Day 104 - Spring never sprung

Last day of Whistler Blackcomb winter operations and last day for Whistler mountain to offer skiing and snowboarding.  Believe it or not, there was 10cm of nice fresh snow overnight.  It was also the last day of Whistler Kids.  Snowboarding was quite busy with 15 kids and 2 Lil Rippers.  I was assigned to level fours and only had one kid.  The day was easy but the day was long and only because the last thing I wanted to do was to snowboard.  The snow was okay first thing in the morning but it didn't take long to get quite sticky.  Once you hit Chic Pea it was definitely spring-like conditions and got slushier the lower you went down.  Weather was also all over the board with lots of fog, icy rain/snow and some sun.  Now it's time for the snow to melt so the crew can get the bike park opened.  Bring on summer!

Day 103 - three hundred sixty seven centimeter snow base

Whistler mountain will only be open for three more days.  Just this week the snow base measured 371cm!  I don't think any snow is forecasted for the remainder of the season, so we won't be hitting a 400cm mark but it was close.  The snow from the Roundhouse to the Emerald Chair this morning was quite nice.  The groomers did a nice job and there was a couple centimeters of fresh snow on top of the corduroy.  By late morning, everything had turned to "spring-like" conditions including lots of slush on the lower mountain.

We had 13 kids in snowboard lessons with no Lil Rippers.  I had the level threes and I only had one boy who I had the other day.  We spent the morning riding the Family Zone and working on some advanced turns.  He was signed out after lunch so I took a boy from Bea's level two class who wasn't quite ready to go to the Olympic Chair like the rest of her class was.  After spending an hour on the covered carpet with him, I decided to take him down to the Village.  He did okay.  At the end of the day, we rode to the Village again with Bea's class.  The slush was quite fun but it makes huge puddles in my boots at the end of the day.

Day 102 - winter is still here

Another 10cm of snow fell overnight bringing our snow base to 371cm.  I didn't get a chance to ride the fresh stuff first thing in the morning but I heard there were tons of "face shots" in the Emerald zone.  It definitely isn't a normal April.  Weather was all over the map today with rain, clouds, fog, snow, and even some sun!

Things are winding down at Whistler Kids.  We had 16 kids in snowboard lessons and that included two Lil Rippers.  I was assigned to level two and only had two of them.  Both of them were turning on the small Magic Carpet so we took a lap to the Village before lunch.  We got caught in a torrential downpour on the lap and were soaked by the time we reached the Village.  We took a long lunch and headed up to the Roundhouse in the afternoon with Gillian and her level three kid.  I was hoping to give my two kids to Gillian and go home early but there was quite a significant split between the two groups so I ended up keeping my kids.  We did a couple laps in the Emerald Zone before they were completely exhausted.  We downloaded from the Roundhouse as the snow under green chair was really really wet and sticky.  We finished the day ripping back down to the Village.  Tomorrow we only have seven kids in lessons, with zero Lil Rippers, so I was called off.  But more snow is in the forecast for overnight.  We might hit a 400cm snow base before Whistler closes on Sunday.  

Day 101 - happy easter

We left sunny Squamish to head up to Whistler so we could meet up with Kevin's friend from the Yukon, Kalen.  I haven't been on my board in a few days and I was hoping it would be a beautiful blue bird day with Spring-like conditions.  It took us over 20 minutes of driving around to all the parking lots to even find a place to park.  HAPPY EASTER WEEKEND everybody.  It was sunny in Village when we headed up the gondola around 1pm.  When we disembarked at the Roundhouse, we found the clouds had just moved in and a small storm had kicked up.  We took a warm up lap through Ego Bowl and found some good snow through some trees back to Emerald.  The groomers were crowded and hard packed but the trees around the Emerald zone were soft and mostly untouched.  We took five good laps before heading down and calling it a day.  It snowed (and iced) for the entire time we were up there.

Day 100 - Dropping Me!

Whistler had no new snow overnight but during the day it snowed five inches!  It was a proper "pow day" from the Emerald Chair to the Alpine.  Hard to believe it's the middle of April.  It was snowing at the CLC all day.  Not rain, snow!  The current snow base is now at 361cm with more coming in the next few days.

We had another 35 kids in snowboard lessons and four Lil Rippers.  I was assigned to level four and only had three kids.  With the exception of one Club girl, who was actually a Lil Ripper, the kids were technically level threes.  It didn't really matter as we only lapped the powder from Whiskey Jack into Ego Bowl for most of the day.  Visibility was quite poor from the Roundhouse to the Emerald Chair as it was a full on blizzard for most of the day.  And the snow was quite nice as temperatures stayed quite low.  

Day 99 - Chihuahua City, Chihuahua Mexico

It was sunny today!!!  It was sunny today!!!  Goggle tan day!!  Goggle tan day!!  Another busy day in snowboard land and Whistler Kids with over 50 students just in daily riders.  I was assigned to level ones and headed up with a full class before 9am.  It was a typical Spring day ... jackets off, no gloves, lots of wet slush.  All my kids progressed to level two and their favorite part of the day was the ramp I built for them to jump.

Day 98 - estas loco

Back to the grind of daily snowboard lessons.  It's busy with the holiday this week (Good Friday) - it's also known as "Mexican Week" because it's the week most Mexicans go on holidays.  This year is no different.  Whistler Kids had over 400 kids in lessons just in the Village alone.  Snowboarding had about 63 including daily, adventure camp, and lil rippers.

I was assigned to level twos and was handed a full class card close to 9pm.  Four of the kids were Mexican.  They could all speak English with the exception of one.  We started the day on the Magic Carpet making sure they could all side slip.  Spent most of the afternoon on the Covered Carpet working on turns.  Then took a lap down to the Village.  

Weather was a complete mixed bag at the CLC:  snow for most of the morning, a bit of rain in the afternoon, the sun came out for about 20 minutes, and then it was mostly cloudy.  Snow base is currently 356cm.

Day 97 - I wish I had a whistle

9cm of snow overnight and we were in no hurry to get up the mountain.  We rolled into the Village around 1pm.  Warmed up on a lap down to Emerald Chair then headed to the Peak.  Visibility was better today, not great but much better.  We took a couple laps through Surprise where the snow was quite soft.  Even Whistler Bowl was nice.  Our last lap was through Doom and Gloom where we had a fresh line most of the way down.  We made it back to the Village in time for the WSSF free concert of Walk Off the Earth.

Day 96 - Adventures with Aimee

I was hoping my week off from work was going to be a week of sun and biking.  But BC weather hasn't been cooperating all that much this year.  Still raining, cool, and cloudy.  An old friend from New Zealand is back in town so I decided to go for a shred with her ... for old times sake.

Let's not forget it's April.  Someone hasn't told Mother Nature yet.  It has snowed 37cm in the last 48 hours bringing the snow base to 359cm.  I met up with Aimee at 8am in the Village where it was raining.  By the time we reached midstation, the rain had turned to snow.  We took a few warm up laps in the Emerald Zone before the Peak Chair opened then headed up to the Peak.  The wind was whipping up there and the visibility was nothing.  We decided to head towards Peak to Creek as that was the opposite way the wind was blowing.  I experience vertigo quite easily so I had a hard time just sideslipping my way down as I couldn't see a thing.  It was quite an adventure as we both fell quite a times just trying to reach a point where we had some sort of visibility.  That point came at Bagel Bowl where we found deep, soft, untracked snow.  We followed that down all the way to Creekside before heading back up and doing it all over again.  With Aimee, it's always an adventure.  We capped off the day with a few runs through the trees above Marmot.  The snow was nice and soft until you hit the level of the second Peak 2 Peak tower.

Day 95 - I thought I was on vacation

I put in for a week's vacation from work starting yesterday until the following Saturday.  Later in the evening I received an email asking if I could cover a Club class.  I didn't have much planned for the day at home, and I'm not planning on leaving the province for my holiday, so I decided to work.  Patrick hurt his back and he needed someone to take his young level fours for some rips.

We had 5cm of new snow overnight and it looks like the snowmageddon we had in March could be over.  The rest of this week looks fairly clear with warmer temps so maybe Spring has finally sprung. Once everyone arrived for lessons, only one of Patrick's kids showed up.  We started our warm up lap off the Roundhouse roll where we found patches of nice snow along with patches of crust (under the dust).  The groomers were hard packed.  It felt like a long way down to the CLC via Dave Murray and Tokum.  Anyway, to make a long story short, it turns out this one kid fit in perfectly with another Club group and since there was just one, Becky said it would be okay for him to ride with her class.  That gave me the green light to go home after lunch and save my time off for another day.