In keeping with the theme of things moving southward before the eventual upswing, my flight itinerary took me from Sacramento to LA, and then up to Vancouver for the next event in the Nor-Am circuit. Of course nothing this season can be straight forward and hassle-free, that just isn't my luck this year...
While taxiing to the runway on the flight from LA to Vancouver, the pilot informed us that due to some small electrical issue, we had to return to the gate for a mandatory inspection. No big deal, we were only supposed to be delayed for about 5-10min. My schedule was strict though, and this was a late-night flight, so I had about an hour window to work with before I might be in danger of missing my rental car reservation before they closed for the night. Sure enough, 10min turned to 15, and 15min turned into 30. When 30min hit, I knew I was in trouble; missing my rental car meant missing the early morning drive to Big White (about 4 and a half hours east). The rental car station didn't open again until 5am, which would cause a delay in my arrival to the resort, and potentially the complete loss of practice day. In a scurry, I called the rental car station from the plane. I spoke with a rep and told them who I was, he confirmed my reservation and flight info, and ASSURED ME someone would stay at the Kiosk until my arrival. Thank goodness!
45 minutes behind schedule, we were finally in the air. There were empty seats EVERYWHERE! Note to self: Book a late-night flight whenever possible; you can stretch out completely across your row for a nap, move to a different row that looks more comfortable, on in my case, move to the very front coach row so you can get off the place early and RUN to get your rental car in time.
Everything worked out just fine, I got off the plane quick, customs didn't take too long since it was so late at night, and my luggage was off of the plane in no time at all. I grabbed my stuff, and walked as quickly as I could to get my car and get over to the resort. I walk into the rental station and it's a ghost town. No people, no lights, but most importantly NO EMPLOYEES. They were completely closed, locked up, lights out...I was STUCK. With nothing to do from 1am-5am, I pulled up a bench, stuck my gear underneath, and slept until the employees got there the next morning...
Needless to say, I had lots to talk about with the staff when they finally arrived. I wanted to say so much more, but just talking was costing me valuable time. I was now almost 5 hours behind, and I needed to be on the mountain. I got my keys around 530am, and I was GONE.
The drive took just under 6 hours, and I was dead tired by the time I got there. There was a stretch of about 60-70mi that was covered in snow; looking back, I think it was probably better that I WASN'T on the road at 2am, especially through that patch of highway. Big White was an awesome looking resort, with a gigantic village. I found my residence spot as fast as I could, checked in, and got unpacked / geared up as soon as I could. By the time I found my way back to center village, I was already late for practice...
This course was SO MUCH DIFFERENT than the Copper Mountain course. The turns were so much wider and forgiving and I felt like the rhythm sections had a bit of a smoother flow. The technical features at Copper were pretty creative, and an amazing mental (as well as physical) challenge. I felt much faster through this course than I did at Copper, but that could very well be a result of having only 2 days on the snow before Colorado. That dreaded Wu-Tang at Copper absolutely destroyed me for my first race of the season. Big White didn't have a Wu-Tang feature though...it had TWO. Taller, more vertical, and even less forgiving than the single feature at Copper, these things were in my head as soon as I saw them. But, I didn't travel that far to be defeated mentally; If I was going to lose, it would be from a mistake while actually ON the track.
Three to four practice runs and I had those things dialed in. Up until this season, I had never ridden features like these. I had seen something similar in France, but it wasn't as tall or as vertical as what I had now seen at two different venues this season. I kept my base flat, got my timing down, and popped nice and stable right over both of them. The rest of the course was all about picking the correct line. There was one banked turn near the bottom that had gotten completely torn apart and rutted by the end of the afternoon; a few coaches renamed it "The Dealbreaker". A commanding lead could be stripped away with an accidental slip over one of those ruts, and the rest of the course was flat before one last downhill to the finish line, so staying on your feet there was CRITICAL. The ideal line was a far outside entry followed by an aggressive dive towards the inside line just after the apex. It worked for me for my first two runs, and I was able to accelerate out. Later in the day the ruts were way too deep, and my last two runs put me sliding on my butt after I lost control over the chopped up snow. Everything else was solid though, and I was ready for the next morning's qualifiers...
