Day 72 | holy $#*!

Signed up for Steeps, Trees, and Drops session hoping to learn more spots off Peak Chair and Harmony where I can take my higher level kids when the snow is good.  Instead I ended up spending most of my day out of bounds and having the thrill of my life!

I met up with the session to find about six guys fixing to get up Peak Chair.  The Instructor had his camera pack with him and the guys wanted to hit a 30-50 foot cliff drop.  I was all for witnessing that!  Unfortunately, we were told the chair wasn't going to open for another hour so instead of waiting around we headed down to the Big Red Express via Frog Hollow and rode toward Harmony.  Once we got to the Harmony Chair, we found the queue to be insane so someone came up with the bright idea to do Singing Pass.

Now not everybody just nonchalantly rides Singing Pass.  Singing Pass is out of bounds.  Singing Pass is a virtual straight down the tree line under the Peak 2 Peak gondola.  Singing Pass is dangerous, steep, and shouldn't be ventured alone!  Singing Pass is also about a 4km skate back out to the village.

Don't get me wrong, there was a fairly easy gully that I was able to snowboard through where I found a section of fresh snow that was literally waist high.  The boys that I was with were more hard core.  They were dropping cliffs and pillows.  It was one of those things where you watch videos of people doing these amazing feats on their snowboard, and even though you know you can't do it, you'd still like to be there to see it live.  That was my day.

The snow down the Pass was amazing.  Of course, not many people venture in there so there was plenty of fresh .... and it was deep!!!   But the traverse out of Singing Pass back to the village was HELL for me.  I was slow and skating on my board for about 4 km really took it out of me.  I refueled at ECBC with a chicken breast panini and somehow the guys managed to talk me into a nice powder run from the Peak to the Creek with very little hiking.  I heard the word Khyber thrown around and since I've been wanting to ride Khyber trees for years now, I didn't want to miss this opportunity especially after all the snow we've just had.

Up Peak Chair we went!  Again, Khyber trees are out of bounds.  I wasn't nervous at all as I've been told they aren't too difficult, you just need to be with people and watch out for tree wells.  Also you need to know where you are going!  I followed Quentin down the mellow lines while most of the guys dropped some cliffs in this section called Flat Cliffs.  I had a harder time than I normally would have as my legs were spent from the previous insane run!

Once out of Khyber we met back up at Creekside where I took one more ride up the gondola and then called it a day.  I managed to make my way down Dave Murray downhill without losing my legs (or any limbs).  It was an insane, epic day where my boundaries were pushed to the limits and I hit some turns in waist deep powder.  Days like today are why I choose to live my life in Whistler and I never regret a moment of it.

Here's a video of the guys.  I wish I could have zoomed in more.

 

Day 3 | +51 centimeters

I woke up at 6:15am and Whistler Blackcomb's snow report read 51 centimeters (20 inches) of new snow!!  I had to be at Millenium Place for Return Staff Orientation at 10am.  I thought to myself:  "if I get on the gondola at 8:30am, I can take a few runs before I have to be at my meeting."  How often does it snow almost two feet overnight?

By 8am the parking lots were almost full and the lift line was already back to the ticket kiosk.  I ran into some ski school buddies and we got in line.  It took thirty five minutes to reach the gondola entrance.  By now it was 9:05am and I had a 10am meeting.  Another 20 minutes up to the Roundhouse and by the time I strap in, it's 9:30.  I thought:  "one run down to mid-station and then to the Orientation."

Naturally I brought my powder board with me.  It's a Prior Khyber and it's specifically designed for deep snow days!!  I hit the trees off Whiskey Jack into Ego Bowl  and the snow was so deep.  Even with my powder board, which is designed with a wide nose to float on top of the snow, I got stuck.  I was up to my knees in snow and had to wedge my way to a line already tracked earlier.  Ego Bowl was groomed with beautiful corduroy so I surfed in and out between the groomed run and the deep pow on the side.  It was a great run down to mid-station.

I downloaded and headed to my meeting.  At 10am, the lift line was still past Zogs.  It must have been the second wave, the crowd that slept in.  After two hours of sitting around listening to what is going to happen during the Olympics, I went back up for more epic runs.  There is a ton of snow up there and every day keeps getting better and better.

Tonight's forecast calls for another 25-35 centimeters!  Looks like another perfect day for the powder board!