One of the glorious things about being a runner is that I can train almost anywhere. It’s such a treat to switch things up a bit from my regular routes back home and take on some new terrain when I get the chance. Around Christmas time we usually have a bunch of family over here from Australia and this year we decided to take on the slopes of Big White. I was pleased with this decision as I’ve never skied on Big White before and heard it was quite nice. All together there were twelve of us on the trip (Two of my aunts, my uncle, my mom, little sister and four younger cousins). We lucked out with a wicked cabin, which had the ski in-ski out benefit so it made it really easy to pop back for lunch and back out again.

For the first day I checked out the cross country trails and they were pretty good! Sadly I was the only person on them :S

At the end of the first day one of my cousins asked me “JJ, When are you going to come normal person skiing?”. I couldn’t help but laugh. I guess I don’t have much to back up my cross country skiing addiction and it sure didn’t help that I was the only person on the mountain crazy enough to choose it over downhill skiing! Of course having grown up on alpine skis I certainly was not shy of the alpine skiing on this trip as well. With over fiftneen chairs, the mountain is a pretty spectacular place to alpine ski. There is no shortage of terrain.

 Considering all that normally takes place on a family ski trip, by far my favorite part is always coming back to the nice warm cabin, cooking dinner and spending time with the people I care most about. It’s moments like these that are absolutely priceless while we are amidst such a materialistic world. To me these are the only moments that truly matter.