Day 72 - I'm not a daredevil

Snow is coming but not today!  No new flakes overnight (but it's coming).  Snow base is holding steady at 248cm.  I was assigned to level threes but had no interest in riding hard packed, busy, green groomers today so I asked to be reassigned to level twos.  I signed in six kids and spent the day on the covered carpet teaching them how to turn.  The clouds rolled in by noon, winds picked up and it started to snow by the end of the day.  Snow is forecasted to fall for the next five days.  FINALLY!!!

Day 71 - no photo

Back to work after the weekend off.  Lessons are slowing down, only 75 kids in Destination ski and 23 kids in Snowboard lesson with another 8 Lil Rippers.  No new snow overnight and the snow base is holding steady at 249cm.  I was assigned to level twos and Scotty and I split ten of them before 9am.  Jose showed up later with another couple of kids who were still learning to turn.  We spent the morning on the carpets and my kids were turning quite well.  I was planning on hitting the Olympic Chair after lunch but my back started seizing up.  I ended up giving my class to Jose and going home after lunch.

Day 70 - Cowboy Shoot

A trace of new snow fell overnight but it wasn't anything to cover up the icy hard packed groomers that my Adventure Camp kids and I spent the day on.  We did a warm up run on Ego Bowl then ran down to Garbo where we did another lap of Orange Peel, to Dave Murray, to Tokum.  In the afternoon I got the kids on some icy moguls.  Some embraced them, some hated them!  We also took a lap through the School Yard.  The day went by quite quickly and although it's been a long week, I was highly rewarded by the parents withe some awesome tip money ($360 total) -- !!  yippee!!  I didn't even make that during the two weeks of AC at Christmas.

Day 69 - Just Do Nothing

It's Thursday and about the only thing that changed is that we went on Blackcomb in the afternoon.  Runs are hard packed, very icy in spots, and the Family Zone is very crowded.  It was sunny for most of the day and although it was cold in the morning, it warmed up a bit by the afternoon.  My AC kids are making some progress:  we started learning how to turn with our entire body... practicing on blue runs and we even did a bit of Dave Murray (to Tokum), which brought one kid to tears.  : (

Day 68 - Klassic Kasper

It's Hump day and it was a cold day.  No new snow and conditions are definitely HARD PACKED.... at least on the busy green runs that my AC class and I have been riding.  We started the morning at the Roundhouse since they're turning is now up to par with being level 3.  Took a lap down Whiskey Jack and then down Ego Bowl into Enchanted Forest, which we found to be super icy and one kid had a literal meltdown.  Once we sorted that out it was down to the CLC for a break and then a quick lap to the Village before lunch.  After lunch was more of the same.  The kids wanted to go from the very top to the very bottom so that's what we did.  Finished the day with ice cream apres and then stood in line for the gondola to download.

Day 67 - less yapping, more strapping

Day two of Adventure Camp.  No new snow to report and still over 500 kids in ski and snowboard lessons based in the Village.  We started today on the Olympic Chair.  The sun was shining and the groomers were nice.  We did two laps on Fantastic then ran down to the Village a couple times before lunch.  After lunch we took a long lap from the Roundhouse back to the CLC where I had the kids practice bending their knees on a jump for the remainder of the day.  All are improving day by day.  I am hopeful that by Friday they will be able to turn down a black diamond like Dave Murray.

Day 66 - Prez Week Adventure Camp

I've enjoyed my three days off and it's back to the grind with Adventure Camp.  The Village was super busy this morning and lessons were even busier.  We had 24 kids in snowboard Adventure Camp, and another 30 in Destination.  I was assigned to level two and signed in three kids.

12cm of snow fell overnight and it looks like that will be the only snow that falls for the next week.  It was warm and sunny with some clouds throughout the day.  It was nearly 10am by the time we reached the CLC and it wasn't until noon when we had our teams sorted.  My team shook out to be a five kids, four boys and one tiny girl.  We are a very low level three.  Spent the afternoon on the Olympic Chair working on our turns and tomorrow we should be able to head up to the Roundhouse after lunch.    

Day 65 - egg, bacon, hashbrown special

Today is my "Friday" and I asked to float, with hopes of not getting a class but hanging out until lunchtime.  It was another rainy day on the mountain, and I thought lessons would be less busy today compared to yesterday.  Not a chance, we had more kids wanting to snowboard today (23 kids, 8 Lil Rip) vs. yesterday.  Most of the kids who showed up were new to the program so Whistler must have welcomed a new batch of tourists to town for the American holiday weekend.

By the time 9am rolled around, we had filled levels one to three with six kids in each class.  While I technically didn't get a class right out of the gate, I new some kids would get shuffled around in levels, ultimately needing me to take a class.  And that happened as soon as I reached the CLC with level two.  Two of them were only level ones.  So I grabbed the two of them and a level one star from the never-ever group and worked for the full day.

It was a foggy day.  Very low clouds.  Warm temps.  It sprinkled a little bit throughout the day but it was never rained really hard.  My feet and hands and pants were completely dry when I finished.  I was told conditions up top were hard packed (also known as concrete) with high winds and even some snow flurries.  The snow base is down to 254cm.

Day 64 - rain to the top

15cm of snow fell overnight but freezing levels were at 1500m and raised as the morning went on.  We had 16 kids in snowboard lessons and another five in Lil Rippers.  To my surprise, I was assigned to level four and I had three kids in my class.

The weather kept many people off the mountain today.  Most people skiing or boarding were in Snow School.  By the time we reached the Roundhouse in the morning, the snow had turned to rain.  The groomed runs were too bad to ride but the "powder" was sticky.  Very sticky.  And because there weren't many people on the hill, there was plenty of untracked snow .... too bad it was such crap.

It rained for most of the day (on and off) -- I managed to lap gondolas for the entire day including running down to Creekside.  The kids had a good time and I didn't get as wet as one would think.

Day 63 - Moose juice

A storm is moving in but temperatures are well above normal.  It was quite cloudy today (no rain yet ... but it's coming).  The holiday weekend is now over so things slowed down a little bit with lessons in the Village.  We only had twenty kids in snowboarding with another five Lil Rippers.  I knew I was eventually going to be teaching those mini groms soon and today was my day.  Luckily I had Scott F. helping me so it wasn't too bad.  All the kids had been in lessons previously and, for the most part, they could all put on and take off their bindings on their own.  They were all very well behaved as well.  The day didn't drag on as much as it usually does when you teach Lil Rips so that was good.

Day 62 - Girls Rule - Boys Drool

Today was the first time this season the temps had warmed up so much that it felt like Spring.  We haven't had any new snow for a couple days and the snow base is at 260cm.  It was Family Day in British Columbia and Whistler Blackcomb was offering 50% off a day ticket so the Village was very busy first thing in the morning.

Snowboard lessons were just as busy with 40 big kids and 12 Lil Rippers.  I was assigned to level four and signed in five kids.  We took our first lap from the Roundhouse and I ended up putting three kids down to level three, leaving me with only two nice girls for the afternoon.  We spent the rest of the day working on technique riding mostly blue and black runs.  We also hit almost every chairlift:  Gondola, Emerald, Red, and Garbanzo.  Conditions were soft and "spring-like".... 

Day 61 - Family Day Weekend

It's a STAT weekend here in BC and the mountain was busy. (That means Monday is a paid holiday)  I was filling in to coach for Patrick's Club class and I knew they were a young team with very little experience.  I wasn't expecting my day to include any actual snowboarding at all.  Temps were mild and it was partly cloudy with periods of sun.  I was told the snow was soft yesterday but it was super busy.

I signed in five kids and we hit the gondola around 9am.  Spent the morning at the CLC working on turns with a hula hoop for the two girls who were still working on getting the idea of S-turns.  After lunch I decided to take them down to the Village.  I was expecting complete carnage but the kids did really well.  All the boys were turning most of the way, and the one girl who I helped the most with the hula hoop, turned most of the way down as well.  I was super stoked at that.  After that one lap they rolled the jump for the last half hour of class.  The day went a lot better than expected.

Day 60 - busy not busy

Woke up at 5am with plans to do Fresh Tracks.  Circumstances prevented that from happening and it turns out we wouldn't have made the cut off because at 6:30am the queue was already past the kiosk.  The Alpine on Whistler never opened yesterday and everyone had the same idea:  "get up early and get that perfect powder" --  It was quite windy today so Peak Chair and Harmony never opened until after twelve anyhow.

We uploaded in Creekside around 10:30am and the lineup at Red Chair was out the fence on both ends.  We took a lap down to Emerald and waited in that lineup as well.  We met up with John McGill and a buddy of his at the top of green chair and ran down to Garbanzo, which wasn't busy at all.  By the time we got to the top of Garbo, Peak Chair had opened so headed there.  We took a lap down Shale Slope where we got a few untracked turns.  The snow was wind scoured but it was still pretty nice.  We took another lap, this time through Christmas Trees, again, they were a bit wind scoured but had some really nice untracked snow in spots.  Well worth the trek to get there.  Made our way back to Creekside after the Christmas Trees lap and headed home around 2pm.

Day 59 - 30cm // better down low than up high

Winter storm advisory in the Sea to Sky corridor.  Squamish received about a foot of fresh snow (at least) and Whistler Blackcomb reported 30cm overnight with another 11cm during the day.  We only had about 11 riders in lessons with another 4 Rippers.  I was happy to be assigned level threes and only had two boys.

We started out with a mid-station lap with Gillian and the level fours.  Holy moly was the snow amazing from there down to the Village.  Loaded back into the gondola and headed to the Roundhouse.  Temps were warmer at the top of the mountain and the snow was a bit heavier.  Nothing to complain about but definitely heavier.  We ambled our way down Whiskey Jack and when we hit the top of Olympic Chair, I took the boys through my secret "powder stash" and boy did they ever get stuck.  They both had to walk out.  LOL.  I learned my lesson and knew these kids weren't going to be able to handle any deep powder so we spent the rest of the day lapping the gondola down to the Village.  Turned out that was the right call as temps warmed up even more up top and it started to rain a bit by afternoon.  Snow base is currently 274cm.

Day 58 - paid again to POW!

Today was my ninth day in a row on my snowboard.  I'm getting tired.  Temperatures were freezing again but the sun was shining.  We had 16 kids in lessons with another five in Lil Rippers.  I was thankful to be assigned to level 4 as I only had two boys and they were pretty quiet and chill.

No new snow overnight.  The morning groomers were soft and amazing!  In the afternoon we went over to Blackcomb and the snow was "chunky" with pockets of soft powder to be found closer to the trees.  I think the temperatures were a bit inverted as it didn't feel all that cold on the top of the mountain.  There was very little wind as well.  But the Village was freezing with some gusty winds.

Day 57 - boot camp

Not an overly exciting day for me.  We had 2cm of new snow overnight.  Temps have, once again, gone down into the Arctic numbers.  The snow is still soft and I heard there is still some fresh to be found (if you know where to look).  Unfortunately, I was assigned to level two so I knew I wasn't going to be searching for anything special.

I quickly signed in six kids to my class card and headed up to the CLC where we took a long morning break (before the morning even started) because it was so cold outside.  I started the kids on the Magic Carpet and asked them to show me their toe edge and heel edge side slips.  Once I assessed the group, I moved one boy down to level one and one girl up to level three, and that left me with four kids for the day.

Two of my boys had been in lessons last week and from what I could recall, they should have been in level three by now but they weren't.  I decided I was going to put the hammer down on those boys today and get them turning .... or at least get them to have more control.  I made a deal with them:  if they practiced hard we would go to the Village and then I would make them a jump.  Well they kept their promise and they worked hard at getting more control, they learned how to turn down the Covered Carpet and so we headed down to the Village.  They didn't do too badly on the steeper runs to the Village.  I kept my promise and made them a jump when we returned to the CLC.

Day 56 - Patriots win the SuperBowl

Another storm hit Whistler last night throwing down another 35cm of the fresh stuff again!  Kevin wanted to get up early so I was at work by 7:20am with plans of doing morning session.  I knew I was covering a beginner Club class and figured session was the only way to ride some pow today.  On my way to work I got a text from Ellen asking me if I can cover her level five Club class as she was sick.  Naturally I went in to see my scheduler and sort something out for the low level class while making sure I could take Ellen's high level class.  As a result I didn't go to morning session but I did enjoy the powder all day.

We didn't get much riding done as it felt like we stood in line forever today.  It was busy.  The kids had their slalom race at the GMC Race Course first thing in the morning so we started the day on Blackcomb.  Ptarmagen was open so we got a chance to ride down that.  We also took a lap through the Park.  We didn't get much in terms of "fresh tracks" but the snow was soft it didn't matter.  It was so fun and the kids got stuck quite a bit in some deep powder.  Snow base is currently at 256cm. 

Day 55 - Bernie Sanders

What an amazing day!  and I got paid to shred some serious powder.  Just over a foot of fresh snow fell in the last 24hrs.  I worked today as I switched my days off earlier in the week.  I was so happy when I heard I was assigned to level fours.  By 9am only one kid was signed into my class.

Bea had two level five kids and we decided to team teach.  We started the day with a run all the way to Creekside via Dave Murray.  The snow was tracked but super soft so it didn't matter that no fresh was to be found.  The run wasn't that busy and conditions were soft packed all the way back down to Village level.  After a short break at Creekside Kids we headed to the CLC for lunch where I picked up another kid who had arrived late due to accidents on the Sea to Sky.

I asked permission to go up Peak Chair as Peak to Creek was the run of the day and we wanted to give that a go.  First we went up Garbo Chair and ran down Raven.  It wasn't tracked out as much as one would have thought.  Up Emerald and we headed towards lower Rat Fink.  Again, snow was tracked but it was still really fun.  Finally we hit Peak Chair and headed off the back on Peak to Creek.  We then cut over into Bagel Bowl and dropped back onto Peak to Creek via Highway 86.  Peak to Creek had mogul-ed itself out pretty good but the snow was so soft it didn't matter.  The kids tired out by the time we reached Creekside for the second time.  Back up the gondi then down Expressway and Crabapple to finish the awesome day!

Day 54 - finally .... some snow

No new snow overnight but it started snowing in Squamish around 8:30am and it quickly accumulated to a couple inches.  We started the day with breakfast in town then headed up to Whistler.  We reached the top of Red Chair around noon and the runs had already looked soft packed.  We ran down through Franz's Meadow and even though you could feel some crust underneath, there was still some good turns in there.  Our second run we hit the trees through Green Acres and that was really nice.  It had snowed for most of the day.  We caught up with some friends of Kevin's from work and took a couple laps down to Red Chair with them.  Before we knew it we had to jet as I had a dentist appointment to get to in Squamish.  It was a fun day even though it was a short day.  More snow forecasted for tonight and throughout the weekend.

Day 53 - Destination Mountain Exploration Day

For years I've been asking to have a training day so we can learn new places where we are allowed to take Whistler Kids.  I'm pretty good with terrain below Harmony and Peak Chair, but I'm not that comfortable teaching in the higher elevations.  Our management team put together such a training day today, and though it was an unpaid day, over thirty five ski and snowboard instructors showed up.  The schedulers managed to give everyone the day off by only scheduling instructors from Schools.

We headed Fitz Chair around 10:15am.  No new snow overnight (once again) and it was sunny and cold.  We started off by warming up on Fruity Trees, also known as Blue Velvet in the summer.  Most of the trails were hard packed.  We rolled through Marmot Trees and Coyote Trees before heading in for lunch.  I bailed after lunch as I had an early appointment.  It was a fun time shredding with a group of ten snowboarders.

Day 52 - lucky bums

It's a painful week:  freezing cold, boring classes, and no new snow.  At least it's been sunny.  17 big kids signed up for snowboard lessons and another ten in Lil Rippers.  I was assigned to level two's and had five of them today.  Spent the day at the CLC as three of them were "muppets" and although two of them could have moved on to the Olympic Chair, there was not any room to move the three kids who needed to stay on the gentle slope into a different class.  Soooo, I stayed in the covered carpet area repeating myself time and time again hoping that one time the kids would figure it out.  It made for a very long and very boring day.

On a side note, Snow-Forecast is calling for a butt load of snow for the next four days.  Fingers are crossed that it actually comes true.