Day 49 | tootatoot

I had a full class for WESP and we went to the top first thing in the morning.  Not much for new snow in the last couple of days and the freezing level has been hovering around the 1000 meter range.  It was a perfect day to get some mileage on the groomers.  They weren't in the best shape but they weren't bad.  They definitely weren't icy.  The problem was the huge fog cloud that lingered over Solar Coaster all day.  Visibility was next to nothing.

In the afternoon I decided to give the Jersey Creme chair a try.  There was no cloud hovering near there and the sun was kind of shining for a minute or two.  We headed down Jersey Road and I thought the kids would like to give the Pontiac Race Course a try.  One kid stacked it pretty hard on the first run down ... luckily a call to Patrol was not warranted.  We ran the course twice then headed down for sign out.

Day 48 | fat fuzzy finger

Sunday Club was beginning to get a bit messy with the levels.  Some kids were excelling quickly, some were not, kids were showing up for the first time three weeks into the program.  Bottom line:  we needed to have a run-off between levels one to level four in order to sort things out.

It rained from the Village to mid-station and by the time we got to the Roundhouse for our first run, we were all drenched.  The snow was nice about Emerald Chair and then conditions went from powder to Spring slush.

By the afternoon, things (including us) had dried out and the levels were all sorted, leaving me with my original two girls and one boy the same age.  There is now a high level three class (with me) and a low level three class (with Myles).  Each class of kids are all the same level and no one has a split.  Sundays should be fun for the rest of the season!

Day 47 | board with our boards cause we're bored

Two kids were missing from Club this week, leaving me with the same Class I had last season.  None of them were too motivated to ride so we didn't do much.  I think we took a full run on Whistler before lunch and after lunch we took a full run on Blackcomb.  That's about it.  It snowed lightly all day and the conditions were soft packed.  Lots of pow forecasted for this evening.  

Day 46 | level fives

Today was my scheduled day off but I was asked to work since it's the day after Australia Day and most Aussies are usually too hung over to come to work.  I didn't mind since I have a few extra days off next week.  Much to my surprise, I was assigned Level Fives (first time this season).  I thought about giving them up and doing Lil Rippers with Morgan, but then I came to my senses and realized it would be much more fun to actually snowboard for the day instead of take care of 5 year olds for the day.

It took us an hour to get from the queue at the Village Gondola to the Roundhouse this AM.  That didn't leave us much time to shred before lunch.  We weren't allowed to go through the trees today so we took our warm up run down Green Acres.  The snow on the groomers wasn't that great but if you ran the more difficult runs, there was still good snow to be found on the side of the runs.  The three boys were fast!  We managed to get in three runs before the 11:15am lunch, and one of those runs was from Garbanzo Chair.

After lunch we opted to snowboard on Blackcomb.  Flaik reported we ran 18.5 miles when the day was said and done.  I was tired by the end and I was happy I didn't go with the Lil Rippers instead.

Day 45 | iShred POW! finallly

I've been telling myself all week that I was going to ride today since it was my day off.  I knew the snow was going to be good and I wanted to get out there and enjoy some powder for a change.  It snowed 14cm overnight and Kyle was asking what time we were meeting at the gondola.  I hate to admit it but he kind of had to persuade me to get up there ......

We met up at 10am in Creekside.  The Red Chair had a bit of a queue so we rode down to Garbanzo.  The Alpine hadn't opened yet so we lapped Garbo for about three runs before heading in to warm up and have some lunch.

After lunch we met up with Georgie and Yannick and headed to Symphony via Sun Bowl off Harmony.  We traversed under the cliff to the right and then dropped down into soft fresh snow.  We managed to fit in four runs through Symphony before the chair closed.  The snow out there was amazing and deep through the trees.  It was so much fun!  I think it was my best day free riding so far!  And to think Kyle had to talk me into going up in the first place ....

Day 44 | half day "Friday"

It's my Friday and I showed up to Ride Tribe feeling comfortable I would get a class.  I was assigned level threes and three of them showed up.  Once again, Laurie and I decided to take a run together.  She had three level fours.

Conditions had changed drastically overnight.  It was a sheet of ice from the bottom of Red Chair to the Village.  Although there was still lots of snow above that, it was very wind blown and not soft anymore.  Once again winds were gusting up to 100k's.  Patrol managed to get the Alpine open but it had zero visibility and I can't imagine what it was like in the wind.  The wind was bad enough from Roundhouse to Emerald Chair.

We took a run down Ego Bowl and after the first run, all six kids seemed to be the same level.  Next run was down some bumps in Green Acres.  We figured a steeper run would weed out the level threes from the level fours.  Nope.  By the end of two runs, all the kids were basically the same level.  We went in for lunch around 11am.  I signed out my class card, giving my kids to Laurie, grabbed a nice lunch and then went home.

Day 43 | Ride Tribe to Whistler Kids

I was scheduled for Ride Tribe on this wonderful snowy / powder day but didn't get a class.  Normally I would have jumped on the opportunity to go home but for some reason, I wanted to work.  So I ran over to the Kids side and asked if anyone wanted to go home.  Of course, everyone was all too willing to go home so I ended up team teaching with Lili and we had eight level twos.

It snowed about eight inches in the last 24 hours and the snow was light.  I elected to run the eight kids down to the Village for our first (and only) run before lunch.  I think that took over an hour as we had one girl who was painfully slow.  We ended up being about 10 minutes late for lunch but that was no big deal.

For the afternoon I let Lili deal with the lesson and the kids.  The kids decided they wanted to go on Olympic Chair.  I stayed behind, pulled up the rear and basically road the sides of the runs where there was about six inches of nice untouched pow.  It snowed like crazy all day.  The Alpine never opened due to very gusty high winds.  We are currently sitting on a 244cm base.  I've been reassured if I want a class in Ride Tribe tomorrow that I will get a class.  Since it's still snowing right now, I'm hoping for level three or above.

Day 42 | Snuffalofaguess

The snow has been falling for a few days now and today was the first good pow day we've had in a long time.  I was looking forward to shredding some gnar with my WESP kids.  By 9am, only four out of the seven showed up so we hit the Blackcomb gondi and headed up to the top of Excelerator Chair.  Once we were there, it was blue runs to Solar Coaster.

The kids had a bit of a tough time on the powdery blue runs but they made it safely to Solar where we were able to ride down Easy Out.  There was a lot of snow on the ground and it was super soft.  It was fun.  I was hitting fresh tracks on the sides of the runs.  We also cut in and out of some trees.  Winds were whipping up top so I decided we wouldn't take another chair ride.

I was smart enough to get us to lunch early in order to ride Whistler for the afternoon.  I wanted to hit Marmot Trees since trees weren't restricted today.  The powder in Marmot Trees was deep.  In fact, the usual lines weren't cut out and the lines that were cut out dumped us into the trees below the tower.  No matter, the kids still had fun (even though they had a tougher time with it).

We were a bit chilly so we ran down to the CLC and grabbed a hot chocolate.  After the break, we rode down the green to the village riding all the side hits.  We had enough time to take one last run from the top of the Excalibur gondola before signing out with Mom and Dad.  The day was super fun and the conditions were amazing.  And I didn't even get to ride the "good stuff" ......

Day 41 | broken binding means snowmobile ride

Two new girls showed up for Club today as level fours.  Lauren added them to her class card.  Once again we all took a run together first thing in the morning.  Jose said the conditions up top were really windy but the groomers below mid-station were awesome.  So we decided to lap mid-station til lunch.  It didn't take us long to realize the new girls are NOT level fours (surprise, surprise) but they are actually high level twos.

It snowed all day today and the snow was amazing ... even with the gusting winds up top.  We decided to ride up the Garbanzo Chair before lunch.  When we all reached the top, Ella noticed her binding was broken and the strap that holds her foot down was missing.  There was no way she could snowboard down with one binding so I called Patrol to give her a snowmobile ride.  Lauren took the rest of my class and headed back to the CLC for lunch.  Ella and I waited for Patrol in the lifty's hut.  Once Patrol arrived, we were able to ride his snowmobile up to the Roundhouse where we downloaded to the CLC, ate some lunch, and fixed her binding with a spare part off a rental.  

Everything was back to normal by the afternoon and we spent the rest of our day shredding the gnar.  I'm going to try and move the two new girls into a lower level class next weekend.  I'm not sure how it will work out but I'm guessing I will end with them in my class and I will have to deal with the split for the rest of the season.  Fingers crossed that doesn't happen.

Day 40 | late for work

I stayed at Irish's house last night (after the trip to Baker) which meant I had to make a morning commute up to Whistler this AM.  I gave myself plenty of time for the drive, taking into account the snowy/icy road conditions.  When I reached the turn just south of Function Junction, a two car accident had already happened.  Traffic was still moving in both directions before the authorities came.  I was about 7 cars in line when the police and fire trucks showed up, closing the road in both directions.  There I sat for an hour, making me late for work.

Lauren was kind enough to bib and flaik my team.  I met up with them at the CLC around 9:30am.  They were ready to snowboard when I showed up so we hit the gondola and headed up to the Roundhouse.  The snow was amazing today.  20cm of fresh powder fell overnight and the conditions were soft packed with powder on the side of the runs.  The Alpine never opened causing the lift lines to overflow out the fences.  I didn't mind since I was teaching.

I have to admit I didn't do much for "teaching" today.  I was too excited to ride the great conditions.  The kids followed me around as I just rode and rode.  They didn't mind as they were riding fresh powder also. Before I knew it, the quitting time alarm went off and it was time to head to the village to sign out.  I'm hoping tomorrow is just as nice.

Day 39 | Return of the Shred-i

Irish and I packed up the truck early Friday morning and headed down to Mt Baker.  They received 3 feet of new snow over the last couple of days and another 9-13 inches was forecasted to fall throughout the day Friday.  We were super excited since Whistler hasn't been receiving much snow this season.

We reached the bottom of the Forest Road around 8:00am and things were looking good.  The road was plowed perfectly, the snow was falling, the temperature hovered just under freezing.  Suddenly, something weird happened.  As we drove higher, it started getting warmer.  The snow changed to rain.  I reassured Irish that we had a long way to go before we hit the ski area and it was going to get colder as we kept driving.  Nope!  No such luck.  When we pulled into the parking lot, it was raining.

Rain or snow, we weren't going to turn around and go back to Canada so we bundled up, bought our cheap (compared to Whistler prices) lift tickets and headed up the chair.  The highest chair at Mt. Baker is just over the 5,000 foot level.  It was snowing at that level but it was raining not too far below it.  For a rainy day, the snow was nice.  It wasn't too heavy and there was a lot of fresh tracks to be found.  We worked our way around the entire park for the next three hours.  By noon I was soaked ... and needed to change my gloves and eat some lunch.  Once I was able to dry off and warm up, I wasn't up to going back outside and getting wet again.  We called it a day and headed back to Canada.  We're hoping to get down there a couple more times this season depending on what the snow does.

Day 38 | It's never been this cold!

When I awoke this morning, it was -2F in the village (-19C) and the wind was blowing 30-50kph.  I was scheduled for Ride Tribe so I was happy that working with the teenagers meant working a slightly shorter day.  Needless to say I was hoping to not work but deep down I knew I'd be getting a class.  We had 38 Riders and I was assigned Level 3 with another Instructor.

Laurie and I ended up with ten kids.  We threw them onto two class cards and decided to split them at the Roundhouse.  Five of them were in lessons yesterday and they were true level threes.  The other five of them who hadn't been in lessons recently were NOT level threes.  Once we strapped in and headed towards Whiskey Jack, it became very apparent we should have split the class at mid-station and not at the top of the mountain.  Four kids had the toughest time getting to the first roller on Whiskey.  One girl walked most of the way to our first stop area and I ended up calling Patrol to snowmobile her back to the Roundhouse.  Once we got her squared away, Laurie took the true level threes and I took the four level twos and slowly made my way down to the Emerald Chair.  By the time we reached the chair, three of the four kids were turning.  They weren't turning confidently but they were turning.  One kid was still having a tough time and zig zagged most of the way.

We made it to the top of Emerald around 10:30am and quickly went inside to warm up.  We found the rest of the classes in there already trying to get warm.  We ended up taking a super long lunch, staying inside until 11:45am.  I wasn't complaining as it took me about 45 minutes to warm up.  It was -25C (-13F) outside and as you can imagine, that was freaking freezing!!!!!  

After lunch, Laurie and I hooked up with Jose and we split up six kids between the three of us.  I took the one guy who was definitely a low level two and managed to get him turning in one run to Emerald.  Lucky for me we ran into Jose's class on the second run so we ended up following him.  To my surprise, my kid now fit into Jose's level two class ... and I was able to go home!  I was so cold that I downloaded in the gondola and clocked out around 1:30pm.

Day 37 | Arctic Outflow Warning

I was late for Ride Tribe this morning thanks to my bus not showing up.  It was a high of -15C today so I was kind of hoping my tardiness would result in not getting a class.  No such luck.  I was handed a level two card and ended up with four teenagers from Australia.

It was Blackcomb day so we headed up the gondola and over to the Magic Chair area.  To my surprise the kids were already turning and just needed more confidence.  My plan was to spend the morning in this area, eat lunch at Wizard Grill and then take gondola laps.  We took a hot chocolate break at Blackcomb Kids midway through the morning.  After lunch I decided to give Wizard Chair a try.  Three of the kids did great turning down the green and blue runs back to the gondola and one boy had a hard time linking his turns.  His toes were hanging off the edge of his snowboard because his feet were so big.  He was using a cheap rental board and got really discouraged.  He elected to sign himself out and go back to his hotel.

With the slowest kid no longer holding the rest of the kids back, I decided to head to the top.  We rocked over to Solar Coaster and hit Easy Out.  The day went by so slow.  I was cold and the teens weren't very excitable.  They didn't say much and didn't seem excited to be snowboarding.  We finished a run around 2:30 and instead of taking a half run from the gondola, the kids decided to call it quits.  Fine by me!  We rode down to the village and had an end of day chat in the Carlton Lodge.  Back to Ride Tribe tomorrow with no break in the Arctic temperatures.  JOY!

Day 36 | Base II WESP

Another season, another eight weeks of WESP (Whistler Elementary Schools Program).  I had to miss week one because of my avalanche course but I was lucky enough to catch a level three class of seven kids who split from other classes.  Most of them were level two kids who ended up turning by the end of the day in the first week.

It was freezing today!  (-15C / 5F)
The last thing I wanted to do was spend the day on chairlifts.  Luckily I was able to make the day fun for my kids by just lapping the Excalibur Gondola.  We ended up having to take lots of breaks, including a hour and a half for lunch.  I managed to keep the class fun by going over the natural jumps on the sides of the runs.

I'm looking forward to shredding with these kids for the next six weeks.  They are super keen to ride and they have a good time doing so.

Day 35 | Super Squirts

Sunday's are slowing turning into my favorite work day of the week.  Two female Instructors and four female riders.  This week my older girl decided to pick up her speed and her riding was night and day from last week.  It was good enough to move her into the level four class with Lauren and Hailey.

It was a beautiful sunny day with clear blue skies.  Lauren and I team taught in the morning.  In the afternoon we took a run through Marmot Trees then split up for the remaining time.  My little girls wanted to go to the Tree Fort so that's what we did.  The girls are fun and so cute.  The form on their boards needs some work but they can rip!  It's so great to see.

Day 34 | Saturday Shredding

Another Saturday Club day and we're still filtering through the class and figuring exactly how it's going to stand.  One of my regular girls was absent today along with a new boy who hasn't come to Club yet.  A second new boy did show up and although his Privates Instructor told him last week that he was a "solid level four" - in reality, he's a solid level three.

The snow has come back to Whistler and though we didn't get heaps of fresh pow but we got enough to make the sliding fun!  The winds at the top of the Roundhouse were blustery.  In fact, sometimes the wind were so strong, it knocked poor little Jaden over a few times.  It was freezing when the wind was ripping but we managed to make it through the day .... only taking the gondola back up to the Roundhouse (of course).

Day 33 | tired

It's sunny and it's cold.  Colder in the village than at the Roundhouse ... gotta love inversions.  I slept great but woke up tired from the AST course.  I went to working hoping to not get a class.  Today is Wednesday and it's the last day of Adventure Camp.  What that means to me is that I will be getting a low level class (even more reason to go home).  We only had about 20 kids in Snow School and most of them were AC kids.  No Lil Rippers were signed up today.

I managed to weasel my way out of class.  I took the gondola up with Morgan and Kat.  They had level fours and fives and were team teaching.  I wanted to check the conditions up top so joined them for a couple turns on some green groomers.  The snow was as expected: hard packed.  And lots of snow guns firing.  I lasted half way down Ego Bowl before I said my goodbyes to my co-workers and ripped down to the village.

Day 32 | A.S.T. complete!

I woke up this AM dreading going to the final day of my Avalanche course.  Yesterday's hike was torture for me and I couldn't get motivated to put myself through a second day of it.  I was happier when I read sun in the forecast and that all lifts were on stand-by.  If Harmony and Symphony were running, I knew that meant less hiking.

The day started off with some transceiver and rescue work by the reservoir in Harmony.  The temperature was -12°C but it didn't feel as cold because the sun was shining bright.  There was not a cloud in the sky all day.  After our rescue practice, we took Harmony Chair up and looked at the snow off Burnt Stew heading into Symphony where we eventually ended up at the bottom of Flute Bowl.

I knew the day was scheduled to end earlier because a guy in the class had to be at work for 2:30pm.  Around 11:30am we strapped on our hiking gear and started heading up Flute.  To my surprise, today's hike was super easy compared to what we hiked yesterday and it got me more excited about backcountry riding.  Not to mention, there was going to be fresh lines heading all the way down to Symphony Chair.  Sweet!

Once we reached our destination, we dug a huge pit and looked at the snow conditions.  We did some compression tests, a rutschblock, and a saw/shovel shear.  By 1:30pm we strapped on our boards and rode the fresh snow.  It was a bit crunchy in spots but overall it was nice.  Not great but not bad.  We ran all the way down to the village where we finished at The Cabin for a debriefing.  As much as I was dreading the day in the morning, it ended up being an awesome day.  Such is my life.

Day 31 | Avalanche Skills Training Course

I signed up for an Avalanche Skills Training Course.  It's a two and half day course designed to increase knowledge of winter backcountry travel.  I don't plan on doing much backcountry riding but I do plan on going snowmobiling in the backcountry so it's a good idea to be prepared.  A raise in my pay scale is an added benefit as well.

We started the day in Harmony working with transceivers..... searching for people and/or hidden transceivers.  We stopped at a weather station and learned how they predict the weather and gather information about recent snowpack and snowfall.  From Harmony Chair, we hiked up to the cat track and made our way into Symphony.  At the bottom of the Symphony Chair, we dug some holes and learned about the different snow layers and how to gauge the snowpack activity with compression tests.  From there we snowshoed up to Lil Flute.  That was the worst part of the day.  It took me over an hour and half to hike up and I hated every minute of it.

Once we determined the avalanche situation was at a safe level, we ripped some fresh tracks down Flute and landed ourselves in Adagio.  From there we had to hike back to Burnt Stew Trail and started making our way back down to the village.  It was a long day but I learned a lot.  I'm hoping the hike tomorrow isn't as grueling because I can't feel my legs as I'm typing this.

Day 30 | Sunday Club

Yes, I have a group of Club kids on Sunday this season as well as on Saturday.  That is exciting news because Club kids are fun.  And I know what to expect for classes two days out of a five day work week. Sunday's class is level three with three girls .... two seven year olds (who can rip) and one older girl.  We spent the morning hanging with Lauren and her one level four girl.  It's nice that Sunday is going to be an all girls Club day.

We did the usual stuff:  runs on green groomers, Marmot Trees, Tree Fort.  The lil ones get tired pretty quickly so I have to be careful with that.  The snow was good, mostly soft packed.  Marmot Trees was nice.  It rained from CLC down to the village.  The day went by pretty fast.

Day 29 | Saturday Club

It's here again:  Saturday Club.  My favorite little shredder requested to have me as his Instructor this year so I came into the meeting knowing I'd be getting a Level Four class.  Three of my kids from last year showed up and three new kids.  Well two new kids didn't show up for the first week but they will be there next week.  The third kid I moved up to level 5 by lunch so it looks like I might have five kids for Saturday Club.  But for today, I only had the same three kids I had last year.

The snow was good today with soft packed conditions.  It was pretty crowded being a Saturday. I told my kids that since they're in level four now, the lessons are going to involve much more riding, pushing our riding to a new level ... meaning we're going to be riding faster, and we're going to be riding more blue and black runs hitting Harmony and Peak Chair.  I'm looking forward to pushing the kids this season and getting their riding to improve.

The day went by pretty fast as Club starts at 9am and ends by 3pm.  I'm hoping to get a second Club class on Sundays.
  

Day 28 | someone please speak

Assigned level three's and I was proactive by getting them to turn down the Magic Carpet before heading up to the Alpine.  All five of them turned down the Carpet with no problems so we headed up to the Roundhouse.  Once we got going down Whiskey Jack, I quickly realized I had a three-way split.  One kid needed to be moved up, one girl was a true level three, and three kids were still twos.  Needless to say it was a long way back down to the CLC.

Luckily we had early lunch and I was able to make some changes with other Instructors.  After it was all said and done, I ended up with three kids who were high level twos/low level threes.  Since they were petrified of turning in the Alpine, we headed to the Olympic Chair.  By the end of the second run, and with some hands-on help on some toe turns, they were turning down the bunny hill with no problems so we continued down to the village.  By the end of the day, the three kids had built up their confidence and their turning definitely improved.

Day 27 | Thank you Betty!

I was assigned Lil Rippers at the morning meeting and my fellow Instructor, Betty, could tell from the look on my face that I did not want to take the class.  She offered to switch with me and even though she was assigned Level Ones, I still made the switch.

We had 7 Lil Rippers in Snow School and they joined 45 other Riders.  We were short a couple of Instructors so the sign-in process was a little mixed up.  Once it was all organized, I ended up with two level three's and I couldn't have been happier.

We spent the morning doing what we always do:  taking a run and then moving kids into different classes.  Once it was sorted, we were able to squeeze in one run from the Alpine before our early lunch.  Conditions from mid-station down were hard packed snow, in the form of mostly ice.  The conditions from the Roundhouse down to Emerald Chair were soft packed snow with slight moguls on the green groomers.

My kids worked hard at correcting their counter-rotation so I treated them to a run through Marmot Trees. Because the wind was whipping and it was freezing on the Emerald Chair, we ran down to the CLC for a break then back up to the Alpine for one last run through Marmot Trees again.  The day went by fast and the kids were fun.

Day 26 | Hiked Flute

Went riding with Irish and we hiked Flute.  That was the plan.  Well, the plan was to hike it twice but we only hiked it once.  We uploaded on the Creekside gondi around 10am and headed straight to Symphony.  The weather was cloudy with very flat light.  The mountain itself was very busy.  Last day of the holidays.

We got to the bottom of the Flute hike around 11:30am and it probably took me about a half hour to hike up (and that includes stopping to take pics).  We dropped down into Flute Bowl and the snow was wind blown and chunky.  We traversed across to North Flute Bowl and dropped down into some trees.  We managed to find some untouched powder in the trees that was soft but it was a short run.  The snow conditions didn't warrant a second hike up so we spent the next couple hours in Symphony.  Around 2:30pm we made our way to the Roundhouse via Pika's Traverse and headed in for lunch.  We finished the day with a ride back down to Creekside.   

Day 25 | Seventeen Lil Rippers

Morgan, Melissa, Kat, and Gillian shared a record settings/capped Lil Rippers day with 17!  Needless to say, all four Instructors were exhausted by day's end.  I had the luxury of having an actual level three class today ... that is after I put the two level twos who signed up as threes back into their appropriate classes.  I hate when Instructors move kids up a level when they aren't the higher level.  It's very very frustrating.

Anyway, because of the mess up, my level three's and I only had time to run from mid-station to village.  I think we managed to squeeze in three runs before lunch.  Not bad!  I had two repeat boys from yesterday and two kids who were moved down from level four (yes, because an Instructor put them up to 4 when they were really 3's).

We spent most of the day working on counter-rotation.  After lunch we had enough time to ride down to the village then up to the Alpine (my first time in the Alpine since Dec 5th!).  The snow was soft packed and it felt great to be riding terrain that didn't require me to stop every ten feet.  The green runs were crowded but not crazy.  My day ended with a $20 tip - : )