Spent a fun, drunken and educational few days in and around Fernie, B.C. last weekend. Friday we drove to the ski town taking a scenic route into the Rockies, passed Frank’s Slide and through Crowsnest Pass. Many beers upon arrival, followed by board games and Wii.

Saturday was a fun — albeit painful — day of skiing. I used to be a good skier. Now I fall a lot. On this day I fell on my face, ass, back and then tripped into a cartwheel that nailed pretty much everything that the previous falls missed. Pain was subdued later that night with beer, hot tub and more Wii.

On Sunday, we enjoyed a relaxed ride home with a stop at the Frank’s Slide Interpretive Center. Frank was a small Rockies mining town that was buried by a rock slide in 1903 when the mountain above decided to shed a few thousand tons of stone. Around 100 people were killed and many remain buried beneath the rubble. A complete salvage was never performed and the highway basically cuts through a debris field of Humvee-sized boulders [pictured above]. Very interesting during the day. Terrifying at night.

We also stopped for lunch at a real old west saloon and bought a combined $100+ worth of beef jerky at Longview Jerky Shop.

Some things I learned:

+ You can’t do a 180-rail slide on skis even if it looks super easy to do on TV. You can try, but you will fall on your ass.

+ In an avalanche, rocks travel at speeds of more than 120 km/hr.

+ It’s hard to pick up ski bunnies when everyone on the hill sees you fall on your ass, face and back.

+ Avoid buying real estate at the foot of Turtle Mountain.

+ Your friends may be nice, but they will make fun of you if you admit that you’re afraid of ghosts — even if it’s late at night and you’re driving through a town buried by a rock slide with fuck knows how many doomed souls and forces of evil lurking just outside you car door.

+ No cuts, no scrapes — no proof. No fear.

More pics

This clip from an online World of Warcraft game was a hit a few years ago, and it’s still got some serious legs online. I don’t have time to fill you in on the details ’cause I’m done training noobs for the day. But trust me, this is funny.

Here’s the original:

Here’s the remix:

Woot.