We landed in Calgary last night, stopped for a bowl of pho noodle soup, and then did the three hour drive into the BC interior. This year's "annual" is in Fernie, British Columbia. It's my first time here and the snow is everything I was promised. And since I have been meaning to post more photos on this blog, here are a few that I took today on my iPhone (with only minor edits made in VSCO). More to come, here.

It is that time of year again. For those of you who are regular readers of this blog, you'll know that every year around this time I go on a snowboarding/ski trip with groups of friends that I went to grad school with and/or grew up with. We have been doing this for a decade now. Last year we were in Jackson, Wyoming (my favorite place so far). And this year we are in Austria. Here is a photo that I took -- of paradise -- this afternoon:

I'm not sure there's anything to say after a photo like this. So I'll leave it at that. See you tomorrow.

For those of you who are regular readers of this blog, you’ll know that I love to snowboard and that I leave Ontario every winter in search of fresh lines. It is an annual tradition that has been going on for over a decade.

One of the things I wish I had been more diligent about is collecting all of the trail maps. I am sure I have a number of old ratty ones in some of my snowboard bags and snow pants, but none of them are probably worth keeping.

That’s why I think this is a terrific Kickstarter campaign by James Niehues. Over the last 30 years, James has researched, photographed, and painted almost every ski map in use across North America. Yes, these maps are all painted by hand. 

If you would like to back James’ project – a hardcover coffee table book of his work – you can do that here.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/orsc/james-niehues-the-man-behind-the-map/widget/video.html