Day 81 - Heels to you

More inverted temps these days.  I'm enjoying the sun and the warmer weather while I can as a high of -16 is forecasted for Saturday!

Yesterday I told my Supervisor I had a girl returning today.  Even though she is only a level two, I wanted to let him know because it's slow this week and it's easy to end up without a class.  If you have a return, you're more likely to teach them the next day.  With less than 20 Riders in lessons today, I wanted to guarantee I had work.

I signed in three level 2's and we headed straight to the Magic Carpet for warm ups.  Turns out one boy needed to go down a level so I gave him to Felix.  Turns out one girl needed to go up a level so I gave her to Gunner.  That left me with just one girl for the afternoon.  We ran Olympic Chair a few times to build her confidence on turns.  We then took a lap down to the Valley.  Today was her third day ever on a snowboard so she is killing it.  I built a jump after an afternoon break and she spent the remainder of the day practicing at the CLC.  

Day 80 - hot & melty

The snow has officially stopped!  Now there is nothing in the forecast but sun and warmer temperatures.  After 15 days, the snow base went from 125cm to a current measurement of 232cm.  Fingers are crossed that wasn't all the snow for the season.

There weren't many kids taking lessons today:  14Riders and 2Rippers.  I was assigned level 2 and I had two of them.  Maree had two level 3's.  We could have made one class but we both wanted to work so we kept the kids separate and our mouths shut.  I spent half the morning on the Magic Carpet and half the morning on the Super Carpet, teaching the kids how to turn.  After lunch, Maree and I took a run down from Olympic Chair.  We had one girl who wasn't quite ready for the chair so I took her back to the Carpet while Maree took the three stronger kids.  In the end, we ended with a level three and a level two class.

The sun was shining strong, the temps at mid-station were warm ... even warmer the higher you went up the mountain.  The Village was chilly as there was a slight inversion.   

Day 79 - pixie dust powder

The Ops phone said Whistler Blackcomb received 8cm of new snow overnight, bringing the snow base to 216cm.  It also said there would be isolated flurries throughout the day.  I wasn't thinking much in terms of a powder day but I was pleasantly surprised to hear we were given permission to go through the trees today.

Oak and Amalia showed up ready to rock and we reached the Roundhouse around 9:30am.  When we reached the bottom of Emerald Chair, we were surprised to see how heavily it was snowing up top.... and it snowed all day on Whistler.  We canvased the runs and decided to drop into the powder off Whiskey Jack for our warm up.  Little did we know how much powder there was!!  Not only was the snow almost waist deep on the kids, but it was the lightest snow I had ever experienced in Whistler.  It was amazing.  People call this type of powder: Champagne Powder.  The kids called it Pixie Dust Powder .... one, because they're kids, and two because they are both heavily into Fairies.

Needless to say, we spent the entire day shredding this amazing snow and riding through trees.  We ran Marmot Trees twice via Rat Fink area and Amalia said that was her most favorite run ever.  I almost had to agree with her.  We had a great day.  Today was a great example of why I love my job!!!  

Day 78 - top top to bottom bottom

It snowed lightly all day and the entire mountain, from top to bottom, was soft packed.  The boys (Jon & Billy) and I started the day on the Super Carpet with our ten Lil Rippers.  There was about four inches of fresh pow over the corduroy and the kids were straight lining it all the way down.  They were loving it!  By 10:15am, the adults started showing up so we went to the CLC.  After a short break, I took the five kids who are turning down the Village to kill time before lunch.

In the afternoon, I took the three fastest kids up to the Roundhouse and we ripped down Whiskey Jack. It was so cute cause these kids are 4, 5, and 6 years old and they are tiny.  It was pretty cool to be shredding with them.  When we finally made it back to the CLC, the kids were keen to keep going to the Village ..... so we did!  Of course, by the time we reached the Village, they were exhausted!

While I went up the mountain, Billy and Jon took the rest of the class and they went down to the Village.  This was big because most of them have just started to be able to side slip enough where they could get down on a green run.  Needless to say, I'm guessing all the kids will be hitting the bed early tonight.

Day 77 - hot chocolate slop

I volunteered to work today even though it was my day off.  It was a good thing I did as only 23 kids were booked in but by 9:30am, we were up over 30 kids and we had just enough Instructors.  I was assigned Lil Rippers but ended up taking level twos with Maree and we had nine of them.

Another busy day and it took us 50 minutes in line before we could upload the gondola.  We spent the hour we had before lunch on the Super Carpet.  In the afternoon, Maree took half of them to the Olympic Chair while I stayed back on the Carpet with a few.  We did manage to take one run down Olympic with all of them and after that they were all pretty tired.  Spent the remainder of the day on the jump at the CLC (which is always the best part of the day).

Weather was a mixed bag today. It was snowing between 7am-10am.  Then it was sunny and warm til noon.  Later it was cloudy and cold, then it started snowing again around 5pm.  Snow conditions are soft packed with lots of people.  We had another 10cm overnight.

Day 76 - where's Nick??

Wednesday is my Friday.  11cm fell overnight.  Snow base is currently 224cm.  Crowds are still here and lift lines are still long.  Joshy and I opted to take our nine level threes up Fitz Chair instead of waiting an hour for the gondola.  A random single got on the chair with us.  Turns out, she was from Boston and she was so stoked to be here.  It was a hoot talking with her and she totally started my morning off with a good vibe.

We decided to split the class by taking a lap down to the Village vs. spending an eternity on the Magic Carpet trying to see what the kids could do with their boards.  It didn't take us long to realize we had a level two class and we had a high level three class.  Joshy took the threes and I took the twos.  We only had time for one lap before lunch.

After lunch, I spent the reminder of my day on the Olympic Chair.  The snow was super soft packed and there were a couple of turns in fresh powder to be had.  Can't complain about that.

Day 75 - snow more snow

The snowfall overnight was minimal (compared to what we have been getting) but the snowfall during the day reached 18cm so far (at 18:00) and it's still snowing!!!  I have to admit I am pretty tired of shoveling my stairway and cleaning off my car.

Snowboard School was busy this morning with over 50 kids signed up between Destination and Adventure Camp.  I was assigned level two's with Nick and we shared twelve to fourteen of them with Joshy.  The Village was busy and it was snowing like crazy.  It took us fifty minutes to get on the Gondola via the Snow School line.  The powder on the Magic Carpet was way too much for the kids to handle.  It was hard to get an idea of what kids could do on their snowboards because there was so much snow.  The entire morning was a bit of a cluster, with Nick and I just standing around, watching the kids try to flatten out the powder.

During lunch, we shuffled a few kids around and then took nine of them down to the Village.  That killed a bunch of time and we finished the day with a jump .... by the time we got to making the jump, the snow had risen to about a foot of fresh and the kids could barely get enough speed to get to the jump.  It was crazy how much snow fell today.  I'm hoping for a higher level class tomorrow.

Day 74 - Yes, we are single!

Another 21cm overnight and there is more snow scheduled to fall for the next few days.  Great news for all you Americans here to celebrate Presidents' Week.  I was pleasantly surprised when I was assigned level four's in Ride Tribe.  Two kids showed up for my level but Meghan had eight level threes so we took a lap together first thing in the morning.  By the time we reached the Olympic Chair, I took two of her kids and spent the rest of the morning with four quiet teenagers in my class.  

There was plenty of powder to be found through Green Acres and one of the girls I took from Meghan was exhausted by the third lap.  Luckily it was lunchtime by this point so we headed in.  During lunch, we did some switching about:  I gave one girl back to Meghan and Jonnie gave me one level five.  I still yielded four kids in my class when the shuffle was all said and done.

The nice thing about teaching Ride Tribe is the older kids are allowed to do a few more things that the younger kids normally can't do.  For instance, riding through trees is a bit more lenient with teenagers.  Yay!  Because of this, we lapped Whiskey Jack trees about three times.  The kids loved it in there.  We also hit Wild Card, Jimmy's Joker, Dave Murray, Tokum etc.  By the end of the day, the only girl in the class got the boys to open up so they were all joking around and talking with each other.  It was nice to see.  Obviously, the day went by quite quickly.  We ran a lot of miles and it was pretty fun, especially the knee deep pow!

Day 73 - powder is my best friend!!!

31cm overnight was the perfect set up for a fun filled powder day with my two little munchkins:  Oak & Amalia.  The highway, the Village, and the lift lines were, once again, insanely busy because of the American holiday, the new snow, and Vancouver-ites.  

The nice thing about working when it's busy is that we get to cut the prolonged lift queue.  We spend the same amount of time as everyone else waiting for the gondola first thing in the morning, but once we get up top, the Snow School line cuts the extensive wait for a chair.

We took two runs through mucho powder before heading to the CLC first thing in the morning.  By the second run, Oak was already tired from thrashing through the knee deep powder.  We took a small break and continued our run down to the Village then came up for lunch.

In the afternoon, we shred like crazy - lapping Garbanzo three times with two runs down Dave Murray to Tokum... where Amalia hit every natural drop she could find.  Our last run was down Ptarmigan.  We weren't allowed to ride through trees but we didn't need it today.  The snow conditions are soft packed and it's so nice to be riding and having fun once again.   Snow base has officially reached 200cm!!!  

Day 72 - where did the day go?

We are officially midway through Club and I am happy to report that six of our twelve Rippers are turning!!  We made an executive decision to take all twelve to the Super Carpet first thing in the morning.  This helped a few of them with their turns but all the kids got hot and tired very quickly.  After lunch, I took four of them down to the Village.  I was surprised to find an "ice rink" on the lower runs.  The kids all rode great but I was petrified!  Good grief.  So we only took one run down and joined the rest of the group at the CLC afterward.  The day went by fast.      

Day 71 - seven days, thirty inches

Another five inches fell overnight but I had a tough time getting out of bed.  I was hoping Patrol would open Harmony early as I had to exit by 12:30pm.  Nate and I reached the top of Red Chair around 10am and someone yelled "Harmony is open!" so we took off as fast as we could towards the six packer.  It didn't take us long to realize someone was crying wolf as the chair was no where close to being open.  Winds were gusting all through the Family Zone and we were wondering whether the chair was going to open at all.

We lapped the Emerald Chair for a couple laps and found lots of great snow through the Terrain Park trees and through Coyote Trees.  Lift lines were long as it's the start of Presidents Week and things are expected to be super busy this weekend.  We decided to run through Whiskey Jack trees and by the time we reached Red Chair, Harmony had opened.  It was after noon and I didn't have time to enjoy the fresh Harmony pow so Nate rocked off and I headed home.

Snow base is currently 178cm (70") - Another 64cm is forecasted to fall between Saturday and Tuesday.

Day 70 - whiskey jack trees

Days off last week were boring as hell with no new snow for over three weeks and temperatures well below zero.  This week we are in the middle of a snow-pocalipse!  Another 12cm fell overnight and I met up with Nate for breakfast at 7am.  After a quick bite to eat, we were at the top of Red Chair before 9am.

It was a very windy day, gusting up to 70kph at Alpine level.  We decided to hit the trees off Whiskey Jack for our first run.  It was so good in there that we hit those trees three more times.  It was pretty sweet.  From one of those laps we headed down Bear Paw and into Unsanctioned.  Those trees were amazing as well.  The coverage towards the bottom was a bit sketchy but we managed to get out okay.

It started to get a bit busy around 10:30am.  Lift lines were getting long as nothing in the Alpine was scheduled to open because of the winds.  In fact, the Peak2Peak was on stand-by.  We took a long break before heading back out for another romp through the trees.  This time they were a bit more tracked out.  I smacked my knee on a rock earlier in the morning (on my second run) and taking a break really made it stiffen up so I called it a day just after noon.  Hopefully I will be okay to do it all over again tomorrow as the Alpine should crack sometime early morning.

Day 69 - 35cm overnight

What a way to end my work week!  When I climbed up my stairs to meet the bus this morning, I was greeted with snow up to my knees.  It snowed a whopping 35cm overnight!  I wasn't expecting to be able to enjoy it as I assumed I was going to be assigned a low level class again.  But to my surprise I was given level four and one kid showed up.

As you would expect, the Village was crazy first thing in the morning with long queues.  I didn't need to waste any time "testing" my kid because he was in lessons yesterday and he was definitely a level four.  So we skipped the long line, and snuck onto the gondola around 9am.  By 9:30am we were strapping in and dropping into the powder off Ego Bowl.

Normally, a fourteen inch powder day will break a kid as soon as we drop off Whiskey Jack.  But not the kid I had today.  Every time I looked back, he was right behind me, surfing the powder like a Pro.  We took three long laps from Roundhouse to mid-station, hitting powder past our knees on every run.  It was so much fun as the snow was so light and fluffy.  The best snow we've had in a long long time.  I don't remember any day last season where the snow was this nice.

We took a half hour for lunch and by noon the Harmony Chair cracked so we headed over there via Rat Fink.  We took three different laps off Harmony and each lap was deep, mostly untouched powder.  We weren't allowed to ski trees so we stayed away from those but that didn't matter.  Because Harmony opened quite late, it hadn't been all tracked out yet.  For our last lap we hit the Saddle and although the snow was a tad chunky in the bowl, hardly anyone had hit it so it was virtually untouched.  Mostly fresh lines all the way down.  Gotta love it.  I was so glad I had a chance to shred with a kid who could actually shred some serious powder.  The conditions made it a good day, but the fact that I also got paid made it a great day!

Day 68 - Meet Stinky & Poo

Two inches of snow overnight leaving us with a climbing snow base of 140cm.  65cm forecasted for the next five days.  Everyone is sitting on pins and needles with fingers crossed - hoping Ullr finally comes through with lots new snow.

Lessons are slow this week.  Today we had 11 kids and 5 rippers.  I was assigned level twos and one kid showed up.  whew!  I was nervous for awhile as I really wanted to work.  Gunner ended up having one level three who wasn't the best at turning so I ended up taking that kid as well.  We spent the morning on the Magic Carpet where the snow was super soft packed.  Neither boy was too interested in snowboarding at all.  They were the most unenthusiastic kids I think I ever met.  Not to mention, they weren't too gifted in the athleticism department.

After lunch I was just as bored as the kids so I took them over to the Super Carpet.  Gunner was taking a lap to the Village with Steve to combine the 3/4 class and then he came over and took the higher kid from the Carpet.  In the meantime, I stuck around with the "muppet" trying as hard as I can to get him to turn onto his toe edge.  When he finally did, he immediately caught his back edge, fell backwards, and broke his arm.  : (

Since he was my only student, it was time for me to go home.  I was happy I made it through most of the day, only missing an hour.  Tomorrow we have even less kids taking lessons so who knows what kind of day that is going to bring.  

Day 67 - and snow it begins

IT SNOWED!!!!!   Yaaaaaayyyyy!  I was switched from Ride Tribe to Destination and was assigned to "float", which meant I didn't get assigned a class.  I was okay with that as it was Family Day and I got paid regardless if I worked or not.  In fact, three of us didn't get a class (me, Bel, & Billy).  We hung out at the CLC until lunch and we chowed on some cheese pizza while watching the snow fall outside.  By the time it was said and done, we got just under 6" of light fluffy white stuff.

None of us were too keen on spending the day riding so we decided to take a lap after lunch to check out the snow situation up top.  Crossing our fingers we'd get some fresh tracks.  We got some fresh tracks all right.  You had to be careful as the snow was so light, it was easy to scrape off and you'd hit the ice underneath.  We ran through Ego Bowl and over to Coyote Trees.  Once we came to Emerald Chair, the queue was out the gates (it is Family Day after all) - so we continued our way down to the Village where we all went our separate ways.

The fresh snow is great news but what's even better is that snow is forecasted everyday for the next seven days.  Nothing big, but a little each day will do us all wonders ......  so I'm looking forward to knocking out the boredom on my board and starting to shred the season FINALLY!

Day 66 - weiner not winner

Today is suppose to be the last blue bird for a while.  It was sunny and it was cold.  Amalia was out of town so it was just Oak and me.  He wasn't too thrilled with hanging out with just moi so he clung to Maggie, a friend of his in Jonnie's class.  We followed them through the Park on our first run and Oak hit two of the three small jumps.  Because it was cold, we immediately headed back to the CLC to warm up.

After lunch we hung with Jonnie's class again and we hit up Blackcomb to the GMC Race Centre.  I was so proud of Oak being able to keep up (with his speed) with the higher level class.  He stuck with them for about three laps and then he was noticeably tired.  But before that, he rode the slalom course, did two jumps in the Terrain Garden and did two boxes in the Terrain Garden.   It was a big day in my eyes for Oak.  I was so proud of him.  Did I say that already?

Day 65 - Team Hot Dogs

Back to work and today should be the last day of these ridiculously cold temperatures.  It hasn't snowed for a month and the snow base is currently 125 cm.  Our group of twelve Rippers is improving quickly.  Six of the little tykes are turning on the Magic Carpet.  After our usual morning routine  (juice/food, an hour of carpet laps, then another break) - I took three of the kids down to the Village.  They all took a lap with me last week so I knew they were solid.  After lunch, we took another three runs and that took up our entire afternoon.  The day went by pretty fast.  When you're working with kids who can't leave the CLC area, the day seems to go by a bit slower.

Day 64 - Arctic Outflow Warning

These cold temperatures are exhausting.  I was lucky as I got Lil Rippers for a second day in a row, but having Lil Rippers is even more exhausting than being in the cold all day.  Steve and I split a class of five.  One kid was 7 years old but he was the same height as our 5 year olds so we kept him with the younger kids.

We spent more time outside than we did inside.  Thank God for the sun shining in the CLC area.  All the kids were full of energy today and they did great on their snowboards.   We built them a jump after we spent an hour coloring.  A couple of them are transitioning from edge to edge.  It was kind of a long day but I have the next three days off to keep warm.

Day 63 - jennie loves jimmy

I was scheduled for Ride Tribe and because of the frigid Arctic air, I was dreading work like you wouldn't believe.  I was hoping I didn't get a class, which is a Catch22 because I need the money.  My prayers were answered, I didn't get a class ... but like I said, I need the work, so I went over to Destination to try and snake a class from a lazy Instructor over there.

I was hoping one of the two Lil Ripper coaches would let me take their class.  Cheryl was more than happy to go home.  Score!  I made a day's pay and got to stick close to the CLC, which meant I didn't have to freeze my butt off snowboarding in single digit temps.

Steve and I shared four Rippers, one was a level two and I took him to the Super Carpet after lunch.  We spent a bit of the afternoon inside coloring and keeping warm.  It was a pretty easy day.  I'm glad I was able to get a class because it's getting slow and I'm already called off for Wednesday.

We are in the middle of a cold snap.  It's sunny and it's cold.  And there is still no snow in the forecast.

Day 62 - Arts & Crafts

At noon, the temperature at the Roundhouse was 7°F (-14C) !!!  That's cold.  It was partly cloudy so it didn't feel any warmer in the sun.  It's Sunday Club day and I knew we were going to spend most of the day inside doing anything other than snowboarding outside.  We did one run before lunch.  After lunch, we did two runs and those were only from mid-station down.  Instead, we colored - we drew - we made some crafts.  The kids were happy to hang around each other and stay inside and keep warm. I was super happy about that!

Day 61 - King William

Back to work and my work week always starts with team teaching 13 Lil Rippers.  We are into week 5 and our kids are drastically improving.  We spent the morning on the Magic Carpet where 4 of them started turning.  After a long lunch break, I took those four down to the Village.  They all did amazing! In fact, we ran to the Village twice (that's how fast they were!).  In fact, they even did S-turns down the blue run.

The weather report for today:  sunny and cold!  I'm glad I didn't have to go up top as it was -12°C!