Day 113 | Whistler Kids is now expired

It was the last day of Whistler Kids for the 2011/2012 season.  Once again the time just flew by.  I was scheduled to work and was assigned level fours.  We had less than 15 kids signed up for lessons.  Unfortunately (or fortunately) for me, none of the kids were level fours.  Apparently I didn't seem to mind not getting a class as I didn't put up a fuss to try and get one.  Most of the Instructors who did get a class were first year rookies so I'm sure it would have been easy to get my Supervisor to tell one of them to go home.  But everyone who seemed keen to work, worked ... and both Gillian and I were cool with not working.  She and I rode from the CLC to the Village around 10am, just after the rain had stopped pouring.  I cleaned out my locker and turned in my uniform.  I'm sure this is not the last day I will ride this season, it was just the last day of work.

Day 112 | carpet sunning

The sun was shining today and it was warm.  I was assigned level ones and ended up teaching a 1star, a never-ever, and two level twos.  We spent the morning on the Magic Carpet where I got the kid who had never snowboarded before sideslipping on his edges.  He was a high level skier so he picked up the technique quite quickly.  The other three were practicing s-turns.  The snow was quite icy before the warm sun softened it so we didn't spend too much time out on the ice.  After lunch I took the kids over to the Super Carpet  then ventured to the Olympic for a couple of laps before it was time to download and end the day.

Irish was riding with his buddy this afternoon so once my work day ended, I ran up the gondola and met up with him for a last run down to the valley.  It felt good to have a couple of days off and then get back on the board, especially when the sun is shining and the snow is soft.

Day 111 | Adventure Camp season finale

Last day of the work week and last day of Adventure Camp for the season.  I picked up the boys by 9am and we took a lap from the Roundhouse down to the CLC for drinks and snacks.  It was the usual day riding .... I think we did the exact same thing every day for the past three days (runs wise).  The weather today was a mixed bag of everything.  It was cloudy, sunny, cold, foggy, snow, hail, etc.  But mostly it was snowy!  At one point it was sunny, foggy, and snowing at the same time.  The snow was hard packed in the morning and pretty sticky in the afternoon.

Day 110 | "Smart people don't do that ... "

It was cold today.  Minus ten at the Roundhouse in the morning.  It was cloudy for most of the day and it snowed a little bit.  The runs were hard packed and didn't get soft until the top of Olympic Chair.  The Rippers and I took about four runs (top to bottom) during the entire day.  This included a stop at the Tree Fort and a walk through DK Trees in order to retrieve a runaway snowboard.

Day 109 | Rippers who rip

It was raining in the morning so I was all too happy to be assigned Lil Rippers today.  My plan was to spend the most amount of time coloring and keeping dry.  Boy was I surprised when the only two Rippers signed up for lessons were both level 4's!!!  At least they are signed in for Adventure Camp so I'm guaranteed to work at least through Wednesday.

Ransom, an infamous Lil Ripper who has been coming to Whistler Kids frequently since last season, is my first student and the second is a Whistler first timer named Kobin.  We were at the Roundhouse by 9:15am and although Kobin had a little bit of a hard time turning at the start of Whiskey Jack, by the time he rode half way down, he was a turning machine!  It took us 45 minutes to reach the CLC (not too shabby for little guys) where we took a fruit and hot chocolate break.

It never quite rained all day but the snow every where was wet and sticky.  Ransom wanted to go to the Tree Fort and the cat track was so slow that the boys literally had to walk the entire way.  They didn't mind.  By the time the day was finished, they were both pretty tired ..... to be honest, so was I!

Day 108 | Demo Days

Today was my day off and the only reason why I went up the hill was to demo some snowboards during demo days at the Telus Fest.  I also had tentative plans to ride with Juliette and her mom.  I was at the Roundhouse before 11am and tried a couple of boards, including another Endeavor.  By 1pm, the Pelchat family was yet to be seen so I decided I would head home.  Of course, half way to mid-station, I got the text that they were at the Roundhouse.  I told them to take a run and I would meet them at the NOW tent.

Kristi, Juliette, Amalia and I rode down to the Emerald Chair via Ego Bowl.  Juliette's sister, Amalia, is only four years old and she is turning on her board.  She is so tiny that she attracts a lot of attention from the rest of the skiing public.  After one run we headed into the Roundhouse for some food.  We were back out on the slopes for our last run down after 3pm.  Amalia made it all the way to mid-station where she and Mom downloaded while Juliette and I ran to the Village to finish the day.

Day 107 | Telus Fest

We are winding down the Whistler Kids season and lessons are getting slower and slower every day.  Today we had 15 in snowboard lessons and I had level threes.  Jon, Devon, and I took a mid-station lap with levels three through five to sort out classes.  Devon ended up with one level five and I ended up with two level threes.

We rode greens in the morning until lunch.  One girl was really good stance and balance wise and one boy needed a lot of work but he was turning.  Luckily he was signed out at lunch in order to spend the rest of the day with his family.  I was left with one girl who ended up being a slow level four.  We rode on a couple of blue runs, took a lap through Marmot Trees and even hit up Dave Murray to Tokum.

The Telus Fest kicked off strong yesterday bringing lots of low level skiers to the Family Zone.  Boy it was crowded today.  The lift lines were crazy but there were plenty of people yard sale-ing, people hiking back up hill, and the crazy ones who go through the slow zones really really fast.  The sun shined for the day and conditions on the snow varied from hard pack ice to soft packed slush.  It's definitely Spring.

Day 106 | Peak to Cheek

Back to work today and I was lucky enough to teach three of my returning AC kids.  Once again the forecast called for rain but it was sunny with cloudy periods for most of the day.  We took a mid-station lap with Myles and five other level fours to sort out the split.  After that we managed to squeeze in a couple of runs on Whistler before heading in for 11am lunch.

We went to Blackcomb in the afternoon.  We raced at the GMC Race Center twice and ran through the Terrain Garden three times.  The day went by super fast as the kids were really fun to hang around with.  By noon the temps had really heated up, warming up the snow and making it soft and slushy.  On our last run down the kids did penguin slides.  This group of kids are all leaving tomorrow but hopefully they will be back next season.  I think only one is old enough for Ride Tribe next year.

Day 105 | last day for Aimee

Met up with Aimee and the Percy kids for their last day of riding in Whistler.  It was forecasted to rain but we were pleased to see the sun shining for most of the day with some cloudy spells.  We spent the morning doing laps in the Medium park where the boys (Oscar and Lochey) worked on their half pipe skills.  We met up with Carly then took the Peak 2 Peak over to Whistler for lunch.

Jordan found us in the Roundhouse and we spent the rest of the afternoon running through the Small Park (though they took out the second set of small jumps) and then through the Medium Park.  We took a lot of photos of each other, including Aimee and Jordan going off the jumps together.  We also did spins off the hits on the sides of the runs.  Around 3pm everyone needed to head home so we peaced down to the Village and met up with the rest of the Percy family (and Pippa) at The Lift Coffee Co.  It was a great last day for Aimee and we will all miss her.

Day 104 | GoPro is the new Punch Buggy

It was the last day of Adventure Camp.  All the kids showed up by 8:30am and we were on our first run by 9am.  My plan was to go to Peak to Creek before our 11am lunch since it was the run of the day.  After a quick photo shoot at the Chic Pea, we headed to Emerald Chair.  At the bottom of the chair, one kid fell and hit his head pretty hard.  I ended up calling Patrol who cleared him to continue and although he was able to snowboard from the chair to the CLC, he opted to rest for an hour before lunch.  In the meantime, the rest of my team built a jump on the Lil Rippers course and opted to hang out there until lunchtime.

In the arvo, we headed to Blackcomb and ripped through the Terrain Garden for two runs.  Then we ran through Bark Sandwich into the Castle Run and down to the Village.  Back up to the CLC for ice cream apres, more jumping and finally down to end the day and the week.

Day 103 | copy shark

I love my Adventure Camp kids (Stinkler, Hobbs, Finn, Elijah, Arielle, Ben) - They are so much fun and are having a great time in Snowboard School.  Lunch was early today so we spent the morning on Whistler.  I forced them to ride switch and then made them go down Jimmy's Joker (a mogul black diamond) when the snow was crap.  None of them complained.

After lunch we went over to Blackcomb and raced on the BorderX track.  We also took a lap to the Castle.  It was super warm today with high cloud cover.  By 11am, the snow was soft and very very thick and sticky.  UGH!  It was hard to ride in.  We hit a lot of the side jumps and then did penguin slides.  Not to mention we had a couple of snowball fights.  The day went by fast and I'm going to miss the team after our last day tomorrow.  

Day 102 | last day of fresh tracks

It was the last day for Fresh Tracks and since Irish had two tickets left, we woke up early and made it for breakfast.  We both had to work so we only had time for one run but it was a nice run.  Corduroy all the way from the Roundhouse to the Village and no one else on the runs.

When I showed up at work, I was assigned level fours and it didn't take too long before I had a full class of six.  We took one run from the top of Whistler down to the bottom then went up Blackcomb and spent the morning on Blackcomb.  When it was time for lunch, we took the P2P across where we were separated from one kid at the split between Whiskey Jack and Old Crow.  To make it worse, his Flaik was dead and we couldn't "see" where he was.  I ended up riding down to the CLC with the rest of my class, got them squared away with lunch and within 15 minutes we found the lost kid.  He was at the Roundhouse with a Max4 group.  I grabbed my gear and headed up to meet him while Morgan took care of the rest of my kids at the CLC until they finished their lunch and met us at the Roundhouse.

Morgan and I stuck together for most of the afternoon, heading back to Blackcomb where we did the BorderX track and the terrain garden.  We split up for the last run down where I took an easy cruising blue.  I have a bit of a split in my class.  One guy should probably be with the level threes but since he spent the entire day with us in fours, I hate to put him down now.

It was definite Spring conditions.  Super warm all the way to the top.  The snow was nice in the morning but by mid-afternoon it was soft.  Not slushy soft but soft where it was chunky and it just threw you around.

Day 101 | last day of Club

I woke up yesterday still fighting a bladder infection.  Gillian took my kids riding whilst I went to the clinic for more medication.  I met up with them at the CLC for chocolate cake and signed them out with Mom and Dad.  I felt much better today and I was looking forward to spending the last day with Juliette and Ella.  Juliette's dad (JF Pelchat), brought a YES board set up with his new NOW bindings for me to demo.

We spent most of the day riding with Lauren and Morgan.  We managed to squeeze in four runs before lunch.  After lunch we didn't have much time as chocolate cake was at 2pm.  Once the kids had their cake, we rode down to the village where we all bought our kids an ice cream cone from Rocky Mountain Chocolate.  We ended the day with lots of hugs, well wishes, and goodbyes.

Hard to believe the year is quickly coming to an end.  Now that the weather has warmed up and the sun has started shining, I'm looking forward to riding the park in the Spring.

Day 100 | What's so good about Good Friday?

What's so good about Good Friday? It's day 100 on the snow! Another season, another one hundred days (and counting). Since its a holiday, Irish had the day off. Our plan was to do fresh tracks for the last time this season but we never rocked up to ride until well after 9am. We loaded from Base II and it was crowded. It was even more crowded at Excelerator Chair. We met up with Aimee and the Percy kids and headed up Jersey Creme. From there we met up with Kyle and after doing a few spines in the medium park, we rolled into the Bordercross track.

Aimee and the kids took off after that run. They had a lunch date at the Crystal Hut for waffles. Irish and Kyle and I took a couple laps through the terrain garden before heading back to the car. We rode down an empty perfectly groomed run. It was nice. The sun was shining but the clouds were rolling in. It was a good groomer/park day. No idea how the snow was higher up but it was definitely all chopped up. Irish and I headed down to Squamish and rode our bikes. Snowboarding and biking in the same day. Spring is here and we live in the best place on earth!

Day 99 | Gabby Gabby

Today was the most amazing glorious day!  The sun was shining, the snow conditions were super soft packed and my Adventure Camp kids were fun.  We started the day working on our S-turns.  The boys really wanted to move up from level three to level four and in order to do that, they needed to correct their horrible stance and balance.  Surprisingly enough, they worked really hard and did every exercise I asked them to do.

After lunch my plan was to go over to Blackcomb and hit the terrain garden.  Darren's class of level four's were also going over so we joined his class.  Ten of us piled into the Peak 2 Peak and we headed to the park.  The park was groomed perfectly and there was no one in there.  I couldn't believe it.  Normally it's packed with stupid park rats cutting in on the kids' lines.  We ended up taking a couple runs with Darren's class before breaking off and heading back over to the CLC.  The day went by super fast and the boy's finished their week as level fours.

Day 98 | 24 inches 24 hours

It's April 3rd and Whistler Blackcomb has just passed the 400cm mark for its base of snow.  That means there is 409 centimeters (or 13 feet) of snow on the top of the mountain .... which is crazy for April!  Twenty four inches fell in the last 24 hours.

I picked up my two Adventure Campers and one Destination kid around 9am and rocked up to the Roundhouse.  The gondola was running slow as winds were gusting.  The visibility was bad as it was also snowing like crazy.  The Alpine never opened.

Since my kids were only level three, I wanted them to enjoy the powder but I didn't want them to get so stuck in the powder that they hated it.  We dropped off Whiskey Jack and they managed to get through that powder fairly easily.  We then ran into Ego Bowl where the snow was up to my knees in some parts.  We spent the day running mostly blue runs and the snow was everywhere.  It was so deep.  I couldn't believe how much snow was up there for April.  My kids were really fun and even though they had to dig themselves out of some powder a couple times, they still had a blast.

I exhausted the boys by 2pm so we took a break at the CLC before heading down to the Village to end the day.   I took a video of me on Ego Bowl to give an idea of how much snow we have.  Today was one of those days where I can say I love my job.  My kids were great, there was only three of them, and the conditions were amazing.  I love my job.

    

Day 97 | S.Tinkler

Busiest Whistler Kids day of the season today.  The CLC served 800 lunches today.  There was a waiting list to get into Adventure Camp for skiing.  They had over 400 kids booked in.  We had over 60 snowboarders between AC and Destination.  I was assigned level threes Adventure Camp and had a full class of six (only two AC'ers).

We started the day by going straight to the top where the wind was blowing and the snow was falling.  The conditions on the trails were soft packed and they were very crowded.  We managed to squeeze in one run before our early 11am lunch.

The afternoon went by fast even though we only ran on Ego Bowl and Whiskey Jack.  We had a couple of technical malfunctions, including a broken binding and one kid taking the wrong snowboard after lunch.  Other than the very rude Mexican kid (who has been kicked out of Snow School in the past), my kids were very nice and interactive.  I'm hoping most of them return tomorrow.

Day 96 | hello powder

Another 7 inches of new snow in the last 24 hours.  It was snowing in the morning and I kept wishing for Spring/Summer.  It's April and another 50cm is forecasted to fall by Tuesday.
Juliette and Ella showed up at their regular time... late and after 9am.  I didn't care as I wasn't in a rush to ride.

The conditions were powder and soft packed.  We took a couple runs before lunch and after lunch we did another level assessment with Gunner and the rest of the riders.  That took up most of the afternoon.  Afterwards, the girls wanted to do the jump on the Xtrack.  The sun was shining by then so we chilled out at the CLC area until it was time to sign out.