Day 14 - Karaoke Chairlifts

pow! pow! pow!
Met up with Tim, Conor, & Ruth first thing in the morning at Creekside.  Only 8cm of fresh snow fell overnight but over 20cm fell in the last 24hrs.  It was snowing like crazy when we got to the top of Red Chair.  We spent the morning on Whistler.  The snow was pretty amazing almost to Emerald Chair and then it got a bit heavy and choppy.

We stopped for lunch around 11:30am and then took the Peak 2 Peak gondola over to Blackcomb for the afternoon.  Irish took us towards 7th Heaven and we dropped into some trees.  It was a bit of a mission to get out there on the 7th Heaven cat track but it was well worth the effort.  Light fluffy knee deep snow all the way down the trees.  It was so fun.

We spent the rest of the day on Blackcomb as there was plenty of fresh deep snow to be found around the Solar Coaster Chair.  Again, it got a bit heavy and choppy almost at the bottom of the chair.  No biggee.  Around 3pm, we said our goodbyes to everyone and headed back down to Red Chair to download via the Creekside gondi.  It snowed most of the day and it's forecasted to continue through the weekend.  Patrol is hoping to open Harmony and Peak Chairs tomorrow.

Day 13 - Izayah again and Irish peeps

It was raining in the Village all morning, but snowing up top.  Izayah and I hit the gondola around 11am and met up with Conor and Ruth (and Conor's brother) at the Roundhouse.  It was like a blizzard atop the Emerald Chair and the snow was light and fluffy with plenty of fresh powder to be found anywhere in the Family Zone.

Conor's brother and sister-in-law were visiting from Ireland and even though this was only their second day snowboarding, they did amazing.  Izayah and I took a couple of laps with them before they headed in for lunch.  After that we headed towards Marmot Trees but ducked the rope on the cat track to get to the tower quicker.  By the time we finished that run, Ruth and Conor were done with lunch.  They ditched the brother and took one more lap with Izayah and I.  I took them through the powder in the terrain park.  Izayah got stuck big time and that lap wiped him out.  We headed back to the Roundhouse for some food and to call it a day.  Ruth and Conor did a few laps I'm sure.

A system has parked itself over the area for the next couple of day, bringing with it lots of snow and high winds.  Unfortunately, the freezing level is going to hover around the Chic Pea level so it won't be great for too far (unless they open the Alpine).  I will keep you posted on that.

Day 12 - CJ

Yesterday I went riding with Izayah.  Today, I had his little four year old brother, Christopher Jr. (CJ) in the Lil Ripper program at work.  Thanksgiving holiday has come and gone leaving only two kids in Snowboard School today:  CJ and another girl named Anna.

I knew CJ was going to be a good snowboarder because he did great on skis last season.  We spent the morning on the Magic Carpet where I pushed him around and let him straight line down the hill.  He could ride the length of the carpet without falling at all.

After lunch I decided to take him to the Super Carpet so he could get a much longer run.  He was very good at making sure he fell instead of running into the many adults around.  By the time we finished the day, I managed to get him sideslipping and using his "brakes".  Uncle and Grandma were very pleased to hear his report at the end of the day.

Day 11 - Izayah

It's that time of year again when my Hawaiian friends come up for the timeshare week.  Izayah doesn't take lessons anymore with Whistler Kids, I take him out riding on my days off.  Today was his first day back on the board since last Spring.

It was super sunny with an amazing blue sky.  The snow was soft packed and they was still a bit of powder to be found off piste.  I knew Izayah wasn't going to be able to do too many runs as he mostly plays video games in his spare time.  We got his board/boot situation straightened out and headed up the gondola around 11am.

We did a warm up run on Whiskey Jack.  I then decided to check out the Marmot Tree situation.  It had yet to be tracked out but the last bit of it was good.  Unfortunately, there was no grooming on the run that Marmot Trees dumps out of so Izayah had a hard time getting through the powder.  By the time he made it to Jolly Green Giant, he was exhausted.

We took one more run, broke for lunch then rode from the Roundhouse down to mid-station before calling it a day.

Day 10 - Silas

When asked how to spell your name, four year old Silas said,  "S, .... line with a dot, ...... line, ..... circle with a puppy tail, ..... S"  Get it?

Took three level one/two boys.  Two of them were seven years old and one was the older brother.  I think he was nine.  We spent the day on the Super Carpet where I told the younger boys to stick together and to be a team.  So they went down the carpet together, and came up together.  By the end of the day, the weaker one was able to sideslip and control his speed.  Meghan has seven level twos and we ended up team teaching on the Super Carpet in the afternoon.  The sun was shining but it was cold.  

Day 9 - My weiner is shrinking

Another fairly busy day at Whistler Kids. Once again I was assigned Lil Rippers and today I had five of them! (yes we are only suppose to have four to a class but we were short staffed). Ellen had Ransome and she was kind enough to help me out when he was taking breaks.

I think we had the smallest four year olds to date. One was super keen to ride and one was super keen to not ride. I managed to keep a couple of them on their boards while the others played in the snow.  By the end of the day, I was exhausted.  I heard conditions up top were amazing with periods of sun.

Day 8 - I wanna be a chicken

Another 25cm of snow fell overnight, only this time I had to clean it off my car.  I was pretty confident I would have Ransome again today at work so I knew I'd get to enjoy a bit of the fresh pow under my board.  I was pleasantly surprised when a second high level Lil Ripper rocked up because that would mean that Ransome would want to snowboard more.

We exited the gondola around 9:30am and proceeded to shred the pow!  The boys had a blast, especially Sam as he was a much stronger rider and could go through the powder like nothing.  He was jumping and going crazy.  Surprisingly, he was able to stay in it and go through it.  It was fun watching him.

I managed to keep them out there all morning.  After lunch we built a jump at the CLC, hit that for a couple laps, then went back up top for more shredding.  It didn't take too long for the day to come to an end.  We finished off with more jumps at the CLC then downloaded.  I'm willing to bet those two six year olds are going to be asleep tonight by 8'o clock.  Who am I kidding .... I will be asleep by 8pm!

Day 7 - Whistler Kids

First day of work for the 2012-13 Season.  Time does fly.  It was nice to see the familiar faces.  We were all steezed in our new orange uniforms!!  Thirteen kids were signed up for snowboard lessons including one Lil Ripper.  I was assigned the Lil Ripper and I was a bit concerned about what I would do with a Ripper considering there wasn't much snow at the CLC.  To my surprise, WKids most infamous Lil Ripper, Ransome, rocked up.  Sweet.  That meant I was actually going to snowboard for the day since he is a level 3/4.

Ransome and I headed straight to the Roundhouse once everyone was signed in.  It took him most of the day to get back to speed with his turns.  He has a new larger board this season.  The snow was still amazing.  Super soft packed.  Temps were cold (-9°C) with light winds.  I was freezing.  Luckily Ransome didn't want to ride too much so we spent a fair amount of time at the CLC, building jumps and drinking hot cocoa.  Before I knew it, the day was over.  Not a bad first day.

Day 6 - super soft snow

In the last week, we've received 50 inches of new snow.  Our base is now 100cm/39inches.  Roby and I decided to take a few more laps today and we headed up around noon.  Boy was I surprised when I hit the snow, not only had Whistler opened up more runs, but the snow was amazing.  Super soft packed and still some pow stashes here and there.

The weather was a mixed bag of everything:  clouds, sun and even some light snow.  It was a bit more crowded than yesterday.  Probably because of the 17cm of snow that fell overnight.  We didn't do much, I think we only did five runs before Roby's knee was giving her trouble.  It was enough to get out and get off the couch.  I had fun and I can finally admit, I'm stoked for the winter season.

Day 5 - more groomers

I still have a few more days left of unemployment and even though the snow is lacking in coverage, it's better to board and be bored than to sit on the couch with my thumb up my butt.  Roby was cool with spending a bit of time on the groomers so we met up at Creekside around 11am.

The groomers were nice.  Soft packed, a bit choppy but nothing crazy.  Because it's a weekday, the lift lines were next to nothing.  Of course, the runs did feel a bit crowded since there are only so many places people can go.

Roby and I took about five to seven laps, alternating between Emerald Chair and Red Chair.  It was nice to get out with Roby since she and I never skied/rode together.  Last winter she was in Big White for the season.  We have plans to do the same thing tomorrow.

Day 4 - at least it snowed

Whistler Blackcomb reported 22cm of fresh snow fell overnight.  The freezing levels had dropped to about 1000 metres and the rain had stopped.  After a long good night's rest, we woke up feeling refreshed and made it to the Creekside gondola around 11am.  The snow line had made it's way down to Village level and there noticeably way more snow coverage on the trails.

Unfortunately for me, every trail was roped off except for EgoBowl, Upper Whiskey Jack to Pig Alley, and Orange Peel to Red Chair.  Needless to say, after three runs, I was pretty bored.  The good news is another 34cm (13inches) is forecasted to fall between now and Thursday.  Hopefully that will allow Ski Patrol to take down some ropes .... 

Day 3 - WB Opening Day ... not so epic

Whistler opened today with a 12inch (30cm) snowbase.  It was pouring rain in the Village when we arrived at Creekside around 9:30am and there was no one waiting in line to upload.   People were also downloading at this time (not a good sign).  At Red Chair I noticed how wet everyone was.  Winds were gusting up to 100km.  Combine that with the rain and it made for the longest chair ride.

There is no snow at the top of Creekside Gondola.  There isn't much snow coverage up to the Roundhouse to be honest.  Whatever snow that is up there is mostly man made snow.  Visibility was terrible and most of the snow had been blown off the trails.  We took one run back down to the Creek gondi, downloaded, and drove home.  Not the normal epic opening day we have been spoiled with for the past six seasons.  I hope this isn't a sign of what's to come for the entire season.

    

Day 2 - Cypress

Cypress Mountain on the North Shore opened on Wednesday so what better way to get in form for Whistler than by spending a couple hours at Cypress....  Irish and I needed to be in the city anyhow so we decided to take a few laps.  There wasn't much open, just one run to be exact.   I think we lapped that run about five or six times in a half hour.  We got our money's worth though, spending about two hours up there, working out the kinks.  Whistler opens tomorrow so it's guaranteed to be a less boring day!

Whistler Early Opening Announced

Whistler Blackcomb announced today it will open early, Saturday November 17th, five days earlier than the scheduled Nov 22nd.  woot! woot!  Complete with Opening Day festivities:

This year, Whistler Blackcomb has set the bar high for opening day festivities. Along with a surprise musical act for guests waiting in line at the Whistler Village Gondola, the first 1500 people to upload either gondola will receive a gift. Tokens will range from hot chocolates to big ticket items like EDGE Cards, Snow School lessons, retail and rental gifts and surprises from partners including, Scandinave Spa Whistler, The Adventure Group Whistler, Extremely Canadian, Canadian Snowmobile, Coast Mountain Photography, CAN-SKI, Showcase, Powerade and Milk2Go.

Day 1 - Red Heather hike

A bit of snow fell in Squamish yesterday so Irish decided we should take a hike up to Red Heather to see if we could get a little bit of snowboarding in.  We packed our gear in the car and made it to the parking lot around 11:30am.

The trail to the warming hut at Red Heather meadows is about 5km through the forest along a gentle road.  It's not a steep climb but it is a long walk when you're carrying a snowboard and wearing a pack.  Luckily for me, Irish was kind enough to carry my board so the hike wasn't as strenuous.  Even without having to carry my board, I was still soaked from sweat by the time we reached the top about and an hour and a half later.

We went inside the warming hut and peeled off some layers.  Irish brought some tea, coffee, and peanut butter biscuits.  It wasn't too busy with people, about ten of us were out enjoying the mostly dry weather with the occasional sunny blue sky break.  After a nice half hour break, we strapped on our snowboards and headed back down the trail we originally ascended.

There wasn't much snow, I'd say about six inches on average, give or take a few inches depending on the tree cover.  It wasn't enough to cover all the rocks that lay on the trail.  There were a few spots where we had to walk.  I never even strapped in my back foot.  I rode the entire trail with only one foot in the binding.  We fell a few times as rocks tend to stop you quickly when you're on a board.  I don't think we were moving much faster on the boards than when we were walking.  That didn't matter.  We were snowboarding for the first time in seven months and we were having a blast.  I think it took us about an hour to get back to the parking lot where we high-fived and called it a great first day of the 2012/2013 snow season.