Day 121 | boot camp

Aimee and I didn't ride much today since she twisted her knee on her last 360 attempt the other day.  She told me, however, that I was going to learn a grab today and that meant hiking in the small park!!  We jumped off Excaliber and headed towards Solar Coaster in the most spring-like slushy conditions.  The warm temperatures have noticeably melted much snow since our last visit.  The season is almost over!  : (

We exited off the Solar Coaster chair and headed to the one jump in the so-called "small park".  There was already a guy there hiking up, working on his 360s.  Aimee rode down to the prime photo taking spot and away I went.  The first hit I tried to get lots of pop, reaching for the Indy grab.  Didn't quite get it.  Hiked up and tried it again.  Another hike up and decided to try the nose grab.  Got it!  Hiked up again and another nose grab.  I think I hiked up about four times, thus:  Aimee's Boot Camp!!

We took a run back down to Solar Coaster, taking it easy.  I think we did one more run through the small park and then decided to call it a day.  It was short and sweet.


Day 120 | the fun park is small

Spring has definitely sprung and it's time for some park sessions.  Met up with Aimee before noon and we headed to the park.  First run was through the small park... which isn't really a park.  It's a small jump and an easy box.  That's it.  Nothing else.  Honestly, I wasn't feeling it most of the day so I followed Aimee through the large park on Blackcomb hitting a couple of spines here and there but nothing else.  We ran into a fellow instructor friend:  Rusty.  Did a few laps with him.  Aimee wanted to practice a few spins back in the small park so this time, I hit the small jump and immediately thought, "that's too easy for me now".  Next ride up the chair, I told Aimee I was ready for the medium jump.

There are a few jumps in the big park that are described as MEDIUM but the transitions aren't that much bigger than the SMALL jumps back in the Whistler Park.  Of course, the first two I tried, I went way too slow and landed on the flat parts.  No biggee since it's spring and everything is super soft.  Next time through I hit the easiest one, with enough speed to clear to the transition.  It was super easy and looking back at the photo, the jump isn't even that big.

We ended the day in the small park, hiking up a couple of times after we hit the one jump.  Aimee was working on 360's and I was working on switch 180.  We stayed out until almost 4pm.  It was sunny and warm ... just a perfect day.  I'm planning at least one more day in the park on Wednesday.  Going to work on the grabs so I look steezy in the photos! (like Aimee)    : )~


Day 119 | creme brulee

Hopped on the Blackcomb gondola half past eleven in the morning and headed up for another day of Spring riding with Aimee.  I wasn't sure what we were going to ride today as it was cloudy, a bit on the colder side, and Aimee refused to ride Solar Coaster.  So we immediately headed towards 7th Heaven.

It's been a few days since that last nice dump of snow so we planned on staying on the groomers.  The snow was nice above the tree line and there were spots where you could lay some fresh tracks down.  Below the tree line, the snow was a bit crusty.  Not enough to keep you off the snow, but just enough to not make it perfect.  I described it as "creme brulee".  Aimee described it as "lemon meringue pie".  That was probably a better description since the snow was choppy like the top of a pie.

Sand Box had built a 85-100 foot kicker out in the middle of 7th Heaven for an upcoming photo shoot.  Of course, we wandered over to that to check it out.  Man it's huge.  It's hard to get an accurate feel of it from the picture, but trust me, it's big.  We took about three to four runs down hitting the nice snow between the cat tracks right off the chair and then stuck to Cloud 9 or Panorama for the remaining run to the chair.  We were about to call last run out when we noticed some photographers hanging out at the jump.  On the off chance we could catch someone launching off the kicker, we decided to take another run.  This time Aimee's curiosity kicked in and she decided to explore Lakeside Bowl.  We traversed past the avalanche gate where the snow was nice and the traverse was easy.  Once we reached the top of the bowl, we were staring down nothing but fresh sparkling snow!  We laid our tracks down screaming the entire way because of how awesome it was..... especially for May!

Naturally we wanted to hit it again but by the time we got back up the chair, the sun had come out and Patrol closed the course.  Well at least we got to do it once.  We hit the groomer and then decided to take Blue Line down to the Tbars.  Again, nice snow down the side of Blue Line and Aimee started exploring again and traversed towards Secret Shoot.  Naturally I followed but got a little nervous as the further we traversed, the less I saw a line I could take down out of there.  The snow on the traverse was about a foot deep, soft and mostly untouched.  I just kept heading towards my right, praying I came across something I could get down.  Sure enough we came to Secret Shoot and we found some amazing snow out of there and finally we jumped back onto the groomer.  It was sweet!  And such a surprise.  I was so excited that I kept telling Aimee how much I love riding with her because she likes to explore.  And like a dumbass (maybe not) - I just follow!!

I started the day with the statement that today was going to be my last day of riding for the season.  I finished the day with the statement that there was no way in hell today was going to be my last day of riding for the season.  : )






Day 118 | heavenly pow

A bit of a storm blew through Whistler last night, leaving heaps of fresh powder to enjoy on Blackcomb this morning.  Unfortunately, I didn't make it up in the morning, but I did make it up for the afternoon and met Aimee at the top of Solar around noon.  She told me about the awesome fresh lines she took down Ross's Gold and other amazing runs she had first thing in the morning (which these days starts at 10am).

I followed her down Easy Out and we headed toward the now empty Terrain Garden.  Nice choice of a run because I got a fresh line through the entire park!  I would estimate there was about 6 inches of fresh snow at this level.  By the time we reached the top of Solar Coaster again, the light for 7th Heaven was shining green!  We raced over to 7th and hopped on the chair.

Visibility at the top was a bit fogged in.  It wasn't great but it wasn't dizzying horrible either.  We managed to make our way down the cat track and find plenty of fresh lines through Hugh's Heaven and Cloud Nine.  The picture of me pointing is referencing the four tracks Aimee and I made in the two runs we took down this line.  Pretty sweet for May!!  

After our second run through 7th, the snow was pretty chopped up so we decided to head down the other side.  We hit Blue Line and dropped off the cat track once we had a bit of visibility.  Again, fresh trracks all the way down to the Tbars.  It was sweet.  We traversed our way over to Staircase, where I had a bit of a hard time getting down because it was mogully with a bit of ice underneath and I was exhausted.  My seasonal clock is telling me snowboarding time is over.  It's screaming to me: "It's time for summer activities!"  Damn I'm on Day 118 and it's only May 3rd.  I could get close to 150 days if I really tried.  Anyway, by the time Aimee returned from her restroom break at Glacier Lodge, I was done.  We rode Zig Zag down to the gondola where we had to download since there is not enough snow to take us to Base II anymore.