Day 80 - chicky, chachi, cheeto

Despite the recent snowfall in the last week (25" in seven days) - classes at Snow School have slowed down significantly!  I was called off work on Monday and Tuesday.  Today we had 7 kids and 4 Lil Rippers.  I was assigned level twos and spent the day on the Magic Carpet.  Snow base is 220cm and it's forecasted to snow for the next few days, although the freezing level is going up to around Chic Pea.

Day 79 - pinky pie

Morgan was absent from Club so Maree took over his class.  Oak's mom rocked up and told me how she took him boarding yesterday and he was turning down greens and blues.  She even took him on chairlifts.  I knew the other kid in Morgan's class wasn't going to leave the Magic Carpet so I took Oak to ride with Amalia.  She didn't mind as the two of them are bestest buddies.

We managed to squeeze in two runs from mid-station down to the Village before heading in for food.  I wanted Amalia to race in the GS comp on Blackcomb so after lunch, the three of us took the Peak 2 Peak over to Blackcomb.

The snow was nice and soft.  It didn't snow as much throughout day as originally forecasted but it was definitely windy.  Oak was pretty tired by the time we reached the top of Excalibur gondola and it was getting pretty late so we downloaded to the Village and called it a day.

Day 78 - boot tree

It was the perfect storm in Whistler today.  25cm of fresh snow after weeks of no snow, combined with an American holiday week, add the weekend and you had lift lines that were insanely long.  Luckily for me, I was working so I could quickly and easily cut the queues.

I was happy my Saturday Club kids finally had a powder day we could rip around in.  I put my trainee in charge of the class for the day.  He did a great job of finding terrain for the kids especially considering we weren't allowed to do trees.  We spent the morning on Whistler and in the afternoon we went to Blackcomb.

The fresh snow and pow was tracked out pretty quickly.  We found small stashes here and there but nothing epic.  Conditions were soft packed which was nice for a change.  Our snow base is over 200cm at 206cm with another 5-10cm coming tomorrow.

Day 77 - Powder-Mania @ Baker

It snowed most of yesterday down to the Village.  Whistler forecast was expecting about 20cm overnight.  Irish and I made the decision earlier in the week to go to Baker as they were forecasting over a foot of snow by Friday afternoon.  Seems like we made the right decision as only 3cm of snow fell overnight on Whistler.  (Another 15cm fell throughout the day on Whistler but nothing opened in the Alpine.)  On Mt. Baker, over 7 inches fell for the morning and we had fresh tracks all day as it snowed another six inches during the day.

We hopped on the chair at 9am and by noon we had run about five or six different laps.  The snow was light and deep in some spots.  Some trails were a bit icy underneath but the snow on top was still nice.  The trees were the best though and most of our runs were through trees.

I wasn't running on all cylinders today as my legs were super sore from a gym class on Wednesday, add to that my tailbone was hurting from my fall a month ago.  I took it easy but I was disappointed in myself as Baker has a lot of natural side hits and rock drops that are super fun on a soft powder day.  Unfortunately I didn't hit anything but I still had fun.  The snow was great and it felt good just to get out and enjoy a powder day.  It's been a bit of a dry season for Whistler so far.  Hoping to shred a bit of pow tomorrow with my Club Kids.

Day 76 - curse of the fallen

It's finally my Friday!  I had no idea what I was going to get for a class.  I was hoping to not get a class at all however it's still pretty busy so I was assigned level two's.  I started with six kids.  Five of the six were strong level twos who had already practiced turning yesterday.  One kid was still side slipping so I gave him to a level one Instructor.

We spent a bit of time on the Super Carpet working on turns.  The kids were having an easy time so I figured I would take them to the Village after lunch.  On the last lap down the practice area, one girl hurt her wrist.  We iced it during lunch but she ended up going home.  That left me with four kids.

Conditions were a bit icy and hard packed from mid-station down to the Village.  The kids were all turning just needed more confidence as they were pretty shaky.  One girl fell on her tailbone bad so she spent a bit of time with Joshy as I took the others back down to the Village for a second run.

By 2pm, all the kids were exhausted so we spent the remainder of our time at the CLC.  It was the usual, a line of kids going over a jump for the last hour of lessons.  All four of my kids were signed out pretty quickly and I'm looking forward to my weekend.  Snow is forecasted for Thursday night.  We may even get about 20cm.  Fingers crossed.

Day 75 - Chica Pea

Sun was shining today!  That's the positive of my day.  It was another day of picking up "left overs" from AC and I was helping out level 3.  We signed in 14 level threes but in reality there were only seven level threes and the rest were level 2.

I took three girls:  one from NY, who was in Adventure Camp and two friends from Beverly Hills.  The girls from Beverly Hills were stereotypical 90210-type kids.  I spent the morning with the three and we rode green runs in the Family Zone.  I realized during lunch that one girl was in AC so I put her with Meghan's AC class.

Meghan and I ran a few laps together in the afternoon, including one through Marmot Trees.  I'm not going to say how my day went with the LA girls.  My mom taught me that if I don't have anything nice to say about someone than I shouldn't say anything.  I will leave it at that.  Sun was shining today!  Beautiful day.  ; )

Day 74 - leftovers

Presidents' Week has started and Whistler Kids is offering Adventure Camp for snowboarders.  I wasn't asked if I wanted to work in Adventure Camp so I'm working in Destination for the next three days.  Basically that means I will be taking any "leftover" kids who don't fit into any AC classes.  Not a big deal for me as there isn't much to be envious about regarding snow conditions.  I'm quite happy spending the rest of my work week on the Magic Carpet.

I was assigned to level 5's but since there was an AC class of the same level, I knew I wasn't going to be getting a class as there are never that many high level riders in lessons.  I offered my services to the level one Instructors and was planning on splitting eight of them with Daniela.

Anyway, to make a long story short, I ended up with two leftover "muppets".  One girl who spent the entire day trying to learn how to heel edge but wasn't quite getting it.  The second was a boy who was a bit on the "big" side.  And by big, I mean he physically can't reach his feet to buckle his bindings.  He's the equivalent of teaching a Lil Ripper as I had to put his feet into his bindings all day.  They are both suppose to return tomorrow.  : )
(note my sarcastic smile)

Day 73 - I'm not a pizza

Ahhhh Sunday.... my favorite work day!  I wish it would snow in Whistler.  Conditions were hard packed and it was crowded.  Amalia was excited because her dad was going to join us for the afternoon, but first I had to convince her to snowboard in the morning.

We ran from the Roundhouse to the CLC as a warm up to start the day.  Her best buddy, Oak, was strapping in and getting ready to ride to the Village when we got to the CLC so we continued down to the Village.  The runs were a solid sheet of ice.  That didn't intimidate Amalia.  She did what she does best, rode her snowboard.

After lunch we headed to Marmot Trees.  I overheard an Instructor saying yesterday that the trees were really good and I know Amalia likes doing runs like that.  It was probably the most fun thing we could do on a day like today as the snow in Marmot was super soft.  We met up with her dad at mid-station after the tree run and then we took him through the trees as well.  He had never been in there and I think it's a great place for kids so I'm sure he will be taking his girls through there from now on.

We ended the day at the CLC on the jump that Morgan made.  Amalia's dad coached her over the jumps and pushed her back up the bunny hill afterwards.  At one point, he made a smaller jump at the end of the features we already had going.  

I never realized how much he pushed his girls to ride.  Not in a bad way but just making sure they are turning correctly and that they don't stay still (sitting on the snow) for too long.  It was nice to see as now I know how much I can push her when it's just the two of us.  I've been pretty easy going compared to her dad.

Day 72 - Cooper's super duper pooper scooper

Back to work with a couple of centimeters overnight.  We were missing one kid from Saturday Club so we rode with six.  It was a bit of a surprise when we strapped in our bindings at the Roundhouse and found some nice powder dropping down off Whiskey Jack.  We cut across into the Terrain Park and found more soft powder in the trees.  I was starting to get excited about the day ..... and then it hit us.  About 2/3 of the way down Emerald Chair the nice soft snow turned to ice.  Bummer.

It was icy hard packed from Emerald Chair to the bottom of Tokum where the snow suddenly turned to soft slush.  With such crappy conditions, I was having a tough time figuring out what we should do for the day.  After lunch I decided we should try Blackcomb.  If it was just as bad as Whistler then nothing was lost, but my fingers were crossed that the snow would be better on that mountain.  Sometimes you just never know.  It does happen.

We stepped off the Peak 2 Peak into the sun.  That was already a step in the right direction as Whistler was completely fogged in.  We practiced switch on the run down to the Terrain Garden and then ripped  to Solar Coaster.  Miraculously, there was no ice on Blackcomb.  We spent the rest of our day there finishing up around 2:30 as a couple of the girls were super tired.

Day 71 - Rhino

I was assigned level twos again today since I had returning kids.  I didn't mind as they were pretty fun yesterday.  Twelve level twos rocked up and Giovani and I split them between us.  He took seven (because three of them spoke Spanish and Giovani is from Mexico) and I took five.  My five seemed to be more interested in socializing with each other rather than snowboarding so I had a bit of a time trying to get them motivated.

We spent the morning on the Magic Carpet since lunch was at 11am.  After lunch we spent much of the afternoon on the Super Carpet.  None of them moved up to the next level but they all progressed significantly from where they started the day.

1cm of new snow overnight and our snow base is dwindling daily as it's down to 185cm.

Day 70 - we pranked the wrong kid!!

Another 40+ kids signed up for Snowboard School including 9 Lil Rippers.  I prayed to God I wasn't assigned to the little tykes again and my prayers were answered:  level 2 for me.  I quickly signed in six kids and we were at the CLC by 8:45am.

Even though I was assigned level two, it didn't take me too long to figure out I had a class of level ones.  Three of them couldn't sideslip on either edge even though they were in lessons yesterday.  No biggee.  I figured I could get them strong enough to use the Super Carpet after lunch and that's what we did.  After shuffling a couple of them to higher classes, I ended up with four kids and they finished as strong level twos by the end of the day.  Three of them are returning tomorrow and I'm keen to take them again.   

  

Day 69 - Family Day

Family Day is a new stat holiday occurring in British Columbia.  Whistler Blackcomb offered 50% off lift tickets today and since it was a long weekend for Canadians, it's needless to say the mountains were fairly busy.

I didn't get a chance to experience how busy it was as I was assigned Lil Rippers and spent the day at the CLC.  Snowboard lessons were busy with 40 Riders and 9 little ones.  Four of us were on Rippers as there were four classes.  One guy was from Brazil and spoke no English at all.  Amazingly enough, he was able to figure things out by watching our hand gestures and by watching the other kids.  Five of them were never-evers and they were all pretty strong.  They could all side slip on their heel edges by the end of the day.     

Day 68 - dude

My Sunday Club Lil Ripper wasn't coming to lessons today so I asked to be put on the Destination schedule instead of having the day off.  It's Family Day weekend so Ski School is quite busy (close to being sold out).  For riding, we had about 30 snowboarders in lessons and I was given level three.  I had two small girls who were low (and slow) level threes.

It was another sunny day with temps reaching +2 in the Alpine.  We took a couple of laps through Enchanted Forest before heading down for lunch.  After lunch it was much of the same, slow green groomers.  The day kind of dragged on.  There was a mandatory download for levels 1-3 because of how busy the runs were so we spent a bit of time at the CLC where most of the snowboard classes did the jump or ollied the stick.

*190cm snow base

Day 67 - to the rings!

I wasn't sure what to do with my Club kids today.  I wish we would get some fresh snow on the weekends so we can shred some pow but that doesn't seem to be happening.  I was hoping to do some tree runs with them so I figured I would give Marmot Trees a try after going through Enchanted Forest. It wasn't bad in there and the kids all surprised me by easily getting down the Peak 2 Peak line.

We ended up doing a lot of different runs today as I even surprised myself by keeping the lessons "fresh".  Let's see, we practiced some switch.  Rode the trees.  Videoed some of our project on Dave Murray.  Continued down Dave Murray to the secret cut off.  Took pics at the Olympic Rings.  Ran down to Creekside and finally finished with a massive sized jump at the CLC.  Everyone had a different favorite part of the day and we all had fun.  The sun was shining and it was warm with no wind, also no new snow overnight (but what else is new?) --

Day 66 - Boston's Winter Storm Nemo

The system that brought 20cm in the last 48hrs has moved off the coast so only 1cm was recorded for the overnight snowfall.  Irish and I had a super late start reaching the top of Red Chair around 1:30pm.  It was enough time to get two decent runs in off the Peak.

Naturally everything was tracked out but the snow was still soft in most places and we were able to find a fresh turn here and there.  We headed over to Doom and Gloom into VD trees on the first run and then hit Christmas Trees on the second run.  It was nice to get out as it wasn't too cold or windy.

In the meantime, Boston is getting hit with Storm Nemo - where expected snow accumulations could reach over 2 feet when it's all said and done.  Jealous, I'm so jealous.  The season, so far, has been a pretty dry one.  

Day 65 - so many good runs to do!

Whistler Blackcomb reported 8cm of new snow fell overnight.  I made plans to meet up with a friend and fellow coworker named Ellen at 10:15am.  At 9am she texted me and said the snow was amazing so I rushed to put some pants on and headed up the Creekside Gondola.

The Peak Chair didn't open til 10am and there was already a long queue so we took a lap over the Roundhouse roll and then ripped under the gondi to the Emerald Chair.  From there we spent the rest of the afternoon on the Peak Chair.

Our first run was into Doom and Gloom and no one had touched the snow.  Let me also mention that the 8cm of snow measured at Pig Alley was about 20cm of soft snow off the Peak!!  We ripped through Frog Hollow into VD Trees down to Red Chair.  Next lap was down the face of Peak, where again the snow was deep and soft.

We met up with Ellen's friend Andy and ran towards the bowl where the duo dropped a couple of rocks.  On the next lap we met up with Morgan and did Doom and Gloom again.  This time the trio was dropping cornices and rocks.  I was a bit jealous to be honest as I'm not 100% health wise and it still hurts my tailbone to put strained pressure on my legs.  Besides I was also trying to be extra careful as to NOT fall on my tailbone again as it's still pretty bruised and swollen.  By the end of that lap, my tailbone was sore and I was getting tired so I decided to call it a day.  I even downloaded from the bottom of Red Chair.  I didn't want to push it and felt I was probably going to hurt myself more if I didn't quit when I did, which was disappointing because I was having such a blast and the snow was so amazing.

Day 64 - Sometimes I look in the toilet

Seven centimeters of snow overnight.  It's not much, but as I have mentioned before, every little bit helps.  Conditions were soft packed with a lot of wind blown snow..... lots of coverage in some places, very little coverage in others.

I had the same two kids as yesterday and I promised the little one we'd go on the Peak 2 Peak today.  In the morning we rode through the trees on Whistler.  The kids really liked that and we were able to squeeze in a couple of runs before lunch.  In the afternoon we hit Blackcomb and did a little of a lot of things.  First thing we did was ride the trail to the Castle.  That was fun.  We found some trees coming out of there.  Next we hit the GMC Race Centre.  Ethan really liked that and didn't stop talking about it.   We all needed a break by 2pm so we got a hot cocoa at Whistler Kids in Rendezvous leaving one last run down the Boarder Cross track and more trees all the way back to the Village.

192cm base.  6-12cm forecasted for tonight and today was my Friday!

Day 63 - Milk 2 Go!

Another quiet day at Snowboard School with another seven kids.  I took the two kids who were level fours.  One is from Brazil and she's been here for two or three weeks already.  She is also pretty quiet (doesn't talk much).  The second is the non stop talker I had yesterday from Australia.  Surprisingly he's more entertaining than annoying with the constant talking.

5cm of fresh snow fell overnight.  It's not much but it's a start as we desperately need it.  It was a lot deeper than that in spots so it was nice to finally get some powdery fresh tracks again.  The kids were decent enough to get down some black runs so I was able to change up the usual Family Zone/Green Acres day.  After riding 13 miles (according to Flaik), we finished the afternoon on the jump at the CLC before boarding back to the Village to sign out with Mom and Dad.

Day 62 - blah blah blah

It was a rip roaring day at Snowboard School today.  A total of seven kids were signed up for lessons with one Lil Ripper.  I was assigned the Lil Ripper but he/she never showed up.  Instead I split a level three class with Morgan.

It was raining in the Village but snowing at midstation in the morning.  We spent a chunk of time getting sorted at the Magic Carpet.  I ended up with three kids, all of who could turn but needed a bit more practice so we headed to the Super Carpet.  They took one lap and I realized that area was too easy for them so we took the Olympic Chair for a couple runs before going in for lunch.

Olympic Chair was also easy for my three so after lunch we went to the top.  The snow was soft packed to the Emerald Chair.  It was good to see the snow falling again.  Our snow base is a whopping 178cm (pathetic) so whatever amounts of snow we accumulate these days is welcomed!

Two of my kids were out of shape (to say the least) and they worked hard to turn ... meaning-> I knew they would only be able to take two laps in the Family Zone before needing to head back down for a break.  That's what we did.  We took a run down Whiskey Jack and a run down Ego Bowl.  Unfortunately, by the time we reached Upper Olympic, one of the kids was exhausted.  He kept falling and at one point he hurt his forearm.  He shook it off and after a bit of a break on the side of the run, we all got up to continue towards the CLC.  Well, he fell again, this time falling face first into the snow cutting his lip resulting in some blood.  I called Patrol knowing he was too fatigued to snowboard the rest of the way to the CLC.  Patrol was happy to sled him down in a toboggan.  By this time it was after 2pm so we rested for an hour before heading down in the gondola.  

Day 61 - I knew you were trouble when you walked in

My favorite little five year old still isn't feeling well lately.  She came to lessons but was tired and wasn't interested in riding too much.  In the morning, we took a lap down to the Village with her friend Oak.  Oak is still learning how to turn so Amalia ended up waiting for him quite a bit.  We rode half way down when Morgan (Oak's Instructor) said he was trying too hard to stay with Amalia so he thought it would be a better idea if we split up.  So that's what we did.

We ended up spending the rest of the day with Oak and Morgan and the CLC.  Amalia begged and pleaded with me after lunch to NOT go up top and snowboard.  That was weird as she is always super keen to snowboard.  I chalked it up to her still being tired from being sick.

We made the most of it though.  Oak practiced his turns on the Magic Carpet and Amalia practiced her turns, only her turns were switch.  Then they did a few laps on the obstacle course set up by the rope tows.  They learned how to use the rope tow.  Later on Morgan and I set up a jump course complete with cones to turn through, a jump, and then a stick to ollie over.  We kept the kids busy even though they didn't go on the "big trails".

I would love to post some photos of Oak and Amalia going through the obstacle course but there is a person in Quebec who reads my blog and constantly downloads photos of kids.  If you haven't noticed, I've been trying to keep the pictures on the blog mostly of landscapes, pictures taken from far away or pics of the Instructors.  Thanks for reading.

Day 60 - funky monkey

Back to work!  It was Saturday Club day and all six kids were eager to ride.  We even acquired a new kid from a different class.  He had missed a few weeks and wasn't quite as fast as the rest of the kids who were riding regularly.  No worries as he fit right in with us.

There was a slight inversion again today so the temps up top were super warm and the sun was shining.  The snow was a bit softer than yesterday but it was still hard packed.  The runs didn't seem too busy but the lift lines were long.  We spent the morning freeriding, basically hitting lots of obstacles on the side of the runs.

I brought my GoPro today so I took some vids of the kids hitting the side jumps.  We are also making a safety video that is a remix of Dumb Ways to Die from YouTube so we spent most of the afternoon filming "scenes" all around the mountain.  We also spent some time on the jump at the CLC.  Before we knew it, time was up and it was time to go home.  

Day 59 - just riding switch

It's been exactly one week since I've been on my board.  The doctor said no physical activity for seven days.  I'm itching to get back to work tomorrow so I needed to make sure I could actually ride.  We haven't had any snow for a while so Irish and I weren't in any rush to get up to the snow.  As a result, I think we got to the Roundhouse around 2pm.

Conditions were partly sunny, temps just above freezing, no new snow and hard packed.  I wasn't going to do anything crazy anyhow so we stuck to the groomers for about four or five laps.  Irish rode switch (to practice) the entire time while I just took it easy.  It was nice just to get outside and enjoy some fresh air.  It wasn't too crowded which was nice.  It will be good to get back to work tomorrow, unfortunately there is no snow coming until Monday or Tuesday.