Unique Snowflakes

We're well on the way to winter here in Vancouver, and that means it's just about snowboarding time. Since this will be my last season in Canada, I want to make the very best of the winter. I acquired a full set of snowboarding gear last season, so I started thinking about some kind of season pass to a local mountain. These items have a substantial dollar value attached to them, but then pretty much everything about this sport is expensive. Of all the local mountains, I'd had the best time at Cypress, so I checked their site and started crunching some numbers. This was to see if throwing down cash for the pass was financially worthwhile, and after a bit of calculator work I came the decision that it probably wasn't. I only went snowboarding eight times last year (including two days in Utah) and following that usage pattern meant that it would be far better value simply paying day by day. That established, I went out and bought the bloody season pass anyway.

There's something to be said for committing to a cause, after all. Now I have no excuse at all to stay home. I can go up for just a morning's runs, or hit the tube park with some buddies for a day, or try out snowshoeing, or go Tuesday nights with the people from work, or even take a Friday off and go three freakin' days in a row. No queueing, no cost analysis, just me and the snow. I'll probably run into a sasquatch and break my leg on my first day, but who cares? I gots me a season pass!

I felt even more chuffed when Cypress was inundated with snow a day or so after I threw down my cash. They received enough of the white stuff that they had their earliest opening ever, November the 9th. Unfortunately it warmed up and rained up there the day after, but with any luck, the weather should turn cold and nasty again real soon.