Erin Lempriere: Dec 10, 2006

Thu, 23 Nov 2006
A day in the life of Erin the ski patroller...
morning hasn't quite dawned. pinnacle #107c begins to murmur. kiwis begin to rise....breaky, keepin it traditional, usually consists of a healthy serving of good ol porridge and a coffee or green tea to start the day. (well usually the only thing found in the pantry). all 6 of us head out the door at the reasonable hour of 740ish. pretty sweet time eh?! we walk approx 100metres to catch the bus and a nice warm comfy one delivers us to the resorts great wooden doors 5min later. 20 odd of us patrolers pile into the boot room and the gear loading begins. falling over one another the layers go on.... thermals more thermals transeivers mid layers fleece layers down layers (puffy jackets) shell layers radios packs....avalanche gear, ropes, first aid gear, gloves boots helmuts googles you name it. we wear it. names are on the board- teams are formed. general daily meeting/plan takes place weather report avalanche control report team meetings and plans made..... music is turned up....last things pilled on....walkin out the door feelin like a mitchilin man dont forget your lunch. pick up some bamboo, maybe a bunch of rope, or a tabogon skis on! yeeehaaa! and the day has started. we all depart towards our separate areas and begin the run checks...set ups.... mid mornin and the free skiing kicks in...spots/lines/powder runs have been picked during set up. we mission it for some fun... grab a team mate...or cruze to a different area on the fields. where eva, or what eva- just don't forget about the tasks set for the day, or ya hut duty! tree skiing, beaut big deep lines...its all here- right at ya door step. i love it! everyone is so amped to ski lots here and share the good spots with one another. hut duty is a good call....nice lil stop in for a warm up next to the gas heaters and a refuel. a patroller is always at, or in close proximity to, each of the four main ones scattered throughout the fields to enable respondence to any accidents below. the day passes so quickly. (not so quickly on the sub-stupid temperature days) 3.45 and everyone is at the top of all the runs. sweep backside of the mountains begins..... patrollers close gates, and sweep the runs ensuring no injured public are left to freeze over night. front side sweep begins....one patroller is left to watch- at the top "paradise cabin" and it is paradise. about 445 and the last patroller makes his/her way down the mountain to finish the day..to then make the call...and everyone off loads the layers and layers of gear- ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh. beers crack. brief meeting ends the day...and the bus is waiting at 530. love to feel the burn. home james. what a day.... priorities take place- be it food, wine or yoga. its a great way to finish the day- and in the company of all whom have basked in it also. the night usually consists of a lounging one about the house... making contact with whanau at home drinks together...foosball comps or a walk to the bar...or fellow colleages condos maybe a trip into banff or dvds.... generally wanting to feel good for the next day- the nights arn't too late on the time scale. ofcourse moderation is bent occasionaly well im off to sleep now im shattered.... in a million happy pieces thoughts of you all right now xoxo erin

Here are some more photos of the Lake..

the options out back seeen endless right now!

my day off with the boys, we were just out the back of the summit

this is the ski area boundary line from the summit

paradise chairlift (Piers and Karem (kiwi boys)

Dave- my flattie...up at the summit hut

lovin my new boots!

Wed, 15 Nov 2006

After 4 hard days at work
Good evening. Well i am currently lying in bed trying to take my mind off the burn in my legs... its truely the most i think ive ever felt! today we were quite busy getting more slopes open out on the back sides of Ski lake louise. setting up fence lines, testin the snow etc ;) wow its just amazing how much snow we have. i don't think anyone can quite believe it! every person, local, customer that i talk to is blown away with all that is open already. apparently the runs we're opening usually arn't ready till about mid jan! woohoo. the best in 7 years apparently- yay, looks like a picked the right time to head over...as one nice man on the chairlift put it to me this morn. it just keeps on snowing. i don't think there has been one day since ive been here that it hasn't snowed. yesturday was just spectacular...finally a clear blue sky day, for most of it, which allowed me to actually have a good look around the terrain. i took a few photos- so you'll have to check them out in the photo albums! i couldn't stop grinning all day, and whats best is that i got so much skiing in. pity i still can't shread the pow. it shreads me. i can't wait to get some new skies! my ones are like trying to water ski on sticks. its not fun sometimes. and not pretty. ill be gettin some lovely fat ones very soon.... (watch this space) so all the people that i work with are great fun...all about the skiing and having fun. woohooooooo! its laughs and hard skiing all day long. last night i headed into banff with a few people and we saw the movie 'Borat' (he's the guy that Ali G plays) it was a real good laugh! not much else is happening during this week apart from full on work...so im keeping it quiet at night because i don't have a day off until sat. i will write again soon, as im almost asleep at the wheel. i would love to hear from you all. all about the summer your heading into..and how the warmth feels! love and hugs erin xoxo

work has started...this is some of our crew. Summit hut

Me at summit top...hut on the left. looking over the back

Whitehorn 1...opened today

mid field

paradise chairlift

Group email sent on the 7th of November

Kia Ora to all! Well I've well and truly landed my feet on the ground that they'll be jumping on for the next 6 months. I say jumping because I actually feel like its all a bit of a dream land right now….its blown me away and I feel like im jumping up and down inside a lot of

the time! Banff is just the most beautiful place. I can't explain well enough. I've only been here for 4 days and I really do feel at home. The people, environment and taste in the air is just so welcoming. My trip over here went relatively smoothly. I had half a day in Vancouver

…which was nowhere near enough time. It is an amazing city and truly put on the weather which made out for a great scenic flight over the Canadian Rockies into Calgary

that afternoon. I spent the first couple of days exploring around Banff and Canmore(a small town 15min east). Banff has really cool buildings down the streets, with

plenty of shopping and dinning. There's snow everywhere, trees and stunning mountains surrounding it….wild animals walking the streets… friendly faces all around…which is so new to me it just makes me smile the whole time! Oh and the road rules-i havn't stopped laughing about. It seems like there just is none. (ie. Whoever gets first to the intersection generally goes first?) Banff is about a 50min drive from Lake Louise, where I work, along the 'trans Canadian highway'. It's a great drive..long straight roads through the rockies with funny animals in the bush beside it, animal-crossings over top and once again- scenery you dream of. Honestly=just like the pictures! Breathe taking. I stayed the first few nights with my friend Karem which was cool. Great to catch up and instantly meet some really fun people. a couple of days ago I moved to Lake Louise… luckily I scored the last room in a "condo" (flat) instead of the staff accommodation I was expecting. (it didn't sound so good in the end) its in Lake Louise and im sharing it with 5 other kiwis! Hehehehe. Two couples, another guy and me – all Patrollers which makes it pretty fun. the rent will be much cheaper than Banff so that's all good. oh and I get much more of a sleep in the morn- yay! So I've four days of training at work now…not on skies yet…just doing training which has been fun. Cold the first day because we were outside in the snow for most of it- and I had no good boots. = cold toes! All is ok now I brought myself some 'Sorels' straight after work which fit me much better for the weather while training outside. + they're great to walk around the snowy streets. Most of the outside work is consisting of Chairlift evacuations. Pretty exciting stuff- having to learn all the different evacs we might be required to do for the different chairlifts and different circumstances. Yesturday was the best- we spent all day on the gondolas, ive attatched a couple of pictures taken of me training. woooohooo! We've got a great crew…half of the pro-patrollers are somewhat local Canadians, half are kiwis, and one ausie! Hehehe. About 30 of us. Then an extra 40 volunteer-patrollers for the weekends when we are busy. I can't quite believe my eyes when I look up onto our field. It seems never ending! And there's two more faces that you can't actually see from the base. How on earth am I going to remember all the runs! It's the biggest field in Canada! Oh well. Ill learn. the snow is amazing here- just like icing sugar! It was snowing all of yesterday. And last night. None today though…and they were getting worried because it wasn't cold enough for the snow makers so the pressure was going to be on for the World Cup preparation. Apparently it's the most amazing event to watch- speeds of 130km on skies straight through the middle of our front face field! But good news because ive just heard its dumping up there and we are already above average for this time of the year. Wooohoo! So parts of the field are opening up on Friday and I can't wait to get out there and have a play around. most of us (rookies) have three days off now and a bunch of us drove to Canmore today to do a bit of shopping and hang out with a work buddy who is from here. His parents just cooked all of us kiwis a lovely big feed of turkey and fresh veg. Mmmmmmm. Havn't had that in a while now! well ill stop and update in the near future…. But id love to hear what you are all up to so drop me a line or a hundy – I miss you all. ive attempted to add some pics of Banff, work and the house I I guess this house is going to keep me close to home though- I look up now and there is a big NZ flag hanging on the wall, a great map of the country on another, kiwi music in the back ground. Marmite in the pantry. oh but don't worry about me getting to know the Canadian culture….there's no lack in the social life here and ive already caught myself rolling my R's occasionally.ahhhhhh! ah well Right on. love to you all xoxoxo erin