Pub. 6 2018 Issue 1

4 The Community Banker www.mibonline.org W elcome to our spring edition of the Community Banker. It is hard to be- lieve we are already into the spring of 2018. Where does time go? I don’t know about everyone else, but I am sorry to see the winter of 2017-18 pass. Inmy area of the State, namely the Southwest corner, we have had one of the best winters in a long time for us skiers and outdoor enthusiast! This past winter will be one by which we judge future winters. I decided to use this column to tell the story of my winter skiing adventure. Frommid-Sep- tember to early December, I had a number of crashes, wrecks, and accidents involvingmy right shoulder. As a result of these physical beatings, I found out in early January of this year that I had torn two of the four rotator cuff tendons completely off of the bone. I had also partially torn the bicepmuscle, as well as the labrum. The surgeon saidmy ski season would come to an end and recovery would take at least six months. Not wanting to waste the beautiful snow season, I negotiated a surgery date three weeks later to givemyself a couple of more ski trips. My wife and I decided tomake a weekend trip somewhere. Jackson Hole and Salt Lake City hadmarginal snow as of mid-January. Canada, however, was setting snow records likeMontana. After conducting a little internet research, I found a place called Revelstoke in Northern BC. I had never been to the ski hill, let alone hear of it. It turns out that Revelstoke has the most vertical feet of any ski resort in North America. Our initial plan was to drive to Kalispell after work Thursday and spend a night there. We then planned to get up early and drive the final five hours so we could ski half day the first day. It turns out, this wasn’t the best plan. I spoke by telephone with my little brother in Texas Thursday afternoon. He looked up the road conditions on his phone and let me know that google maps indicated the road to Revelstoke was closed through the mountain pass. Even so, I just assumed the road report was like Montana where they just don’t advise you travel in blizzard conditions. Turns out I was wrong. I called the ski area and found out the road had avalanched and would not be open for several days. The only way to get to Revelstoke was to take the very, very long way around. As such, we ended up driving through Libby, Bonners Ferry, and up highway 3 into Canada. There is no bridge over the Columbia River. Therefore, you have to ride a ferry that only runs once an hour. We were lucky enough to get to the dock just as the boat was getting ready to leave. The ferry was big enough to hold 3 loaded log trucks end to end, plus an additional 20 more cars. Taking this route, we were able to bypass the avalanched road and made it to the resort in time to ski most of the afternoon. The skiing was fantastic and the views were tremendous. On the last run of the day, my 22-year old daughter and I decided to take a long double black diamond run named….get ready for it…..“KILL THE BANKER”. The run was on the lower part of the moun- tain and, consequently, had received freezing rain the day before. It was an icy hell the whole way down, which made the run aptly named as the run really did try to kill this banker. Having survived an icy death experience on the first day, the rest of the ski trip was glori- ous. The trip was made even better as we were able to drive back through the Glacier National Park of Canada. It was a beautiful drive. There were several miles of avalanche tunnels along the highway. Our trip took place during the Winter Olympics and we watched some of the events at the local ski bar named the Village Idiot (clearly, the Canadians enjoy their catchy place names). I found that the Canadian chan- nel only showed coverage of their athletes. An American had won the snowboard event President’s Address TomChristnacht