A Turkey in China

Jacob Redding — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 16:34:22 +0000

Near our language school (wo dao ku) there is a store named the "Western food store". It is about the size of a small bodega in NYC or tiny 7-11 elsewhere (maybe 400-500sq ft). We went in just out of curiousity and to our amazement we found 3 Norbest Turkeys in the icecream freezer. I have *never* seen a Turkey in China in almost any form. This was an actual Norbest brand Turkey straight from the U.S!

Thanksgiving Meal

Jacob Redding — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 22:59:24 +0000

This video was created specifically for my family. They decided to wait until the weekend to have thanksgiving because my father had to work (understandable). Being the evil son I am I videoed our Turkey dinner, uploaded it to the Internet and sent it to them muuu--waaa-ha-ha <-- that's an evil laugh

Love ya Mom, Dad, Sis, Pete and Niece!

Thanksgiving Weekend (just a bit late)

Jacob Redding — Wed, 29 Dec 2004 04:26:00 +0000

Wednesday

I woke up and arrived at work earlier than normal so that I could leave as soon as possible. Although I had a ton of work to do I was able to get through the majority of my work in time to leave work just after 12 pm. I drove downtown as quickly as I could and met everyone at the state motor pool at approximately one in the afternoon. After picking up the vans we met everyone at the plaid pantry on campus at 2pm. It only took us 30 minutes to get everyone loaded in the 3 vans and we headed out for BC.

We arrived at Big White at 11pm that night.

Thursday

Our day began at 9am with a ride on the Ridge Runner express which was the only non bunny hill lift open. The early morning snow was awesome. Soft, light and fresh powder covered the mountains and if you took it on the heels and burned your thighs a bit you could cut over to some of the runs that were open and had an abundant amount of powder. It only took about an hour before the day warmed up enough to ruin a lot of powder by causing it to become a bit more wet and heavy. Riding down an ungroomed blue run was impossible due to the heavy snow, blacks were also very difficult but fresh lines could be cut down double blacks although it took a lot of muscle and work to turn.

I cut down one blue to black diamond run, riding away from my pack. The others did not want to get stuck in the heavy snow and opted to instead let me go it alone. I rode for about 300 yards before I became stuck in the heavy snow and had to unstrap and hike out. I was not the only one, however, I met two other snowboarders that had also become stuck and were hiking out. Once the three of us had hiked out of the area we strapped back in and while they decided to continue on the blue run I opted to ride down the black diamond. Halfway down the run I came across a person laying face down in the snow, motionless. Since there was nobody else on the run I stopped about 20 feet from the person and shouted out asking if they were ok. No response came from the person and I again yelled out if they were ok. Again I received no response. Fearing that they may have hurt themselves I unstrapped and hiked down to the person.

The person turned out to be Jennifer Schmidt, a good friend of mine. She had become so tired from fighting the snow that she decided to stop and take a nap on the side of the mountain.

The rest of Big White was average.

Thursday Night

We left Big White at 4 pm and headed for Apex resort. The trip only took a few hours and we made it to the Apex hostel just in time to hit the bars before they closed at 9pm. After the bars closed we headed back to the hostel cooked dinner, made Frangelico hot chocolates and relaxed. We went to bed shortly before midnight.

Friday

Apex was disappointing with only a t-bar open. The 5 or 6 lift mountains had a vast amount of skiable acreage but most of it was inaccessible due to the lifts being down. Since I was traveling with a snowboard club we did what any snowboard club would do; we hiked up the amount. After asking around we learned about a nice green run on the other side of the mountain that was closed but groomed daily. It would make a perfect trail up to the top of the mountain and the perfect access to several untracked double black diamond runs. Eight of us headed for the trail at 10am Friday morning.

The hike took us just over one hour to reach the top of the mountain and along our hike we were intercepted by one unusual character; a snowcat operator. Shortly before reaching the summit we head a snowcat coming up behind us. We stopped to let it pass but, as we expected, the driver stopped and asked us what we were doing on the closed side of the mountain. We were honest and told that we intended to ride down one of the several double blacks on the mountain. After we told him this we entered what seemed to be a bad episode of Scooby Doo. In a thick Canadian/Scottish accent the driver began to tell us a tale of a ? inch wire that is ran from the bottom to the top of mountain and attached to a wench. If this wire were to become taunt as we were riding by it the cable would, and these are his words exactly, ?Cut your head off?. He then began to tell us about a snowcat operator on the Whistler Mountain that came across a snowmobile with a headless body on top of it. The head of the driver was 30 feet behind the snowmobile and had been cut off by this mystery wire running from the bottom to the top of the mountain.

After he told us this story we all looked at each as if he was crazy and indeed we do believe he is crazy. His ?horror? story failed to convince to stay off the mountain, however, because he gave away the secret at the end of his speech. The wire cable is attached to a wench and is used to groom the green and blue runs on the mountain. We, however, were going to drop down a double-black diamond which has a face too steep to run a cable wench up and down. We were safe.

The crazy snowcat driver left and we immediately continued to the summit. After reaching the top we stopped for a quick bite to eat and dropped down into some of the lightest, driest powder I had ridden in a long time. The run was awesome, powder came up to our knees and we cut back and forth on the mountain creating the first lines of the season.

After our ride we packed up and headed out for Sun Peaks in Kamloop BC.

Friday Night

The drive to Sun peaks was rather interesting. I rode in a van with Nick at the helm and the other two vans rode out to Sun Peaks independently (for various reasons). Nick thought that the route to Sun peaks went right through the town of Kelowna but, unfortunately for us, the road turned towards the west about 20k before the town of Kelowna. This, of course, was only a problem because the van had a finite supply of gas and the road towards Sun Peaks went over a mountain pass. 15 k after turning onto the pass the Van?s gas tanks quickly emptied and we had to pull over. Fortunately for us Jennifer and Mich were following us in Jennifer?s personal vehicle.

It took about 2 hours for Jennifer, Mich and I to drive back to Kelowna find a 5 gallon ?cherry can? (as they are called in Canada) and bring back 5 gallons of gas to where the van was sitting. After that 2 hour detour it took us another 2.5 hours to make it Sun peaks.

The hostel was interesting. The 18 of us piled out of the 3 vans and 1 car, grabbed 18 snowboards, 18 boots, 18 helmets and 18 bags and walked into the hostel. Having already been there once before and haven already had reservations many of the members headed for their rooms. The manager however had a different agenda. She yelled at us to stay in the lobby until they could check us all in. So we had to fit 18 people and all their gear into a spot that was made for 6 people, max. The manager was a bit worried that because we were a club we were going to party and trash the hostel. Although last year we were the ones the cleaned the entire hostel, did everyone dishes and cooked meals for everyone at the hostel. Oh well, preconceived notions of snowboarders, fun stuff.

Saturday

Excited about the potential of really good powder everyone was awake by 8am and ready to go by 8:20, the time the first van left. We crammed 12 people and all their gear into the first van and headed for the lifts at exactly 8:20. The drive to the lifts is only 1.5k and we flew down the road. After getting our tickets we took a quick ride down a crappy blue run just to kill time until the bubble chairs that would take us to the crystal chair that would in turn take us to the highest point of the mountain and some of the steepest double blacks on the mountain.

The Crystal runs were great. The sanctioned runs were full of deep powder that ranged from a minimum of a foot deep to waist deep. We hit the runs as a group 2 times before separate groups started to form naturally based upon skill level, speed, etc. Mike, whom I met on this trip, and I rode together the rest of the day. We found some insanely sick runs through the trees and found many clearings with fresh powder that nobody had ridden all season. Towards the end of the day we went over to Mt. Morrissey and found some great powder.

At 2:30 Mike and I decided that we needed to find the best powder on the mountain. That powder would, of course, be located on the closed side of the mountain. Our destination was a double black diamond run that was only accessible via the closed lift and that required us to do a bit of hiking. After taking the lifts to the highest point that they would take us we hiked for another 20 to 30 minutes to top of the summit at 2080 meters. After a short hike on the top of the summit we found the run.
The side of the mountain had been untouched all season and the snow looked like smooth white frosting delicately applied to the side of the mountain. Mike and I both looked at each other and we knew that the line we were about to take down the face would be one of the best rides of our lives.

Leading the one I dropped in first and headed the face. I elected to make nice S curves through the snow as I charged for the valley below. At points I was waist deep in powder and the snow just seemed to get lighter and smoother with every turn I took. Watching the snow fly like a giant wave of white powder after every turn was definitely an experience that can not be duplicated (until next year that is). When Mike and I reached the valley floor we took a moment to look back at the lines we had created down the mountain. My line zigzagged back and forth down the mountain whereas Mike elected to simple bomb down the mountain and his line was perfectly straight.

Charged by the exhilaration we both experienced on that run we hunted down a second double-back diamond run. The next destination was ?Freddy?s Nightmare?; a double black diamond that runs right next to the closed lift. We found the mid-mountain lift station where the run was supposed to start and decided to take a short-cut through the woods. After all everyone knows that the best powder can be found in the trees. The powder we found in the trees was just as light and soft as the powder at the top of the mountain and we were set for yet another great ride down the mountain.
As we progressed down the side of the mountain we noticed that trees grew thicker and thicker. We found ourselves stopping periodically to assess the situation and pick new lines down the mountain avoiding stumps, small trees, branches and whatever else was on the side of the mountain. The pitch was steep and the riding was awesome so we kept on down the mountain searching for the best lines and riding the biggest snow mounds we could find. Unfortunately after riding down the mountain for about 15-20 minutes we discovered that we had made a big mistake. Instead of cutting through the trees over to Freddy?s Nightmare what we had done instead was to ride straight down into a ravine and the only way out was to hike.

It took us 2 hours to hike out of the ravine and back to a single black diamond run that would eventually lead us back to our Hostel.

Sunday

Everyone started crowding in the vans by 8:30am and we hit the road at 9am. Many hours later we arrived in Portland.

thankgiving

A Turkey in China

Thanksgiving Meal

Thanksgiving Weekend (just a bit late)