Day 59 | crap-uary

Of the 25 riding days posted in January, only about seven were epic or amazing snow conditions.  What's up with that January?  December got us all stoked for the season with 12 feet of snow for the month.  The stats for January snowfall aren't posted yet, but I have to imagine it's nothing worth bragging about.

It was another boring Monday with WESP.  And it was freezing!  The snow was icy but powder could be found if you knew where to look.  My class isn't very emotional or excitable when it comes to snowboarding.  The most vocal kid in the class is the seven year old.  She's always in a good mood and always excited to ride.  Plus she is a Lil Ripper in the terrain park.  She makes me nervous but rides over everything.

We had the late lunch so it made the afternoon go by fast.  In the morning we rode a couple of blue runs and took a couple of laps through the park.  The boys wanted to go over the rails and boxes at the CLC so we killed some time doing that as well.



 

Day 58 | the kid responsible

The kid responsible for showing all us Instructors the Baby Monkey video on YouTube was in my class today.  I was assigned levels 5/6 but traded with James for seven kids in level 3.  The temps were frigid today and I know the conditions were hard packed and I didn't want to deal with having to find terrain in the Alpine.  I was chill with teaching level 3 and staying at mid-station where it was a lot warmer and in the sun.

It took most of the morning to get my class straightened out and sorted.  We took a run down to the village and had our pictures taken before lunch.  After lunch we did about three laps on the Olympic Chair.  I had a big split in the class with two level fours and the rest level threes.  Most of the threes had horrible form so I spent the time off Olympic to try and help those kids out.  That run is so boring though that after three laps, I couldn't take it anymore and we continued down to the village.  From there we went straight to the top where we managed to squeeze in a run back to the CLC.  The kids spent the rest of the afternoon on the boxes set up in our kids terrain garden.  It was cold and the day was long but before I knew it, it was time to go home.


Day 57 | private club

Two of my Club kids didn't show this week so I only had one --> Jaden.  I've only worked two days in the last week so I was happy to have a chilled out, stressless day.  There was about 2 inches of fresh snow outside my door this morning and WB was reporting 7cm fell overnight.  Peak to Creek was the run of the day and was rumored to have been groomed from top to bottom.  One Instructor had the bright idea to bomb it as the first run to get some fresh snow.  So we all piled into one gondola and three different levels headed for Peak Chair.

Lauren's kids didn't show so she didn't have a class.  Morgan was hanging around since it was his day off.  They joined the rest of us on the Peak to Creek run.  Once we got off the chair, we were all pleasantly surprised that more snow had fallen than reported and there were freshies to be found everywhere.  My kid was pretty slow and he face planted early on in the run.  He came down to me crying and said, "Ronia, I don't think I can do this."  Poor lil guy.  I calmed him down and once he stopped crying and caught his breath, he was ready to give it a go again.  We made it to the Creekside gondola just after 10:30am.  I would have liked to been able to play around in the powder a bit more, but I needed to stick with Jaden as I didn't want him to lose his confidence again.

After lunch we took a fun lap through Marmot Trees.  The snow was amazing today.  Especially after all the rain, ice, and spring like conditions we've had all week (or so I was told).  The sun was forecasted to come out in the afternoon but instead it snowed all day.  No one was complaining.  It's nice to have winter back.  We ended our day with a stop at the Tree Fort to feed the birds and then zig zagged down Goat's Gully.  I thought the day was going to drag on because of fair snow conditions, but the day went by fast and it was super fun!



Day 56 | Baker

Fi Roy is visiting from England.  She worked for Whistler Kids last season and wanted to come back to ride for her holiday.  She came up with the brilliant idea of riding Mt Baker for a couple days.  I've been hearing great things about the amazing snow and terrain at Mt. Baker.  Since I've never been, I thought it was a great idea for us to try a new ski mountain for a few days.  It's not too far from Vancouver, BC and a 2br condo was pretty cheap.  Not to mention a full day lift ticket is half the price of a ticket in Whistler.

I was torn between wishing for sunny skies (think photography) and wishing for powder.  I was hoping for the best of both worlds, but of course, that didn't happen.  My wish came true for the sun but unfortunately, we're in the middle of a warm front and the snow conditions were comparable to snow conditions in April.  Fortunately, I was able to take some beautiful photographs.

The terrain here looks amazing!  There are many open runs that look like they would be awesome in the powder.  One run is called Natural Halfpipe and it would be so much fun to jib on a soft packed day. Sadly, the snow wasn't that enjoyable off piste so we stuck to mostly groomers.  The runs are clearly marked as to what is in bounds and what is out of bounds.  Back country riding is very accessible and it looks like you don't have to hike very far.

Mt. Baker has eight chairlifts, all numbered accordingly.  By 1pm we had hit the six that were open including Chair 6, which took us to "The Canyon" - which sounds like something extreme but ended up being more of blue run by Whistler standards.

We headed inside the White Salmon Day Lodge for lunch.  This was quite an interesting lodge as we were in the company of a cat that ran around the tables looking for scraps.  And the baby grand piano really added to the old skool ambience.  After lunch we decided we had had enough of spring like groomers and called it a day.  Instead of buying a couple more lift tickets tomorrow, we plan on renting some snowshoes and doing some exploring on foot instead.  Weather still calls for warm temps and clear skies.




Day 55 | Ride Tribe

When I saw I was scheduled for Ride Tribe, I had a feeling that I wouldn't get a class today.  My suspicions were correct as only two teenagers were signed up for lessons and both of them were claimed by Instructors who taught them yesterday.  Since I still have my friends visiting, I wasn't too upset about it.  I threw my uniform back in my locker and  headed back home to meet up with my friends.

Forecast called for sunny skies but it was far from sunny.  It was cloudy with super fog covering the lower two thirds of the mountains.  Fi, Scott and I were planning on getting some laps through the Terrain Garden on Blackcomb.  Jill was going to take some pictures.  We quickly gave up on that idea after our first run through.  It was too cloudy to see and the snow was hard packed.

I wanted to be home for 1pm and the conditions weren't anything spectacular.  I decided to hang with Jill and spend some time with her back on the greens on Whistler.  Fi grabbed Scott and headed up to Peak.We managed to squeeze in about three runs before I peeled away from the Family Zone and headed back home down Creekside.  The remaining three were out until well past two o' clock.

Day 54 | top banana

The WESP kids have not been lucky so far this season weather wise.  The first week was frigid cold, the second week was ice skating rink, and today was rain.  One of the level two Instructors thought his kid was ready to move up to level three so I reluctantly added him to my class.  We all piled into the Creekside Gondola and away we went to spend the day in the wet weather conditions.

I decided to lap gondolas all day instead of taking chair lifts.  We headed down Expressway for a warm up run.  Unfortunately, that level two kid was definitely a level two and barely made it to the Village Gondola.  Since we were having lunch at the CLC, I didn't want to take him all the way back down to Creekside to put him back with his original Instructor, so I dealt with the split all morning.  I think it was way harder on him than me or the other kids in my class.  Poor guy.

The boys in my class have been asking to go to the terrain park so that's what we did.  I was a little nervous about it but they all did the small jumps and easy boxes and they all did great!  We took two laps through there before lunch.

After lunch I got rid of the weaker boy but was given a level two girl.  I was assured she was turning easily down Olympic Chair.  It turns out this Instructor was right.  She fit right in and she was friends with one of my other girls so she was stoked.

We took a couple laps after lunch with Jordan's level three class.  One run through the park again and then one run through Marmot Trees.  It was then time to go home.  By the end of the day, I was soaked. It was snowing up top but a wet snow.

Day 53 | vapor trail

Friends from Arizona are visiting for a long weekend and their first day on Whistler was blessed with gorgeous weather and sunny skies.  My friend Fi is still in the middle of her holiday as well so we had a full chair.  We landed at the top of Big Red Express around 11am and slowly made our way over to Symphony.

We started with a warm up run down Whiskey Jack.  Next up was a blue run down Green Acres.  We took GS into Harmony and once at the top of Harmony, we made our way down Burnt Stew Trail and into Symphony.  The views of Symphony were amazing of course.  We lost Jill on the first run as she ended up following a group of people back to Harmony.  No biggee.  We eventually found her and then took Pika's Traverse over to the Roundhouse and had a quick lunch.

Last run was off of Peak Chair.  Scott wanted to end the day doing Peak to Creek as fast as he could .... "leaving a vapor trail".  He set up his GPS and off he went.  We girls took it a bit more slowly, taking our time down the 4 mile run, enjoying the views and the warm sun.  Scott clocked himself at a max speed of 28mph and made it to Creekside in about 15 minutes.  The Peak to Creek run drops out below my ski out so we ended up having to walk home.  No one seemed to complain.  Some snow is forecasted to fall tonight so hopefully tomorrow will be just as amazing.









Day 52 | Gorillaz

The Club kids were fired up today.  They thought of a team name:  Gorillaz.  I would say: "gorillaz activate" and my three kids would start pounding their chests while making gorilla noises.  Kind of funny I guess.

It was a pretty easy day.  We took a warm up lap from Roundhouse to Whiskey Jack, then down to the CLC where we stopped for a drink and made name tags for our bibs.  I think we managed to squeeze in a couple more runs before lunch, one of them being through Marmot Trees.  That was pretty sweet with soft snow.  After lunch we practiced rolling over small jumps - then went to the Tree Fort to feed the birds.  Before we knew it, it was time to head back to the village for pick ups.

Day 51 | it's so easy, it's lame

"The Girls" - (me, Fi, Pippa)
- signed up for Womens' Park and Pipe session on Blackcomb today.  We got quite a bit of snow overnight which made for perfect soft conditions in the park.  Great for the confidence levels.

Fi and I departed Creekside around 9:30am and it was snowing quite a bit.  Rather than spend 10 minutes in the snow and wind on Red Chair, we decided to take a quick run down Expressway to mid-station.  I quite enjoy a couple of gondola rides way more than sitting on a chairlift.  And I had a fresh line all the way down Expressway to Garbanzo Chair.  Granted it was a straight green line, but it was still sweet.

We ended up being a bit late for session and missed the warm up run.  No biggee.  We met up with Pip and the rest of the group, which was pretty big with 9 women.  We worked on straight airs with pop, frontside 180s, and backside 180s.

Fi and I bailed on the rest of the group after lunch and took our last run back down to Creekside.  It was a sweet day with the sun shining through some low laying cloud cover, great views, and soft packed snow on the runs.  


   

Day 50 | breakfast and park

It's my day off so it felt so good to sleep in a bit and enjoy some Dunkin Donuts coffee while lounging in bed first thing this morning.  Fi and I threw together some beef stew for the crockpot and then headed to Wildwood for some breakfast.  We got up to the top of the gondi a bit before noon and quickly met up with Pip and Jordan.

We received a small amount of fresh snow overnight and it snowed a bit during the morning.  It wasn't awesome or amazing but it was enough to cover up the horrid ice and made for a pleasant day on the snow.  It was definitely a park day and that's what we did.  Jordan was kind enough to take photos of us girls.

We lapped green park on Whistler, hitting all the jumps and all the boxes.  It was a fun day and we even got last chair on Emerald before having to run down to the village to enjoy that beef stew that was slow cooking all day.









Day 49 | more riders than skiers

Things are starting to really slow down and we had more riders than skiers in Destination.  That is a very rare occurrence and worth noting.  I think there were about 17 skiers, of course this doesn't include the heaps of kids in Ski Adventure Camp.  And we had about 20 riders.  Very cool.

Sunny skies and chilly temperatures today.  There was still no new snow to report so I took the level one class that consisted of a cute seven year old girl who never snowboarded before.  There were three Lil Rippers today and both Morgan and Lauren were teaching them so I figured it would be a chill day on the Magic Carpet hanging in the sun and socializing with them.  It was a perfect, stressless, easy day for my "Friday".  I couldn't have asked for anything more, especially after the hell day I had yesterday.


Day 48 | one of those days

Today has turned out to be one of those days where I probably should have just stayed in bed.  I went to work in no particular good mood or bad mood.   The conditions again today were nothing but ice so I was perfectly happy taking the level two class of six kids.  I filled out my lunch order and put my name on their bibs.  I'm not going to describe exactly what took place on the Magic Carpet next, but let's just say my frustration towards the situation lead to giving my class to another Instructor and being sent home.  Not a good way to start the day!

After a brief conversation with the big boss, things were straightened out and I went for a couple runs with my friend Fiona, who is visiting from England.  But the conditions are so crappy (icy) that we didn't last very long.  I think we took three runs, two of them through the small park and then one last run back to the condo.  We need some snow and desperately .....


Day 47 | ice rink

It was the second week of WESP and my class was totally shook up.  I had a sweet class with three girls who were level threes.  When I was given my class card at the morning meeting, I had a note attached saying that one girl broke her arm and was changing to skiing.  In addition, Jordan, who also has a level three class with seven boys, approached me and asked if I could take a run with his class to sort out the two classes evenly.  In the end, that left me with four kids, two boys and two girls.

It's been really warm and raining here lately leaving the conditions up top today as crappy as possible.  The groomers were a sheet of ice!  I'm not exaggerating ..... there was no snow to be found over the base.  It was sheer ice.  When I took my class down Orange Peel, it was like a skating rink with kids flying everywhere.  Some couldn't stop their side slip down while a few others couldn't stop sliding down on their butts.  It was kind of scary.

Once you hit Red Chair, the ice turned to spring-like slush.  I quite enjoyed the slushy conditions.  The problem was the low lying cloud cover that blinded you in a complete fog leaving you to feel your way down most of the remaining run to Creekside.  Instead of taking my class back up to ice and fog, I decided to head back to the Creekside bunny hill where I made a nice jump for the classes to get their air on!    

Day 46 | rain to Roundhouse

Today was a mix bag of everything .... weather and what I was doing.  Since I wasn't given a Sunday Club class last week, I was rescheduled back for Destination on Sundays.  My Supervisor called me and asked if I wanted to take a level two rider who didn't show up the first week.  Naturally I said "no problem" and I was stoked to get a Sunday class.

When I showed up to Club on Sunday, there was already a Level 2 class that the Supervisor didn't know about.  Then it turns out this kid did show up last week, but she went with Destination.  So she did have a lesson, just not with the proper class.  There was already a Club class of her level with two other girls and it was quickly evident she would fit in that class perfectly.  I spent the morning helping out that Instructor (Jake) and we went to the Super Carpet to help the girls learn how to turn.

Weather today was also a mix bag.  The morning brought showers to the village, CLC, and even the Roundhouse!  By 11am, every kid and Instructor in Whistler Kids was soaked.  Our class decided to go into the CLC early to try and keep dry.  We had an hour before lunch so to pass the time, the kids and I and Jake all colored in some coloring books.  That kept us occupied until lunch rolled around.

Around noon, the clouds parted for about 15 minutes and we saw the sun.  It didn't last very long but it was was nice to see to some blue sky.  Since I technically didn't have a class, I was halfway out the door at half past twelve to go home and watch the Patriots when I was called back inside.  Apparently there was a 5 year old Lil Ripper who refused to ride with her male Instructor and spent the entire morning crying in the den.  I was asked to take her and to try and get her snowboarding again.  That was easy.  All I had to do was walk into the den and say "let's go".  She dried her tears and went outside.  

I don't know what her problem was with men but it seemed pretty serious.  At first I thought she just didn't like Ben, (her first Instructor) but she clearly didn't like any guys helping her and refused to even talk to them if they talked to her.  I'm not sure what's going on with that but Mom wasn't surprised to hear it at the end of the day.

So instead of watching the Patriots game, I spent the afternoon at the CLC with this Lil Ripper.  We built a couple of jumps with the other lower level classes and played around.  I wasn't too disappointed since the temps were warm and the rain held off until it was time to go home.


Day 45 | spring in January

I've been trying to fight a cold for the last week and yesterday it finally caught up with me.  I was suppose to do a full day session but stayed in bed all day instead.  I was hoping to feel better when I woke up this morning, after taking a couple of Nyquil, but I still have the watery eye and stuffy nose.  I didn't want to call out sick on my Club class so I trudged into work.

The pineapple express has made it stop over Whistler bringing with it lots of warm temps and very high freezing levels.  It's suppose to be above freezing all the way up to the Roundhouse.  It's ruining all the nice snow we recently received.  I was expecting to spend the day in the rain but was pleasantly surprised when the rain held off and left us with warm dry conditions up top.

My Saturday Club class is pretty chill.  They are level threes and they are pretty slow.  I keep the team on green runs and easy blue runs, throwing in a bike trail every now and then.  I try and mix it up by dodging in and out of a couple trees.  Needless to say I ride a lot of switch when I'm teaching this class.  The day went by pretty fast.

It's Martin Luther King weekend and with the gondola broken down, the lift lines were pretty long.  I heard it was crazy busy on Blackcomb with Glacier Chair and Jersey Express queues almost touching.  The warm weather is forecasted to stay for a few more days.  The snow isn't that great but I'm enjoying not freezing my tail off!

Day 44 | Steeps Trees Drops

Today I finally did what I've been wanting to do since the day I moved to Whistler:  hike out of bounds and shred the gnar that only locals dare to shred!

As an Instructor, I have the benefit of taking all day training sessions with other WB Instructors.  Some of the sessions offered are:  Training for whichever level of certification you need, All Mountain Freestyle, Park & Pipe, and newly added this season --> Steeps Trees & Drops.

Pip and I signed up for STD.  Whistler has received over a foot of snow in the last couple of days and we figured it would the perfect session to take advantage of the fresh pow.  Pip was running a bit late in the morning, so while we were waiting for her in the Alpine Hut, the rest of the class started talking about going for a hike.  There was one other female in the group and about five guys.  I was starting to doubt whether or not I should be taking this class.  The longer we waited, the more they talked about hiking and out of bounds and the more I started losing my self confidence about my ability to keep up with these guys.  I started texting Pip in a panic.  She reassured me that everyone would be super chill and there was nothing to worry/stress about.  I think if she wasn't signed up for the class with me, I probably would have chickened out and missed out on a great day of exploring and riding.

Peak Chair was closed so the only way to get to some terrain off of Peak was to hike to it.  We were headed to McConkey's Trees and traversed past Franz Chair and hiked up and over past Frog Hollow.  The hike wasn't as bad as I imagined it would be.  It was certainly easier than hiking up to Flute.  It wasn't a straight hike, there was lots of traversing combined with a small amount of hiking.  I'm going to estimate it took us about a half hour to get to our "starting point".  Because we're all layered up for the cold weather, by the time we got there, I was a big ball of sweat!  I also wish I could have taken photos of the cliff traverse along the way but holding my camera while snowboarding on the side of a cliff was a bit out of the question.  *(note to self -> think about renting a GoPro cam)*

Once we got to the top of McConkey's, the guys headed towards a cliff drop, while the three girls and one other guy, who was nice enough to stick with us and show us the way to go, went around the cliff drop.  The tree run itself was relatively easy and the pow was amazing through there.  The tricky part is getting there and knowing where to go once you're in there.  Of course, with the hazards of tree wells, it's best to go with people who know where they are going.  Technically we weren't out of bounds but McConkey's Trees isn't on a trail map or in the Whistler Blackcomb Guide Book.

McConkey's drops out on the Peak to Creek road towards Kadenwood and our group met up with the guys at Dusty's in Creekside around noon (we left the Alpine Hut at 10:30am).  It was there we learned the session Instructor (who doesn't wear a helmet) smashed his head into a tree and had to cancel the rest of the session.  We all took a lunch break at Dusty's and decided to head up to Harmony to continue for the afternoon without him.

Once atop Red Chair, we dropped down to the Tbars and headed up to Harmony.  Once again the guys headed for some cliffs off the cat track and the girls dropped down into the powder avoiding the scary cliffs.  The first thing we noticed was how empty Harmony was.  The second thing we noticed was nobody was on the chair.  We all got super stoked planning on lapping this powder run again and again and again.  Only to quickly realize the chair had come to a stop and had officially closed!  BUMMER!

We made our way back to green chair where most of the group went their separate ways.  Pip and I decided to take a run through the small park but the freezing level had risen to Chic Pea level and the snow was pretty wet and crappy.  Not to mention, it was raining.  We took one lap through the park and decided to call it a day.

Pippa dropping a line through McConkey's Trees.






Day 43 | lower gondola only

A bearing blew in the gear box at G4- basically leaving the upper line of the gondola useless for at least a week.  This happened yesterday morning.  Luckily they were able to run the lower line, still allowing access to the Olympic area and most importantly, the Children's Learning Center.

We only had about 18 snowboarders today and I was assigned the level four class.  I was only expecting to have one or two kids in my class but when I was given my class card, I had seven!  The temperatures were still bitterly cold so we only got in two runs in the morning before having to warm up our feet and hands and faces at the CLC.  The timing on that made for an extra long lunch but I wasn't complaining.

With the gondola being down, we had to upload via the Garbanzo Chair.  I never realized how much bonding you do with your kids when you're riding the gondola.  When you ride the chairs, you don't really get a chance to talk to them much.  My class was really well behaved and only had to be told once to come into the group in a straight line and not across the hill.  I can't say that any one kid was overly obnoxiously or talkative.  In fact they were all quite quiet and I had a hard time knowing if they had fun today.  They didn't say much and didn't act excited.  We managed to get in all kinds of terrain:  blues, trees, Freight Train, blacks, powder, blacks with moguls, etc. etc.  These kids were pretty fast and even though there were a lot of them, they were all the same speed.  It was nice to not have a split in the class.

Today was my seventh day working in a row and I was scheduled to work tomorrow.  Since I woke up feeling a bit under the weather, I asked if I could have tomorrow off and by the end of the day, my scheduler had managed to work something out ending my week as of today.  So even though it's only Tuesday, it's actually my Friday.  yippee!!!  And we have lots of snow coming in the forecast so I'm looking forward to three days of rest and freeriding!



Day 42 | WESP season three

Whistler Elementary Schools Program is running out of Creekside and Base II this season.  The program has really taken off.  I'm working at Creekside and was assigned level threes with Jordan Decker.  We had ten threes to sort out before lunch.  Some were turning and some were strong zig-zaggers which we knew wouldn't take long for them to learn how to turn.  The split ended up with Jordan taking four boys and I took three girls.

It was another freezing cold day.  Boy the day is long when it's zero degrees Fahrenheit (-17 Celcius).  We spent the morning on the Magic Carpet trying to sort out who could do what.  Because we had lunch at 11am, it didn't make any sense to go higher until the afternoon.  The Carpet was crazy busy in the morning between all the skiers, riders, and Destination kids.  I think there was almost 300 kids just in WESP alone.

After lunch we had three hours to ride.  We took a run down Whiskey Jack working on proper form and S turns.  Then we managed another run down Ego Bowl.  By the time we finished that second run,  I was freezing so we went inside the Roundhouse to warm up.  We had one last run down the other side of Whistler, heading back to the Creekside gondola.  The kids signed out at 3pm and I was back at my house by 3:20pm.






Day 41 | snooze you lose

It was quite evident at the morning meeting that I wouldn't be getting a Club class for Sundays.  Instead of waiting around to be told to go home, I told the Destination Supervisor that I would be willing to work Destination if he needed another Instructor.  Luckily for me, someone didn't show up to work today and that meant I got the level six rider!

Frigid temperatures are here and that makes riding difficult.  The snow is still good above Emerald Chair but it's hard find for powder.  Though I heard Harmony was amazing today.  

My rider was a Whistler Kids "old-timer" - Declan.  He's been with us for about three years now and comes to Whistler from Australia and stays for about three weeks at a time.  We took a couple runs on Whistler before lunch and we both froze our faces off.

After lunch we thought we'd stay in the sun and try and find some powder on 7th Heaven.  Instead of taking the Peak to Peak over, Declan wanted to ride down then take the chairs up Blackcomb.  In hindsight, that wasn't the best idea.  We were both frozen by the time we reached the top of Jersey Creme and needed to warm up inside Rendezvous.

We decided to throw out the idea of going to 7th since it was so cold.  We decided to hit the trees off Jersey and headed down beside the restaurant towards Rosses Gold.  I ducked down into the trees on skiers right and Declan followed.  He chose to run out quickly on a traverse and hit a small tree and fell bruising his leg and leaving him with a headache.  Because he couldn't get rid of the headache after 30 minutes, we decided to call it a day.  We made our way back to the CLC where we played a few games of Fish (card game) until it was time to download.  Because it was so cold, it really felt like a long day.  But Declan was cool to hang out with so it wasn't so bad.

Day 40 | spatula cha-cha-cha

First week of Club!  It's a program for local kids.  They come every weekend, either Saturday or Sunday or both, and ski or ride with the same group until April.  There are about 25 kids signed up for snowboarding and I was lucky enough to get a class of level threes.  I had four munchkins today but one girl is going to move up to level four next week.

My club class consists of two girls from Vancouver.  They were in the same class last year with Rusty. And one boy named Jaden, who has been to Whistler Kids many times last season.  I have plenty of write ups/pictures of Jaden from last year.  He's eight years old and doesn't mind being with a group of girls.

The sun was shining and the snow above the Emerald Chair was soft packed and amazing!  Below the Emerald Chair was that man made icy crap.   It took awhile before we got moving in the AM.  One girl's boots were hurting her feet really bad so we only had a chance to take one run before 11am lunch.  In the afternoon we stuck to green runs and snuck in a run on Freight Train, which everyone liked.

The day ends quickly when you have to be back in the village for 3pm.  All the parents were happy the kids had a good day and were glad that the class works out that everyone is at the same ability/speed.  Hopefully I will get another Club class tomorrow (Sunday).


Day 39 | snowflakes on your tongue

I was assigned level twos in the morning meeting but I gladly gave those up to spend the day with the Lil Rippers.  We had a total of six but two of them left around lunchtime.  There isn't much to report about how the day went.  It was a typical Rippers day spent on the Magic Carpet, taking breaks, and making a jump.

Another 20cm fell last night but the freezing level was up to the bottom of Emerald Chair.  It was reported that the snow on Whistler was heavy but the snow on Blackcomb was amazing.  The Alpine on Whistler never opened but Avalanche Control managed to get the Glacier Chair running on Blackcomb.  The winds were also high today.  By the middle of the afternoon, the freezing level had dropped bringing lots of snow at the CLC and by the end of the day, the clouds had cleared leaving a dry check-out in the village.






----------
Rippers - 5 (17%)
One - 6 (20%)
Two - 8 (27%)
Three - 2
Four - 6
Five - 1

Total - 30 days working

Day 38 | getting hurt not allowed!

We had quite a bit of snow fall last evening, combine that with constant snow falling this afternoon, makes for lots of powder to play in with my level three class.  I was happy to be given a level that I could take to the top of the mountain and shred the gnar with.  Granted, they were low level threes but they all did great given the soft packed chunky snowy conditions.  Especially considering the word "groomer" did not exist today.  Nothing in the Family Zone was groomed but I wasn't complaining.

I started the morning with seven kids and quickly lost one to an injured collarbone on the very first run down Ego Bowl.  We managed to get in a couple runs before having to go in for lunch at noon.  During the break, I was given a level four girl who had sore legs and wanted to slow her pace down.  That gave me seven once again.

We spent the day dropping into the powder off Whiskey Jack into Ego Bowl then hitting some drops and jibs along the sides.  It was a wet day with all the snow that fell but we all had a ball in the soft snow.  And the day went by fast, which is always nice for me....

When I went into the office at the end of the day to fill out my paperwork for my injured kid, I was told by my Supervisor that his mother just finished yelling her out because he got hurt.  She felt kids should not be getting hurt in lessons and we were probably on a run that was above his level.  Of course I laughed at the notion of this and I was justified in the incident when I told my boss I had a level three class and we were on an easy green run.  Besides, shit happens - kids get hurt.  Hell, sometimes Instructors get hurt.  That's life!

Day 37 | flip ya for it

I was scheduled for the day off but asked to work.  I was a bit disappointed when I was given level ones.  I can't begin to explain to you how tired I am of teaching level ones and twos.  But I understand everyone has to teach every level.  There were nine of them today and I was a bit nervous when we were doing the lesson on skating and most of them couldn't figure out how to put their bindings on.

I shared the group with another instructor, Zac Za-Za and we started the kids on their toe edge up the Magic Carpet.  Amazingly enough, all the kids were great on the snow and they were all keeping great balance on their toes.  The morning went by pretty fast considering we had lunch at noon.

During lunch, we were told about another instructor with only three kids, basically the same level as our level ones.  We obviously didn't need three instructors teaching twelve kids so one of was able to leave early.  Za-Za and I flipped a coin for it, I was the lucky one able to leave.  Yippee!  I was tired and sore from riding yesterday so I was more than happy to leave early.  I ran down to the village around 1pm and I've been on my couch ever since ........


Day 36 | sunshine of life

My friend from Vancouver made the long trek up to Whistler to ride with me today.  Linda hadn't been snowboarding in two years!  We met up in Creekside around 8:30am and headed up top.  The weather was beautiful, clear skies with views as far as the eye could see.  The snow, on the other hand, was another story.

We took a couple of warm up runs down the Family Zone on Whistler then loaded on the Harmony Chair.  When we reached the top of Harmony, signs said Symphony was open so we made a beeline in that direction.  The last time we rode together in Symphony, we found tons of great powder in the trees.  Today's snow was chunky and there wasn't any powder to be found.  It was definitely a day to stick to the groomers.  So that's what we did.  I think we took three or four passes in Symphony then headed over to Blackcomb.

Again we stuck to the groomers.  There weren't many visitors today so we had much of the runs to ourselves.  We ate a late lunch at Glacier Creek then made our way back to the Peak 2 Peak so we could end the day on Whistler.  Last run down to Creekside was a long one and by the time we reached the bottom, we were both exhausted.  A couple of spiked hot chocolate drinks at Dusty's made for a perfect ending to an absolutely beautiful day!






Day 35 | taking it into eleven

For the third or fourth day in a row, the sun was shining and with an inversion, the temps up top were amazingly warm!  A perfect day to work on that goggle tan.  I'm enjoying a couple restful days off so I wasn't in too much of a hurry to get up the hill.  I wasn't planning on riding much but I did want to take some photos while the sun was out.

I hit my ski out around 11am and rode down to the Creekside Gondola.  It didn't take long before I was standing in the very short Peak Chair queue.  I walked around the Peak area for a few minutes taking some pictures with the Canon SLR.  Then I snowboarded down the Saddle and made my way to mid-station.  I was hoping to take some photos from the Peak to Peak but I wanted a cabin to myself.  Of course, this being the end of holiday weeks, a weekend day, and the fact that I hit the P2P around lunchtime, there was no chance of me getting a cabin to myself.  I waited for over a half hour with no luck.  Because I was meeting Sarah for lunch, I finally gave up and hit the food line.

I spent over an hour shooting the breeze with Sarah and watching the Jr Hockey Game on TV at Seppo's.  After the game, I strapped the board back on and headed back to Creekside.  I didn't do much riding today but I got a few pictures which was my main focus anyhow.

It hasn't snowed in over a week so the conditions aren't that great.  Some runs are very icy while others are still soft packed.  The higher you go, the better the snow because there has been less traffic on those more difficult runs.