Day 70 | Happy Leap Day!!!

I knew it wasn't too busy at work this week but wanted to stay on the schedule to make some money.  I knew there were a few Lil Rippers signed up so worse case scenario, I could get a Ripper class.  Luckily for me the level five that was in lessons with Ellen on Monday rocked up first thing in the morning and I took him.

It snowed 10cm overnight night so I was happy to be shredding some pow.  I also took my powder board with me to ride so I could adjust my new bindings.  The first thing we did was take a warm up run from mid-station back down to the village with Morgan and his level four.  We all piled into the gondola after that and headed to Peak to Creek, which was the run of the day!  

P2C was an epic run!  There was so much untouched deep powder.  The boys did okay in the powder while Morgan and I had a blast!  By the time we finished the run, it was time for lunch.  We only had about 10 kids in Snowboard School with five Instructors so we all sat together and shared lunch responsibilities.  Only half the tables were set up in the CLC, leaving half of the building empty, so the kids did a dance contest in the empty half.  Marco came in and got the kids practicing handstands.  Have I ever mentioned that I love my job?

My kid took a few laps on the Magic Carpet where Morgan built a couple of sweet jumps.  Afterwards we headed up and took a few more laps through the small park.  He was checked out at 2:15pm because he was going dog sledding so it was a pretty easy day for me.  Not to mention, it's my Friday!!  Can't wait for tomorrow ...... going Cat-Boarding!  whoop whoop

Day 69 | life or death

There was a whopping eleven kids signed up for snowboard lessons today:  3 Lil Rippers, 3 AC, and 5 Destination.  Unfortunately, I lost at Rock, Paper, Scissors and had to take the Lil Rippers.  The sun was shining and although the snow is still nice up top, the arctic air produced single digit temps.  I wasn't too unhappy that I spent the day at mid-station.

My Lil Rippers were pretty easy to handle.  They didn't speak much.  They didn't need any help with anything.  They didn't want anything.  They simply did what I asked them to do.  One was from Mexico and didn't speak English.  They were pretty boring to be honest.

Luckily Gill and Kat had low level AC'ers and spent the day on the carpet as well.  That helped pass some time.

Day 68 | Spark & Chompy

I love my Sunday Club kids.  Caleb was missing for the second straight week so it was just the girls and me.  The sun was shining, though it was a bit chilly, the conditions were perfect.  I was surprised how well the girls rode through the powder, especially Juliette.  Ella had a little bit of trouble in some spots.  We weren't allowed to ride the trees so we had to stick to the sides of runs to find the good white stuff.

Juliette made us some secret notepads (cecret not pad - See pic) so we could take notes when we were talking in our secret fort, which we nicknamed "Smurfville"- so no one would know what we were talking about.  We also had a lot of fairy chit-chat.  I decided I was going to get a fairy and I named her Spark.

I had the GoPro with me and took a lot of footage of the girls riding through the powder, trees, and park.  I did my best to keep them riding until just about the end of the day when I finally let them have their time in the secret fort.  After about 20 minutes of talk time in Smurfville, it was time to go home.  The day went by super fast as the girls are always super fun.

Day 67 | flowers vs zombies

Since the snow was so amazing yesterday, Irish and I woke up at 6am and headed for Fresh Tracks.  By the time we reached the queue at 6:30am, the line was to the road past Pan Pacific Hotel.  There was no way we were going to be part of the first 650 people up the gondola so we headed over to Gone Bakery for breakfast and then I went to work.

Max was missing from the Saturday Club gang but everyone else showed up early so we were at the Roundhouse by 9:30am.  We headed down Green Acres in search of fresh powder.  It wasn't hard to find the stashes as there was still plenty of powder to be found.  We squeezed in a few runs before the kids were ready for fruit and lemonade at the CLC.

After lunch it was more of the same.  Duke twisted his ankle flying off a powdery pillow and ended up going home around 2pm.  The rest of the gang spent the next 45 minutes playing on the Lil Rippers Boarder X track set up at the CLC before heading down to end the day.

Lifts are open until 4pm starting today so as soon as my kids were checked out, I headed back up the gondola to meet Irish for a couple more runs.  We were able to hit Mom and Pop trees twice and then ducked into Enchanted Forest before ending the day.  It was super fun to get a little shred time in with the boyfriend.   

Day 66 | Peak Chair before 9am

I am scheduled to work eight days in a row but on day three, I was called off.  Go figure.  I talked Irish into taking the morning off and going for a shred.  We weren't expecting much for snow but thought it would be nice to finally ride together.  Whistler Blackcomb reported 7cm (4 inches) of snow this morning.  But it was forecasted to snow all day reaching accumulations of up to 30cm.

We reached the top of Red Chair at 8:30am and noticed that Peak Chair was open.  Giddy up!  The visibility was terrible, the winds were moderate but the snow looked amazing.  We decided to check out Shale Slope as a first run.  We picked our way through the low visibility and it didn't take us too long to realize there was a hell of a lot more fresh snow up there than just 4 inches.  Fresh tracks down Shale and up again on Peak.

Second run we were hoping to get into Christmas Trees but didn't make the high traverse and dropped down into Frog Hollow.  Fresh tracks to Highway 86!
Next attempt at Christmas Trees.  This time we both made it.  Fresh tracks all the way through the trees!  Simply amazing!  "Let's do that again" - I screamed!  So we did.

We were in line at Red Chair around 11am and realized the winds had picked up enough to put the Peak Chair on Standby.  No worries .... we headed to Harmony.  Visibility on Harmony was next to nothing.  We ran the Ridge heading to Gun Barrels.  It was quite a trek to get there since we couldn't see a thing.  I kept falling and getting dizzy.  Once we got to the meadow, the visibility was so much better.  Fresh tracks through the meadow and when we dropped down into Gun Barrels, we couldn't believe how deep the snow was in there.  It was up to my thighs in some places.  All untouched and super soft!  "It's so fluffy!"
AMAZING!

It was getting close to noon and Irish had to get to work but he easily talked himself into one more run down Gun Barrels.  It was snowing so much throughout the day that by the time we got back up there, our first tracks were already covered!

Alas it was finally time for him to head to work.  I went inside the Roundhouse for some lunch and a much needed break around 1:15pm.  Once I was rested, I met Emma over on Blackcomb and took one run through the powder over there.  Through some trees and finally back down to the village.  By now I was exhausted.

The day was amazing!  Never have I had so much fun and done such awesome runs.  I wish the visibility was better but you can't have everything.  The snow was perfect ... and there was a lot of it.  You can't ask for more than that!  Welcome back Winter.

Day 65 | se7enth

I was assigned level fives at Whistler Kids and the only kid to show up was one level six guy from Seattle.  I asked him what he was working on and he said:  switch, back 1's, nose presses on boxes, and board slides.  I knew immediately I probably wasn't the person to be teaching this kid but I wasn't about to trade away one level six for seven level twos.  Even though I couldn't demo what he was working on, at least I could give him feedback and criticism.

In the morning we lapped the Whistler small park.  He did straight airs with some grabs for most of the jumps on his first run.  On his second run, he did Back 180's on every small jump.  Landed all of them.  Next run he practiced board slides.  Finally it was time for lunch.

I was dreading the afternoon as this kid wasn't talking too much.  Plus his riding was insanely perfect so there wasn't much critique or feedback I could give this kid.  He was an amazing rider.  He opted to go to Blackcomb for the afternoon and took a lap through the blue park straight away.  He didn't hit the jumps but hit almost every hop on box and rail.  Next we rode through the Terrain Garden, which was nice because I actually got to hit the features there.  We met up with the guys from Ride Tribe at Solar Coaster and decided to tag along with Devon and his class of level fives around 1pm.

Meeting up with Devon was the best thing that could have happened.  Devon is a great Instructor, always funny and enthusiastic.  Plus he's a great teacher.  Not to mention it gave my kid some other kids to run with.  We ran out to 7th Heaven and tried to find some powder through the trees.  There wasn't much to find and although the snow was okay, it was a bit icy at times.  We took a couple laps through 7th and a couple more laps through the Terrain Garden before the day came to an end.

When Mom picked up Zach, I suggested she change tomorrow's Whistler Kids lesson to a FreeRide lesson.  This kid is too good to not be in the FreeRide class.  Mom thanked me for all the kind words and was able to change his lesson.  

Day 64 | blame it on the Rhayne

It's now time to get back to work and stop slacking off.  It's Presidents' Week and I'm scheduled for eight days in a row ... though I was given the choice to have today off or work Ride Tribe.  I chose Ride Tribe and ended up with five level two teenagers.  One was from Seattle, one from New York, one was Canadian, one was from Brazil (so exotic) and the last one was from the Caymen Islands (jealous!).

We spent the morning on the Super Carpet learning how to turn.  With the exception of one, they all managed to turn down the gentle slope by lunchtime.  After lunch we lapped the Olympic Chair.  The kid from the Caymens fell earlier and hit his head pretty hard.  I ended up having to call Patrol to take a look at him.  He definitely had a concussion and his neck was hurting as well.  As a precaution, Ski Patrol strapped him to a backboard before sledding him down and taking him to the clinic.  I hope he is okay.

The day ended with a pretty big split:  two kids made it to level three and two kids stayed in level two.  The sun was shining and it was warm at mid-station.  It was pretty windy up top but the snow still looked to be pretty good.

Day 63 | Creekside Gandhi

Today was SiAire's last day to snowboard for the 2012 season.  It was cloudy with light flurries.  We reached the top of Red Chair around 11:30am and rode around green chair for the next hour while we waited for the rest of the crew to show up.  Within the hour, we met up with Libby, Sean, and Pippa.

We ran through the park for a few laps before hitting Harmony.  Visibility was next to nothing off the Harmony Chair and off the Ridge.  We all dropped down into amazing powder around Little Roll but we couldn't see a darn thing.  Instead of taking a second run, we headed back to Emerald Chair.  Pippa and I ran through Mom and Pop trees then the we all took a couple more runs through the Family Zone trees before calling it a day.

Day 62 | projectile vomiting

Sunday Club and Caleb was a no-show so it was just me and the girls.  It was chilly today, especially in the morning.  We took our usual morning run then had a hot chocolate break at the CLC.  We had time to squeeze in one more run before going in for lunch.

We sat at Lauren's table with her two level four girls.  Hailey wasn't feeling too well and ended up vomiting all over the lunch table about three minutes after we got our food.  I thought little Juliette was going to throw up after seeing Hailey's puke.  I have to admit, it was pretty gross.  We moved over to another table and got new lunches.  The ironic part is Juliette kept talking about puke during our hot chocolate break saying the hot cocoa was made of puke.

After lunch we took a lap through Marmot Trees and then through the terrain park.  The girls did all the jumps which was good because Juliette usually chickens out.  The snow was still nice ... soft packed on the groomers and some powder in the trees.  The girls and I made a secret fort in the woods off of Whiskey Jack.  We're going to go back to it next week and talk about fairies.  Their idea, not mine.  But cute just the same.  I love Sundays!

Day 61 | Jaden saves Jaden

25cm FINALLY fell overnight!!!  Thank god for snow!  ... and it was light and fluffy.  Just what we needed to cover up the ice that had accumulated on all the runs over the last two weeks.  I was thankful I had my Club Kids as I knew I could shred some powder without having to take the chance of getting a level one or a Lil Ripper class.

My plan was to run Peak to Creek as soon as Peak Chair opened.  It was the run of the day and on a powder day, it's the best lap you can take.  Our lunch was scheduled for 11am - and unfortunately, that's about the time the Chair opened.  Even worse, once we got to the CLC for lunch, I was told it was rescheduled to 11:45am!  The kids didn't want to take another run so we stayed at the CLC for an hour and a half.  So much for Peak to Creek.

After lunch we stayed in the Emerald Chair area and although we weren't allowed to go through the trees, we found plenty of fresh and amazing powder through the terrain park and in the Green Acres area.  It was a warm day (not above freezing) but not too far from it.  I ran the kids pretty hard through the powder and by the end of the afternoon, we were all pretty tired.

Hopefully this is the beginning of much more snow to come --  So far, this season hasn't been anything amazing.

Day 60 | all jib - no jump

Drove down to Seattle for a few days to visit some friends. While we were here, we thought we'd give Crystal Mountain a a rip. It was me, SiAire, and Izayah. We rocked up around 10:30am and got Izayah set up with some rental boots and a helmet. Lift ticket prices for kids up to ten years of age were $5! That's not a typo, that's five dollars! Naturally 11 year old Izayah was 10 today. : )

The sun was shining for a bit in the morning but the clouds quickly came in covering the Alpine and it snowed most of the day. The snow was soft packed and really nice. It was a groomer day for sure. Izayah is a low level three so we didn't venture too far off the greens and blues.

We broke for lunch around noon. SiAire rocked over to the gondola but visibility up there was really horrible so I stayed where I could see. Izayah doesn't ride too often so he was pretty tired after four hours. We threw in the towel around 4:30. I would love to come back when the sun is shining and the snow is powder. Not sure if that will ever happen though. I'm starting to think my luck at ski resorts in Washington is nothing but bad.

Day 59 | Von Boyage

Happy Valentines Day!  I was scheduled back in Destination for today and it felt like I haven't worked there in ages.  It's tough to get back to Whistler Kids in the middle of the week because we have a three day Adventure Camp program and most kids in class on Tuesdays and Wednesdays are already assigned to an Instructor.  Luckily for me there was one level five kid who wasn't in AC and I was able to grab him.

Once again, no snow!, and the sun was shining at full power!  Deep dark blue skies are amazing in this part of the world but we need snow.  Most everything off piste is now just ice.  Even groomers beneath Emerald Chair are ice rinks.  It kind of sucks .... but having the sun helps. 

I wasn't sure what to do with the level five kid since he wasn't a big park rat.  We ran down Raven then over to Harmony where we dropped off the Ridge and into the gun barrels.  Mistake!  Pretty hard and crunchy in there.  After lunch we dropped the park for a couple of runs then we rode the Peak Chair and down Highway 86.  I managed to keep us moving enough to make the day go by sort of fast.  It was really a waste of a level five kid to be honest.  I sure wish it would snow .....    

Day 58 | a farewell gift

Today was the last day of the six week WESP program.   I knew when I started the day that the two brothers would not be returning for the last week.  That made for an easy fun day with my remaining four WESP'ers.  Unfortunately, there still isn't any new snow but the sun was shining and it was a beautiful blue bird day.

Since it was so icy on Blackcomb yesterday, I decided we would ride Whistler at least until lunch so we headed from Base II to the Village around 9am.  Our warm up run was down Tokum, which was suppose to be the run of the day but it was groomed horribly.  The snow was hard packed to Emerald Chair and a complete ice rink from there down.  We spent most of the day in the terrain park.  The Park crew has set up some very small jumps which are perfect for kids working on getting comfortable having their board in the air.

We had to run over to Blackcomb to eat lunch but the kids wanted to return to Whistler for the afternoon. We took another couple runs through the park and a few down some black and blue runs.  We ended the day with a final run down from the Blackcomb Gondola.  Two of the kids moved up to level four, two stayed at level three.  One mom gave me a great Valentine/Thank You gift bag loaded with sweets and a $20 tip.  Thank you Zayden's mom!

Day 57 | do you believe in fairies?

Sundays are, by far, the best day to teach.  My Sunday Club class is a lot of fun!  They are starting to get a bit more comfortable with each other and with me.  Today they were wild and a bit out of control.  We had big plans to ride with Lauren and her one kid Nicole.  It was Race Weekend so we had a time to run the GS Race Course at 11am.  We figured we would ride on Blackcomb until lunch.  We wanted to hit the terrain garden, the GS course, and the Snowcross track.  Unfortunately the conditions on Blackcomb limited us to what we could do.  Most of the runs were very icy so we never went through the terrain garden or to the snowcross track.

Nevertheless, the kids had fun running the race and taking the Peak 2 Peak over to Whistler.  After lunch they wanted to hit the boxes and the jump at the CLC.  After that, we took a couple of laps from mid-station to the Village where we had a snowboarding snowball fight (you can only grab snow and throw snow while you're moving on your snowboard) ..... It helps with kids bending their knees.  I have to admit a couple of them got me pretty good in the face with a snowball.  Ugh!

Day 56 | Train Man

After another four day weekend, it's back to work for Saturday Club.  All but one kid showed up.  The conditions are still Spring-like and no snow is in the forecast.  Our snowbase is currently 225cm.

We took the usual morning lap and then headed to the CLC for fruit and hot chocolate.  It was warm up top but there was a cloud hanging over 2/3 of the mountain making visibility next to none.  By the time you hit green chair, the snow turned into slush.  It was a typical Club day, nothing exciting to report.  Definitely no powder to brag about.

Day 55 | perfect park day

Whistler Kids is slow so I was called off.  No problem as I would like to ride with my nephew as much as possible.  Especially these days when the temps are warm and the sun is still shining!  We met up with Libby and Sean and headed to Creekside.  Jordan was already in Harmony shoveling around this rock he likes so we could jump off of it.  Kyle also ended up meeting us out there.

Si'Aire and Jordan took three different runs off the rock kicker.  Sean took one or two and I took one.  We captured everything on video and took some pics so Facebook will be showing off the footage soon.  After "Jordan's Rock" we headed to the park.  Took a couple runs through the green side and Pippa caught up with us.  We spent the rest of the afternoon in the park and finally parted ways around 3pm.  Si, Libby, Sean, and I rocked down to Creekside and headed home.  It was a very, very fun day!

Day 54 | ride more, text less

Another warm sunny day in Whistler.  I had my WESP kids and I thought it would be a great day to ride the park.  We started early, around 9am.  At that point, it was still pretty cold.  We took a groomer warm up ride from the top of the Excaliber gondola down.  From there we headed up Wizard and went through the terrain garden a couple of times.  We managed to fit in quite a few runs before we had lunch.

During lunch the two brothers in my class, who usually fight, got into it again so I sent them to the den for the day ... leaving me with four kids.  Four is super easy to handle so we headed to the Snowboard Cross track.  WOW!  That thing is huge!  We also did the GS race and another couple runs through the terrain garden.  The day went by remarkable fast.  The sun was shining and the snow was soft.  I'm looking forward to the next four days off and enjoying some riding with the boy.

Day 53 | snow bord rokes

I love my Sunday Club class.  They are so cute.  I was determined to get them turning properly today.  The only thing we did was play follow the leader.  I would take the lead and they had to follow in my tracks.  Of course we had some fighting on who was to go first and who was to go last so we had to keep taking turns and rotating the lineup.  Juliet's dad, JF Pelchat, also took a few runs with us.  We did quite a bit of snowboarding on greens and blues.  We even took one lap through the park where Ella and Caleb totally sent it!  I was hoping that if they followed in my tracks, they would get rid of some of their counter-rotation and their turns would start incorporating more inclination and angulation in their ankles .... almost getting them to start carving.  Low and behold, it actually worked!  By the end of the day, Ella's turning was completely different than when she started in the morning.  That made me happy.

The last couple of days have been warm as an inversion is in the atmosphere, leaving warmer temps up top and colder temps in the Village.  We haven't had any new snow for a few days and no precip is forecasted for the next week.  Yuck!

Day 52 | and then there was one

Weird day with Club Kids.  Only three in the pack of five showed up and one already had a shoulder injury from riding yesterday.  Our first run was from Roundhouse down to CLC for a fruit and hot chocolate break.  Next run:  Roundhouse to CLC to drop the girl with the injured shoulder to the den.  Third run:  Roundhouse to CLC for lunch.

After lunch I was left with two kids as my injured girl ended up going home.  First run after lunch: warm up from Roundhouse to CLC to drop off second kid at the den because he crashed into someone and hurt his back.  He also ended up going home early.  That left me with one!

The remaining runs of the afternoon consisted of two laps through the small park and final run from the top of Emerald Chair to the Village for sign out.  Weird day with Club Kids.

Day 51 | Spring-u-ary

Spring has arrived in Whistler!  (wait, it's suppose to be February)  Sunny skies and inversions are forecasted for the next five days.  It was around 40°F / 4°C in the Alpine today!!  The snow wasn't powder but the warm temps and views of this incredible place made for an amazing day.

Si and I met up with Sean and Libby around 10am.  I met them at the bus stop a few months ago.  They are fellow Americans from Chicago spending a season.  We ran out to Symphony and enjoyed the breathtaking views that Whistler rarely shares during the winter.  Kyle met up with us around noon.  We didn't get to spend much time out there as I needed to be in the Village by 1:30pm.

Day 50 | Johnson in da House

Guess who is back in town?  Si'Aire is in Whistler for three weeks and today was his first day out on the hill.  Mother Nature was amazingly gracious as it snowed 14cm overnight, the sun shined all day, and there was no wind.  It was a perfect day.

We unloaded the Creekside Gondola at 9:30 and took a warm up run down Expressway to mid-station.  The boy's boots weren't fitting well enough so we ran from the top of the Roundhouse down to the Village but not before shredding through the park in the trees finding a ton of fresh powder!  After we got the boots squared away, we headed over to Harmony - ran down Harmony Ridge and dropped down onto Kaleidoscope.  Every turn down Kaleidoscope was a face shot!  There was so much powder in there.  : )

Next we took the T-bar Run down to the Peak Chair.  By this time the boy was already getting tired (and hungry).  I was hoping his legs would last for a few more hours but by the time we dropped into West Bowl, the boy was toast!  We rode Highway 86 back to Creekside gondi and downloaded from there.  I think this was a record setting first day as Si'Aire lasted 3.5hrs - and to be fair, I did take him down mostly black runs and tree runs.  Hopefully tomorrow his legs will last a bit longer.