Daily insights for city builders, delivered every morning at 6 AM ET. I’m Brandon Donnelly — a Toronto-based real estate developer and founder of Globizen. I’ve been writing here since 2013.
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
Today was a snowboarding day. It was also the first day that I used my new (totally obnoxious) 40″ selfie stick. Note: It wasn’t fully extended for the above photo.
Internet access and time has been pretty scarce, so there won’t be much of a post today, which actually seems appropriate given yesterday’s post about being so busy.
See you all tomorrow.
I woke up this morning at 5:30 am in a hotel in Ottawa.
I then drove to Brébeuf, Quebec to meet some friends for a ski and snowboard weekend. (It’s beautiful here.)
Upon arriving I was faced with a large hill that my rear-wheel car with all season tires was absolutely not prepared for. So that sucked up about an hour of time.
After we unstuck my car, we then spent the day skiing and snowboarding at Mont-Tremblant. (First day of the season for me.)
At this point all I can think about is a good night’s sleep, so I’m afraid that there won’t be much of a post today on Architect This City.
But please feel free to hijack the comment section and talk about whatever you would like. Maybe we can get some action started there.
I would actually be really curious to see what topics interest all of you.
I’m off this evening to Banff (and then Revelstoke) for a 10 day snowboarding trip. If you’ve been reading Architect This City since this time last year, you’ll know that this is an annual tradition that I started with a group of close friends from grad school. It’s our annual retreat to the mountains and it’s our 6th year doing. I hope we never stop.
So what happens to ATC?
Regular scheduled programming will continue as usual. But don’t be surprised if I change things up and make the content a bit more personal on some of the days. I’ve also decided to try out something new and video blog throughout the trip using Snapchat Stories. If you’d like to follow along, my username is donnelly_b. There will also be a more traditional video to follow.
Finally, if you happen to know Banff and/or Revelstoke well, or happen to be from out west, I’d love to hear from you. It’s always great to get local insights.
Image: Revelstoke via Flickr
