Day 90 - cold and snowy

It was a cold and snowy morning.  I was packing toe warmers and hand warmers just to be on the safe/warm side.  My class was a group of Level 4 riders (5 boys and 2 girls).  On the first run, one girl was suffering from bad blisters so she went home early.  At lunch, the Level 3 instructor had 4 kids who were riding really slow and 3 kids who were riding really fast (we call this a split).  I offered to take the three fast kids (two of them were from my Adventure Camp class from earlier in the week).  I knew they could keep up with the new kids I had today.   But by the time lunch was finished, we only had time for one long run.  I took them through the trees and pow by the side of the Roundhouse.  Over to Pony Trail, through some fresh pow and down Jimmy's Joker (a black diamond).  Who knew that going down a black diamond was so exciting for kids.  It was the first thing they told their parents when their parents asked them what they did for the day.  Three of them are returning on Friday and have requested me as their instructor so Friday should be another fun day.  Hopefully it will be a bit warmer though.

Day 89 - work day fresh tracks and hip hop

Started the day off with another fresh tracks breakfast with seven of my co-workers. All of us had Adventure Camp classes which means we didn't need to report to duty until 9am. 2cm was called as the overnight measurement, but once again, some runs had much more pow on them than that.

Picked up my boys at 9:15am and headed to the Roundhouse. It was cold and snowing. Unfortunately, one kid slammed his head and we needed to call patrol. Spent the rest of the day with six kids who are all turning by now. Someone built a jump outside the CLC and the boys were all too happy to catch some air before and after lunch.

Wednesday is Adventure Camp apres day. Snowboarding ends at 3pm, ice cream and cookies break out around 3:15pm, and at 3:30pm an acitivity starts. The theme for this week was: HIP HOP so we had a "dance off". Five teams competed. My team renamed themselves the ICE COLD CHILI PEPPERZ, and instead of dancing a routine to a song off the iPod like the other four teams, they wrote their own song, sang it and had a couple of the kids breakdancing. It was pretty entertaining.

Day 88 - Snowboard Shredders

Second day of the week with my same group of Adventure Camp boys.  Because I have a full class of eight, once everyone checked in, we were able to go and do our thing without having to pick up any one day lesson stragglers.  So we hit the gondola and took it right to the Roundhouse.

Conditions were packed powder as a few centimeters fell overnight.  It was much better than the ice below mid-station.  I got most of the boys turning down easy green runs but when I tell them they can freeride, they just zigzig very fast.  I have to sit them down and make them turn.

The boys came up with a team name for our group so we are now called the "Snowboard Shredders".  Every time we stopped and I did a quick lesson, when we all stood back up they would all yell "SNOWBOARD SHREDDERS YEA!"  It was very entertaining.  Every kid in this class is stoked to be snowboarding and they are so enthusiastic.  They make for a very fun group of kids. 

Day 87 - busy busy busy

This is the most busy week of the season and today was the most busy day of the year for snowboard school.  85 kids were looking to take some lessons and we had about 14 instructors willing to teach.

I was offered the Level 3 class and for some unknown reason, I volunteered to take the Level 2 AC class.  So instead of heading up top to where the snow was pristine, I stayed below midstation with eight boys who can't turn.  No biggee as the boys had fun, they were all well-behaved and it's challenging to teach kids how to turn.  Besides, eight is considered a full class so I don't have to worry about picking up any other kids over the next two days and trying to figure out if they will work with my AC kids.  This way I can pick up my kids in the morning and just go riding. 

Day 86- the best EVER out of 187 days!!!

Easter Sunday/March 23, 2008

A few months back, I was given some Fresh Tracks tickets from work.  Fresh Tracks is an early morning upload with breakfast buffet.  I woke the family up at 6am because I wanted to beat the crowd and get the best possible fresh runs.  Our college kid wasn't too happy with this idea (see pic below).

WB said 14cm fell overnight, no biggee.  When we got to the Roundhouse, conditions outside looked cold and miserable.  It was snowing so visibility was horrible, the wind was whipping so the idea of chairlifts seemed numbing.  I was excited to ride but even I didn't think I'd be able to bear the briskness of the chairlifts for too long today.  If I felt this way, you could imagine how Alli felt having to get up this early.  She still wasn't sold on the idea, even with the free breakfast.
When the bell rang signaling the open runs, we all had a change of heart.  We took our first run down Whiskey Jack (an easy green run) and there was fresh untracked snow up to our knees!  And this snow continued all the way down to the Emerald Chair.  Not to mention, we were the only people making tracks down this run.   Jolly Green Giant was next.  With wind drifts, some of the snow was close to waist high and again, we were making freshies all the way back to Emerald Chair.  Third time down we hit Ego Bowl and there were STILL fresh tracks to be made!! (normally by now, all the fresh snow has been hit)

Kevin had to head back to the village and he said he freshed all the way down Crabapple.  Alli and I stayed around Emerald Chair and literally made fresh tracks until 10am.... not to mention, there was no lift line to wait in.  We had the most incredible deep fresh snow I have ever experienced.  There was almost too much snow for the people who have never experienced fresh powder before.

Finally by 11am, the crowd had started to pour in and the snow was starting to get tracked.  As Alli and I were standing in the queue, it started to dump freezing rain on us.  But by the time we made it up the chair, the sun had come out and it was sunny for the rest of the day!!!

Peak Chair never opened, Symphony Chair never opened, and Harmony Chair didn't open until after noon.  We couldn't wait to hit more freshies over in Harmony so as soon as the lightboard signaled green for Harmony, we headed that way.  Seems everyone else had the same idea as we waited in line for about 40min.  The queue was insane!  By the time we got to the top, Alli was beat so she headed back to the village and I hit some of the pow (not as fresh as earlier) down Harmony.  I didn't much feel like waiting in the crazy line again so I headed back to Emerald Chair and took a run through the Mom and Pop trees.  By now it was after 2pm and I was toast.  The only downer about the day was that I didn't bring my powder board.  The best, most incredible, indescribable, powder day of all time and I didn't bring my pow board.  Go figure.

Day 85 - Run of the Day

We are spending Easter weekend in Whistler (Kevin, Alli, and myself) - Saturday we headed up the gondola around 9:30am and immediately hit the run of the day (Peak to Creek).  The sun was shining through the very high cloud level and visibility was perfect for Kevin.  Peak to Creek was soft packed powder and the views were amazing.  We headed down HWY 86 back to Red Chair for another run.  This time we made it all the way to Creekside.  After a small water/bathroom break, it was back up for another run.  We hit Orange Peel and Tokum.  By the end of Tokum, Kevin and Alli were toast so they headed to the village for apres.  I made my way up to Harmony and took a cruiser down the piste back to the Roundhouse where I downloaded back to the village with hopes of catching a bit of apres for myself.

Day 84 - TGIF! not

Finished up my week with a continuation of the Level 4 class.  This time I had three boys from England.  The kid I had all week, one kid I had yesterday, and one new kid.  It was another great day of shredding the gnar and looking for pow.  Once again we got two quick runs in before lunch.  After lunch, I wanted to go over to Symphony but the clouds had come in and the visibility was less than perfect.  Instead we found plenty pow pow through Marmot trees, on Tokum, and through some hidden green areas that many of tourists don't know about.  I hate for this week to end as I had such a great time snowboarding with these kids.  Oh yea, I almost forgot.... I get paid for this.  Sweet!

Day 83 - ka-POW!!!

Weather report said 10cm of snow overnight, but when my level 4 kids and I  started down the ungroomed section of the Ego Bowl, there was sooo much more than 10cm of the fresh stuff going over our boards. It was close to our knees in some spots. We pushed a fast run so we could lap another before lunch and before everyone else tracked out all the good snow.

We spent much of the day searching for the pow and stayed off as many groomed runs as possible. It wasn't all fun and games as we had a few mishaps: Connor headed into a hidden tree stump and nearly launched himself into a full body cast, Kaitlyn got lost for about 20min, Connor almost fell off the Red Chair, and Brandon dropped his glove from the top of the lift. It was a full day of snowboarding and so much fun with another Level 4 class who could shred the gnar like there was no tomorrow. It's also so nice to have the powder back.

Day 82 - hotdog!

What a super fun day! My Adventure Camp kids and I ran up and down Whistler like crazy. Because there are so many kids in ski school this week, we were assigned "first lunch" at 11am, which means we don't have much time to ride between sign in and lunch. We made the most of it taking a warm up run down Ego Bowl then back up for a quick run through the terrain park.

After lunch, the snow was falling like crazy so we headed over to Orange Peel and Tokum. Found so much powder on Tokum that we had to do it again. Naturally we took our usual run through Marmot trees. We snowboarded non-stop for three hours! Finally it was time to head back to the CLC for apres. These kids were a lot of fun, very polite, loved snowboarding and they all hated the thought of Adventure Camp coming to an end. As did I.

For some reason today, every time we did something cool my kids kept yelling, "hot dog!".  As there were going down the cat track to Emerald Chair, I could hear them all the way down the run yelling hot dog.   

Day 81 - sick and awesome!!

Second day of Adventure Camp and I picked up two more "campers" so my class was 7.  With 63 snowboarders and over 200 skiers registered for Whistler Kids, it makes for a long morning when you are trying to determine which kid fits into which class.  After about an hour an half of shuffling and sorting kids, we were ready to go.  I took my group up the gondola for their warm up run/only run we had time for before lunch.

Yesterday I promised we would go through the terrain park so we did that around noon when it was quiet.  I have a couple of rippers in my class and they were riding up the sides of the runs, hitting drops and jumps all day.  Every time this one kid would go off a jump or go through the trees, he would come out yelling, "That was sick and awesome!!!". (of course with the neck warmer over his mouth, I thought he kept yelling: "that was fricken' awesome!  It took me a few times to understand what he was really saying.)  He is pretty amusing as he's only about 4ft tall so he's cute with being so small.  He launches himself into the air and usually lands whatever he is trying.   Check out the pics of my guys ripping off a kicker off next to the Emerald Chair.

Day 80 - Happy St. Patrick's Day

The next couple of weeks are going to be busy at work (Easter holiday and spring breaks). We had over 50 kids in snowboard school today. I got a great class of Adventure Campers who are level 3's. It took quite a bit of time to get all 50 kids sorted into the appropriate groups. I believe we have over twenty kids who have NEVER snowboarded before today.

Josh, Jen, Alex, and myself took 16 kids (levels 3-5) up Garbanzo chair to figure out what level everyone was in. When all was said and done, I ended up with six kids in my class and all of them are at the same level and speed so the week should be fun. A few more centimeters of snow fell overnight and conditions were packed powder with lots of icy spots on the smaller high traffic runs. Naturally, we spent most of our afternoon going through the Marmot Trees.

It is St. Patrick's Day and although I saw a few green costumes on the slopes, I don't believe I ran over any vomited green beer so that was a plus. : )

Day 79 - just me and the boy

It's Si'Aire's last day in Canada and we decided to spend the day snowboarding.  We got to the top of Crystal Chair on Blackcomb around 11am and took our warm up run down Ridge Runner.  There was 2cm of snow that fell overnight but none of it left by the time we got up.  Conditions were hard packed and icey in some spots.  We headed over to the Terrain Garden so Si could work on his jumps and board slides.  We spent another hour or two on Blackcomb then headed over to Whistler to see what was happening on that mountain.

The visibility was a lot better on Whistler but the chairlift lines were much longer.  I now remember why I like teaching so much:   getting to cut in the long lift que!  Anyway, we spent our time riding the terrain park taking videos and pics.  We also spent a lot of time working on our 180s and riding switch.  

Day 78 - carpets

Another day with no new snow overnight. I was the lucky chosen instructor to teach level ones today. I had a big class (for this time of year): five guys. Naturally we spent the morning on the Magic Carpet. All of them were former skiers, and I say former as they took a vote at lunch and they all agreed to never ski again. YES! A job well done. In the afternoon I decided to take them to the Supercarpet. They excelled to different levels: two kids turning fairly well, one kid kinda turning, one kid learned how to brake, and the last kid finally got his toeside zig zag. They all said they had fun. I was bored but what the heck... it was my Friday.

Day 77 - run after run after run

No new snow overnight and the freezing temps made most of the snow we had turn to ice.  I took my one kid up top to find nice packed powder toward the Harmony side and crusty ice on the Creekside.  Weird.

Anyway, the sun was shining most of the day so it softened up most of the snow.  We did a few runs through Marmot trees, up Harmony, over to Creekside.  We went all over actually.  This was the first time in three days it was clear and I think my student was amazed at how big these mountains really are.

I was able to bail early from the Adventure Camp apres party as my nephew (the most handsome Si'Aire) was taking lessons in the teenagers section of town (Ride Tribe) and I wanted to be finished with work when he was finished.  We had planned to take an extra run at the end of the day together, but the kid was too tired and cancelled on me.

Day 76 - Super Hero week

Day 2 of Adventure Camp and it was just me and my one AC kid today. Yesterday's rain turned into 11cm of snow overnight. Great for "freshies" and not bad once everything was tracked out. Not much in precipitation for today / a few flurries in the afternoon.

We took blue runs in the morning trying to find as much fresh snow as possible. In the afternoon we tried Marmot Trees and ran them about 4 times. By 2pm, my kid was spent! (and I wasn't too far behind him) It was a good day of constant runs.

Day 75 - back in the saddle

During my week off in Montreal, I caught a cold and it blessed me on the day I was suppose to return to work. In addition, I also caught a case of what I thought was pink eye... turns out it was only iritus: an inflamation of the eye with symptoms that present like pink eye. Anyhow, this gave me an additional unscheduled week off and I returned to the rainy, washed out mountain today.

My class was two Level 3 guys who didn't have much to say. The conditions today were as horrible as horrible could be. Rain in the village, rain at mid-station, and rain at the top. The snow is soft and wet, like it gets in April or May. Not to mention the visibility was awful. The rain soaked my jacket, pants, gloves and boots. By mid afternoon, my kids just wanted to hang around the CLC and do the box and the jump.

Since the snow was super soft and my kids were hanging on the Magic Carpet anyhow, I decided to get back to practicing my 180s. Practice makes perfect as I landed ten in a row!! Sweet. That gives me the confidence to try more on the runs. All in all the day was a wet one but it felt great to be back at work and back on the snow.