The 100 day season!

Day 50 | Johnson in da House

2012-02-01T14:57:00.000-08:00

Guess who is back in town? Si'Aire is in Whistler for three weeks and today was his first day out on the hill. Mother Nature was amazingly gracious as it snowed 14cm overnight, the sun shined all day, and there was no wind. It was a perfect day.

We unloaded the Creekside Gondola at 9:30 and took a warm up run down Expressway to mid-station. The boy's boots weren't fitting well enough so we ran from the top of the Roundhouse down to the Village but not before shredding through the park in the trees finding a ton of fresh powder! After we got the boots squared away, we headed over to Harmony - ran down Harmony Ridge and dropped down onto Kaleidoscope. Every turn down Kaleidoscope was a face shot! There was so much powder in there. : )

Next we took the T-bar Run down to the Peak Chair. By this time the boy was already getting tired (and hungry). I was hoping his legs would last for a few more hours but by the time we dropped into West Bowl, the boy was toast! We rode Highway 86 back to Creekside gondi and downloaded from there. I think this was a record setting first day as Si'Aire lasted 3.5hrs - and to be fair, I did take him down mostly black runs and tree runs. Hopefully tomorrow his legs will last a bit longer.

Day 49 | tootatoot

2012-01-30T20:05:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-29T18:56:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-28T16:42:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-27T17:45:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-26T17:59:00.000-08:00

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"

2012-01-25T18:45:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-24T19:34:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-23T20:49:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-22T21:56:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-21T17:47:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-21T17:08:00.000-08:00

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!

2012-01-18T15:29:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-17T20:26:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-16T18:52:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-15T18:37:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-14T23:01:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-11T14:04:00.000-08:00

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!

2012-01-10T20:48:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-09T19:23:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-09T19:10:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-07T17:06:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-06T20:56:00.000-08:00

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!

2012-01-05T20:12:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-02T22:47:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-01T21:39:00.000-08:00

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 - : )

Day 24 | I can see my hotel from here

2011-12-31T17:30:00.000-08:00

This was it! I was finally assigned level three's and I put myself in prime position to sign up the first class of level threes that showed up. After talking with the first three kids who said they moved up to level three yesterday, I quickly realized that my three class was actually going to be a two class because the Instructor they had yesterday moved them up when they haven't even left the Magic Carpet yet. Needless to day I wasn't too thrilled with that, but also I didn't want the kids to spend another day at the CLC so I took a class of four level twos and we hit the Olympic Chair immediately.

It was really cold today with no new snow overnight. Conditions under the Olympic Chair weren't too bad. Hard packed snow but not icy. The kids did their best turning but clearly needed a couple runs on the Super Carpet to figure out which way to turn. We snuck in two laps on the Carpet then I decided to take them down to the village.

We had a late lunch today which was nice. We managed to squeeze in a lot of snowboarding in the AM. I lost one girl to Patrol who hurt her wrist and spent most of the day with only three kids. By the time the day finished, the two kids who had been here all week finally got their turning confident and they ended as true level threes by the end of the day.

I am definitely not in snowboarding shape at all. My feet, knees and legs were hurting by the end of the day. I hope I'm able to keep getting classes who can ride. One kid from today is coming back tomorrow and Mom is suppose to request me so hopefully I'll be able to go into the Alpine tomorrow.

Day 23 | You're fired because .....

2011-12-30T20:25:00.000-08:00

I was assigned level fours today and I was super excited at the thought of getting to strap on my snowboard today. There were another 75 kids signed up for lessons (7 Lil Rippers). Devon took the first class of level fours that showed up and Kat had a level four AC class. By 9:10am, it was looking like I wasn't going to get a class so I offered to help Morgan with six Lil Rippers. We rocked over to the gondola around 9:15am. Winds were whipping in the Alpine and the village gondi was running slow and stopping constantly. The line up was insane! (We got on the gondola at 10:10am!!!!) About 15 minutes after Morgan and I got in line, Dave showed up behind us with a level four kid and he ended up teaching the two level fours that I should have taught if I hadn't volunteered to teach Lil Rippers. Argh! Such is my life.

I'm not complaining as working with Morgan equals working an easier day. He's great with the younger kids as he keeps them highly entertained and he is always motivated. By the time we reached the CLC in the morning, it was almost 10:30am so there wasn't much time for snowboarding before lunch. All six kids were very well behaved and a few of them were pretty good riders. We spent most of the afternoon outside playing and riding in the snow. The day went by pretty fast. The weather in the Alpine was super windy with white outs and a full on blizzard at one point ... so I guess I didn't fair too bad teaching the Lil Rippers today.

base - 178cm / 70"

Day 22 | jet-lagged & red-eyed

2011-12-29T20:25:00.000-08:00

I returned to Vancouver yesterday evening and immediately got back to the grind of snowboard instructing. We had 76 riders today including 6 Lil Rippers. I was assigned level ones and ended up with a nice class of six kids. They were all very polite, calm, and well behaved. They also all progressed at about the same level.

The day went by pretty fast even though we were on the Magic Carpet. The Carpet was crowded as there were two other level one classes, a couple Rippers classes, and a couple of level two classes all in the same area. Most of my kids managed to make their way to level two. I'm hoping I can get a higher level class and actually put my snowboard on. It's been snowing a lot around here lately and I'd really like to get some shredding in.

Day 21 | All a board

2011-12-15T21:07:00.000-08:00

It finally snowed .... 13 centimeters!! Not much but every little bit helps. I was hoping to finally get a class that could go up to the Alpine but I quickly found out I had a shadow and the bosses want you teaching lower level (CLC) classes when you have a shadow. Do Darren (from Scotland) and I grabbed three kids in level one.

It was an easy day as splitting three kids between two people isn't too difficult. We started the kids on their toe edge and worked on that until lunch. In the afternoon, we turned them around and got them on their heels. The Mini's were kind of taking over the Magic Carpet so we decided to hike to the Super Carpet. That went over well as the kids improved quite a bit over there. After working with Privates, I realize a level one class can learn just as well on the adult Carpet as they can on the kids' carpet. In fact, it's better because the Super Carpet is so much longer.

The day went by faster than I expected. Darren was a great shadow and he'll do just fine as an Instructor. The kids had a great time with him as he was very hands on. Today was my last day of work for awhile. I'm heading home to celebrate the holidays with my family back in the States. I'm going to miss out on 14 days of shredding. Hopefully I will still make it to 100 ..... Merry Christmas and I'll be back soon.

Day 20 | Private Kids

2011-12-14T20:32:00.000-08:00

My schedule was changed to work Privates today. I hate working Privates because I never get work. When I checked my schedule at 8:45am, I was still unassigned ... meaning I wasn't booked for a lesson. A regular Privates Instructor was booked for three kids, never-evers. He apparently couldn't be bothered taking the class as he offered it up to me and I was more than happy to take the kids for the full day lesson. It was easier than having a full class of six in Kids.

The three kids were from Hawaii. Two nine year old boys and one seven year old girl, a friend and a brother and sister. We started off learning how to skate and crab walk under the Super Carpet. One kid strapped on his board and could basically turn right away. He was amazing. The other two (the brother and sister) were also pretty good. They all had good balance.

We spent the morning on the Super Carpet where it snowed all day. We haven't had snow in over two weeks so it was a welcomed and much needed surprise. Moms and Dads showed up on the Carpet just before lunch - lucky for me since none of the kids had money for lunch and I had to ask the parents for money for them. I took the kids to the Roundhouse around noon and we had something to eat.

By the time we finished lunch and downloaded back to mid-station, there was only about an hour left to the lesson. Of course I was hoping for a nice tip ($$) since these kids were in a Private lesson, but nothing! Very disappointing ... but I had a good day, the kids were well behaved, and I was able to work so it was all fine.

Day 19 | redder than blood

2011-12-12T20:55:00.000-08:00

Today was my day off but I was asked to work Ride Tribe. Since I didn't get a class yesterday, I said yes. I was assigned level 2's and ended up with one kid from Singapore. He was tired and sore from his lesson yesterday as a never-ever. I was told he fell quite a bit from catching an edge. Once we were on the gondola, he told me he didn't want to come to lessons today because he was so sore but his dad made him go.

We started at the Super Carpet to help get his feet back under him. He was able to turn on the Carpet so we hit the Olympic Chair. This area proved to be a bit more difficult but he gave it a go for a few runs before he needed a break. He was tired and we were early for lunch so we decided to take a round trip on the Peak 2 Peak as a time killer.

Afterwards, we worked on some edging and gave the Olympic Chair another go. He managed to do the Olympic run twice and finally I told him we were going to go to the CLC for a hot chocolate break. Once we were inside, he said he couldn't continue. By now it was close to 2pm. Instead of leaving early, we hung out with the crazy kids at the CLC until our lesson time was up.

Day 18 | me and my big mouth

2011-12-11T15:42:00.001-08:00

Another slow day in Snowboard School with a total of 11 kids, including one Lil Ripper. I volunteered to go home if there wasn't enough classes for all the Instructors. I'm not sure why because I did want to work. I was assigned level two's, but before I could grab the class and get started, I was called over to do Ride Tribe. I was half way up the gondola when my scheduler called. I rode down from mid-station and by the time I reached the GLC, Jose took off with the class that may have a possible split. I ran up the Blackcomb gondola and took the green line down to Base II. I knew when I didn't see the class on the run, there wasn't going to be a split. Once I reached Jose, my assumption was confirmed. I grabbed my board and rode down from Base II to the village. I regretted opening my big mouth so early in the day. I would have liked to spend the day working. Live and learn.

Day 17 | Jesus isn't Asian

2011-12-10T21:22:00.001-08:00

I was excited after the morning meeting when I was assigned levels 4, 5, & 6. I was quickly dejected when I realized there was no class higher than a level three. We had a total of fourteen kids in Snowboard School (including two Lil Rippers) and two Instructors were sent home. Luckily for me the level one class was more than six kids so that class ended up being two classes and I was able to work.

Melissa and I split eight level ones. It was a typical Magic Carpet day, nothing exciting! During the course of the day, we lost one kid to Patrol (dislocated shoulder) and one kid to Level 2 (he was turning right away). By 2pm that left us with six kids ... and no need for two Instructors so I rode down to the village from mid-station and went home an hour early. Not complaining. I was tired from being on my feet all day. I hope I start getting classes with kids who can snowboard soon.

Day 16 | Walker & Texas Ranger

2011-12-09T22:54:00.001-08:00

Six kids were in Snowboard School today which equalled three classes and I took two Lil Rippers, who were brothers, and both were ginger. They reminded us of the kids in Talledega Nights named Walker and Texas Ranger. They were from Canada and they were both super polite (not like the kids in the movie) and both were a delight to teach.

The sun was shining once again with a super immersion .... temps in the Alpine reached +6 while temps in the valley were -6!! Our snow base is diminishing day by day (131cm). No mentionable snow accumulations in the forecast.

It was a long day on the carpet with the two Rippers as there were no other level one classes at the CLC to hang with. The boys did well. One was 6 years and he was able to heel edge on his own by the end of the day. The 4 year old never quite grasped the edging thing but he enjoyed riding his snowboard down the bunny hill like a toboggan. The seemed really excited about their day when mom came to pick them up so that made me feel good. I think I've had Lil Rippers every day I've worked so far this season. Weird.

Day 15 | Ride Tribe

2011-12-07T19:06:00.001-08:00

I was asked to work Ride Tribe (teenagers). Whistler Kids has been so slow that I didn't mind having a change of pace. I was betting we wouldn't have many kids in Ride Tribe but it turned out we had more teenagers (six) than we had kids-kids (four).

My class was a girl from Singapore and she was a never-ever. She didn't talk much but she could snowboard. In the morning, we worked on the basics: stance and balance, skating, and zig zagging. She was side slipping on both sides by the time lunch rolled around.

One of the perks in working Ride Tribe is being able to eat a lunch at one of the restaurants on top of the mountain. We took the gondola up to the Round House for food. It's also a great time killer. After lunch, we worked on turning. Before 2pm she was able to turn all the way down the Super Carpet so we took one run down from Olympic Chair. That didn't go as well but overall she progressed very quickly for a kid who had never snowboarded before.

Day 14 | training for a level one

2011-12-05T22:06:00.001-08:00

Emma, a coworker from Ziptrek, is taking her Level One Instructor course tomorrow and she wanted me to help her with her riding so she could be ready for the class. We met up around 11am and headed up the village gondola. The sun was shining once again and still no new snow to report - (We've almost had more sunny in December than we've had all summer) - ??

Anyway, we ran some warmup laps on Whistler before meeting up with Georgie. In addition to making sure Emma's riding was up to par, I gave her some information on what to expect during the course and gave her some examples of how lessons would be taught. Her riding was definitely on the same standard for what is expected for level one riding. I found it a bit difficult to show examples of level one riding as I now ride at a higher level consistently.

After a few runs on Whistler, we took the Peak 2 Peak over to Blackcomb since that is where she will be riding for the next three days. As usual, some of the runs on Blackcomb were icy... particularly the run at the top of Solar Coaster.

We finished up around 2:30pm and Emma was kind enough to buy me a hot chocolate as a thank you. I feel confident she will pass the Level testing with no problem.

Day 13 | abracadabra

2011-12-04T18:20:00.001-08:00

"Help with my binding!" - four year old Ripper
"Excuse me? What's the magic word?" - Me
"Abracadabra!" - four year old Ripper

Not much to report. Thirteen kids in Snowboard School including two repeat Lil Rippers. Sun was shining and still no snow. Another inversion, cold in the village - warm in the Alpine. I took the Rippers.

Day 12 | Hip Hop Pose

2011-12-03T22:41:00.001-08:00

Back to the grind after not working for a week because we are so slow (about one to two snowboarders a day). I volunteered to take the three Lil Rippers since we haven't had any new snow for awhile. The sun was shining and it was a beautiful day to be outside, though with the inversion, it was warmer up top than it was in the village.

As far as Rippers go, the kids were amazingly easy to handle and easy deal with. There were two six year olds and one four year old. They could all put their bindings on and take their bindings off. They all grasped the concept of edging on their heels and toes. Morgan and Kat both had level ones so there were quite a few kids in the Magic Carpet area. We had about 14 kids all together in Snowboard School.

Naturally we built a jump at the end of the day. A few of my Rippers showed off their hip hop pose for my camera. Pics attached of course.

Day 11 | Ziptrek'ers

2011-12-01T18:30:00.001-08:00

I was scheduled to do an RST with Whistler Kids at 10am but when I arrived at the CLC (15 min late), I was told it was cancelled. Not cool. I wasn't too upset as my plans were to meet up with Anna and Georgie from Ziptrek at the Super Carpet for noon.

I hung around the CLC for about a half hour then decided to head up top for one run before grabbing my free lunch back at work. It was cloudy for most of the afternoon. No new snow overnight. The runs are starting to get hard packed. Having no snow will eventually do that. I ran down Whiskey Jack to Olympic and then back to the CLC for some salad.

Georgie and Anna met me around noon. Georgie is an avid boarder while Anna has never been on snow in her life (silly Australian). She picked up a cheap used board, bought some new boots and bindings and was excited to give the sport a try. We spent two hours on the Super Carpet and Anna was amazing. She could zig zag on both her edges by the time we finished. I gave her some tips and skills to practice for the next time she heads up. We finished up with a drink at the Dubhlin Gate where we ran into Petr and Mark from Ziptrek.

Day 10 | iLike Sunny Days

2011-11-30T21:28:00.001-08:00

Mondays and Tuesdays are my days off from work and this week I took them off from riding as well. I was suppose to work today but because we only had one snowboarder signed up for lessons, I was told to stay home.

About 17cm of fresh snow fell overnight and the sun had decided to pay us a visit. It was a beautiful blue bird day with a bit of an inversion ... meaning suitable temperatures up top. I met up with Pippa and Nathan at the light board around 11am. The snow was decent, packed powder, on the groomers. With the recent warm temps in the Alpine, there was some crust underneath some fresh snow here and there but nothing too bad. Pippa wasn't feeling too well so she bailed after two runs. Nate and I rode til about 1pm then decided to call it a day in order to walk the dogs.

More sun scheduled for the next five days. Also there are no kids booked in Snowboard School so I have another day off tomorrow. Peak Chair opens Friday and Harmony Chair opens Saturday. I'm hoping to be able to get Friday off as well and get in line for fresh tracks off the Peak. Fingers crossed.

Day 9 | horrible

2011-11-27T17:33:00.001-08:00

As you can see from the picture, today wasn't exactly an amazing snow day. The forecast said 70-90cm of snow was expected to fall last night, but freezing temps were hovering around the RoundHouse so instead of snow, it was mostly rain. And boy did it rain.

Who the heck wants to teach in the rain? It's way worse than negative temperatures (freezing cold). I wasn't too keen on getting wet so my fingers were crossed I would get to go home. We had 5 Lil Rippers and another 8 Riders. I was assigned level 3's. We also had five Instructors. After sorting the classes and figuring who was in what in class, it miraculously turned out that I could go home, if I so chose ... which I did. I decided to ride from mid-station to the village. That was horrible! The freezing level is lowering so hopefully it will dry out some of that wet snow up top.

Day 8 | ratio of 5:1

2011-11-26T21:23:00.001-08:00

About 30 kids in Snowboard School including five Lil Rippers. Gillian and I volunteered to take the little ones. No biggie as the freezing level was past the Roundhouse and it's suppose to "snow" up to 90cm in a 24 hour period.

Everyone was sorted with classes by 9:30am and about an hour later, Gunner informed me that the new ratio of Lil Rippers to Instructor is now five to one. Meaning, one Instructor has to take five Lil Rippers! and since we had five kids, one of us had to go home. I volunteered since Irish was riding and I was toying with taking a run with him. I was told I could leave around noon (or after lunch).

Of course, the notion of having five Lil Rippers to one Instructor is just ludicrous, especially when the ratio of regular age kids to Instructor is only six to one. I could spend several paragraphs telling you why it's not possible for one Instructor to take on five 4-6 year olds but I won't bore you with the details.

Anyway, I spent the morning with the kids and Gillian. We came in for a break around 11am and stayed inside until a bit after noon. I couldn't let Gillian take the kids on her own so I decided to stay and help her for most of the afternoon (unpaid) -- I finally left around 2pm. By this time it was pouring rain at the CLC and I downloaded in the gondola and met up with Shrek and Irish for a nice coffee at The Lift. Tomorrow I am definitely not taking a Lil Rippers class!

Day 7 | smells like fish

2011-11-25T20:32:00.001-08:00

Sun was shining today!! I'm not going to mention the amazing powder we saw people cutting on Tokum first thing in the morning. I also won't mention the knee deep powder found around Crystal Chair (it opened today). Instead I will talk about the 12 kids signed up for Lil Rippers who were joined by another 19 other snowboarders. Yup, it's a holiday weekend!

I was assigned Lil Rippers again with Morgan and Gillian. The day went by amazingly fast and it seemed to be much easier than yesterday. Maybe because we had three instructors. Most the kids picked up the edging and balance including a 4 year old who could straight line. He was really cute.

After our afternoon break, we built a jump for the little guys/girls. They were so surprised and so happy. It was cute. Some of the parents took pics and video from the fence line. They made such a big deal of the fact that the kids were going over a six inch high jump. LOL - No matter what happens during the day, all kids go home super stoked after the instructors build them a jump. That seems to be the only thing they talk about when mom and dad pick them up.

Day 6 | Welcome back Whistler Kids

2011-11-24T17:24:00.001-08:00

It's American Thanksgiving and that means it's the first day of work and another new season at Whistler Kids. Morning meeting started at 8am and it was great to see old friends and lots of smiling faces. As far as the weather is concerned, it puked all day! But high winds up top.

We had about 20 kids in snowboard lessons with 8 of them being Lil Rippers. That program has really taken off! Morgan, Kat and I volunteered to do Lil Rippers. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I love team teaching with Morgan. He is so great with the kids and the little girls just love him to death. Kat took one boy who was a solid level 3 and Morgan and I teamed up for the remaining seven.

The day went by relatively fast. Two of the Lil Rippers were side slipping on their own by the afternoon. I believe they are both returning tomorrow. It was a great first day and it feels good to be back teaching.

Day 5 | fifty two inches in seven days

2011-11-23T21:35:00.001-08:00

Monday night it snowed 24 inches overnight. Everyone was stoked to ski or board on Tuesday. Unfortunately, such high snowfall calls for heavy (and time consuming) avalanche control. I was meeting Chris and Izayah in the village at 10am and my plan was to sneak in a couple of powder runs beforehand. Unfortunately, uploading didn't start until 9:40am and by that time, the line for the village gondola went down past the Crystal Lodge!!!

After waiting around for a couple of hours, the guys and I decided to ride today instead of yesterday. And today was sweet! Another 8 inches fell overnight and the snow was light and fluffy. We spent the day on the greens, with Izayah getting good enough to start hitting side hits and trying to jump. Chris picked up his turning and was able to ride the chair (he's terrified of heights).

There was a ton of snow out there, especially for the groomers. We did three good runs down Ego Bowl before we headed in for a water break. Chris was getting tired fast. We took another couple of runs after a half hour break and then it was time for lunch. After lunch, Chris made the right decision to call it a day and download while Izayah and I snowboarded down to mid-station and downloaded from there.

Even though we stayed on Ego Bowl most of the day, I had such a fun time. I was super excited that Chris was able to pick it up enough so he could take Izayah on his own now. The snow was amazing and there was so much of it. I'm glad we took yesterday off and went today instead. It was a good time.

Day 4 | Hangin' with Hawaii'ans

2011-11-21T22:19:00.001-08:00

My friends from Hawaii are in town for their annual time share in Whistler and it was a great day to get out and snowboard with the whole family. It snowed 7 inches last night and although I heard the runs were epic first thing in the morning, I loved teaching my friends how to snowboard at the Super Carpet.

Izayah and Dad were on top of their game and were able to turn down the beginner area with ease. Mom and Raicey spent their time zig zagging and getting use to the slippery snow underneath the board. Everyone did amazing. We spent about two hours on the carpet then headed up to the Roundhouse for lunch.

After we ate, Izayah and I strapped on our boards and headed down Ego Bowl while the rest of the family downloaded in the gondola. You might recall Izayah is the boy I've taught every year at this time for the last three years. He's moved to Washington a few months ago so he's hoping to snowboard a lot more often now. We ran down Ego Bowl past the Emerald Chair and continued into the Olympic Chair area where there was a ton of fresh deep snow. We called it a day ourselves once we hit the Super Carpet again.

Forecast is calling for 45-60cm of powder overnight!! It's been puking all afternoon as well. I'm planning on getting first chair at Creekside tomorrow before meeting up with Izayah and his dad at 10am.

Day 3 | Hiked Harmony

2011-11-20T18:46:00.001-08:00

Day three on the mountain and we haven't had any fresh snow since before opening day. Nevertheless, I still have to get my legs in shape so I met with KCooper at Creekside around 10am and we headed up to shred. We ran into Pip and Jordan at Red Chair just as we were strapping in. Perfect timing.

The lift up Red Chair was a bit chilly as temps were around 12°-15°F but with no wind, it didn't feel that cold. Nothing was groomed except for the cat track that winds through the park and down to Emerald. We all ran that pretty fast which was actually fun. After a second run in the same area, KCooper asked me if I wanted to hike Harmony.

"What the hell", I said. It was better than riding crowded ground up groomers all day. So we exited Green Chair and started hiking up Pika's Traverse. It took me about 45minutes to reach Harmony Ridge and I was sweaty and tired by the time I made it. I was crossing my fingers the ride down was going to be worth the hike up.

After taking a few photos (and a breather) atop Harmony Ridge we strapped on and headed down to Krummholz. The snow in this area was virtually untouched and it was close to knee deep. The run from the ridge to Krummholz was amazing! We landed on the top of Gun Barrels and they looked good so we took some freshies through the trees. Oh my god it was just amazing! Definitely worth the hike. We finished up with another short fresh pow run to the cat track and made it to Harmony Chair without unstrapping. WOW! It was pretty cool. Definitely worth it. Made me wish we had time in the day to do it again.

After the hike, we grabbed some lunch then headed to the Creekside Gondola to download and call it a day. What a great day! Way better than hitting crowded groomers for hours. Lots and lots of snow is in the forecast so fingers crossed for some better riding mid week.

Day 2 | JMan

2011-11-19T20:30:00.001-08:00

The sun was shining and the skies were blue today. The temps had dropped a bit, which is normal when there is no cloud cover. I spent the day with my Club Kid, Jaden. He's almost 9 years old and he rides with me on Saturdays starting in January. His parents and I have become friends and I offered to take him up since they weren't going to be on the hill for another couple of weeks because of injuries.

We made it to the Roundhouse at exactly 10am. Jaden isn't exactly the fastest snowboarder on the planet, not to mention he had a new longer board. He was a little nervous on the first run, though he did great, but he was slow. I feel I work my muscles a lot more when I'm forced to go slower than the speed I would normally ride at. After two runs, I was ready for a rest and a drink.

We rode another two or three laps and then headed into the Roundhouse for lunch. Afterwards we downloaded to the village where Jaden's mom picked him up. It was nice quiet day with amazing views. Another step closer to getting my legs back in shape for the rest of the long season.

Day 1 | Commencing the 11/12 season!

2011-11-18T17:38:00.001-08:00

Another season is starting here at Whistler Blackcomb. My how time flies. I met up with Pippa in the Village around 9:30am. Neither one of us were interested in getting up early and standing in line. It has snowed 11inches (29cm) in the last 48 hours. The base is 27 inches (70cm). It still has a long way to go but it had enough coverage to open Whistler 6 days early.

Our first run was in the area that is normally part of the park. We didn't get any freshies but there was plenty of snow to get stuck in. We stayed in this area for a couple of runs and then tried a run down to Red Chair. A lot of the runs were roped off and since we are both employees, we couldn't duck ropes as that is a big no-no as a WB employee. The lift lines weren't as busy as we imagined they would be. The runs didn't feel overcrowded either. We took a half hour break then ran another three to four runs before calling it a day and riding to mid-station for a download.

Day 125 | just because

2011-05-27T16:45:00.000-07:00

I was hoping to return from a sunny three week vacation to a warm and sunny Whistler. No such luck. It's more like the month of March instead of the month of May. Blackcomb is open until May 30th. There isn't much else to do around here in the crappy weather (it's still too cold for me to ride the bike park) so we decided to go snowboarding.

Pip dropped us off in the village around noon and Jordan and I headed up the gondola for some "spring" shred. A third of the way up Excelerator Chair we hit the cloud cover and couldn't see a thing. We were hoping it was a low laying cloud and we would pop out of it once we got higher. No such luck! If anything the visibility got worse the higher we climbed.

We made our way down to Jersey Chair, not being able to see much except ten feet in front of you. The snow was super soft and spring like but when you have no visibility, it doesn't make it much fun. We took a lap through the medium park and then called Pip to meet us at Base II as we weren't going to make a day out of it. I don't think we had such horrid conditions at any day during the winter. If the sun pops out, perhaps we might try it again before Blackcomb closes on Monday.

Day 124 | That's It, That's All

2011-04-29T21:24:00.000-07:00

If it wasn't for Aimee and the $15 food voucher that expires May 30th, I think my last day of work would have been my final day on the hill. My brain is in summer mode even though Whistler's weather has been in winter mode for most of the month of April.

Aimee and I planned on going up for a couple runs since the sun was forecasted to shine and we hadn't done any Spring skiing yet. We hopped on the Blackcomb gondola from Base II around 11:30am and headed straight to Glacier Chair. The snow up there was still dry and soft packed. It was really nice. On our second lap up, Aimee decided she wanted to explore Cougar Chutes, a double black diamond that drops toward Jersey Chair, so we headed for the handle tow and up to 7th Heaven.

The warning signs on the entry to Cougar Chutes read: STEEP TERRAIN! NO WAY OUT! There was plenty of soft pow to be found down the vertical run and we even got a couple of fresh turns. We made our way through some awesome trees as well.

We took a lunch break around 1pm at Glacier Creek. Luckily my staff discount was still in full swing so we were both able to eat a sandwich and a cookie for under the $15 allotted on the Ride Tribe voucher I grabbed off a kid earlier in the season. Sunshine and free lunch. Can't beat that!

It was a typical fun day with Aimee exploring. I missed her dearly this season and I'm grateful I was able to get in a couple of days of riding with her this year. In the two days we rode together, I checked off two double black diamond runs that I had never ridden before. Not only that, but I now have the confidence to ride them again next season (even if she's not around).

We called it a day after lunch, heading up Jersey to make one last run back to Base II.

This season I rode one hundred and twenty four days. Yet, this time of year, I always feel like I didn't ride enough (at least not in my free time). It was the second snowiest season on record for Whistler Blackcomb. I had good friends come out to ride and finally made it to Mt. Baker. I went out of bounds down McConkey's Trees, Khyber and Singing Pass. I'm sure the off season will go by just as fast as the snow season did. I'll be back blogging my days in six months! Thanks for reading.

Day 123 | the final curtain

2011-04-25T20:19:00.000-07:00

I ended my season at work the same way I started my season: with a Lil Ripper class. We had six kids pre-booked into lessons but ended up with a total of nine kids in four different classes. We squeaked through with just enough Instructors scheduled.

I contemplated taking the one level five kid even though he is the most annoying kid on the planet. I hate to sound so negative but the kid really is odd and it's very very annoying. Zac asked if he could take him so I opted for the five year old Ripper instead.

It wasn't the perfect sunny Spring day you picture for your last day of work at the end of April. It was cloudy and pretty chilly. Betty, James, and I spent the morning on the Magic Carpet with the lower levels wasting as much time as we could eating cheese & crackers and coloring. My kid wasn't too thrilled with the idea of snowboarding so we spent a lot of time in the CLC. He was kind of a muppet as well. He couldn't get off the Magic Carpet without falling even by the end of the day.

James built us a huge jump to kill time in the afternoon. It was kind of sad as it was the last jump of the season. My kid's Dad watched him hit the jump one time before downloading in the gondola with us. The day went by pretty fast for the last day. The CLC staff spent the day packing up the kitchen, washing the bibs, and putting everything in the Mini's room away. Another Whistler Kids season is in the books. I feel happy and sad at the same time. I'm ready for summer for sure.

Day 122 | called in for overtime

2011-04-24T21:22:00.000-07:00

After working a ten day week, I was looking forward to a weekend off but my Scheduler called on Saturday asking if I could work today. No problem as it's overtime and I only have one more paycheck left before I enter the world of unemployment (and poverty).

Surprisingly there were close to 20 kids in snowboarding lessons. Since I was on the overtime clock, I wanted to work. I didn't care what level I was given just as long as I worked. I was given the seven level twos.

We spent the morning working on toe edge sideslips. After lunch we worked on S turns. A couple of them were turning by the end of the afternoon. The day dragged on pretty slow. It was cloudy and cold. At least when the sun shines, a day on the Magic Carpet isn't so bad. Of course we built a jump as that always helps the time pass quickly.

Tomorrow is the last day of Whistler Kids. We have four Instructors scheduled and three kids pre-booked. I hope the sun shines but the forecast calls for another return of winter.

Day 121 | a very good Friday

2011-04-22T22:56:00.000-07:00

I promised my two Adventure Camp kids that we would hit the GMC Race Centre first thing in the morning. They wanted to run down it before the course got chewed up. Of course we had a new level 5 Destination show up and we needed to evaluate his riding before starting our day. So we grabbed the level 6 class and headed down Lower Olympic. It wasn't too long before I realized the new guy was actually a level 4. Luckily, that class was right behind us so it was easy to put him into the correct level and my kids and I took off.

We rode the Peak 2 Peak over to Blackcomb and squeezed in two runs on the race course before heading down to the village and in for lunch. Our plan of attack for the afternoon was to hit 7th Heaven. We made it out there by 1pm and took a run down the vast openness. Seems like everyone had the same idea as it was crowded when you first got off the chair. Of course, the sun was beating down like crazy and the weather was amazing. I also forgot that today was Good Friday and everyone was off from work so the slopes were a little busier than earlier in the week.

The kids also wanted to take a couple laps through the terrain garden so I decided to ride the back of 7th to get out of there. That turned out to be the best decision of the day. We headed down Blue Line where the snow off the groomer was soft and dry. Max and I enjoyed the wintery conditions while Lottie stayed comfortably on the groomer. We found a couple of rocks to drop and some soft moguls to explore on. It was really fun.

Before taking our last run of the week, we stopped at the Rendenzvous for some water and a bit of a break. Both of the kids were bummed that today was their last day and they were both headed back home (Hong Kong and England) tomorrow. After our terrain garden lap we kept riding south to the village with Lottie staying on the groomer and Max and I jumping hits on the sides. We met up with their Dads right on time. The kids collected their Adventure Camp toques, I collected my tip money and we all said goodbye for another season. It was a great last week of work and the fun I had with these kids was just another reminder of why I love my job!

Day 120 | Beaver Tails

2011-04-21T19:01:00.000-07:00

5cm of fresh snow fell overnight. We are almost into May and it's still snowing. At least the sun was shining today making it a great day.

I'm having a great week with my Adventure Camp kids. The two Destination kids we had earlier in the week have been riding with their family .... but a different level 5 guy showed up today. The first thing we did was take a run down to the village with James and his level 6's to see what group the new kid would fit into. I was happy to see that he fit perfectly with James, leaving me with only two kids!

I opted for the noon lunch leaving us plenty of time to do anything we wanted in the morning. The first thing we did was warm up on Whiskey Jack. The run was soft packed with fresh corduroy. Simply heavenly. Next we took a run through the Terrain Park. Upper Peak to Creek was the run of the day so I came up with the brilliant idea of hitting that to Highway 86. The snow up there was dry and mostly untracked. Max and I followed the trail off piste getting sweet freshies while Lottie stayed on the groomer. We made our way down Highway 86 getting fresh tracks on the side of the cat track. We eventually made our way back to the CLC around 11:30am and refueled with lunch.

Yesterday the kids planned on bringing money to buy a Beaver Tail today. They decided to buy one after lunch and ate it in the gondola. We took the Peak 2 Peak over to Blackcomb to hit the race course and terrain garden again. They closed the race course early but we were able to get one run down it. The snow at the top of Blackcomb was soft packed and lots of it. We hit a bunch of treelines and there was so much snow in some spots and lots of fresh lines. Max worked on his ollies on the flats, off of jumps, and down drops. Lottie just rode around. I hit the jibs with Max. It was a really fun day and we did a lot of snowboarding .... over 20 miles to be exact! I took lots of pics of the kids. Last day of AC is tomorrow and my fingers are crossed that we don't have any other kids who have to ride in our group.

Day 119 | i don't have a title for today

2011-04-20T21:49:00.000-07:00

Day three of Adventure Camp: hump day! I'm getting tired but the week is still going good. I only had three kids. We were on the move by 9:30am and heading up the gondola. It was pretty chilly in the morning and still cold later in the day with snow at Rendezvous all afternoon.

We spent the morning in Whistler green park. Even though the kids are level fives, they are still terrain park rookies. I showed them the ropes and then sent them on their way down the jumps. The girls were a bit shy and timid and only tried one jump while Max rocked all four plus all the boxes.

After lunch we ran down to the village and uploaded on Blackcomb. We took a couple of laps in the Terrain Garden and then raced each other at the GMC Race Center. That was fun and the kids wanted to do it again. Unfortunately, by the time we got back over to it again, they had closed the course because it was almost 3pm. We ran down Zig Zag to finish off the day. It looks like we snowboarded another 16.5 miles. whew! No wonder why I'm tired.

Day 118 | snow in my driveway AGAIN!!!

2011-04-19T21:25:00.000-07:00

Yes, there was about a centimeter of snow in my driveway when I woke up this morning. It's almost May! The weather was a mixed bag all day with sun, clouds, cool temps, and lots of isolated snow showers.

My level four/five AC kids picked up two Destination kids: one from yesterday and a girl from New York. I was worried she wasn't going to be as good as the other kids but she fit in perfectly. I promised the kids we would ride Peak to Creek after lunch so we warmed up through Enchanted Forest trees and Marmot trees.

Dark clouds were moving through all day and I was hoping Peak to Creek would be clear once we got up there at noon but no such luck. The first 200 or so yards were completed sopped in with fog. The kids were a little nervous since the visibility was so poor but we all stuck together in a pack and they made it through with no problems. The run was mostly small moguls most of the way down. We made it to Dusty's Creekside in less than an hour. Not bad.

After that we were able to fit in a run from the bottom of Red Chair to the village and then back up to the Roundhouse for a last cool down run to finish the day. We covered about 14 miles when it was all said and done.

Day 117 | Wallace Churchill the fourth

2011-04-18T21:53:00.000-07:00

I am happy to report I found the joy in snowboarding once again today! It's Easter Week and the last Adventure Camp for the year. I was given level fours and the kids in my class are really cool and fun to snowboard with. It probably didn't hurt that the sun was shining all day and the snow was soft packed.

Once everyone was up at the CLC and accounted for, I believe we had about 30 kids in lessons. I had three ACers and one destination. Lunch was early so we only had time for two runs in the AM, one down a green and one down a blue. That was just enough time to realize I had quite a split on my hands. Three of the kids were level four/five and one kid was a level three. After speaking with the level three Instructor during lunch, I decided to keep the split.

After lunch the kids told me where they wanted to ride. One wanted to ride Harmony Ridge and one wanted to ride The Saddle. So we made the plan to head up to Harmony, then up Peak Chair, and finally down to Highway 86. By the time we went from one end of Whistler to the other, the level three kid was exhausted. I decided to head to the CLC to give everyone a much needed rest. I informed my Supervisor that Alejandro would be joining James in level three AC tomorrow. Instead of spending an hour on a jump at the CLC, the kids decided to take one more run from the Roundhouse to end their day.

We had such a great time that the Destination kid is going to return tomorrow. I promised the kids we would run Peak to Creek. If we get lucky and don't have a split, I think we can snowboard about 20 miles. Today our flaiks reported we ran 16.5miles.

Day 116 | blizz-fest

2011-04-17T21:23:00.000-07:00

It's day three of Telus Fest but you'd never know it by the weather. When one thinks of Telus Fest, one thinks of sunny spring warm weather. Not this year, at least not yet. At 2pm this afternoon, there was literally a blizzard at the Roundhouse!! Actually the weather was weird all day. It jumped from sun, to clouds, to snow, to ice, to sun, to clouds ... etc. And the temps are cooler than normal. Definitely not Spring.

At the morning meeting, we had seven Instructors working and three kids pre-booked for lessons. All of our mouths dropped when we were told the numbers. I thought my Supervisor was kidding. I'm happy to report that eight more kids signed up in the morning, topping our numbers off for a total of eleven kids, five classes.

I couldn't bring myself to deal with another Lil Ripper class so I opted to take the Level four class. There were two boys in level four and one boy in level five. I took all three up Garbanzo to see if they could fit together. We headed down Whiskey Jack and ran down Ptarmigan. Once on Ptarmigan, I quickly realized I had two level fives on my hands and one level three. I gave the level fives to Devon and I took the one level three.

He was a chilled guy from Vancouver who was in Whistler Kids back in March. He wasn't into side hits, trees, or jumps. He liked riding straight down the middle of the run. Fine by me as the groomers on Whistler were soft packed and really nice.

After lunch he wanted to head over to Blackcomb where we spent our time on the blues. It was a nice afternoon even with the blizzard like conditions from time to time. By 2pm he was ready to have a break so we took the Peak 2 Peak back to Whistler, rode down to the CLC and chilled out on the jump til it was time to download.

Day 115 | still not Spring

2011-04-16T20:23:00.000-07:00

Nope. I jumped the gun. Spring has yet to show it's face in Whistler. At noon it was snowing on the Magic Carpet.

I opted out of taking one level four guy to share a class of Lil Rippers with Jordan Decker. We had two four year olds and two six year olds. One guy I had the other day, one guy barely spoke English, one guy just turned four like a day ago, and one girl who I had back in December. Needless to say .... it was a long day!!! And pretty much the same as any Lil Ripper that I've been having for the past two weeks. I think I need to get back to teaching regular aged kids. Maybe I'll do that tomorrow.

Day 114 | Percy's

2011-04-15T20:40:00.000-07:00

I haven't had a freeride day since March 26th. As you know, I'm pretty much over the cold weather / snowboarding thing. But I recognize there are still another two weeks of snow before I hit the beach and the sunshine so I should enjoy some Spring skiing before I leave.

I was scheduled to work but Morgan was nice enough to cover for me so I could spend the day with Aimee and Maddie and Oscar Percy. They are kids from Oz who were with Aimee last season in Whistler Kids and their parents hired Aimee to spend two weeks with them as they holiday in Whistler again this year. I spent a lot of time with them as well last season and since today was their last day in Whistler, I wanted to ride with them at least once before they left.

It's the first day of the Telus Fest and the sun was shining! Not to mention, the snow is amazing for April. The conditions are like February (middle of winter) - not to mention, with all the fresh snow, you can still find some fresh tracks. Needless to say, the day was going to be amazing!

Maddie wanted to hike up Spanky's Ladder so we did that right out of the gate. From the Glacier Chair you could see a line of people hiking up like an army of ants. We decided to hit Ruby Bowl since it was something we knew the kids could get down. The snow up there was amazing! It's so hard to believe that it's actually April. After Spanky's, we hit the Glacier Creek for lunch.

We then decided to cat track over to 7th Heaven and head over to Couloir Extreme, a double black diamond which is one of the top ten steep in-bounds runs in the world according to Skiing Magazine. The snow down there was soft and although we didn't get freshies, the run down was still very nice. It's awesome to check that popular run off my list.

The kids wanted to hit the Terrain Garden, then ride down to the Village and go up Whistler. So that's what we did. We met up with Pip and Jordan for a quick run through the Whistler Park. We then made our way back down to the Village for a much needed smoothie. I said my good-bye's to the kids and came home to rest up for another day of work tomorrow.

Day 113 | GRRRR ....... !!!!

2011-04-14T20:20:00.000-07:00

Another 8cm of snow fell overnight and it's officially the second snowiest season on record for Whistler Blackcomb. We've received 49 feet of snow and it's still snowing as I write this.

I was assigned level threes at the morning meeting but I opted to take the same Lil Ripper I had yesterday. I don't think we ended up having a level three class so I made the right choice. We had another 20+ kids signed up for lessons plus a total of three Lil Rippers. One girl was going to be 7 years old next week so we put her with the level two class and I took the six year old who had never snowboarded before. He got along great with my other guy and was really keen to snowboard.

For Kingsley (the four year old), he was more about the socializing than the snowboarding today. But he was great at helping me show Braeden how to put on and take off his bindings. It was quite cute to watch a four year old give instruction. Once we got up the Magic Carpet, Kingsley mostly played in the snow while Braeden wanted to learn how to ride.

We ended up taking a pretty long break/lunch but spent most of the afternoon outside. Having all these Lil Rippers has given me a chance to brush up on my face painting skills and I have to admit I'm getting quite good at it (see pic).

Kingsley's Dad checked him out at the CLC while Braeden and I took the gondola down to meet with his Mom and Dad. The day went by pretty quick and Braeden should be returning tomorrow.

Day 112 | winter won't leave

2011-04-13T20:05:00.000-07:00

Spring has yet to "sprung" in Whistler. It was snowing in the Village again this morning with 8cm of fresh snow overnight at Pig Alley. By the end of the day, that snow was rain with nothing but precipitation in the forecast for the week to come.

We had 25 kids signed up for lessons. Most of the other Instructors had repeat kids coming from yesterday, which would have left me with either a level one or level two class. Luckily a last minute Lil Ripper showed up and I opted to take him for the day.

He was a chill little guy who is turning five next month. He was also in lessons yesterday so he could already straight line and side slip on his heels. It was a typical Lil Ripper day consisting of: cheese & crackers, snowboarding, jungle gym, and coloring. Not to mention a ramp at the end of the day.

Day 111 | opted out

2011-04-10T10:58:00.000-07:00

Weather: pissing rain in the village, snow at the CLC but turning to rain by late morning, snow in Alpine with 60kph winds.
Kids: 17 snowboarders, 0 Lil Rippers
Me: opted to go home

I didn't feel like spending my day on the Magic Carpet (in the rain) with seven level ones. And since there weren't any Lil Rippers, I thought it would be a good day to volunteer to go home. I've only volunteered once all season to go home, I didn't feel too guilty. I had a few fun photos taken with Coast Mountain, drank a cup of tea, then snowboarded down to the village. I was back at my place before 11am.

Day 110 | sniff! sniff!

2011-04-09T20:36:00.000-07:00

Today was the last day of Club. Fourteen weeks have passed just like that. Boy the season always goes by so fast. All of my kids showed up and we spent the day with Betty and Lauren's teams. Betty set up a really cool scavenger hunt for her team and we (Lauren and I) decided to include our kids. Betty didn't mind.

We piled 11 people into the Village Gondola and headed up to the Roundhouse. The idea of the scavenger hunt was to figure out what were the runs Betty labeled on an old trail map. Once the kids could confirm the runs, they were then given clues as to where to find easter eggs that contained "treasure". It was suppose to take most of the day but because we had eight kids playing instead of Betty's four, they figured everything out before lunch.

After lunch we switched kids around from Instructor to Instructor. Betty had boys who wanted to go through the Terrain Park and one girl who wasn't interested. So she came with me and Lauren and we went through some easy tree runs. Josh also had a level five girl who didn't want to chase her male teammates through the Terrain Park so she came with us too. It was good for my kids to ride with a bunch of other kids in different levels because it pushed them to keep up with everyone. They all impressed me with their speed and ability.

Since it's the last week of Club, we had some chocolate cake at the CLC at the end of the day to celebrate a season well done. Jaden brought me back a postcard from Hawaii and the coolest keychain. I received a very nice card from Mia and her Mom included a nice tip ($$). That was very nice of her. I told Jaden's parents they could request me for next season. He's my favorite guy in Whistler Kids and would love to hang with him for another full season of Club. But that's a very long time away!!!!

Day 109 | i can use adult scissors

2011-04-08T21:09:00.000-07:00

If you're wondering where my odd daily titles come from, they're usually snippets of humorous things I hear kids say throughout the day. Like today's title for example. I was coloring with a 5 year old skier and out of the blue she tells me that she can use adult scissors. My Lil Ripper said a funny one today too. When I was explaining to him that he could go on the computer and look up his day on flaik.com, he told me that he didn't have a computer but he had a laptop!

Six year old Andrei was back today and I was keen to hang with him. He was the only Lil Ripper taking lessons and I knew I could take him to the top of the mountain. In the morning we practiced his turns again on both carpets. After lunch we rode to the village and out of the blue, he started turning! I was super stoked. Of course, if he had his way, he would have rather did freeride (zig zags) instead of turning. So we had an equal compromise on when he should turn and when he should freeride.

It was before noon when we hit the village and there was plenty of time to take him to the Alpine so that's what we did. The sun was shining and the snow was nice and soft packed. Not to mention there wasn't many people on the runs or in the lift lines. Again, Andrei practiced his turns and did his zig zags. We made it back to the CLC in less than an hour. Not bad for a six year old. He was thirsty and a bit tired so we took a break in the CLC for awhile before heading to the Magic Carpet and doing jumps. We finished the day with another freeride down to the village. Mom and Dad asked if he wanted to come to lessons again tomorrow and he said yes, but I told them I wouldn't be able to take him as I have Club tomorrow. Not sure if he'll show up anyway or not.

Day 108 | I spell Lucas with a "L"

2011-04-07T20:55:00.000-07:00

The sun came out full force today and so did the Springlike temperatures. The morning started out pretty chilly with a temperature of only 26°F (below freezing) in the village. I volunteered once again to take a Lil Rippers class.

The Magic Carpet was quite hard and icy first thing in the AM but it didn't take too long for the sun to warm up the corduroy giving way to perfect lower level conditions. My guy was six years old and was able to zig zag down blue runs. Dad wanted him to learn his toe edge and practice his turns. We spent the morning on the Carpet doing just that. There was another Lil Ripper hanging with Ellen. He was only four years old and never snowboarded before. Both of the guys were pretty cool and fun to hang out with.

After lunch we went to the Super Carpet to practice S-turns. My guy was easy to teach and wasn't a complainer. I would explain what I wanted him to do and he would do it. He did a great job practicing for most of the day. As a reward, he was able to spend the last hour and a half going over Morgan's awesome jump! He's coming back tomorrow and I've already volunteered to take him again. I'm thinking about taking him to the Alpine.

me - "Hi Lucas. Do you spell that with a K or a C?"
4 year old Lucas - "I spell it with a L."

Day 107 | saliva on my apple

2011-04-06T19:50:00.000-07:00

Back to work after a quick weekend off and for the third day in a row, I awoke to snow at my doorstep. Whistler Blackcomb reported 4cm fell overnight but I had at least six inches in my driveway. I was keen to teach an upper level in order to enjoy the fresh powder but I was given level ones instead .... and I started with seven of them.

It turns out four of them were in lessons yesterday and only three of them had never snowboarded before. After getting the new guys up to speed on strapping in, skating, and basic mobility, we quickly hit the Magic Carpet where it was quite evident some of the other kids who were there yesterday were really level twos and not level ones. After lunch I was able to give three of them to Melissa who had the level two class.

It was a typical level one day that started with me taking a few freshie laps down the Magic Carpet just because there was a good amount of snow and it was light and fluffy. The weather was odd and a bit of every season all wrapped up into one afternoon. Cloudy in the morning, sunny after lunch, clouds rolled in later in the afternoon and it snowed a bit, then back to sun for jump time. By the time we got to the village, it was snowing/hailing and by the time I got changed out of my uniform, it was sunny again in the village.

Day 106 | grumpy pants

2011-04-03T20:15:00.000-07:00

I made it through work for five days in a row and it feels like it's been a long five days. I took another Lil Ripper today. She was in lessons on Friday with Ransom and was such a sweet girl that I had no qualms spending the day with her. Other than Club yesterday, I've had Lil Rippers all week. Quite frankly, I'm over 100 days riding this season and I'm over it. I could care less if I'm riding or just hanging on the carpet.

It definitely wasn't a sunny Spring day. It was actually quite cold. Phoebe didn't do much snowboarding. I was okay with that. We colored four pictures, played in the snow, climbed in the jungle gym, and did some hand painting (I was too nervous to paint her face). I think our lunch hour was close to two hours. Phoebe was such a pleasure to hang with that the day went by fast, which was perfect since it was my Friday and having her to finish my week was just what I needed. Not to mention her Dad threw a nice tip my way and that was greatly appreciated.

Day 105 | Castle

2011-04-02T18:18:00.000-07:00

It was girls only for Saturday Club. Jaden is still in Hawaii but both girls have returned from their holidays. The morning started off quickly with a warm up down Ptarmigan, which was the run of the day. The sun was shining and there was about 5cm of snow overnight which made for a nice cover layer over the corduroy. I was glad we got a run in early as the conditions were amazing with fresh tracks to be found. I haven't been in the Alpine for almost a week and I had no idea what to expect but the snow was really nice. The clear skies and sun made for a beautiful morning.

After a quick stop at the CLC for a drink and some fruit, we managed to squeeze in two more runs before lunch: one down Tokem and one run through Marmot Trees to the lift line. Tokem wasn't so fun but Marmot Trees down the gondola line was nice soft snow and quite fun.

After a long lunch we headed over to Blackcomb. Conditions had turned from soft packed to wet. Not slushy but wet. The girls wanted to go to the castle and since I had never been, that's where we headed. Again the sun was shining and the temps were warm. Such a beautiful day. We spent an hour at the castle. The girls weren't itching to ride as they like to socialize together. And because it was so nice, I wasn't itching to leave the sun.

We made it back to the village through the lower level Spring slush in time to finish the day exactly at 3pm. Next week is the last week of Club and the work season itself is quickly coming to an end.

Day 104 | bloody nose

2011-04-01T21:53:00.000-07:00

I'm being super lazy this week as today was my third day in a row working Lil Rippers. I took the "handful", a cute five year old named Ransom who has been in Whistler Kids all week. When Mom dropped him off in the morning, she said he was super tired and she was hoping he could have an easy day. Done! We spent the entire morning doing anything but snowboarding. We colored, we ate cheese and crackers, we made paper airplanes, we played outside in the snow, we got a bloody nose (not me) .... we ate lunch.

Betty taught the second Lil Ripper, a cute, very polite and very well behaved five year old girl named Phoebe and Phoebe was not impressed with Ransom and his impolite and sometimes annoying behavior. After lunch, we were all playing on the "igloo" and after countless warnings for not sharing, Random hit Betty with a ski pole. I immediately took him into the den for a time out. He was not very happy about that! And the girl working the den was a hard ass as she made him sit, facing the wall with his hands on his knees. I was just going to make him sit in there for ten minutes but she had a better tactic. After fighting it for less than a minute, he eventually sat there quietly and did his time, which was only about ten minutes.

Ransom was a level two and has been able to snowboard down to the village for the past few days. After his time out, he decided he wanted to snowboard so we ran down to the village three times before the day was over and Mom picked him up.

Day 103 | Fire Burnin'

2011-03-31T20:18:00.000-07:00

I volunteered for another day of Lil Rippers since the two kids I had yesterday were returning. The snow up top is nothing to be desired so I didn't mind spending the day on the Magic Carpet and hanging by the CLC. Plus I got to color!

We had four Rippers so that meant three of us got to teach the little tykes. It was me, Ellen and James. Ellen took Ransom, who has been at Whistler Kids all week and he's quite a handful. James took a new boy named Tavon and I took the brother and sister duo.

The bro and sis are both naturals on the snow. I got them to do some toe edges and then got them turning. They both picked it up pretty quickly as long as I was holding one hand. I learned that Mom was a competitive Super G racer back in her day so that explained the kids natural ability on the snow. Plus Dad wasn't too shabby either.

The day went by much faster than yesterday.... probably because the kids were meeting their parents back in the village at 2pm rather than 3pm. I think Mom and Dad have a pair of snowboarders on their hands now.

The kids knew the lyrics for the chorus to Sean Kingston's Hip Hop song named Fire Burning. Here is Luken's rendition:

Day 102 | Lil Ripper Construction Crew

2011-03-30T20:17:00.000-07:00

Back to the grind and I was super tired today. I volunteered to do Lil Rippers thinking we'd get to do a lot of coloring since it was raining in the morning. Silly me as Lil Rippers are a lot of work. Ellen and I team-taught three of them. One was a handful and the two others were brother and sister and they were chill. Not only that but they were really good. They basically put their boards on and started zig zagging down the Magic Carpet on their own. Apparently they are level five skiers.

I heard the snow up top was the worst. Lots of powder overnight but really really wet and heavy all the way to the top of the Peak Chair. The weather in the morning was cloudy with snow/rain but then was periods of sunshine by the afternoon. The day kind of dragged on but what do you expect for a "Monday"?

Day 101 | Chasing two planks

2011-03-26T16:07:00.000-07:00

I just finished five days of Adventure Camp and I was scheduled for two more days before my days off. I was hoping to get some OT but we're not busy enough for that. So instead of working seven days in a row, I worked five days and I have four days off. Unfortunately, I got out of bed and reported to work before I received this information. Of course, I was paid my stand-by salary but I would have rather stayed in bed.

The sun was shining in the morning so I didn't mind too much that I woke up early. But one question remained, what was I going to do for the day? Pip said she and her crew were going to ski groomers so I joined them at Creekside around noon. There were four skiers and me... on my board. We took a few laps down the blue groomers on Whistler then headed over to Harmony where Jordan and Veitch wanted to try some backflips off Jordan Rock. I think we spent about an hour over there and didn't get much accomplished. Poor Veitch broke his binding on his second attempt and had to walk back to the Roundhouse. I headed out around 3pm and ran back down to Creekside. The snow got nice and wet right where Dave Murray meets Expressway and it was awesome Spring skiing back down to the condo.

Day 100 | "Hi everybody!"

2011-03-25T18:17:00.000-07:00

Last day of Adventure Camp and I have to say that I really enjoyed my three kids this week. I promised them we would go on the Peak 2 Peak today so we did that first thing in the morning. The sun was shining and the groomers on Blackcomb were really fun. Slingshot was the run of the day and I told my kids to work on their speed so we zoomed down under the chairlift on perfectly groomed snow. Normally I'm bored with that kind of stuff but I was really enjoying it. Unfortunately our time on Blackcomb was cut short because of the low level Destination kid we had to pick up. He should have been practicing on easy green slopes so keeping up with us on blues exhausted him after only two runs. Luckily we were able to drop him down to a different level at lunch.

It clouded up and started snowing/raining in the afternoon. After lunch we ran down to the village where we watched skiers and riders jump into a huge airbag set up at the bottom of Fitz Chair by Oakley and Camp of Champions. From there we took one last run from the top, and of course, we went through Marmot Trees. I took a lot of fun photos of the kids and asked the parents to email me for copies. One parent was kind enough to give me a $5 tip. That was greatly appreciated considering I spent the last five days with these kids.

This is the earliest I have reached the 100 day mark and it was a great day. I still have a month of riding left and Aimee is coming back to town soon so I'm sure I will hit 120+. I foresee much Spring park riding in my future.

Day 99 | Buddha

2011-03-24T20:33:00.000-07:00

I had another enjoyable day with my class today. All three AC'ers were back and we picked up two more from Destination. One girl was very enjoyable and improved quickly. The boy was irritating as hell (talk, talk, talk) but everyone else was so pleasant that he really didn't annoy me as much as I thought he would. Plus he was a level four so his snowboarding was up to par for being in a level three class.

It was sunny in the morning and cloudy in the afternoon. Because we still had over 50 riders, it took some time to get all the kids organized. I think we got underway around 9:30am and we managed to take a couple runs before heading in for lunch, including going from top to bottom.

The afternoon went by quickly as we took another run through Marmot Trees. That is always a great time killer. The snow is still pretty decent but if we don't get some fresh stuff soon, it's going to get crappy over the weekend when all the Vancouverites show up. I have three more days of work and then I get a couple of days off. I don't think I will be riding on my days off unless we get hammered with snow. And there is not much snow in the forecast.

Day 98 | absolutely beautiful Wednesday

2011-03-23T20:46:00.000-07:00

My great day yesterday was even keeled today with a split in my level three class. Basically the four kids I picked up in Destination were much slower than my two kids in Adventure Camp. The only one frustrated and complaining about the situation was me. I don't think the kids even noticed.

With another day of over 50 snowboarders, it took awhile to get everybody up to the CLC and sorted out. Once my class was in order, we got our photo taken and we headed up the gondola. We only had time for one run before lunch. I had to keep a very slow pace for the slower kids in the class. One guy with us was technically a level two but because some Instructor moved him up to level three days ago, I had to keep him at level three. I didn't have the heart to tell him he was really a level two. Today was the second time this week he was in my class and both days I wanted to move him down but didn't. Luckily he's riding with his family tomorrow and then going back home on Saturday so I don't have to deal with him on Thursday.

Weather wise, the day was amazing! The sun was shining. The sky was blue. The snow was white. A high freezing level left for great slush below mid-station and perfect conditions for jumps at the CLC. The groomers in the Alpine are still nice and soft packed. We took a run through Marmot Trees and the snow through there is still nice as well. Wednesday is Adventure Camp apre day so we had some ice cream around 2:30. The day went by fast and all the kids seemed to have fun.

Day 97 | Justin Bieber

2011-03-22T20:35:00.000-07:00

Adventure Camp started with my three AC kids heading to the top of the gondola with two other kids from Destination. One guy I had yesterday so I knew what he was capable of, and one girl who was kind of turning down the Magic Carpet and I took a chance on taking her with my class. She fit in well but unfortunately one of my AC'ers fell on his wrist and I had to call patrol to take him to get x-rays. No idea if he will be returning tomorrow.

The snow up top was really nice. Still nice and soft packed on the groomers. I worked the kids hard today making them turn and turn and turn. They didn't mind because I also let them go through some trees and jump off some side hits. We also took a run through Marmot Trees. It was super sweet in there.

One of the level one kids looked like Justin Bieber. Everyone says he looks like the superstar and he even dressed up like Justin for Halloween. Of course, I had to get my photo taken with him. LOL!!! He does kind of look like the teen idol.

Day 96 | March Adventure Camp

2011-03-21T21:07:00.000-07:00

Busy times at Whistler here on out until the end of the season. This week starts off with Canada spring breaks. Since it's busy, Snowboard Adventure Camp is back in action and I have level threes! We had over 50 riders in lessons today and numbers look to be the same for the week. I have three kids in Camp but should probably have a full class every day for the week. Today I had a total of seven, well .... six and a half. I took a Lil Ripper who can turn all the way to the village but since he's so small, he gets super tired and needs much longer breaks between runs. So he ran with me and the big kids every other run.

In a perfect world, my level threes would have enjoyed a day of riding green runs in the Family Zone on top of the mountain. But in busy world, my level threes were really all high level twos. We spent most of the morning working on our turns on the Super Carpet. Fortunately, all the kids were turning after this session. Their turns weren't very pretty but at least they were turning.

We then spent the remainder of the day running down to the village. Snow was slushy and it was raining by late afternoon. Throw in some jumps at the CLC and a final run to the village and we can call it a day. Oh and I don't want to forget to mention how one of my kids let her snowboard run down Lower Olympic and into the woods. Luckily one of the boys was all too happy to hike down and get it for her. He was our hero! and proud that his mountain climbing lessons finally came in handy.

Day 95 | batteries in my butt

2011-03-19T20:21:00.000-07:00

We're starting to wind down the weekly Club program. Only three weeks left. For the second week in a row I only had two kids. There wasn't much snow reported overnight but I had a hard time believing that report once we got up top. There was a ton of fresh snow everywhere and it snowed most of the day.

We managed to squeeze in three runs before lunch, which is good for us considering I have a girl who does nothing but whine and complain the entire day. She hasn't missed a week whining and it annoys the crap out of me. I try my best to ignore it. I've talked to Mom about it but Mom just catered to the whining instead of nipping it in the bud. It turns out she also has a brother in Club and his Instructor told me he is also a constant whiner.

After lunch we hung out with Betty and her three boys. They started the season as level ones but are now clearly better than my kids. We took the P2P over to Blackcomb and Betty took us through some tree runs by the terrain garden that I never knew existed. The snow was amazing. It was tracked out but it was still soft and nice. On our last run, we followed Betty through Honeycomb trees and those were amazing as well. I was super stoked because I just learned of three new tree runs that I can take my kids down on Blackcomb and they are off the beaten path so they hardly get tracked out.

Day 94 | ketchup cake

2011-03-18T17:00:00.000-07:00

The back of our ketchup labels at the CLC have an advertisement for ketchup cake. If you want to try it, click here! Not sure why you would want to though.
Another non-snow day but that doesn't matter because the groomers are amazing. Soft packed conditions. The popular, easy tree runs are getting a bit chunky and there isn't any powder to be found. I would imagine the snow at the very top is still very good.

I had an easy day as I was assigned my returning level fours. This time I only had two of them. We started the morning riding down Green Acres and popping in and out of Marmot Trees. 11am lunch means we usually only have time for two runs in the morning so our second run was down Ego Bowl and through Enchanted Forest.

Yesterday I was super tired and I have to admit, I didn't do much teaching with the kids. Today I was more on my toes and spent more time going over some lessons listed on the report cards. After lunch instead of going over to Blackcomb and being tempted to run through the Terrain Garden again, I decided to stay on Whistler and hit up Marmot Trees. The boys loved that run, especially the trees down the gondola line. We also took a couple of laps through the Terrain Park. The Park was nicely groomed and I wish I could have gotten some huge air myself instead of spotting the landings but I guess that's part of being an Instructor. The day went by pretty fast and both kids were a lot more engaging today versus yesterday. To top it off, one Dad gave me a $20 tip!

Day 93 | Irish eyes

2011-03-17T20:28:00.000-07:00

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!
Both mountains were pretty quiet today. Hardly any lift lines. Not that I cared since I was working and could cut the lines anyway. No new snow overnight and the sun was finally shining. It was a gorgeous day. Perfect temps and perfect snow.

I started the morning with five level fours but got rid of two of them during lunch. In the afternoon, we headed over to Blackcomb to take a few laps in the terrain garden. We ended up spending the rest of the day in the TG since there was no one using it. On our last lap I decided to head through some trees and the boys instantly got excited. They hadn't shown any emotion all day! They all said they wanted to ride the park but then said going through the trees was their favorite part of the lesson. Oh well. A couple of them are returning tomorrow so hopefully I can snag that class again and take them through the trees.

Day 92 | teenage boys

2011-03-16T20:19:00.000-07:00

I was asked to work Ride Tribe today (13-18 years old). As long as I get work, I really don't care where I work. I knew I'd end up with a low level class just because I'm low man on the totem pole in that department. No biggee as it's at the point in the season where I'm there for work and not worried too much about the snowboarding aspect of it.

Another foot of snow fell overnight, bringing our snowbase up to almost 400cm. We've had over 6 feet of snow in the past seven or eight days. I can't say I've enjoyed much of that as most of the classes I have taught lately have been low levels.

Anyway, today I had four boys from USA. Brothers from Memphis, a kid from Connecticut, and a kid from Houston, Texas. All very nice kids and because three were from the south, I heard a lot of "yes ma'ame"- very polite kids.

Naturally we spent our entire day at the Olympic area. Spent most of the day on the Super Carpet and took one run up the Olympic Chair. Three out of the four of them were turning by the afternoon. The funny thing about teenage boys is that they learn by "discovery". There's no holding their hands and helping them down the bunny hill as they try their edges for the first time. They just stand up and go for it. Quite different from the seven year olds who hang onto you for dear life!

Day 91 | 6am to 9:45am

2011-03-14T14:30:00.000-07:00

Because of mega-snow and high winds, the Alpine hasn't been open in three days. I was hoping it would open today (on my day off) so Pip and Jordan and I decided to do Fresh Tracks. Unfortunately, lots of other people had the same idea and by the time we reached the Village at 7am, the queue was back to the ticket kiosk. The 650 people cut off is right around that area. Rather than stand in line and chance not getting up, we decided to eat breakfast at the Wizard Grill and upload at regular time.

When we reached the top of Wizard Chair, Solar Coaster was on stand-by so we rocked back down to Wizard making fresh lines virtually the whole way down. The first third of the run was amazing!! But the snow quickly got wet and sticky. We were back in line at Solar Coaster at 9am and we were hoping it would open soon. When a Patrol friend skied by, he suggested heading down to Excaliber Chair citing Solar wasn't going to open for awhile. So we rocked down to Excaliber only to find another 20 minute queue (Excaliber has been running at 50% speed as it's running on it's auxiliary diesel engine, has been for almost a week). By the time we got to some good snow, it was close to 10am.

Needless to say, I wasn't too thrilled to wake up at 6am just to stand in a line for virtually three hours. But once we got to the snow, OH MY GOD it was amazing! Pip works on Blackcomb so she's good at knowing tree runs and off piste runs with plenty of powder. And there was plenty of powder!! Especially through the trees. It was easily up to our knees and very soft and fluffy. Patrol did a great job at getting Crystal Chair open fairly early. We hit up Outer Limits, a double black tree run. From there we had to cat track back to Excelerator and the long lift line. Pip was cold and hungry and wanted to take a break. Jordan ran down to the Village while Pip and I downloaded. The plan was to head up Whistler, thinking the lift lines were faster. We were pretty tired of standing in line. But by the time we reached the Village, Pip and I had decided to call it a day. Getting up at 6am takes it toll. LOL

I have tomorrow off and again I'm crossing my fingers the Alpine opens and we can shred the Peak all afternoon. In the meantime, I'm heading to the dog park with Cabo!

Day 90 | extra sour

2011-03-13T17:39:00.000-07:00

41 inches of snow in the past seven days!!!
I had a chance to play in the snow again today and the snow these days ... IS AMAZING!!! I was handed two level fives and they were the nicest engaging kids. It was nice to end my work week on a nice note.

We started the day with a run down greens to Emerald Chair. The winds were whipping today like crazy. The Alpine hasn't opened for the second day in a row. None of us were interested in sitting on the chair again so we lapped the Village Gondola for most of the day. We took a lap through the terrain park but that was virtually useless for jumps. Kids never understand why you say "no park on a powder day" until you take them through it and then they realize why. After lunch we ran from the Roundhouse down to Creekside. That's always a time burner. Before you know it, the afternoon was over. I was wet and I was tired.

My kid brought some Warheads (extreme sour hard candy) and took a video of my reaction eating it. It's pretty humorous ... and here it is:

Day 89 | dress your Instructor day

2011-03-12T19:59:00.000-08:00

Nine inches of snow fell overnight and I finally got to get up into the Alpine and enjoy some powder. I can say without a shadow of a doubt that I hate my 2010 Burton Feelgood in powder. I think it's too stiff. I can't lean back and control where I'm going on the thing. Luckily I only have to use it at work and I'm usually restricted to powdered green runs on work days. I can deal with it on those types of runs but it isn't too fun.

Anyway, my Club kids and I hit Tokum (the run of the day) before 10am and found some fresh lines and deep powder. The Alpine never opened today so all the runs were tracked out pretty quickly, not to mention the lift lines were pretty long. We didn't do as many runs as I would have liked today. I'm not sure why. My kids wanted to spend most of the afternoon at the CLC going over the jump. I probably should have made them ride more but it was snowing pretty heavy and I was pretty wet so I didn't argue much.

Ava's parents did a good job of dressing me up today. I felt kind of silly snowboarding with a hot dog purse but I got to keep the boxers so it was worth it. : )

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
snowbase - 358cm

Day 88 | sour puss

2011-03-11T17:04:00.000-08:00

My happy kid from yesterday returned today which meant I had level twos. He was joined by two other girls, one from Panama and one from Texas. The plan for today was to work on S turns. That's what level two's do, they work on their turns. We spent a little bit of time on the Magic Carpet and then moved over to the Super Carpet. We lasted there until lunch.

My boy could easily turn all the way down the Super Carpet while the girls weren't really turning at all. After lunch I decided to take them down to the Village. That took over an hour. My girl from Texas was really good at zig zagging. I was told she goes down blue runs but the only thing she does is zig zag. She didn't seem too thrilled with practicing turning all day, especially since she really couldn't do it. She was quiet and wasn't excited about anything we did. She walked around all day with a puss on her face. I tried not to let it bring me down. The other two kids were super cool and having a good time. I spoke to her mom at the end of the day and her mother didn't seem to be surprised. Oh well. Like I said, I tried not to let her ruin the good time I was having with the other two kids.

Day 87 | Born in the USA

2011-03-10T17:58:00.000-08:00

I was really dreading going to work this morning. I contemplated going home if we were overstaffed but I really need the ca$h (who doesn't!). I was assigned level twos but I opted for level ones as I didn't want to deal with a class of five kids from Panama. Instead I got two very nice kids, one from Seattle and one from Florida.

Another 7 inches of fresh snow fell overnight and the Magic Carpet had some tough sticky powdery conditions first thing in the morning. I started the kids on their toes then progressed to their heels and zig zags - all before lunch! By the afternoon, the snow had packed down giving the kids an easy practice run so I got them to start learning their S turns. By the end of the day, one was going off of jumps and both were connecting turns down the Magic Carpet. They both said they had a fun day and were overwhelmed with how much they were able to learn in six hours. The boy from Seattle expressed his joy so much to Mom that she booked him in lessons again for tomorrow and sent WB Snow School a very glowing email about me. I found out that today is International Awesome Day ... and ironically, I had a great day even though I was expecting the worse.

Day 86 | echo!

2011-03-09T18:45:00.000-08:00

Woke up in a snow globe this morning. Whistler Blackcomb reported 2cm overnight but there was at least 8 inches at the CLC by 9am. It was a blizzard for most of the morning and the snow was fluffy and light. There weren't many kids in snowboard lessons and most of them were already "taken" by other Instructors. The only kids left to take were a level one and a Lil Ripper. I opted for the Lil Ripper, which turned out to be a good choice since the Level one was a miracle kid and ended up in the Level two class by lunch. Needless to say my day was long and boring consisting of walking up and down the Magic Carpet.

Day 85 | Pip & Jordan

2011-03-08T15:46:00.000-08:00

Still no new snow to report. A front is forecasted to bring about 30cm by tomorrow afternoon. I met up with Pip and Jordan around 11am on Whistler. We lapped the Whistler Terrain Park for about two hours. The Parks crew have been doing an outstanding job on the Parks this season. They've added some nice S/M jumps under the lift line. Not too big but big enough to practice getting lots of air and pop on, especially if you're starting to find the small jumps a bit too small. They're labeled as Medium but they're not as big as most medium features. They are sort of in between small and medium. The park has also been extended down to the Emerald Chair. Pip and I followed Jordan through the blue park for a few laps. Then we switched back to the green park. Conditions were really nice. Soft packed powder and the transitions were nicely groomed, not rutted out. It started getting crowded after 1pm so we called it a day around 1:30pm.

Day 84 | session

2011-03-07T19:37:00.000-08:00

Ever since I passed my Level 2 certification, every year I start the season saying I'm going to train hard for Level 3 and once the season gets going I can't be bothered. Today I took the full day Level 3 session. It's only the second 3 Prep I've taken. One of the top Instructors on Whistler Blackcomb is this guy named Jose and I wanted to train with him.

I was crazy tired in the morning and the last thing I wanted to do was ride. I forced myself out of bed knowing that if I didn't ride, I would regret it by noon. The sun was shining and even though we haven't had any new snow in a few days, the snow in the higher elevations is still pretty nice.

There is a Level 3 Course starting tomorrow and there are about eight WB Instructors signed up to the take the course. Most of them were in the session today, trying to brush up on their skills before the exam. We met up on Blackcomb and ran the GMC race course about three times. Then we did some work on moguls before heading in for lunch. Most of the afternoon session consisted of a lot of talking on what is expected on course. I was super super tired and not feeling myself so I bailed around 1:30 and was back at home by 2pm to take Cabo to the dog park. I was glad I got up and did some riding but I really wasn't into it.

Day 83 | Panama Invasion

2011-03-06T19:22:00.000-08:00

It was a very stressful day at Whistler Kids. There seems to be an influx of Spanish speaking people from Panama in town and they must be financially well off because their kids are rude as hell. They claim to speak English but I had a hard believing they understood anything I said. They also have no manners: no please, no thank you ... and they bark orders at you like you're their servant.

There were about 20 kids in snowboard lessons, almost all of them Spanish, and most of them all know each other. I was given level threes and I had three of them. A couple whacky things happened today. The first happened right out of the gate when Betty and I decided to take a run down to the village to sort out the level threes and level fours. We checked all the kids on the Magic Carpet to make sure they could turn. Then about 100 yards down Olympic run, one kid immediately fell hard trying to S turn. When I checked on him, he was a level two! He had an Instructor's name on his bib as well! For some reason he just decided to follow us. So I had to walk him back up the hill and put him back into his proper class.

The rest of the morning was pretty easy as we had early lunch and by the time we split the classes and had some photos taken, there was only time for one run down to the village. The afternoon was a bit different. I quickly learned I had one kid who could speak very good English and two kids who didn't understand what I was saying. I had the other kid translate to the other kids. My first rule was to come into the group safely. In other words, when I'm stopped on the run, don't come to me riding a million miles an hour and run me over because you have no control when you try to stop. So what happened? Three times the same kid bashed his snowboard into me because he was out of control. The last time he did it, I actually pushed him off of me! He looked at me surprised but he didn't do it again.

I also had a jumbo kid. He lasted one run from the Roundhouse back to the CLC where I had to drop him off to take a break. That left me with two strong kids so I decided to take them through the trees and then down Jimmy's Joker. At the bottom of Jimmy's Joker, the oldest kid ended up getting stuck in the powder and he couldn't get out. He cried out for me to help him and I told him he needed to take off his board. After struggling, whining, and crying for five minutes, he finally took off his board, he walked back to the run and then he threw his board back into the powder and sat on the ground pouting!! Luckily his board landed in powder and didn't take off dangerously down the mountain. I sat there stumped for a moment, letting the kid cool down. I started taking my camera out of my pocket to take a photo of him and when he saw me doing that, he decided to get his board back. LOL! He got his board, walked down the run to where I was sitting and then threw his board again and then threw his goggles. Another Instructor stopped and asked if I needed any help. I said I didn't know because I have never had a kid throw their snowboard before. I gave him five minutes to cool down and then told him if he didn't put his board back on, I was going to leave him there and he would be spending the night in the snow. Of course, he put his board on and we headed back to the CLC.

I had a Spanish speaking Instructor explain the dangers of his behavior and I let his father know of his actions when he was checked out. The boys spent the rest of the afternoon on a jump at the CLC. I couldn't wait for the day to be over and if it wasn't for the amazing snow conditions and sun, the day would have totally sucked. Instead it was just a very long and frustrating day. I am so glad I have the next two days off!

Day 82 | she said yes!

2011-03-05T18:14:00.000-08:00

I don't know if she said yes. Hell, I have no idea who Sarah is. Thought it was an interesting proposal.
We had 7 inches of fresh powder overnight and after taking a couple of days off to mend a strep throat, I was ready to shred with my Club class.

I only had two kids in the morning and we were on the gondola by 9am heading up to the Roundhouse. We strapped on our boards and headed down Whiskey Jack. The snow was amazing!!! Powder everywhere, the groomers still had nice corduroy and the snow was sooooo soft. It was fun. We weren't allowed to go through any trees so I did my best to find fresh tracks on the runs we were allowed on. We managed to squeeze in a couple of runs before lunch and we were able to enjoy the fresh snow before it was completely chopped up. We even took a quick lap through the terrain park.

During lunch, Ava was signed out leaving me with only Jaden once again. After lunch, he and I went from the Roundhouse down to Creekside Gondola, then took Expressway to the village and then back up to the Roundhouse for one last run back down to the village. The great thing about Jaden is that he can go from top to bottom without stopping or taking a break. My legs were burning halfway down but he was leading and he kept on riding. If it wasn't for a heavy low level cloud, I would have called today perfect.

Day 81 | high winds close Whistler

2011-03-02T19:22:00.000-08:00

More snow fell overnight and more snow fell during the day. I was told I'd be teaching my return level threes. I knew the forecast called for high gusting winds in the Alpine so I opted to give up the threes for a Lil Ripper, thus keeping me close to home (the CLC) and out of the crappy weather. There were three Lil Rippers and Morgan took the other two.

The winds were suppose to reach 100kph by late morning and by 11am, Operations had closed the Emerald Chair and Red Chair leaving only the Village Gondola open. But by noon, they had closed the upper line of that too.

We took the Rippers over to the Super Carpet in the morning. There was so much powder that the only thing they could do was straight line down the run. Morgan and I chased after them, picked them up when they fell, and put them back on the carpet to do it again and again. The afternoon was a bit more laid back with lots of coloring after lunch.

Some people, including some Minis, got stranded at the top of the mountain and had to be brought down in Cats. Two Cats dropped off a full cab at mid-station. I don't know the complete story there. Assuming the winds were so blinding that people didn't feel comfortable skiing down.

Day 80 | be jealous 'cause I rip

2011-03-01T20:33:00.000-08:00

There were 18 riders in lessons. The week after Presidents Week is usually pretty slow so it's nice that we have some kids taking lessons. I feel like I haven't been to work in awhile and I guess I haven't. I took a lot of time off last week to hang with Si'Aire. Now I'm looking to work as much as I can since there is only two months of work left. My how time flies.

February went out with a ton of snow and March is coming in with snow. Forecast calls for snow all week. Conditions today were amazing. Super soft packed with powder to be found here and there. I had low level three's so there wasn't much gnarly shredding going on. We spent the morning lapping the village run. After lunch we went up top and rode Whiskey Jack and Ego Bowl. I wanted to go to Marmot Trees but I didn't feel my kids had the ability to get back to Emerald Chair on the cat track. These kids just needed to turn as much as they could down green runs. So that's what we did. The day went by pretty fast.

Day 79 | hit it Chicago

2011-02-27T16:54:00.000-08:00

The snow has made it's way back to town, just in time to send Si'Aire out of town. Today was his last day to shred and the snow conditions were pretty good. I wanted to get some video of him in the park so we took about five park laps as soon as we got up. The ride up the chairlift was freezing with moderate winds and blowing snow. After a run to mid-station, we took a quick break at the Roundhouse.

Si'Aire only had a couple more runs in him after that. My treeline off of Whiskey Jack was sweet as well as Jimmy's Joker. The wind was blowing a whiteout in our face on our last run down to Creekside. Si'Aire took the easy groomer down while I played in the powder on the side. At least I can say that my strength has returned. I think I'm finally getting over my cold. Just in time for the snow that is forecasted all week!!

Day 78 | just me and J-man

2011-02-26T17:05:00.000-08:00

The last two days have been bitterly cold in Whistler (-25 C, -6 F). It was way too cold for me and the boy to ride. But it was back to work today with Club and I couldn't have asked for an easier day. Jaden was the only one to show up and he seemed pretty tired so we did easy groomers all day. The temps weren't too bad, certainly not as cold as it has been, and the snow was nice. All the powder is gone and it's pretty chunky off the groomers. The conditions are machine groomed, maybe medium packed. Certainly not icy. The sun shined in the morning but by the afternoon the clouds and fog had rolled in. We're expecting a few cm's overnight. The boy took his last Ride Tribe lesson of his life. He said he had a good day in the Park with Poncho.

Day 77 | arctic air

2011-02-23T19:36:00.000-08:00

The arctic temps are back and are forecasted to stay until Sunday. Man it was cold today. When it's this cold, I want no part of snowboarding. The Magic Carpet is my friend when the temps are single digits. I was assigned level threes but quickly traded them for level ones, which then turned into having one Lil Ripper. SWEET! easy, easy day. Not to mention I am still pretty sick so chilling with a Ripper on the Carpet was just what I needed (again).

By the time we got all 40 snowboarders signed in and loaded up to the CLC, it was close to 9:30am. The morning went by fast as my guy was pretty keen to ride. He could side slip on his heels and his toes. We hung with the other two Rippers during lunch and spent some time coloring.

In the afternoon, we practiced turning until Jack fell on his leg and then started fake limping. I believed he hurt his leg a bit but the exaggerated limp was kind of funny. We went inside to take a break and ended up coloring most of the afternoon. He was able to take one last run side slipping on his heels before time was up for the day. It was a nice, uneventful day. It was partly sunny, mostly cloudy and very very cold. We need more snow!!

Day 76 | heels over head

2011-02-22T16:48:00.000-08:00

The boy and I slept in a bit in the morning. I am still sick as a dog.... well sick enough to complain but not sick enough to stay in bed all day. : D
It was a perfect blue bird day so I grabbed my Canon and we headed up Whistler to meet up with Pip and Jordan around 10:30am. I recently met a fellow photography enthusiast named Kyle, who also tagged along with us.

Jordan has been eyeing a rock with a jib up landing into powder out in Harmony so we headed for that. There were five of us riding with three different digital SLR's. Each of us hit the rock between three and four times, hiking back up to hit it again (I only hit it once since I'm weak from the flu). Then at the same time, click-click-click-click-click came the sounds from the cameras. We spent about an hour and a half shooting at the rock. We all got some awesome pictures as well, with Si'Aire being the main focus in two of the "shots of the day".

Pippa had to run to work and Jordan decided to stay back at the rock and work on the take off. Si'Aire, Kyle, and I traversed our way out of there and made our way to the Roundhouse as I was in desperate need of some water. By now the clouds had rolled in ruining any more chances of getting blue bird pics so we decided to call it a day and headed back down to Creekside to get home.