Still Alive

I am still here, but with not much to report. I am now in a full length leg cast which will be with me for 7 weeks. I have not been able to get up to the mountain, although I keep hearing the conditions are great.

Surgery

Typical, my insurance company did not come through. It appears I have had a false sense of security with my medical insurance. If there is a way for an insurance company to get out of paying for medical bills, they will find it.

I had surgery on Monday in Trail so I am now on my way to recovery. It appears this will be a long one, next Wednesday I will get a hip to ankle cast that will be with me for two months. I am just coming to terms with how much I will have to change my lifestyle.

Give me a couple of days to get mobile and motivated and this blog will go back to being a bit more about Canadian Ski Quest and Red Mountain.

Injury Update

I am hanging around my room today, while everyone else is either skiing or doing the snowmobile tour to Yellowstone Park.

What happened yesterday. I skied over a small jump and must have landed a bit off balance, my left ski released and impacted my right knee. The impact ruptured the tendon that runs over the kneecap. I can not lift my leg. I am going in for surgery tomorrow here in Jackson Hole and I am told the recovery time will be 3-4 months. I have accepted what has happened and am focused on the recovery process. This is my first debilitating skiing injury since 1993 and this includes 10 back to back skiing seasons, so I really can't complain.

This video clip was taken just before the incident.

Patela Tendon

Not such a good day! I'm out for the season! Details to follow.

Jan's Diner Lima Montana

Happy to report that Jan's was once again excellent. She actually remembered us this time.

Missoula Montana

Two hours of driving and we were in Missoula, nice city. If you are ever her the place to eat is the Depot in downtown.

Today is driving day to Jackson with stops in Lima for Jans Diner and in Idaho Falls. Have you have ever seen the Sean Penn movie U Turn? I am quite certain that Jan is the actual waitress from the movie.

Excellent Question?

We were having breakfast this morning in a cafe in front of the Silver Mountain Gondola. Nice setting-Gondola cars going by every 30 seconds with an Idaho landscape in the background.

One of the guests asked me: "Is that the gondola that takes us to Silver Mountain?" Usually my guest service principals hold me in check, but on these tours perhaps I relax a bit (too much). My response to the excellent question was: "No we are taking a different gondola, I don't know where that one goes."

A Canadian Ski Quest T-Shirt goes to the first person who correctly guesses who asked the question.

Silver received 36 inches of snow on Friday, that right over a meter! So we were somewhat excited about what the conditions would be like. The gondola ride is that long that you can not determine the conditions from the base area. They did get a lot of new snow, but it must have been quite warm because everything was quite compacted, and it was a warm day on the mountain, about 5C. We did manage to find some untouched snow after a lengthy traverse and a bit of effort. But definitely a worthwhile effort. We are off to Missoula Montana in about an hours time.

Silver Mountain Idaho

I am now on Day One of Canadian Ski Quests Jackson Hole tour and am writing this from Silver Mountain. We are about to load the "worlds longest gondola". That's their claim anyway. Silver Mountain always seems to exceed the guests expectations, nobody has heard of it and they are on the tour for the Jackson Hole experience. Usually they are pleasantly surprised by the standard of skiing and facility here.

I will try to post whenever possible on this trip, but photos and Internet access may be a bit of a challenge.