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  Chris Ruddock
  13/02/10

  Great topic to think about AP…

  All I can do speak of is my own experiences whilst living at Big White, BC, Canada.

  Your mate is exactly right, the amount of substance use (alcohol and drug) sky rockets exponentially when you are living on a mountain. I believe that this has become norm for two reasons. Firstly, it really is expected of you as young person who is traveling the world almost completely free of parental influence to go wild and experience every thing that you can come in contact with. Secondly, and i am not 100% sure if this holds true to the bigger mountains, however there is NOTHING else to do at night times. The majority of your days are spent working 9-5 serving the mildly or incredibly rich and then all you can do is either just go home to bed and do it all again or try and have some fun – which inevitably means drinking at the 1 pub on the mountain.

  The other side of the coin is that if you don’t fit in with the norm, you will not connect to the other workers on the mountain and then feel as though you are missing out!

  Personally i lived in over there for just over 3 months. For the first month and a half i found myself doing exactly that – working then drinking. However, I just could not sustain such drinking habits so i began to stay home instead of drinking.

  What i found doing this is that I was beginning to be left out of the group of people that i lived with and spent 90% of my time with. They would no longer ask me if i wanted to go drinking with them, they wouldn’t wait to go boarding with me in the morning or they were so hung over that they didn’t start to board until late afternoon and even more isolating was that not drinking with them caused me to miss out on all the actives that they bonded over and joked about during times of non-drinking (as there is nothing else to talk about).

  So that is a very good point…. looking back on my trip to Canada it isn’t filled as much affection as i would like, it is filled with more regret that i couldn’t keep up with the drinking behaviors of those around me.

  Also, I spent my last ever day on the mountain in bed throwing up cause i was hungover and missed out on snowboarding with my cousins who live in Canada. REGRET again.

  C

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  Ailie
  14/02/10

  Hi guys,

  I think it’s all about the illusion that there’s ‘nothing else to do’. How many young people today do nothing on their weekends except go out, get pissed, and laze around the next day with a hangover? Very few actually go out, play sport, be active or just generally have fun.

  Even the younger kids, all they do is watch TV or play computer games, is it no wonder that they naturally transfer to a life of binge drinking? If these kids knew what it’s like to actually get out there and enjoy life at a younger age, surely it would be easier to convince them that there is more to life than booze?

  Just my two cents I think what you guys are doing is great, I’ve always been a non-drinker even through high school. Always copped flak but I just never saw the point.

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  Gus
  14/02/10

  Adam,

  This is a very interesting subject that you have raised having spent 7 months in Whistler and a 5 months on exchange at university in the U.K I have witnessed and being apart of two of what I believe to be the biggest binge cultures going around.

  At University the idea was work hard, play hard and drink hard and with 1 pound pints and cruisers we certainly did that. As an Australian I was greeted with the stereotypical question of “Geez you aussies can sink a lot of piss” Well I can assure you this is nothing on our northern hemisphere cousins. Where every session at the pub involves various drinking games that end up in someone skulling their pint.

  In Whistler the aim was to simply have the time of your life and dont waste a single moment whether that means skiing some of the most amazing mountains in the world or partaking in some of the best parties in the world now wether you need to drink to partake in these parties is a completely different question, the majority of people living this lifestyle are young and fit and their bodies can take a surprising amount of punishment.

  Like Chris I eventually wore myself out in Whistler and would spend less time drinking and more time working and Skiing but at the start it was none stop out till 3am every night and on the slopes by 8am to ski or work all day and we would do this untill we crashed and every7 to 10 days you would have a rest day. This eventually wore thin but even then there would be at least 2 big nights out each week.

  In terms of the Drug issue in the mountains I believe that one of the reasons that so many turn to drugs is the cost. When the average wage is less than $11 CAD per hour there is no money spare. (even working two jobs up to 60hours a week i was making less money than i was in Melbourne working one 40hr job a week packing boxes), when your living of canned spagetti a toasted sandwiches it easy to understand how a $10 pill can be more enticing than $100 worth of grog. to ge the same result.

  These mountains are party towns and we go there to do exactly that. Whether it is right or wrong unfortunately I believe it will be a long time before these attitudes change. Maybe the starting point could be gold medal favourite Torah Bright who despite being in the midst of it all doesnt actually drink herself!

  I had a brillaint time in the mountains and would love to go back I stayed away from the drugs but drank far to much. When we knew the snow was coming we behaved ouselves. But there is definately a culture that one can only says encourages you to drink.

  Reply