Pray to Ullr

It hasn't snowed in a while at Revelstoke, the hill is crap, moguly and hardpacked and it's about time we do something about it.
In times of crisis, there's only one person to turn to... God.

Or, more specifically, Ullr, the Nordic snow-god.

Description, courtesy of Breckenridge's website - which has a week-long festival dedicated to Ullr:
'In Norse mythology Ullr (pronounced Oool-er) was the winter god. He was the son of Sif and the stepson of Thor, the "God of Thunder." Ullr loved the cold, and delighted in traveling over the country on his skis or skates. He also delighted in the chase, and pursued his game through the Northern Forests.'

Let us pray:



* Crap video, sweet prayer
** Snow is coming tomorrow night so something must be working!

Happy Australia Day!

To everyone at home and travelling around the world, Happy Australia Day/Hottest 100 Day!

I spent the night listening to the Hottest 100 couped up in a hostel in Toronto with a bunch of Australians, praying the Internet connection would last long enough that we could hear who won. Props to Mumford & Sons for the win, but massive props to Bluejuice for squeezing in the top five and the Hoods for coming in third! Rad!



Yes that is an Aussie flag tattoo and a Sauv Cellars stubby holder

Niagara Falls: A Tourist's Perspective

What do you name a post about Niagara Falls and not make it sound ultra lame? It's impossible.

On a cloudy, rainy but relatively warm day in Toronto, I jumped on a bus tour and headed towards the border to check out the ultimate in cheesy tourist destinations, and also the ultimate in radical waterfall goodness: Niagara Falls.

Click read more for a few cheesy photos, if you're into that sort of thing.

Will they, won't they #4

Will they make it? Won't they make it?

Dec:



Click read more to find out!

Montreal, with words

The trip to Montreal is just about over, I'm off to Toronto tomorrow morning for five days, mainly to watch the Raptors get their butts spanked by Australia's very own Andrew Bogut (that's a basketball reference for those non-sporting kids) when they take on Milwaukee, maybe squeeze in some Niagra Falls and possibly a few bar fights, Canadian-style.

Montreal has been a wicked city with everything, from the beautiful Mont Royal with outdoor ice skating on a frozen lake at the top to the hustle and bustle of downtown to the snow-covered parks to the shady sights of dudes breaking into houses out in the 'burbs.

One of the cool things about Montreal is that it's a city built on two languages - French and English. It doesn't sound that strange, but it really is. French, being the official language, rules the signage around the place, but walk into a shop and the assistant will always greet you with a very weird 'Bonjour Hello' - and will roll with however you reply.
Everyone is bilingual in Montreal, but as soon as you cross into Ontario the French disappears, and barely anyone speaks it fluently, and even less do in public.

I've been hanging with a bunch of international students so it's been a very multi-cultural trip, to the point that I've barely had a chat with a Canadian the whole time. We've been to Irish pubs, Mexican restaurants, Chinese ones, hunted for a closed Chilean place, danced our arses off at overpriced, skanky nightclubs, listened to middle-aged dudes in a cover band play Oasis songs, seen taxi drivers punch on, walked for hours on a hunt for the perfect bagel, spent days searching for Montreal's greatest thrift store/op shop/friperie (that's some French/culture for you) and it's all been rad fun.

If anyone gets the chance, visit Montreal. It's such an amazing place and it's so bizarre to have a French-speaking city in North America, it's definitely a must-see.

The Seagull

I may be in Montreal, but it's hard to not want to be back in Revelstoke, pulling out radical bird impersonations:

A cloudy day on Mont Royal

T'was a cloudy day in Montreal and our protagonist for this story, Stu, was working off a hangover when he decided to head up Mont Royal, the hill and park in the heart of the city.

What started out as a nice stroll quickly became a test of character, a journey for redemption and, ultimately, a fight for survival.

Click read more to discover a fable for the ages!

Hang time

We happened across a group of paragliders at the end of a day out near Jalapeno, and with Paz on camera duties, picked up some sweet shots of a seriously awesome activity.

These shots are actually of the second dude who took off, the first guy cocked up royally and crashed on the takeoff. He was okay, his friends laughed at him.

Click read more to see the rest.

Will they, won't they #3

Will they make it? Won't they make it?

Paz:



Click read more to find out!

Freeskiing World Tour pt.2

Part two of the Freeskiing World Tour event from Revelstoke, click read more to check out the rest of the pics.

Freeskiing World Tour pt.1

We headed out to Greely Bowl today to check out the final of the Freeskiing Tour event at Revelstoke, and the journey was worth it with some ridiculous skiing on show.

We settled in with a couple of beers, made some mini snow-caves and cheered our hearts out from the ridge looking into the competition area, alongside a big crowd that turned out to watch the event.

The highlight of the day was undoubtedly the monster 100ft (we judged it to be anyways) cliff drop that one of the competitors did - we were too far away from the finishing area to hear the names, but I was told later it was the second place-getter.

Click read more to see some shots of that drop, and a host of other cool stuff.

I'm splitting this post in two because there's lots of pics so it'll save some loading time. Enjoy!

On the hill: 09/01

Dec had his camera out today, it was a bit foggy so the shots aren't that clear, but they show pretty well the sorta stuff we were riding.

With a fresh dusting overnight (somewhere around 5cms I'd guess, the actual snow report is always wrong...) we rode Conifers of Gnarnia (skiers' right of the Gondola) for most of the day, which consisted of small drops, big drops, trees and more drops.

Oh, and Stu and Dec had a wicked crash... but no pics of that. Click read more to see the pics of the day.

On the hill: 06/01 pt. 2

On the second run of the day we found a pre-made jump on the hike past Jalapeno, over the ridge.

After a quick glance to make sure no one was going to kick our butts for stealing their jump, we sessioned it for more than an hour, with Croz on camera duties early and everyone else sharing the load towards the end.

Click read more to check out the pics, they're pretty sweeeeet.

On the hill: 06/01 pt. 1

It hadn't snowed in three or four days, so we all slept in anticipating icy crap on the mountain, and eventually set off on what we assumed would be a short and average day some time after 11am.

Little did we know, it would turn out to be one of the most freakin radical days in the history of the universe.

Bluebird skies, waist deep powder, a pre-made kicker and a seriously awesome nutella sandwich all contributed to some insane fun.

Click read more to see the pics from the day, and apologies about the length (I'm splitting this post in two, check back for pt. 2), but it was really fun!

What's new at Getting Stoked?

There's been some big changes at Getting Stoked over the last week and plenty more to come, so it's time for a bit of an update on what's going on.

The house welcomed a new member, Declan, on New Years Eve, the crew finally got off their arses and rode Greely Bowl, as well as hiking the sub-peak and dropping into the North Bowl from way higher up.

Click read more if you're bored, and get some detail.

A bit of a year in review

If Powderfinger can do a best-of album, then hell, so can I.
The blog may only be a few months old, but with the new year rolling around it is time to do the Bit Of The Year In Review.

The idea behind this post was that it would be a cleverly written piece of literary gold, reflecting on the trip so far in a humourous way that would make people giggle.

Then laziness took hold, and it became a 'best pics of the Bit Of The Year' compilation.

Click read more to see Stu's picks for the best of the best so far.

Happy New Year!

The beers are chilling in the fridge as the decade edges ever closer to a close, so within the hour Getting Stoked will raise its ice-cold beverages in a cheers to 2009, the 2000s and an all-round radical decade.

A lot has happened in 2009 to make it a fantastic year, though looking back 12 months I don't think I could have come close to imagining how this year would turn out.
From slaving away in an office writing sports stories to climbing at Araps to mountain biking in NZ to shouting 'I CAN'T MAKE IT STOP' mid-nightmare on a plane to smashing margaritas in LA to riding amazing powder through the Snorkel Glades at Revelstoke, it's been a very fun ride.

I hope everyone has an amazing new year's eve and makes a great start to 2010. Who knows what you'll be looking back on in 12 months time!