Day 38 - Teambuilding

For Day 38, my co-workers, Simon and Pascal, joined me for a little gnar time at lunch. The sun was shining ONCE AGAIN and it was another beautiful day. We headed up to 7th Heaven and took a couple of runs back down to the Heaven chair. After that, we "hopped" over Blackcomb from 7th and took the blue run that lead to the Crystal Chair area. Ridgerunner was the Blackcomb run of the day so we took that back down to the office. Great day for team building!!!! Even Linda (my other co-worker) strapped on her skies and took a quick run down from mid-station.

Day 37 - 34 degrees in the Alpine

On my 37th day of the quest, the 30th day of January 07, it was 34 degrees at the Alpine. Training from this past weekend took me on the green Blackcomb runs. As an instructor, you want to have a good feel for where the green runs are on the mountain. Today I stuck to the greens and tried to get a better knowledge of the layout on Blackcomb. I ended up next to the HUGE ASS!!! .... (did I mention huge??) .... Nintendo Terrain Park. Although I didn't shoot from the perfect spot for taking pics (I also didn't have the Rebel with me).... I was able to get a couple guys in the air.

Day 36 - more training

Day 36 was nothing interesting. I had Basic Survival Training for Whistler Kids. The training took us up Blackcomb and then over to Whistler. I ended up with a touch of the flu and need to take the second half of the training this week. It was another beautiful day on the mountains. Unseasonal weather (IE, the sun shining) has been stalled over the region bringing sun for about two weeks in a row (unheard of this time of year!!!!). It feels more like April or May instead of June. It's nice, but I want more POW!!

Day 35 - Picture perfect

Oh my god was Day 35 beautiful!!! Not a cloud in the sky, no winds, and the temps were warm. I grabbed my Rebel and headed up to Harmony on Whistler. I took as many shots as I could to capture the beautiful day. Later I met with Simon and Kevin for a few runs.

Day 34 - Spring in January?

It's January 24th and the temps on the Alpine reached as high as 36F. I do not know if that's good or bad. The sun and the warmer temperatures felt wonderful, but the snow felt horrible. I knew the runs were going to be icey so I decided to take Day 34 on the Blackcomb run of the day -- Ridgerunner. The shaded areas of the run were frozen, the sunny areas of the run were soft. Interesting conditions today.

Day 33 - ugh!

Well the freezing levels rose and the rains came. It was raining up over 5,000ft. FYI..... I think the Peak is 6,000ft and change. I got off the Excelerator chair and headed down to Base II. It snowed about 6inches overnight so there is a lot of snow up there, it's just wet and heavy and choppy. Day 33 had me saying, "ugh! what the heck am I doing up here?" I couldn't keep my goggles clear, my jacket was soaked. It wasn't any fun. Hard to believe, I know. Lucky for me, this is just one day out of 100. I feel bad for the mates who have a limited amount of time here and have to suffer through these horrible conditions.

Day 32 - constant changes

This is my first full season at WhistlerBlackcomb and there is so much to learn about these mountains. In addition to the constantly changing weather, the snow conditions can change from hour to hour too. It snowed all morning today. Simon was smart, he headed up first thing and found some great powder to make some tracks through. By the time I got to take a run (around 2pm) on Day 32, the snow was completely tracked out and choppy. It was also very wet and heavy...... that gives a dramatically different feeling than light fluffy snow. I am learning that the conditions of the snow are never quite the same two days in a row.

Once again I took some easier tree lines down next to the Excelerator chair. Took the Solar Coaster back to the top and ran blue lines back down to my office. Unfortunately, the warmer temps are heading our way and the freezing level is projected to be at 5,000ft for the next couple of days. That means rain and wet heavy snow. Yuck!!!

Day 31 - Whistler Wonderland

Another beautiful day in Whistler. The sun was shining and skies were blue. Kevin and I spent Day 31 on the blues and greens around Garbonzo. It was a little crowded but nothing unbearable. I was able to get some tree practice in. Kevin has improved his riding up another level. Whenever I look back to see where he is, he is always right on my tail!!! Everything was pretty well tracked out but we managed to find a short powdery run down to the Franz chair. It was sweet ..... funny how we get so spoiled and only want to ride deep powder now.

Day 30 - O' the Snow!

About 2inches of snow fell overnight and it snowed all morning til about 1:30pm. There weren't many fresh tracks but there was plenty of powder. For those of you who have never been to Whistler, the snow is insane!!! Night and day compared to the East. It's so light and fluffy. Very hard to explain. When you roll over the powder, it's like you are floating. I've never actually floated before .... but it's the best way to explain it.

I spent Day 30 practicing my tree runs again. I'm building up more confidence so I'm not slowing myself down constantly but I still need a lot of practice. Luckily, I have the next 70 days!!!

Day 29 - keeping pace with the Kiwi

My friend Simon (he's the Kiwi.... remember?) has officially been given the "A-O-K" from physio to get back on his skis. Needless to say, he's been out every day since. I think I have a 4 or 5 day jump on him so I need to keep riding every day to stay ahead of him.

On Day 29, I took the Solar Coaster up to the top of Blackcomb hoping to find those black runs through the trees. I must have taken a wrong run somewhere because I never found those black tree runs. I made the most of it and found some much easier tree runs. I am hoping to be a very good beginner tree runner by the end of the season. Right now, I can't get through any trees without falling on my butt!

Day 28 - Rebuilding the powder

Howdy! Day 28 was a good one as some snow fell overnight (about 6inches). Not much..... but enough to cover up the icey crust with a soft powdery coating. I headed up to Crystal Chair and took the blue Rock and Roll trail down on a suggestion from my co-worker Pascal. It was a sweet run. Not too many people around. Even found some fresh pow on the sides of the run. I took my time getting down the hill, enjoying the silence and the beauty around. It's great being able to get out and ride during midweek. No lift lines and runs all to yourself. Sweet!

Days 25, 26, 27 - Certified!!!

Days 25, 26, and 27 were three long days on Blackcomb getting certified to teach snowboarding. Nothing exciting to report here. We were able to get a lot of riding in so that was good. The weather was cold but amazing! Dark blue skies every day without a cloud in sight. Kevin spent Saturday on Whistler and ran Peak to Creek (the longest blue run in North America at 3.3 miles). He said it was amazing. I can't wait for next weekend to be able to do it with him.

Day 24 - Colder than a witch's.........

Brrrrrr! See those temps??? Funny thing about BC, when the clouds leave, the temps drop. The cold takes the moisture out of the snow and usually leaves an icey crust behind. Luckily that hasn't happened on the Alpine. To compensate at the lower elevations, the snow guns have been blowing all day. Day 24 took me back up the Crystal Chair. The powder is still great but unfortunately, it's all tracked out. No new snow is forecasted ahead. Luckily we have 60 feet to work with!

Day 23 - girls ride

My co-worker Amy joined me on Blackcomb for Day 23. Actually I joined Amy. She knew more about where to find the powder than I did. We headed to the Crystal chair and found fresh tracks through the trees off Ridge Runner and "Fraggle Rock". It's great to ride with people who know the mountain and ride better than you. It's also nice to get out of the office for a few hours.

A cold front has made it way to Whistler. I think the temps at the top were minus 20 (around zero Fahrenheit). Fortunately, there was no wind and once you got going, it didn't feel cold at all. No snow is expected through the next 5 days, just freezing temperatures. Mid mountain, the runs were already icey. Luckily the temps didn't ruin the pow up top.

Day 22 - the snow is back in town ....

.... and the tourists have left the country!! oh yea. Got about two feet of snow over the weekend. I checked out of the office for about two hours today and headed up to 7th Heaven. The powder was endless and because there was no one else on the mountain (at least it feels that way after dealing with the holiday traffic for the last two-three weeks) it was sooo easy to find fresh pow!

Day 22 I headed for the trees. For those of you who know me, you know I have NO business being in the trees!! But I will never learn how to ride that beautiful powder through the evergreens if I never try. Well I tried today. And boy did I work up a sweat. At one point, I had to hike through snow UP TO MY WAIST!!! It was a blast! I can't wait to try it again tomorrow.

If you look closely at this pic, you can see the Symphony lift on the left and the Harmony Chair on the right. Everything else is all open runs!!

About a half dozen people hiking to the bowls. They look like ants out there!

Day 21 - Caught the Kiwi

You might remember a few weeks back when my Kiwi friend Simon told me: "You have more days on the beach since opening day than you do on the mountains!" At the time, I was on Day 5 .... Simon was on Day 13. Oh how times have changed!!!! Poor Simon severely sprained his ankle a few weeks back playing hoops and he has been sidelined with 21 days under his belt ever since. Today I leveled the playing field with my 21st day!!!

Unfortunately, the snow conditions are still pretty horrid. ~(Simon isn't really missing anything) ~ I started out on a blue run, and found nothing but ice and snow cookies (big chunks of ice scattered on top of the snow). I made my way to the green track since it was freshly groomed and much easier to ride. Forecast has much snow heading our way over the weekend. I'm hoping I get a chance to enjoy that.

Day 20 - East Coast conditions

1 meter of snow overnight sounds amazing, but the rains from yesterday have completely ruined everything for Day 20. I took the Crystal Chair up to the top of Blackcomb, and though the snow directly off the chair was perfect, less than a football field down the mountain was a completely different story. The rain must have reached most of the Alpine yesterday, as everything was icey. There were a lot of runs that looked completely untouched and perfect, but once you hit the snow you found a hard crust on top of the deceivingly perfect powder. It was really sad as there has to be a good 2feet of fresh snow. I stuck to the blue runs and it was like being back east .... ICEY! Hopefully a storm front will come through and bring us some powder to cover up the crap.

Day 19 - the longest gondola ride ever!!!!

Oh my god, Day 19 was crazy. I loaded myself into a full gondola car on Blackcomb and proceeded to take the longest ride ever. The winds were whipping, the gondola was moving about 1kph and it was stopping every 20ft. When it stopped, the car swung in the winds like a pendulum. The skis and boards were rattling against the sides. It was a little nerve racking, to say the least. By 1pm, every lift (including the gondola), except for Magic Carpet and Excelerator was closed. The only lift open on Whistler was Fitzsimmons and the Village gondola (though I don't know if the gondola was going to the alpine or stopping at midstation). On Blackcomb a tree fell across a blue run (see pic). The crisp white snow was covered with green pines, twigs, leaves, branches. It looked horrible but the evergreens smelled wonderful.

To top it off, as if the winds weren't enough, it was also raining! All that great pow from the day before was now all wet and soggy, just melting away.

Day 18 - Happy New Year!

OH MY GOD!! THE SNOW!!!! Day 18 rocked. There was only a trace of snow overnight, but it must have snowed all morning and it snowed all day so there was powder everywhere. The winds at the Alpine were suppose to get up to 100kph so Kevin and I stuck to the green runs off the Garbonzo chair and the snow on these runs was amazing! Believe it or not, there was powder everywhere! Even though 1/3 of the holiday travelers have gone home, the runs were still a little crowded with some newbie skiers and families but the lifts were bare. It was an amazing day and I hope it's a sign for the year to come!