Thanks to the lovely Amy Jo Espetveidt, you’ve officially been introduced to winter. So I then won’t do the whole sarcastic “it’s snowing AHHHHHHH! Don’t jump off that bridge!” crap.

You live in Canada, you live in Calgary, you’ve probably been outside in January, or as I like to call it “the worst”; therefore I’m going to assume you know what the weather’s like here. And although some of you might be praying for consecutive Chinooks all winter, some of us are praying for massive dumps of that heavenly white powpow. That’s right, wax up people because it’s that time again to revisit the steep and the deep located just outside of our fair city.

Oh Calgary, how your surrounding mountainous terrain completes me. If you live here you really have to get into the alpine culture in the winter. Seriously. There’s a lot going on, and certainly makes those unbearable minus-ridiculous days pass by. I’m speaking specifically of course, of the skiing and snowboarding.

There’s a few epic ski and snowboard movie premiers and festivals that happen right on the cusp of the season here in Calgary. Fresh ski shop throws a sick four day festival, “Freshtival” with after parties and industry pros to boot. This season Royal Board Shop also began their first ever snowboard festival, and gave away a ton of swag. The premiers are endless, all season there’s always a variety of board and ski movies showing all over town. Ski movies are a great way to get into the spirit of winter.

Now that it’s snowed, the local hills are starting to boast about nearing opening days. Nakiska’s exploding out of the gate and claiming the title for first open ski area in North America this season. They’re actually opening this Saturday, October 27! If you need your downhill itch scratched, there it is friends. Yessssssss.

The social media universe has been blowing up with tweets and posts about snow accumulation from Sunshine Village to Castle. What a great freekin way to start the season!

If you have no idea what I’m talking about, then visit your local shop and ask for immediate help finding some kind of equipment that will allow you to slide downhill at incredible speeds on your feet. Or move to Boca Raton, Florida and leave the snow for me.