Took last Friday off and went up to Canada (Vancouver and Whistler) to further hone my snowboarding skills. Whistler and Blackcomb mountains are really high and will host the 2010 Winter Olympics. Heaps of snow fell during the day, so good powder were plentiful (useful when you spend a lot of time doing faceplants or falling on your arse). It was also snowing during lunchbreak at the village and the whole place looked like a winter wonderland. The Westin resort has a fantastic ski valet service - you can finish your run, walk about 50 meters to the hotel and hand your equipment to the valet who keeps them for you. REI has a end-of-season sale on snowboarding equipment now, so I'll check it out this week.