Day 97 | Will

Wednesday's are fun photo days and we left no photo unturned this morning!  I had my awesome group of six, which coincidentally is enough people to make a pyramid with.  After wasting half the morning sorting kids and then taking photos, we finally got on the gondi and went up.  We did a warm up run down Ego Bowl, dropping into the soft powder.  It's tracked out but it's still soft and still fun.  We got tree clearance from patrol today so next run we headed for Marmot Trees.  The snow was sweet through there and the kids went down the harder tree line run instead of the easier green way out so that was cool and a bonus for me cause the trees were sweet!

The sun poked in and out of the clouds all day.  After lunch we tried our abilities in the terrain park for the first three jumps.  Needless to say, that didn't go too well.  We made our way back to Ego Bowl where I taught the kids that the whole mountain can be a "park" if you know where to look.  Last run we dropped into the bumpy pow run off Whiskey Jack, then over to Wild Card and down Expressway to finish the day.

After sign-outs, Aimee and Shrek and I headed back up for "last run".  Since the lifts are open until 4pm now, most instructors can get in one more run before the mountain closes.  We headed to Mom and Pop trees where the powder was sweet.

Eric McCormick from Will & Grace had his daughter in for ski lessons so I managed to "stalk" him down and get a photo with him.  Nice guy.  I love when celebs come to Whistler!  : )

Day 96 | Easter week

Over two feet in the snow in the last two days means anyone who can get to the mountain is going to have a great day on the slopes.  My AC kids are still level three so I filled my class card with six of them today.  It was snowing down to the village in the morning so we found fresh tracks from mid-station to the valley.  The snow was a bit heavy but for this time of year, it was pretty good.  We headed to the Roundhouse and dropped off Whiskey Jack where I found snow almost up to my waist in some spots.  It's a short run from there into Ego Bowl, and it's great for lower level kids to work on their powder skills.  The slope is steep enough to keep them moving and the run is short enough where they don't get worn out in one run.

For the first time in awhile, I didn't have a split in my class.  Meaning, every kid was exactly the same level!  It was awesome.  And they were all really cool and excited to be snowboarding.  Most importantly, they all loved the powder.  After lunch I wanted to take them through Marmot Trees but an Adventure Camp skier fell into a tree well earlier in the morning, resulting in patrol calling for "no trees" for the rest of the day.  Bummer.  We made the most of it by taking the powder bump run from one side of the Roundhouse down to the Red Chair side.  Another secret run through straight powder and onto Jimmy's Joker where the kids were excited to hit a black diamond.  Most of them zig zagged down it but they had a good time.  We were able to fit in one last run through the green family zone powder areas before heading home.  Most of the kids are returning tomorrow, and with any luck, I'll have the exact same class.

Day 95 | Adventure Camp (part II)

Easter Madness!!
-over 500 young ones in Whistler Kids
-Adventure Camp Ski sold out (no more instructors to go around)
-Destination sold out
-Snowboarding has over 65 riders
-2 feet of snow in 24hrs!

By the time we got everyone situated in their correct levels, it was well past 10am.  The village gondola was running extra slow due to the gale force winds.  A ton of snow fell overnight and Avalanche Control wasn't able to open the Alpine so ten thousand guests were all around Emerald Chair and Red Chair.  Welcome to Easter Week at Whistler Blackcomb.

I have a level three class with two Adventure Campers.  I started with seven kids but ended up giving away two of them at lunch.  I think we got to the Roundhouse around 10:30am where we were welcomed with blustery snowy conditions.  I determined that all of my kids could turn so we set off for Ego Bowl.  I didn't take them straight to the powder section as there was plenty of soft stuff on the groomed run.  Unfortunately, the team really needed some work on their turns so it took them a long time to get down to Emerald Chair.  The soft packed conditions didn't help the matter.

Anyhow, to make a long blog short, I was only able to get in three runs today.  One from Roundhouse to CLC via Ego Bowl (no powder drop).  Second from Roundhouse to Emerald Chair (powder drop from Slow sign off Whiskey Jack), and third from top of green chair down the powder in Ego to CLC.  So although the snow was amazing today, and there was plenty of it, I really didn't get to enjoy it that much.  However, I didn't spend the day on the Magic Carpet so it was all good.  More on tap for tomorrow --

Day 94 | The ice was fricken' burnen'

Sunday Club and Tasman wasn't coming until noon so Roanan and I got in the gondola as soon as he was checked in.  11cm was recorded for snowfall overnight and I wanted to get some fresh tracks.  We reached the Roundhouse a little after 9am and we dropped off Whiskey Jack into the powder that was knee deep in some spots.  Roanan wanted to hit the terrain park so while he was hitting jumps, I was shredding fresh pow on the sides.  We managed to get in four good runs with fresh tracks before my little buddy noticeably needed some water and a rest.

We had time for one more run before lunch so after our break, we headed to the Peak Chair.  I had this great idea to take the Saddle, knowing the snow off the groomer would be awesome.  Unfortunately, the winds were gusting furiously up Peak Chair and it was almost a white out.  On the cat track to the Saddle, the snow was whipping so hard that it hurt your face.  Or as Roanan described it to Tasman, "The ice was fricken burning!"  We managed to walk our way over to the Saddle and like I expected, the snow was amazing off the groomer.  Roanan had a bit of a hard time on the flats but he made it.

Tasman met us for lunch and afterwards the only thing the boys wanted to do was hit the park.  Fine by me since I'm enjoying the park these days myself.  Unfortunately, all the nice powder we had in the morning, was now hard packed and made for choppy conditions.  Even the boys wanted to ride lower, where the snow was more slushy.  We did a run down to the valley with Rusty's class, another run from midstation, and then the day ended in the rain.  One more week of Club.....

Day 93 | finally

Finally Friday!!

The morning started with a free breakfast buffett, aka Fresh Tracks, compliments of Aiden's parents.  I invited Aimee along and we hit the pancake line before 8am.  Even though no new snow fell overnight, we were able to enjoy the corduroy on Whiskey Jack after five groomers passed through.  Two quick runs and we were at the CLC before 9am.

It was only me and Deke in today's lesson and I couldn't have been more stoked!  Especially after yesterday's crappy day.  We hit the terrain park right out of the gate and Deke was amazing.  He was clearing to the transition on the last jump in the small park.  We were able to fit in four runs before lunch.

The temperatures warmed up in the afternoon and the sun even came out a few times.  We did lots of riding:  blue runs, black runs, and terrain park.  I think we rode more today than we did on Wednesday and Thursday combined.  It helped that there was only two of us.

By last run, Deke got super tired.  He fell on lower Olympic and said he heard his neck crack.  Conditions didn't help as the snow was super slushy and really deep.  He managed to make his way down to the CLC and we ended up downloading in the gondola.  He's heading back to Hawaii but Grandpa told me he plans on coming back next season.

Day 92 | fading fast

Today was day seven out of an eight day work week..... and I'm fading fast!  I'm to the point where every little thing out of the norm aggravates the crap out of me.  : )  Thank God tomorrow is Friday.
I had to take three other level four kids with my Adventure Camp kids.  I had big plans of getting my AC kids through the park today but that didn't happen.  They didn't complain but it kind of irritated me, mostly because I'm just tired.  But also because two out of the three kids were a bit on the rude side and needless to say, I wasn't big fans of theirs.

Oh well nothing I could do so I got on with my day which started with a warm up run down Whiskey Jack.  There was a huge cloud hovering over Blackcomb first thing in the morning but Whistler was clear.  I did manage to take the kids through the terrain park for one lap but most of them couldn't make it up the ramps so it was a failed attempt.  We got along fine for the rest of the morning doing greens and then headed in for some tuna melts at the CLC.

After lunch the conditions were another story.  The cloud over Blackcomb made its way over to Whistler, bringing snow in the higher elevations and rain around 1200 meters.  I wanted to get the boys on some blue and black runs so we went Whiskey Jack to Orange Peel and at the Chic Pea the fog was so sogged in that you couldn't see three feet in front of you.  Somehow we managed to make our way to Tokum, with the fog not clearing until the bottom of Tokum.  Up the gondola again and this time we dropped off Franz side and again, into another patch of fog that lasted all the way to the bottom of Expressway.  I gave up at that point and went back to the CLC.  Fortunately, the day was almost finished and we only had a 15 minute break before we needed to head back down to the village for sign outs.  

Day 91 | odd couple

Half way through Adventure Camp and today I was lucky enough to only have my AC kids and no one from Destination. We took a warm up run down Whiskey Jack and then headed to the terrain park. The surfer kid had no problem going over the jumps but the other kid kept landing on his edge and falling. I told them we couldn't go through the park anymore until he learned how to land flat. They seemed fine with that, especially after I told them we could build a jump at the CLC in the afternoon.

After lunch they practiced on the boxes by the handle tows. Once they were bored with that, we went up Garbanzo chair and hit some blue and black runs. I kept my promise and built a jump for them at the CLC. The snow was super soft so it was easy to build up their confidence here. I joined in on the fun myself (see video).

On another note:  a friend of mine working Ride Tribe this week has a group of teenage girls in his Adventure Camp class. One of them is the daughter of the late Tony Randall (Felix Unger). Remember when Tony Randall married a girl who was 25 years old when he was 75? Apparently their daughter is almost a teenager now.

Day 90 | MacGyver

Picked up a couple other kids in my AC class for today and ended up with a three/four split.  Meaning: I had three level four kids and one level three kid.  The level three kid was keeping up okay but man I could tell he was going to be exhausted by the time the day was over.

It was super foggy on top Whistler in the morning so we stuck to groomed green runs working on turning.  After lunch we headed over to Blackcomb and into the terrain garden.  That took a while since the slower kid couldn't even get up the rollers and then he had a super hard time on the cat track back to Solar Coaster.  We bee-lined it back to Whistler after the garden run and headed to the CLC.  The boys enjoyed themselves a snowball fight while I wrote out report cards.  A last run down to the village in slushy spring snow, jumping the hits on the sides, and we were done.  Quick and easy day!

**My kids learned a new term today:  Macgyver.  One of them had a broken binding.  It was missing a screw.  I found some zip ties and put the binding back together, explaining to the kids that I was "Macgyver'ing it".  Being 9 years old, none of them knew what I meant so I had to explain about the TV show and how people now use the term Macgyver when finding a simple solution to something using existing resources.  At the end of the day I had to tell Dad about the broken binding and the kid insisted that he didn't want it fixed properly.  Dad seemed to think not fixing it would be a bit of a safety issue.  I guess I'll find out tomorrow who won that argument.

Day 89 | ADVENTURE CAMP (part I)

Today marks the beginning of spring craziness.  We're running Snowboard Adventure Camp for the next three weeks and I'm scheduled for AC every week.  I'm looking forward to it as I'm a fan of Adventure Camp and having the same kids every day for five days.

My class today consisted of the remarkable level one kid from a couple days ago (Deke).  He's from Hawaii and apparently he's a sponsored surfer.  He is currently a high level three but getting better and better as the days go by.  Anyhow, I took Deke and two other Destination kids who fit in the same level.

It was a beautiful day and the conditions were great.  Soft packed on all the groomers with powder off piste.  We spent most of our time in the Family Zone working on our turns but later we were able to have more fun by going off jumps and drops.  By late afternoon, the snow softened up below Emerald Chair to spring-like making the landings nice for jumps found off the sides of the runs.  Since these guys were only level three, it didn't take too much to wear them down.  All of them said "no" to mom and dad when asked if they wanted to take a last run at the end of the day.  A job well done in my opinion.  : )

Day 88 | voodoo 4u

Almost the end of Club.  Hell, it's almost the end of the Whistler Kids season.  Tasman and Roanan showed up pumped and ready to ride the park.  Little did they know there is no park on powder days.  The snow report said 7cm was recorded overnight at Pig Alley but at least a foot of fresh stuff fell.  We took a warm up run through the park to check out the features and to see what was open.  The boys hit the small jumps while I found fresh tracks everywhere!

We got in a few runs through the small park before lunch.  We even squeezed in a run through the medium but there was so much powder that the boys couldn't do anything off the features.  They quickly learned what we mean by "no park on a powder day".

After lunch I took them to Harmony and we found a ton of fresh powder where the girls and I went on our day off on Thursday.  The boys did great on a black diamond, they're super tight through the trees, and they had no problem with powder.  They've definitely progressed to level fives!  In fact, they are both better than me through the terrain park.  Tasman nearly cleared the first medium jump to the transition today.  The kid went huge!  And when you're a small eight year old, it makes it look even bigger when you go big.  Not to mention he can get all the way over the tree rail.

We ended the day with a Sundae party at the CLC, complete with vanilla ice cream, chocolate sauce, and sprinkles.  The boys were pretty tired when mom and dad picked them up.  

Day 87 | spring

What a gorgeous first day of spring.  There was a bit of an inversion, so in the morning the Alpine temperature was +2 and the village temperature was -2.  No worries since the sun was shining.  I was given the option of taking a small level three class but for some unknown reason, I decided to go with the never-ever class of eleven!  It has been a long time since I taught never-ever's and I thought spending the day on the Magic Carpet and in the sun would be fun.  Fi Roy also helped with the class since eleven is too many kids for one instructor to handle.  (Notice how excited she is in the picture!)

The morning "ice" on the bunny hill was wretched and made for punishing conditions for kids who never strapped on a snowboard before.  One seven year old was so frightened, he faked a knee injury so he could go home.  I didn't fall for that and I made him stay for the entire day.  : )
The kids handled the conditions pretty well and by noon, most of them could side slip on their heels.  After lunch Fi and I decided to be daring and we brought ten kids over to the Olympic Chair.  We knew about half of them could control themselves enough to ride with the general population.  The few who couldn't quite side slip, made their way down mostly going every which way and mostly on their butt.  Luckily there were no incidents of collisions.

At the end of the run, I took the four kids who couldn't cut it back to the CLC where I built a small jump for them to play on for the rest of the day.  The others took another lap on Olympic Chair with Fi.  One kid from Hawaii picked it up very quickly and basically taught himself how to turn.  He's coming back for Adventure Camp on Monday and I told his mom I would be taking him in my class for next week.  Sweet!

All in all it was a pretty good day.  Mostly because of the weather.  But it reminded me why I leave the lower level classes to the rookies  .....  way too much babysitting .... ugh!

Sarah Recoskie - Supervisor

Omer Dagan - Supervisor

Day 86 | lounging

Another warm sunny day at Whistler Blackcomb.  We had less than 15 kids in snowboard school so it was a pretty chill day.  No one had a crazy amount of kids in their class.  The levels were evenly spread.  I took two level three girls who liked to take it easy and stay on the slow side.  Perfect.

We were able to fit in a couple runs before lunch.  Whiskey Jack was pretty sweet with soft packed conditions.  After lunch we rode down to the valley and then headed up Blackcomb.  I wanted the girls to practice on blue runs and all the blue runs on Whistler end on a cat track.  I  knew one girl wasn't that good at cat tracks so instead of torturing her all day, I decided Blackcomb would be the better spot to practice.

Conditions under Jersey Cream were soft packed as well.  Cougar was groomed perfectly as I got the girls turning with their front knee .... making it easier to control your speed on steep blues.  We did two or three runs before catching the Peak to Peak Gondola back to Whistler.  It was the first Peak ride for both the kids.  A quick run down to the CLC to fill out report cards and then a final run down to the valley finished off the day.

Day 85 | fresh tracks and exploring

Fi, Aimee and I somehow all managed to have today off.  Since I was still holding onto two fresh tracks tickets, we decided to get up early and have an all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet.  There was no new snow overnight so fresh tracks wasn't too busy.  We met at the gondi at 6:45am, wondering if the day was going to be as good as we had hoped for.  Forecast called for a "blue bird" and I brought the digital SLR camera.

Once the bell rang, we hit the green zone groomers. (All right, let's be honest.  With no new snow overnight, no one moved away from their breakfast when the bell rang.  We left about 20 minutes l  The groomed runs were hard packed but the terrain park was looking pretty sweet.  With all the snow and rain the last few days, the park had been pretty decrepit earlier in the week.  But this AM, the crew had gone through and rebuilt all the jumps.  We decided to head there and take some action shots.  I was pretty stoked as Aimee and Fi built up my confidence enough to get me to keep more speed in order to clear the flat parts off the jumps and to land on the softer downside.  It was pretty scary first time but once I landed one, it was so much easier than not clearing it.

By 10:30am, we were a bit frozen and needed a bathroom break.  Our Supervisor, Omer,  knew we were going to be out riding and text'd us to see if we wanted him to show us around on the Peak.  Aimee was familiar with a black diamond run called The Cirque so we headed to Peak Chair with plans to see Omer in a bit.  The entrance to The Cirque was tricky (see photo) but we made it through easily.  The terrain through here is some of the steepest on Whistler.  The snow was tracked but it was soft and there was a lot of it.  Omer was waiting for us by the time we made it back to the chair.  He decided to take us to West Cirque via the upper entrance.  I did not enjoy the traverse to get to the West Cirque.  A small section of it had some exposed rocks and the traverse wasn't that easy on a snowboard.  Nevertheless,  I eventually made my way to the entrance which was similar to Cirque.  Again, the snow was amazing.  We traversed over to Sneaky Pete and headed to Escalator and down into Frog Hollow.  Mind you, I would never venture onto these runs on my own.  It's very easy to find yourself staring down a cliff that drops 50 feet or so.  But once you know where you're going, you're perfectly safe..... if you're a high intermediate to advanced skier or rider.  Frog Hollow was sweet through the trees with some nice hits to pop and rollers to drop.

Aimee and Fi wanted to hit more of the rock drops off the Cirque so we thanked Omer for the tour and rode Cirque three more times.  (see photos)

It was time to hit Harmony and do more exploring.  We found lots of good snow in Harmony but nothing was as nice as the snow we found off McConkey's.  We made a couple of long sweeping turns in deep fresh powder and then dipped through a few trees.  It was sweet.  We spent the rest of our afternoon in Harmony and missed last chair at 3:30pm.  This was our cue to start heading down to the village.  I think we made it from GS Run to the Valley in less than 15 minutes.  We rode for seven hours without a lunch break.  Our goggle tans are full on and our lips are sunburn.  We had an awesome day!  Capped it off with apres at Cinnamon Bear.  Next up, six day work weeks for the last month of the Whistler Kids operation.

Day 84 | opposite day

St. Patricks Day started off as the exact opposite of Tuesday: warm and sunny.  Most importantly, I was dry!!!  I took my kid that I've had all week and Aimee took the four level fours.  Again, we spent the day team teaching.  The snow was good in the morning and we were able to find some fresh tracks with nice powder in green zone.  The freezing level rose so in the afternoon the snow was more wet but it was still decent.

After lunch we took the kids on the Peak to Peak gondola.  Most of them hadn't been on it yet.  We then headed to the terrain garden where they learned how to go over a box and pop off jumps.  For last run we rode from the top of Blackcomb to the bottom.  There was heaps of fresh snow on Ross Gold.  It wasn't perfect snow but it was pretty good.

We had a girl from Texas in our classes and strangely enough, she DID NOT talk with a southern accent.  So in order to make up for her lack of accent,  I had to start talking like I was from the south.  Every time we got in the gondola I started telling stories in my southern drawl.  It was funny.  They all thought I was crazy but it helped keep the classes having fun.  And that's the number one rule of Whistler Kids:  have fun!

Day 83 | most miserable

Today had to be the most miserable day of the season.  Freezing levels were high and there was nothing but precipitation.  Winds were gusting up to 70kph (or more).  We had over 20 kids in snowboard school, again, lots of lower levels.  Aimee took the fours .... there were three of them.  And I took the fives ....there were three of them also.  We stuck together all day since there wasn't much to teach in the treacherous conditions.

The Roundhouse was a whiteout all day.  The wind gusts had blown all the loose snow so there was nothing but the ice base underneath.  Because the freezing level had risen higher than the Chic Pea, the snow that was on the runs was soggy, wet, heavy, choppy and basically threw you around on your board.  It would hold the snowboard back instead of making it go forward.  Kind of like riding in mud!  Before you reached the bottom of Emerald Chair, the snow that was falling had changed to rain.  We were already soaking wet by the time lunch came around and that was at 11am.

After lunch we all put our wet jackets, gloves, helmets and goggles back on and headed back up to the Roundhouse.  The gondola stopped a few times because of the high winds.  We took two laps and finally I said that I was done with it.  I was wet.  I was cold.  The snow was horrible and I was miserable.  We hit the CLC and spent 45 minutes just chilling out.  We made the most of the day by trying to have as much fun as possible.  The kids were all really cool.  At one point we decided to all dance at the same time as we were snowboarding so there were eight of us boogy'ing and riding.  It was cute.  At the end of the day, we all agreed we had fun with each other but we were all miserable in the conditions.

Day 82 | great to just okay

Another 15cm of snow fell overnight bringing the snowbase to 327cm or 128 inches or 10.5ft!  In the last week we've received 3 feet of snow.  Gotta love March in British Columbia.  Same thing happened last year.

Anyway, we had about 25 riders in snowboard school and most of them were level ones or level twos.  I took the level four class which sort of consisted of a level three, a level four and a low level five.  We enjoyed a bunch of fresh powder and found easily ridable fresh tracks in the morning.  The mountain wasn't as busy today as it had been over the weekend so there was plenty of snow left untracked late into the morning.  The morning snow was amazing!

After lunch, the sun came out and the freezing level rose, warming up the snow and making most of the nice powder choppy, heavy and a bit wet.  It was still enjoyable but not great and definitely not perfect.  We spend the afternoon around green chair finding powder, taking a lap through the terrain park, and turning down chopped out blue runs.  By 2pm, my three kids were parched and in desperate need of water so we ran down to the CLC to rehydrate and chill out for a bit.  Last run was from mid-station to the Valley.  More snow is expected in the forecast but so are higher freezing levels.  I'm guessing what we do get is going to be pretty wet and heavy.

Day 81 | turtle speed

More snow overnight and the conditions are amazing!  I was assigned the level fours once again.  We had two level fours and two level threes.  We took a run down to the valley to see if we had a split.  Looked like we had an equal split:  two faster riders, two slower riders.  For some unknown reason, I volunteered to take the slower riders ..... and boy were they slow!

My one guy was a tiny seven year old and he was extra slow today.  He has beautiful turns down green or blue runs but he is painfully slow!  I made the most of the morning by finding and hitting powder on the sides of the runs.  After lunch I ventured out and wandered over into more powdery territory.  I knew I couldn't go very far because small kids have a really hard time in powder and tend to get stuck very easily. I made my way from Whiskey Jack to the Ego Bowl powder drop.  The kids easily zig zagged down that and were stoked to hit more powder.  Around into the terrain park and we found tons of pow down Cougar.  Traversed back into the heart of the park and hit more powder straight down the lift line.  The kids did amazingly well but unfortunately, with the turtle speed, we only had time for one of these fun powdery runs.

Skier visits were estimated at 20,000.  That made for crowded runs and long lift lines.  Luckily I was working so the words "life line" didn't apply to me.  No big deal when you only have level threes, but a huge deal when you have level sixes (like Aimee photo'd on the right) and the lift line is a 30 minute queue.... skipping that line meant fresh tracks down the Peak!  Lucky lucky Aimee!

Day 80 | heaps of snow

Fridays are my days off but because we've been so busy, I offered to work today with the understanding that if we did not need a sixth instructor, I would be the instructor going home.  It was snowing like crazy so it took a little while to sort out the classes.  I believe we had just under 20 riders.

Devon and I took the eight level fours to see if they would fit together or if the class needed to be split into two.  The instructor who had the level threes decided to join us as well as the level 5/6 instructor.  Basically we had 14 kids and 4 instructors making fresh tracks from mid-station to the valley.  It was a super fun run as there were 21cm of fresh snow that fell overnight, with the freezing level down to the village, resulting in light fluffy snow.  This was one of the first times this season we've had nice snow from G2 down.

All the classes were pretty much in the correct levels except for two girls who are kind of in between levels three and four.  I told them that I would ride with them for the morning and then after lunch they would go into the level three class.  They were way cool with that.  So we hit up the Roundhouse and powder-hounded down Whiskey Jack and back to the CLC for lunch.  It took us quite a bit of time as there was some digging out from the deep snow in some spots.  : )

After lunch I got the okay to get the hell out of there and followed Aimee with the level 5/6 class.  I told myself I was only going to take a run or two and then head home since I haven't had much time to do laundry and run typical day off errands.  Well one run turned into two runs, and then two runs turned into three runs, etc etc.  Basically we spent the entire day in powder around green chair and then double laps down Ptarmigan.... which had amazing snow drifts that were totally jumpable!  We all had a blast and by the time 3pm came around, I was still in the Alpine and I was exhausted.  It was so worth it!  To top it off, the sun came out for apres.  God seems to shine down on me every now and again, just when I need a pick me up.  The day was amazing and I left Whistler feeling happy (which is something I needed).

Day 79 | zen

I love "Fridays"- I am exhausted.  The cold weather really takes it out of you.  I finished my week with the level four class again.  Same kids I've had all week.  It was another busy morning with thirty riders again!  The first thing I did was take the level three kids and the level four kids down to the village to figure out the split.  After that, my class and I rode down the Red Chair side of Whistler.  There was decent powder by the Roundhouse.

It snowed most of the day and lots of snow is in the forecast for the next two days.  Whiskey Jack was probably the best run as it had tons of snow on it.  We hit the Terrain Garden on Blackcomb but the kids were a bit intimidated by it and none of them were interested in taking a second run through there.  We headed back to Whistler and found Ptarmigan to be sweet.  There was no one on it and the snow was soft packed.  

Day 78 | three two six

Spring break continues in Whistler ... busy busy.  We had thirty snowboarders today.  I was hoping to get the day off since temperatures were in the single digits!  No chance when it's this busy.  No problem.  I took the level four class which started with three riders.  It only took a couple of runs before the guys were cold and wanted to head in for hot chocolate.  Mornings go by pretty fast when lunch is at 11:15am.  Even faster when it's busy and it takes over an hour to get the kids sorted into the appropriate levels.

During lunch I was handed three more kids, resulting in six boys for the afternoon.  I wanted to take them through the terrain garden on Blackcomb so we took the Peak to Peak immediately after lunch.  Once we all got rolling on Easy Out, I decided the boys weren't really ready for the terrain park so we worked on some skills instead.  None of them complained.  It wasn't long before we were back on the gondola again and finishing up our day.  It was cold but it wasn't bone chilling cold.  Conditions were hard packed to some snow here and there.  We're in need of the 60cm forecasted for the end of the week.  I finished my day on such a good note, I volunteered to work my day off on Friday (if we're still busy and short of instructors).  Weird since I wanted the day off to begin with .....

Day 77 | vancity spring break

Spring break week in Vancouver so the mountain is a bit busier this week than usual.  That's awesome because it means no instructors are fighting for work.   There are plenty of snowboard students to go around.  I was hoping for a class that would be able to ride in the Alpine since we got a bit of fresh snow over the last day or so.  I ended up with a low level three class.  I wasted no time heading up to the Roundhouse.   It was pretty chilly outside with a high temp of -11°C but the sun was shining with very little wind so it felt warmer than the thermometer was reading.

After lunch, the six year old in my class opted to move down to a slower level.  Just as we were about to head out the door, another kid came down with a bloody nose (I saw him digging for gold up there but guess he found red instead).  I put him in the den while we took a quick run down to the village.  Unfortunately, the nose was still bleeding a half hour later so he had to go home.  That left me with one kid for the rest of the afternoon.  It was pretty chill as he was able to turn on easy greens and the snow was soft packed.  Not to mention, the sun was shining so I was working on the "no-goggle-goggle-tan".

Day 76 | surprises in the toilet

Have you ever had one of those days where your morning was terrible but your afternoon was awesome?  Today was one of those days for me.  Took the club kids over to Blackcomb so they could ride the terrain garden and halfpipe.  No biggee except it was cold!  Yesterday I was tanning in the sun, today I was freezing on a chairlift.

After lunch it was a totally different story.  It had been snowing all morning so there was quite a bit of fresh powder on the runs after 1pm.  It was sweet because it felt like it came out of nowhere.  Of course the boys still wanted to ride park and I was fine with that.  They hit their jumps and rails while I hit the powder on the sides.  It felt a lot warmer as well.  The afternoon went by fast and before we knew it, it was time to head back home.  Another awesome thing that happened today was that Tasman made it 3/4 of the way over the tree rail.  He was super stoked about that!  I don't blame him considering I won't even try it!  LOL

Day 75 | 12 kidz, 2 instructors, lots of sun

Busy day in general at Whistler Blackcomb.  This is the first weekend the day parking lots have re-opened since the Olympics and it seemed like everyone from Vancouver had to come up and enjoy the sun.  The parking lots have been closed for the entire month of February.  Lift lines were huge, the sun was shining, and temperatures were mild.  No new snow overnight and I have no idea how the conditions up top were since I spent my day at mid-station or below.

We had 12 kids in level two so Fiona and I "team taught".  We spent the morning on the Magic Carpet, figured out everyone could at least zig zag confidently, then ventured out to do a valley run.  Twelve snowboarders is a big group of kids to take on the runs.  But it went smoothly and it only took a half hour to reach the village.

After lunch we wanted to try and get the kids turning.... so back to the Magic Carpet.  Three kids, out of the twelve, successfully turned.  Next up was another freeride down to the village.  By the afternoon, snow conditions turned to super slushy.  The kids are a harder time in these conditions but they still had fun.  Back to the CLC for jump time with the skiers!

Day 74 | Pride Week

I was pleasantly surprised this morning to sign in an old student from my first year / first week of being a Whistler Kids instructor.  He was eight years old back then and I taught him how to turn.  I remember he was in my Adventure Camp class and he stood out as being the most fun kid and most memorable kid.  At the end of his time four years ago, he wrote me a nice note thanking me "for teaching him how to snowboard well".  He's back in Whistler with his family and now he's all grown up (sort of) -- He's 11 years old now, he's a level five, and he's much taller!

Unfortunately I already committed to taking my returning level three kid so Jacque went with a different instructor.  After spending most of the morning trying to sort out the nine riders we had and then getting photos taken, Max and I were finally able to head up to the Alpine for one run down before lunch.

This was Max's first time in Whistler and you can't come to Whistler Blackcomb without going on the Peak 2 Peak Gondola.  We took a round trip ride over the 1.3 mile span, took a couple photos, then headed back to Whistler to meet up with his dad.  Dad wanted to take some pics and videos of Max since he hasn't had a chance to see how much his snowboarding has improved.  Naturally at the end of the day, we built a ramp at the CLC and did our daily jump routine.

Day 73 | Riders outnumber Skiers

For the first time in Whistler Kids history, we had more snowboarders (9) in the daily destination program than skiers (5).  YAY!  Go snowboarders!  It was comical because at 8:30am we only had two riders signed up and by 9am, we added seven more.  And of course, they were all Level Ones!!  I didn't get the class but it must have been interesting considering two kids spoke Russian and two kids spoke French.

I took the same kid I took yesterday.  He's a solid level three and we spent the morning working on smaller turns and working on his speed.  Weather has been warm, freezing level up past 2000 metres.  The groomers are okay, still kind of soft packed, but the snow is wet and sticky.

After lunch Max wanted to check out the Treefort so we went there with the Level Six kid.  We then headed down Expressway and back to the CLC to build a jump and work on 180s and olly'ing over super long cushions.  The day went by quickly since Max is pretty fun to hang out with.  Mom and Dad signed him up for an extra day tomorrow so I already know what my "Friday" will be like.

Day 72 | three kidz, three levelz

The next two weeks are going to be slow as far as mountain visitors and kids in ski school are concerned.  Luckily there are still a few trickling in here and there.  Today we had three riders and all three were different levels.

I took the eight year old boy who was a level two star.  He needed a little bit of practice on the Super Carpet to work on his turning.  After an hour, he got the turns down pat and we headed to the Valley.  He was painfully slow but he turned the entire way, even down the blue run.

After lunch I thought he would do well in the Alpine so we went to the Roundhouse and took a lap down to green chair.  After a quick bathroom break (because someone pretended to pee instead of actually peeing at lunch) we went from the Roundhouse down to the Valley.  This wore the poor kid out so it was back to the CLC and I built a nice jump.  He rocked the jump, so did all the Whistler McNuggets (minis) who went over it.  The day finished quickly -- which was good because we're all still getting over an Olympic hangover.