way down all day, with some helpful tips from Jam meaning we gradually worked out how to turn, as well as stop. Unsurprisingly, we all spent a lot more time in the snow than usual, but it was good to see how the other side live; we then rewarded ourselves with another hefty EuroApres session - see Facebook photos of Laura in fine form. I even boarded again the next day, although I've decided that's enough for the time being - my body is only just recovering! The week ahead is shaping up to be another good one, with the last few powder days of the season forecast for the middle of the week - we also have Vegas to look forward to (leaving a week on Tuesday), and the arrival of Leo's friend Felix next weekend. Over and out, Josh, Leo and Sam.