First day in Fernie. The flight over was fine and I've had a decent night's sleep but I'm not really feeling quite right just yet. Skiing starts in earnest tomorrow so I hope one more good kip will do it. Today we've been to pick up our ski passes and have a tour of the town and the ski shops. It turns out there was some Patagonia clothing I didn't have, so I quickly bought it all.

I'm in a house with 8 people. So far we're all getting on fine and they seem like a nice bunch. There's 75 people on the course all told and most are quite young: our house is definately the mature-students residence! The good news is the organisers are making a backyard ice rink in our garden. How thoughtful.

Fernie itself is laid out at the foot of the valley with the ski hill arrayed along the mountainside in front of us. You can see all the runs carved through the trees. It's very exciting actually; especially after spending so long looking at it all on the webcam.