John Mee – Some programmer in Sydney

April 13, 1993
Banff, Alberta, Canada
View of Banff Township from Sulphur Mountain

Oops, amazing how time slips by. I’m still living at the youth hostel, and working at a restaurant called “The Keg”. Its part of an international chain. Apparently there’s even one in Australia. I’m doing prep cook, which involves chopping and portioning everything from escargot to potatoes. Its not a bad job, the people aren’t bad – but then time will test these first impressions. Been there two weeks now, without chopping my fingers off. Meanwhile I’m just hanging for that first paycheck. I burned through the money left over from Big White pretty quickly, and alas had to draw on the old Visa card again (which expires soon – July so I might need someone to forward the new one on for me – Warning). Apparently its a good idea to avoid using mastercard because they convert to US currency then Oz dollars and take the commision twice!

Anyway life in Banff is looking like life in the life in the fast lane. I’ve been out nearly every night since I got here – though am start to tone things down. It seems everyone here is out for a good time. Nearly everyone is under 30, most people under 25, so the atmosphere’s pretty fun. Three hours sleep is pretty much the norm, but I can’t hack the pace and am wimping out increasingly often, trying to get on the original plan, involved more skiing (season ends in June!), walking, camping etc. There’s people arriving “for the summer” everyday. So hopefully I can get set up with somewhere to stay soon. It looks like I’ll sign a six month lease with some others in a unit or something.

I’ve fallen into a little crowd of Aussie’s I work with, two english brothers and most importantly a canadian girl. There’s countless other familiar faces taht are “here for summer”, so it looks like it’ll be a good summer. Interesting to read this in 6 months and see how things turned out.

Hmmm. I’ve just sat back and taken an eyeful of snow-capped rugged mountains. Fir-trees and the odd squirrel hopping about, there’s elk wandering around everywhere, spring is on the way – there’s no snow on the ground – although it still snows every 2-3 days – it melts pretty quickly. The night life is great, its easy to make friends. I can confidently say that I’m enjoying myself. There’s a million things I could write about. I was thinking about how the subject about what I’m writing can change so quickly. Today the focus is on getting accommodation, and getting into an outdoors fitness routine. A few days ago the focus might’ve been women (Jasmine is the current heartthrob). What’s going on at work, the night life, other people, the hostel itself is curious, the scenery, the skiing, etc, etc. I worry about how much of it I’ll remember.
Jasmine in Banff

A 3 point elk just walked by the window!!

What else can I say. I think I’ll send everyone a personal letter.

April 1, 1993

First up I went to Red Mountain. The poor ski legends paradise – complete with quadruple black diamond runs (over 80o slope). Skied some hell runs then moved up to Kelowna to try my luck at the more commercial Big White. After waiting a week downtown at a sordid excuse for a backpackers – full of unemployed Canadians who just sat around and smoked all day in front of the T.V. – all the windows shut because its 10 below outside. I managed to hound the poor receptionist enough to get work as a cook (read burger and fries man).

During that week I went up to another resort nearby, called Silver Star, and skiied a couple of days. Since there were no hostels around I figured I’d find out what sleeping in the car was like. First night was fine. After putting on loads of clothes and crawling into my you-beaut sleeping bag I spent all night taking clothes off.

The second night was more interesting. The cloud cover was gone. After skiing I snuck into the hotel’s pool and spa no probs and after a couple of hours splashing, and a sit in the pub I headed off with a very comfortable arrangement of the seats. This time started with no clothes and spent all night putting more clothes on. I still slept ok, and not cold, but was a little disconcerted to find 2mm of ice on the inside of the windows in the morning, and a sheet of ice about 30 cm long running down the front of my sleeping bag, where my mouth-hold was. I didn’t think much of it until I found out that it had been -18C!! Wow that’s COLD!! It was bright sunshine skiing all day. Superb snow, but it didn’t get over -12C all day. Welcome to Canada.

I’m sure it was just chance but driving into Canada it seemed that the snow cover started exactly at the border. Canada – all of it, now the largest country in the world (USSR is defunct) – is entirely covered in snow in winter. And I’m only in the very southern-most part.

Dad its a curious note that there are no farms that I have seen yet. Everywhere there are forests of fir trees. Logging is the only industry in British Columbia (this province). In the Okanagan valley around Big White there are loads of orchards which are bare now, but nothing compares with the logging – of the clear cut variety – so the clearings are pretty ugly. I lie of course, tourism abounds in summer.

Speaking of which, I have a whole new appreciation of the Northern Hemisphere’s preoccupation with the seasons. Everyone thinks in terms of winter/summer, spring/fall. Its always “What are you doing for the summer?” and “I remember one winter…”, or “Only x days till Spring!”

So I got work on the mountain. I’d usually get the chairlift down to work, but could ski down if wanted. Typically I’d ski 2 full days and 2 3/4 days. The menu at the daylodge was burgers, fries, sausages, soup and sandwiches. So opening meant heating soups and making sandwiches. Closing means cleaning and dishwashing. Serving means making hamburgers, fries, and sausages as fast as possible. Luckily I got a few days up in the kitchen, and under the chef learnt how to use a knife and do prep-work (and dishwashing) so now I’m passing myself off as a prep-cook.
Top of the Bullet chair at Big White

Needless to say my skiing has improved. I’m still having a lot of trouble on the steep, heavy powder tree runs, and the big moguls – but if I can just get those jump turns mastered and mybe some bigger skis I’ll be right. There was a double black run at Big White which I was having fun on – mind, that run is more steep than bumps.

The people. I moved into staff accom and shared a tiny box with a local guy. A whole bunch of staff were all snowboarders – complete with skatehead attitudes, of which he was a leader. He’d had the room all to himself all season, so wasn’t overjoyed to have me arrive. So whilst he certainly wasn’t hostile, I wasn’t entirely comfortable. Luckily he was a janitor and worked opposite shifts to me so we rarely saw each other. It took about 3 weeks to find some friends and settle. I was hanging with three english guys mainly, a canadian girl and an australian. There were plenty of Australians around, presumably because the mountain was owned by the same guy who owns Mt Hotham in Victoria.
Some english lads who kindly befriended me at Big White

So just as I’ve settled a bit and found friends, gotten myself known, it was time for the end of season lay off. Last-in, first-out. I’m out.

So after a week of nothing but skiing – I got to keep my pass – I’m now in Banff, Alberta. I think I’ll stay here a while. The scenery is breathtaking, even moreso than all the other breathtaking scenery I’ve described. I can point the camera in any direction and get a great photo.

March 23, 1993
Big White, British Columbia, Canada

Well yes I’ve been extremely slack with my letter writing lately haven’t I. I sent mum a little update on Seattle via the computer so I haven’t been that bad, only 5-6 weeks out of date.

Eventually I got both bored and organised enough to leave Seattle. Plus I felt I’d imposed myself on the household for long enough. The finalities all involved spending lots of money – in between “Star Trek – The Next Generation” episodes. I bought ski’s and gear, a “North Face” shell (japara-type jacket) and some waterproof boots. Not to mention buying Michael an MX-5 (with his money). I went skiing with Michael’s friends while he went to work.

He was enourmously generous which was greatly appreciated, except that I think I’ll feel guilty for the rest of my life – probably an excellent investment from his point of view. The car, as Michael will probably have told you, is great to drive. You can go into any corner at almost any unreasonable speed and it will just slot around it with deceptive ease.

Leaving Seattle I went to Red Mountain. I went up to Whistler/Blackcomb when I dropped Meredith at Vancouver airport and found it swarming with Aussies looking for work. Hence I decided that since I have transport I might try something a little further afield.