Feb 3 - The night I arrived Jean was throwing Raina a birthday party. There were tons of people, most of them drunk. Raina and I stayed sober so we could shop the next day. :)

Feb 3 - Jean was showing us skate tricks in the living room.

Feb 6 - Jean, Andy and I drove a few hours into BC to ski at Kicking Horse for the day. The first run they took me to the top of the mountain and make me drop into a bowl. It was amazing. Kicking Horse is now by far the best place I've ever skied.

Feb 6 - Jean and Andy met up with some buddies and went backcountry skiing in the afternoon.

Feb 6 - All the runs had gorgeous views.

Feb 6 - I even did some glade skiing. And I didn't hit any trees!

Feb 6 - This was my first avalanche warning for the week...but not my last.

Feb 7 - My first caving adventure. Andy and I drove to Canmore and met a guide that took us to Grotto Mountain.

Feb 7 - We had to hike about 30 minutes up to the entrance of the cave. A mountain goat came over to check out what we were up to.

Feb 7 - The cave entrance

Feb 7 - Right at the beginning of the cave you have to rappel 60 feet into a very dark cavern. Andy and I were so excited we didn't even get nervous.

Feb 7 - Here I am crawling on my back out of somewhere small.

Feb 7 - Andy in the Laundry Chute.

Feb 7 - Andy on his back disappearing somewhere below.

Feb 7 - The guide was kind enough to take our picture.

Feb 7 - Driving back from Canmore we saw the most spectacular sunset I had seen in a very long time.

Feb 7 - Ah, pretty.

Feb 8 - Raina's birthday lunch at her favourite Italian restaurant. A lot of her friends from work were able to make it out. The cheesecake was very good.

Feb 8 - And this is Raina's office! We had an elaborate plan to fool her boss into thinking I was Raina, but he wasn't in his office!

Feb 8 - After Raina and Jean got off work, we drove 5 hours into BC, then another 32 km up a logging road into the mountains. Then, Jean drove us each up to a very rustic cabin on his Arctic Cat, it was about a 10 km ride. Riding uphill to the cabin on the skidoo was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. It was 5 am by the time we all got into the cabin and were able to set up our beds.

Feb 9 - Doctor Creek Cabin was to be our home for the next couple days. We chopped our own wood, boiled snow for water and received some avalanche training.

Feb 9 - This is the sign on the door of the cabin. We carried transceivers if we ventured very far from the cabin.

Feb 9 - Inside the cabin. It was small and not too clean, but very fun. Raina and I had some time to ourselves in the afternoon and we played cards and chopped wood. We also tried to find a glacier creek to get water from, we dug a very deep hole in the snow and broke through the ice only to find the creek had dried up. So we filtered snow water into Evian bottles and pretended.

Feb 9 - The loft. This was our sleeping quarters, the splatter on right-hand side of the wall was animal blood and guts. Apparently about a year ago an animal got inside and the people staying there used an axe to kill it. It was fairly disgusting.

Feb 9 - The loft and kitchen/living area below. For some reason there was a sink with taps, but the cabin had no electricity or running water and the drain didn't actually drain to anywhere...strange.

Another view of the kitchen/living area tidied up a bit.

Jean fixing the fire. The temperature was -12 during the day and -15 at night. We took turns getting up at night to add more wood to the fire..it got pretty cold if someone didn't get to it quick enough.

This is the view directly out the door of the cabin. Spectacular. The sky was clear every night and the moon was almost full. The reflection off the snow made it so bright outside we didn't even need flashlights.

View to the left of the cabin. The mountains were all around us and they were very steep. We only got about 2 hours of direct sunlight in our little valley.

Raina ready for bed.

Feb 10 - Back-country skiing. Raina, Jean, Andy and I drove the Arctic Cat up a frozen and snow-covered river to a lake...which I'm standing on in this picture. The lake was surrounded by...you guessed it..mountains!

Feb 10 - We choose a peak and skidooed up with our gear. Jean got stuck once and after that we had to fling ourselves off the skidoo while it was moving and hike the rest of the way to the top. It got your heart beating for sure.

Feb 10 - Here is Andy ready to snowboard down. It was difficult to keep track of people because from the lake we looked liked rocks.

Feb 10 - This would be me beginning my descent. Quite steep, I took it slow and still took a tumble.

Feb 10 - Andy and I...I was telling him he could go first.

Feb 11 - Back at Raina's. We were so dirty and glad to back in civilization. We took showers pretty much immediately and then I had to start packing.

Feb 11 - My bruised ear. The tumble I took backcountry skiing had a lasting impression. The ski I took to my head and ear also managed to give me a slight black eye. Unreal.

Feb 11 - Chad. Raina's new roommate. Very nice guy and he likes to keep the house clean!! Perfect for Rainy.

And what would be a trip out west without getting pictures of the cats. Harley is so cuddly now, he slept with me a few nights.

Raina in my bed with Casey.