Day 57 | the Big Dig

I borrowed an avalanche shovel from a co-worker and decided to go in search of my dropped camera.  My friend Dan offered to tag along and helped with the digging.  It was raining in the village and the rain continued almost to the top of Garbanzo Chair.  It was quiet for a Saturday.

We made our way to the area I thought the camera was located.  We took off our boards and we started digging.  I was optimistic we were going to find it.  The spectators on the chairlift were all wondering what the hell we were doing.  Most wondered what we were looking for.  We dug quite a large hole going down about a meter and out about two meters in both directions.  I wonder what the hole looks like from the chairlift.   After an hour of digging - no luck!  No camera.  We gave up.  I guess I'll have to wait for the snow to melt and maybe I'll find it in the spring.

After the big dig, we made our way down the lift line, which is my new favorite run.  It was so warm that the snow was very wet and choppy.  Better than being icy but not the best conditions.  I ran into the CLC to return the shovel and headed down to the village to end my day.  Since he was already wet, Dan decided to head up the gondola and check out the conditions up top.  It wouldn't surprise me if the snow was good, at least down to Emerald Chair.

Here's Dan posing with the shovel!

Chairlift spectators.

That's a pretty big hole!

Day 56 | skools

I was asked to switch days off and work schools today since they were 600+ kids busy.  I didn't have a problem with that, hoping for the old -->  "you scratch my back, I'll scratch your back when I need time off" reciprocal.  Working schools practically guarantees you about 8 to 11 kids in your class.  I got lucky as I only had eight!  And they were really nice kids, all friends from the UBC area, and most importantly, they all spoke English.  Unless you've visited Vancouver, you cannot comprehend the size of the Asian population here.

They were novice but could all turn, well most of them could turn and those who couldn't were strong zig-zaggers.  I headed up the Wizard Chair immediately.  We did about two or three runs from the Wizard Chair/Excalibur height on Blackcomb then headed to the Wizard Grill for lunch.  YUM!  I stuck to my healthy diet ordering brown rice with vegetables and chicken opting to forego the fattening sauce.

After lunch we went to the top of Solar Coaster.  I don't work Blackcomb much so I never noticed the lack of green runs over there.  That's good when you have an intermediate class, but when your class should really be on green runs, it's kind of a pain.  It wasn't too bad and none of the kids complained.

 

Day 55 | sheep tails

Another perfect day in Whistler with a few more snowboarders to teach.....  instead of two, we had 14!  I pulled the level three/four class consisting of three boys:  one from Australia, one from New Zealand, and one from Orlando, Florida.  Once we got ourselves settled into our respective classes, we headed to the Roundhouse.

Conditions were soft packed powder with sunny and partly cloudy skies.  The temps were a bit colder than yesterday but nothing unbearable.  We did a few green runs before lunch and then headed in to eat.  After lunch I thought I'd mix it up a bit by taking the Peak 2 Peak Gondola over to Blackcomb.  We went through the Terrain Garden twice then back over to Whistler for our last run down to the valley.

I learned today that some sheep get their tails docked.  My kid from New Zealand has a farm and they dock the tails with a heat iron.  It sounds so painful for the poor sheep.  Apparently it's done to keep the sheep clean of fecal matter and to help prevent fly strike.   I found this information fascinating as I never knew some sheep didn't need a tail.  Not only do they dock the tails, but apparently the tails can be eaten!!  I tried to google the eating information but I found nothing so I think that kid was telling me a tall sheep tale!  

 

Day 54 | a perfect OZ day

Today is January 26th and it's Australia Day.  It's a day where Whistler is turned upside down by all the crazy Aussie's living and working here.  They usually open the pubs at 9am and shut them down well into the night.  Most of them ski or ride with their flags on their backs and some of them ski or ride in boardshorts or bikinis.  It's quite a sight.

We had two kids in Snowboard School and I took the strong level three/four guy (same kid I had on Saturday).  It was a perfect day today.  And by perfect I mean:  soft packed snow, sunshine, no wind, not crowded, no liftlines, powdery through the trees, not too warm - not too cold, picturesque with snow topped trees and blue skies.

My kid was a bit on the cautious side so we spent our time on green runs and blue runs hitting all the jumps, drops and powdery fresh lines we could find.  We also took a run through Marmot Trees.  Having one kid is awesome because you can let him lead most of the way and then you can hit anything you want while you're behind him.  It was truly an amazing day and I couldn't believe I was getting paid to be out there.  Plus my kid was pretty cool to hang out with.  Not to mention, Dad throw me $10 bucks at the end of the day, making it even better!!!  

Day 53 | WESP finale

This was the last Monday for my Whistler Elementary School kids and we made the most out of the 11cm of light powder that fell overnight and throughout the day!!  There were no warm ups on the Magic Carpet this week, it was all business when we exited the Village Gondola before 10am.  It was snowing like crazy and fairly windy at the Roundhouse, but once you ducked down a run, the snow was amazing and the wind had subsided.

There was plenty of fresh tracks to be found on the sides of the runs.  We cruised our way down Whiskey Jack finding as much pow as possible.  We only had time for a Roundhouse to Village run before we had to head in for early lunch.  No worries though cause after lunch we hit Marmot Trees.  The treeline was full of fresh powder and even though a couple of the kids had a hard time with it, they all loved it.  We ducked in and out of the trees on Cruizer as well.  Unfortunately, the cat track just about "killed" all five of them, since they're fairly new to riding and cat tracks are super hard when you're a beginner.  One girl fell, hit her head and opted out for the rest of the afternoon.  The rest of them spent some time on the jump at the CLC until it was time to load back onto the bus.  It was a great day even though I didn't get to spend as much time in the Alpine as I would have liked.

Day 52 | quickies

Sunday Valley Club day and today I had two boys.  One was an out of control level three and one was an in control level four.  We got up to the Roundhouse early (before 9am) where we found some soft packed powder conditions that is starting to get a bit hard packed.  I was determined to help the kids with their counter rotating issues.  One kid worked on it, one kid just went crazy.  After lunch the crazier kid got picked up by Mom and Dad, leaving me with the one level four.

Boy this kid could ride and he had no interest in taking many breaks.  So we snowboarded and snowboarded and snowboarded.  We hit the Marmot Trees, the hit run down Ego Bowl (twice), down to the village, Garbanzo Chair to Orange Peel and Expressway.  He wanted to work on his jumps and drops so we hit everything we could find.  It was fun.  By 2:20pm he said he was done and needed a break.  I couldn't blame him.... I was exhausted myself.  It was a long but good day of riding with a pretty cool kid who will end up being in my club class for the rest of the season.

Day 51 | sparkz

Nothing exciting to report for today.  I had a small level three class consisting of three kids.  They were slow but they were good enough to go up top.  Conditions were amazing with soft packed powder.  The skies were clear so it was a bit cold but nothing terrible.  We rode mostly green runs in the Family Zone.  It was a crowded Saturday with lots of visitors on the runs.

Day 50 | privates

I was asked to work Privates today (my day off) and since I called in sick on Tuesday and I know there isn't going to be much work going around in Feb (because of the Olympics) I reluctantly said yes.  Though I was excited to work the Privates program since I've never worked a private lesson before.  Visions of a big tip and a free lunch popped into my head.  ha ha

I stood outside the Ski School Hut with four other Snowboard Instructors, for over and hour, waiting for a last minute booking.  When no one showed, we were given the sign to leave.  Most of the other privates instructors were going up to hike up Flute Bowl and I was invited, out of courtesy of course.  Naturally I declined.  Because I had to report back to Privates in the afternoon for a possible late day booking, I couldn't leave so I headed up to the CLC for a much needed hot drink and some fruit.  I wasn't motivated at all to ride even though the conditions in the Alpine are still amazing.  Instead I stayed at the CLC, had some lunch and then when it was time, I headed back down to the village to see if I had a half day afternoon lesson.  Nothing was booked so I was told I could head home about 12:45 and that's what I did.

Day 49 | poor pooh

We had four instructors working and we had four classes.  There was one six year old as a never-ever and then three other high level classes.  Naturally, no one wanted the six year old (see pic).  To make it fair, we decided to "draw straws" and as luck would have it, I drew Mr. Happy.  So I spent my day on the Magic Carpet and handle tow.

11cm of fresh goose down, champagne like powder fell overnight.  One ski instructor described it as being the lightest snow he's ever skied on.  Grrreat!  Unfortunately I missed it, but I didn't get to miss the poor six year old girl who poohed her pants at the end of the day.  It was about 2:45 and when I went inside the building to put away my jump paint, Andy - a ski instructor, asked me to check on his girl Samantha who had been in the restroom for an unusual amount of time.  As I entered the girls' room, the smell of diarrhea filled the room.  I called out to Samantha and asked her if she was okay.  She wouldn't answer me so I peeked through the crack in her stall.  That's when I saw it:  pooh all in her underwear.  OMG!  Poor girl.  I told Andy what was going on and her got one of the CLC staff to help her.  I have no idea what help was performed, especially since it was the end of the day and washing and drying was not an option.  I will have to inquire later in the week.  I can't help but feel so bad for that little girl.  Maybe tomorrow she'll order the grill cheese instead of the hot dog.

Day 48 | wet and powdery

Next to the last week for my WESP kids and I was unmotivated to work this AM.  When I got to Creekside and it was pouring rain, I doubled that unmotivation.  By the time my kids and I reached the CLC, I was wet, hungry, tired and grouchy.  I had no idea what we should do for the day.  It was snowing at the CLC but raining shortly below it.  After standing on the Magic Carpet for a half an hour, I decided to take the kids down to the valley and then head in for lunch.

My original plan was to take the kids up to the Roundhouse for the afternoon.  Since this was their third week ever snowboarding, I figured it would take them at least an hour and a half to get back down to mid-mountain.  The weather report for the Alpine during lunch was that the snow was amazing to Emerald Chair and then really hard and wet down Olympic.  The powder sounded great but the troubling part was the gusting winds up to 100kph and the advice to not get on the Emerald Chair because of the winds being so strong, making for a seriously cold chair ride up.

I decided to brave the elements and head for the powder.  Once my kids hit Whiskey Jack below the Peak to Peak Gondola, they were loving life!!!  The snow was amazing.  None of them are skiers so it was their first time snowboarding in such amazing conditions.  Every time we stood up to ride, they were all yelling, chanting, and screaming how awesome it was!  Its fun to teach kids who get that excited and really know how to show it.  I underestimated them as well, thinking it would take them forever and day to get anywhere but their riding was really fast.  Fast enough to take a second lap down Ego Bowl and enjoy more of the powder.

By the time we reached the CLC, they were all exhausted and super stoked on snowboarding.  Their parents are probably thanking me right now:  it's 7:30pm and I would bet money they are all close to falling asleep!

Day 47 | plenty of snow for everyone

The crowds are still here and the lift lines are still long.  The snow is still amazing with another 11cm falling overnight!!  Today was my Valley Club day and although my one level four kid is on vacation for two weeks in Colorado, I was able to take the level three kid.  I was sort of hoping for the day off to enjoy the pow but no such luck.

I still had a good powder day with my level three.  He told me he had been to the top of the mountain before and that was all I needed to hear!  We were off to the Roundhouse first thing in the morning.  We took a couple runs down Whiskey Jack and Ego Bowl before heading down for early lunch.  The conditions were amazing even if you weren't hitting fresh lines.  When there is this much snow, it's hard to keep the runs groomed so the green runs were kind of "chunky" ... but it was nice.

After lunch I took him through a couple of easy trees runs where I was able to find one or two turns in knee deep fresh white stuff.  He had a bit of a hard time with it but his parents were grateful as getting stuck in powder really tires a kid out quickly.  We hit Jimmy's Joker and Bear Paw.  Both of these black diamond runs were nothing but moguls.... and so exhausting!  By the time we got back to the CLC, I told him his day was done.  He was tired and I didn't want him to get hurt.   I was tired and I didn't want to get hurt as well!

Day 46 | M.L.K. weekend

f*ck my life!  Yesterday's fresh tracks deboggle was nothing compared to what I did today.  Since no one touched the pristine 46cm that fell the other night on Whistler, I was hoping for a high level class in snowboard school.  As luck would have it, I was assigned to three level four kids who all seemed as anxious to hit the new snow as I was.

It's Martin Luther King weekend so it's a busy Saturday/Sunday with lots of Americans visiting from the States.  Line ups were huge:  back to the kiosk in the village, out of station at Olympic, Garbanzo was out of the fences and I'm sure the remaining chairs were just as busy.  Great day to work since when you're in uniform, you get to cut the public line and take a "short cut" to the chair.  The gondola was chucked full with ten people per cabin so I grabbed my kids and we headed up Garbanzo Chair.

Weather today was amazing!  Blue skies, very little wind, white fluffy fresh snow everywhere.  Two thirds of the way up Garbanzo, we went through some fog, and as we neared the top, the sun was shining through the fog and through the snow covered trees.  I decided to pull out my small point and shoot camera from my pocket to take a few pics.  I carry my camera with me every day in order to get images for this blog.  As I was putting my camera back into my pants pocket, it slid out of the camera case and fell off Garbanzo Chair.  I was stunned!!!  It fell in an area that isn't very easy to reach with a snowboard on your feet.  It also fell in an area that had untouched perfect soft snow at least 5 to 6 feet deep.  After screaming out loud in disbelief, I kissed the camera goodbye!

When conditions are this amazing, losing a camera didn't upset me as much as you might think.  Snow levels were past your knees in some places with the wind drifts but definitely up to your shins everywhere else.  I took my class down Tokum,  a super powdery blue run that not many people take the time to trek to.  My boys and I were loving this run!  Powder was everywhere.  It was a bit tracked out but nothing crazy.  Once I taught the kids how to ride over the powder instead of sink in it, they were loving it as well.

After lunch, my co-worker offered to take my class with her class for one run while I went down the liftline to try and find my camera.  Since my Supervisor also suggested I go look for it, I took her up on her offer, gave her my kids, and I headed to where I think the camera was located.  I tracked through snow that was up to my knees and found a hole where I thought the camera would be.  I took my glove off and stuck my hand as far down as I could but I felt nothing.  I tracked around the area a bit more but there was still no camera to be found.  Bummer!

Now I had the great fortune of having to get back to my class via the run directly under Garbanzo Chair. I don't know the name of the run, if there is a name.  I think it's not technically a run marked on the trail map.  It's definitely not a place an instructor in uniform should be.  Luckily the run was super powdery and although I was very nervous going down (at one point there is a 20ft cliff on this run) it ended up being an easy run if you took your time, picked your line, and having 4 foot of fresh powder didn't hurt either.  I am going to take this run more often on my days off.

Anyway, I ended up back at Garbanzo Chair and uploaded again - looking to catch up with my class.  By the time I reached the top, they were half way back down so I headed back to them toward Tokem.  I ended up burying myself in snow up to my knees.  I had to dig out my board, unclip and trek out of the snow.  tee hee, fun!  Since I didn't have my class with me, I was able to rip the run through the powder without having to stop.  It was really fun.

Finally I found Jess and my kids.  We changed up the groups once last time and we headed back up Garbanzo.  Come to think of it, I didn't go to the Roundhouse one time today.  Hmmm.... weird.  Anyway, the boys wanted to hit Tokum again so that's what we did.  We ended with that run and we all had a great time, even with losing my camera.  I guess it goes without mentioning that a picture will not be accompanying this post today.

Day 45 | Whistler closes!!!

Take 46cm of fresh snow.  Mix one day off.  Add a 5am wake up call.  Stand in the rain for 45 minutes.... get stuck on the gondola for 20 minutes.  Toss in never getting to hit a fresh line in the snow and you have my morning!!

Yesterday's ride with Omer got me so stoked to ride more on my days off that when I saw the forecast calling for over 30cm overnight, I set my alarm for 5am and decided to do fresh tracks.  Of course, I wasn't so stoked when the alarm went off this morning but then I checked the snow report:  46cm had fallen overnight!!  I got my ass out of bed and headed to the gondola line up!

I arrived at the village shortly after 6:30am and found myself in a good position in the maze queue.  I looked at the clock and said to myself, "They'll start loading by 7:15am so the wait won't be so bad."  It was pouring rain and as 7:15 came and went, with no one loading the gondola, I could feel myself getting wetter and wetter.  Finally by 7:30 the queue was moving.  Guest Relations said avalanche control still hadn't had a chance to clear the Emerald Chair area yet.  As I made it to the front of the line, the gondola suddenly stopped.  A tree had fallen close to the lift line and now needed to be cut down before the gondola would start spinning again.  Another 20 minute wait.

beep/beep!  Finally the gondola starts running and I cram into a cabin with 8 other people.  By  now the regular early birds have awaken and the line up was past the Excalibur Kiosk.  "Some fresh tracks,"  I thought to myself,  "I'm not going to have time to eat my breakfast before avalanche opens the mountain."

The ride up the gondi was slow and steady.  It stopped a few times for a few minutes but it eventually made its way up to the Roundhouse.  I think it was close to 8:30am by the time I got myself a plate of breakfast food.  Normally when you do fresh tracks, you're done eating and out on the mountain by 8:30am.

Conditions outside looked horrible:  wind was whipping snow around like crazy with gusts up to 100kph.  It was cold and I was damp from standing in the rain.  By now I was starting to rethink this decision of waking up so early on my day off.  Time kept ticking away, ticking away.  It was now 9:30am and patrol still hadn't rung the bell signaling the mountain was open.  I started putting my jacket on and getting ready to head outside, thinking it will open very soon and I should be ready.  Waiting, waiting, waiting ......  Ten am and now I overhear a patrol guy telling someone the mountain wasn't going to open above Olympic Station anytime soon, if ever!!  Avalanche debris was down Emerald Chair areas, even down Franz Chair areas.  Patrol couldn't verify the safety of the snow in the conditions and they decided to keep Whistler closed for the day.

After hearing this, I grabbed my snowboard and quickly headed to the gondola to download before the rest of the 600 people still eating breakfast decided to get in line.  Once at mid-station, I strapped on my board and rode down to the village.

There was easily a foot of snow at Olympic but it was heavy and wet.  By the time I reached the gondola line off Fantastic, the snow was literally like sludge.  My board could barely move.  It was a chore just to get down to the village.

Blackcomb was open, at least up to Solar Coaster.  Naturally the queue for Blackcomb was huge and it was still raining cats and dogs in the village.  My plan was to get up early, hit some fresh pow and be done by noon so I could get home and do my normal "day off errands" that needed to be done.  I'm sure the conditions on Blackcomb were spectacular, but by this time, it was almost noon and I decided to head home.  I'm crossing my fingers for a high level class on Saturday at work.  Hopefully I can enjoy some of the amazing snow on Whistler that no one was able to track out today!!!

Day 44 | vertigo

Now that the holidays are over and things are slowing down with work, I want to take some time this season to learn more intermediate and advanced runs on the mountains, mainly in Harmony and Peak. I asked my supervisor, Omer, to show me some secret trails that only the locals know about. Omer and I met up with another co-worker of ours, Aimee, and we headed up the Village Gondola around 10am.

Not much new snow fell overnight but 15-25cm were forecasted to fall throughout the day. Freezing levels have lowered so it meant more good powder is going to be found at least down to Emerald Chair. After a quick warm up run down to Red, we headed over to Harmony. Winds were gusting up to 90kph and when we unloaded off Harmony Chair, it was a complete white-out. You could see nothing but white. I started down the traverse but quickly got stuck and started experiencing vertigo. Vertigo is when you get dizzy because your senses are sensing two different things. In this case, I was moving but I also felt like I was standing still. Thus the dizziness. Quite scary to be honest, especially since you can't see a thing and you have no idea where you are. I somehow made it down to the crossroads of Pika's Traverse and instead of heading over to Gun Barrels, we ended up staying on the traverse and dropping into an open bowl. This is where Omer and Aimee took the cliff drop (see video).  I, of course, chickened out of taking that drop!!  There was plenty of deep fresh pow to be found off the traverse and we were looking forward to taking the same line again.

Unfortunately, when we got back down to Harmony Chair, they shut the lift due to high winds. We cat-tracked it back to green chair hoping that the Peak would still be running but no such luck. Omer took us over into some trees by Franz Chair. The snow was a bit crusty underneath with nice powder on top. It will only take a few more centimeters of fresh snow to make for some nice lines tomorrow. We headed in for lunch around 1pm and that's where I called it a day. I still felt a bit dizzy and I was wet and cold. I'm such a wuss.

Day 43 | same group of kids

The wet warm weather continues in Whistler.  5cm of new snow overnight but conditions were wet hard packed (hate that!) - powder was crusty, slushy and spring like in lower elevations.  I was told Harmony wasn't bad but I'm not familiar enough with Harmony to take my kids there.

I had the same class of Level 4/Level 5 kids that Aimee and I shredded with yesterday.  I have to say the boys were a lot quieter and calmer today.  I think the conditions had something to do with that.  It wasn't that easy to move the snowboards around.  It snowed on and off in the Alpine with rain on and off below green chair, however by late afternoon that snow up top was freezing rain.

I made the kids work on their counter rotation issues instead of just riding "free" all day.  The lower level kids greatly improved with the added instruction.  They're all coming back tomorrow but thankfully, today is my Friday and if conditions improve, I'll be freeriding on Thursday/Friday working on my own snowboarding issues.

Day 42 | eating my soup with a fork

My class today was the three level five riders ranging in age from nine to twelve.  The first thing we needed to do was take a lap down to the valley with the level three/four class to see what level the kids would fit into best.  Instead of splitting up the two levels, we just ended up team teaching and keeping the two classes together.  Aimee and I shared six kids and shredded the heavy wet snow all day!

The kids were nothing but chatter boxes all the way up the gondola so Aimee and I thought a few runs through the fresh powder would tire them out ... IE:  shut them up!  Unfortunately, the fresh powder was more like fresh cement!!  15cm of snow fell last night, followed immediately by 20mm of rain!  Warm temps have the snow melting so fast that streams and rivers are running right through some runs.  

After lunch we headed over to Blackcomb and took a couple laps down Honeycomb, Cruizer, and the terrain park.  By 2pm, the cloud cover set in so we took the Peak to Peak over to Whistler for our final lap down to the village.  From the Roundhouse to Chic Pea, the snow was hard packed and wet.  From Chic Pea down to the valley, the snow was slushy and comparable to spring like conditions.  The one good thing about today was that it didn't rain! 

Day 41 | wet

An intense warm front has landed itself right on top of Whistler bringing with it heavy precipitation and warm temperatures.  15cm of snow fell overnight but the snow is like cement ... all wet and sticky resulting in variable conditions.  Most of the mountain received only rain.  Puddles are everywhere, (yes puddles!) including at the bottom of the Magic Carpet causing it to be closed for the day.  A fellow instructor described the conditions to be much like golfing: having to avoid the water hazards!!

I had my seven WESP kids today.  Picked them up at the Creek, bussed them over to Whistler and spent the morning on the Super Carpet where I got all but two of them turning.  After lunch we fit in two laps down to the valley.  The day went by pretty fast as the snow was nice and wet, much like spring, and I was stoked on practicing my tricks.  Nothing too exciting but I got my tail stand down on my Prior board.  I'm pretty happy about that.  Maybe I'll get a kid to video it for me tomorrow.  Rain and warm temperatures are forecasted for the rest of this week.  Good grief!  What a waste of good precipitation.  If it was snow instead of rain, we'd have over 3 feet by now.  Oh well ...... at least I got a brand new uniform that keeps me dry!   Lucky me.  

Day 40 | Tazzy

Another week of Valley Club and it looks like I'm only going to have one student this year. Last week the kid hardly uttered three words. I wasn't looking forward to spending an entire season with a kid who didn't talk. It just makes for a super long day.

The morning started at 9am sharp and we took a warm up run down Whiskey Jack.  Spring like temps with rain makes for slushy snow and wet clothes.  The freezing level is unbelievably high with days of the same weather/rain in the forecast.  After a run through the terrain park, Tasman and I headed back to the CLC to build a jump where the little guy could practice on a much smaller feature.  Well shoveling snow and building the jump really got Tas to open up.  Don't get me wrong, he's not a complete chatter box but he is warming up to me and talking at least.  The afternoon went by pretty quick with practice on the jump and then a long hit run from the Alpine to the Valley.  Dad picked up Tasman early so he could attend a friend's birthday party so I was able to watch most of the second football game on tv.

Yes, that is my snowboard in the tree!!!

Day 39 | schools

I hit the snooze button one too many times this morning, resulting in me being about 15 minutes late for work.  Consequently I didn't get a Whistler Kids class and I was sent over to Schools on Blackcomb at Base II.

The Schools Program has students (teens) from all over the Fraser Valley bussing up to Blackcomb for lessons one day a week, usually every other week and lasting for about three months.  Working Schools is a zoo.  It is not uncommon to have over 500 students in one day and it is not uncommon to have nine or ten even thirteen or fourteen kids in your class.  It is just crazy chaos, yet somehow the chaos is controlled enough to run the program year after year after year.

The instructors who work Schools ... love it!  The instructors who don't work Schools ... hate it!  Me included.  When I started as an Instructor, I was teaching in the Schools Pod.  I didn't know any better so I thought it was the best gig on the planet.  Now that I've been in Whistler Kids for a few years, I hate being at Schools.

Today was just as much as a zoo as ever.  There were many beginner skier and snowboarders so the bunny hill from Base II down to the Magic Chair was insane.  There were kids skiing into each other, one snowboarder took out one of the 3 year old Mini's, kids boots were completely untied and they're trying to snowboard down the hill.  It was madness.  The only good thing about it was that my class needed to be back for 3pm so my day was finished close to that.  Oh and instructors get a $12 lunch voucher so instead of having a grill cheese or hot dog for lunch, I got to have a tasty chicken sandwich with fries and a diet coke.  

Day 38 | freakin awesome free ryde

Today is the first day since I started work (on U.S. Thanksgiving) that I spent the day freeriding on my day off.  I've got 37 days into the 100 day season and all 37 of those days have been on the snow for work.  I made plans with a co-worker who also has Fridays off and a friend who just started snowboarding to meet up for a day of riding.  The plan also included Crystal Hut waffles!!

We all met on the EBCB patio around 9:30am and we loaded the village gondola.  Weather wise temps were inverted and precipitation was in the forecast.  It was predicted to be snow but it was rain and freezing rain (bummer).  After a couple warm up runs down Ego Bowl, we took the Peak to Peak over to Blackcomb.  We ran up Crystal Chair and then into the hut for waffles.  YUM!

We spent the rest of the afternoon on Blackcomb running mostly blues and hitting every jump and drop we could find.  The entire day is caught on video and we all had a blast!  The snow wasn't great as it was very wet but at least it wasn't ice.  We finished the day with a lap through the Terrain Garden.  Once we were back in the village, we all agreed today was our best day yet this season.

Day 37 | fine fun "friday"

Although it's only Wednesday,  I have Thursdays and Fridays off, so technically today is my Friday.  We had all levels for classes today and I took the level four class.  It was two boys from Australia who are vacationing in Whistler for close to three weeks.  They've been progressing nicely considering they were never-evers at the beginning of the week.  Our morning consisted of two laps through the Marmot Trees with runs down the Peak to Peak Gondola line.  Great pow in the trees up top, mogul'd out but the snow is still nice so the runs were fun.

Temps have been fairly cold the last couple of days.  By the time we headed in for lunch, my toes and hands were freezing!  When we finished lunch, I still hadn't warmed up and I wasn't looking forward to my afternoon.  Nevertheless, we headed up Garbanzo Chair and took our warm up run after lunch down the black run named Raven.  Next we hit the terrain park.  A run down Green Acres through some trees at the bottom.  Two runs through Enchanted Forest trees and finally a run down Orange Peel to Tokum.  Flaik recorded our day at 16 miles.  It ended up being quite a fun day and a great way to end my work week!

Day 36 | almost way cool

It was an all female ensemble today at work in Snowboard School.  Five of us were scheduled and all five got a class.  Aimee is a first year Instructor at Whistler Blackcomb but has worked in the States for the last six seasons.  She has her level three certification, which means she is a really good snowboarder.  She also seems to be quite a bit of a park rat as she says she can 360 off medium sized features and maybe even more.  I have yet to see her ride but I'm looking forward to seeing what she can do ... especially in the park.

We had a small level three class, one level four rider, two level five riders, and three level six (Freeride) riders.  Ideally, a wicked cool perfect day would mean that the level four girl would go with the level threes...  leaving me to teach the level fives and following Aimee around all day with the level six kids.  I had my video camera cocked and ready to record a fun day in the park with high level riders.  So three of us instructors took four classes down to the valley to figure out exactly how the classes were going to work out.  Unfortunately, the level four girl was way too fast to go with the super slow level threes so that meant my way cool day video'ing Aimee and her crew wasn't going to happen.  : (

So I took one girl and we rode around the Alpine for the morning.  The snow up top was awesome!  Soft packed powder, tree runs were great and many were still untouched.  During lunch, my girl said she wanted to ride with the level three kids since her friend was in that class so I team-taught with Fiona.  It's also her first season and she had never been through Marmot Trees so we took the kids through there.  They all loved it and wanted to it again.  The afternoon went by fairly fast and even though I didn't get to hang out with the park riders, I ended up having a good day after all.  

Day 35 | W.E.S.P.

Another year for WESP:  Whistler Elementary School Program.  It's a great program funded by the Whistler Blackcomb Foundation and it gives local kids,  especially those who might not be able to afford the sport, the opportunity to give skiing and snowboarding a try.  As instructors, we don't realize how expensive the sports are between equipment, clothing and lift tickets.

The program runs out of Creekside but this season Creekside is basically shut down for beginner level skiing and riding due to the Olympic games.  The Creek, as it's called, is the base where the downhill skiing events will take place in February.  As a result, the lower level kids, who would normally use the Creekside Magic Carpet, had to be bussed to the Village so they could upload to the CLC and use that beginner area.  It doesn't really make sense to me as to why the program isn't just running out of the Village to begin with but who am I to question the higher ups?  What it meant for me was a fast easy day with my level ones.

There was chaos at the CLC with all pods (Village, Blackcomb, and Creekside) all running out of the same area instead of spreading out over the two mountains.   I'm thinking we had close to 50 snowboarders on the Magic Carpet area today and over 150 kids in the Childrens' Learning Center for lunch.  I'm not complaining because I would rather have it be busy with a ton of kids instead of being quiet with only about 5 kids in Snowboard School.  I feel bad for the rookies who aren't quite use to the whole routine and they have been getting stuck with up to seven to nine kids in a class.  Ok, well maybe I don't feel THAT bad.  ha ha    

Day 34 | Valley Club

January marks the time when local kids in Whistler start their club classes.  They come to Whistler Kids once or twice on the weekend, ski or ride for six hours, and repeat every weekend until the end of the season.  Not a bad gig if you're a local kid, not a bad gig if you're an instructor.  You're guaranteed work every Sunday from January until the end of April and you have the same kids every week.   I was asked to be an instructor for the Valley Club this season and I didn't hesitate to say HELL YEA!

About 40 riders are signed up for club but only half of them showed this weekend.  We're guessing they're still traveling for the holidays and everyone should show up next weekend.  So far my Club Class consists of one eight year old boy who is a strong level four rider.  We headed up the gondola and took a couple runs down the greens before we headed in for lunch.  My day was cut short due to the fact that I'm still suffering from the flu.  I asked the floating instructor, Nick, if he wouldn't mind taking my kid for the afternoon so I could come home and rest up.

Day 33 | Happy New Year!

2010 started off with the best powder of year!  WB claimed 8cm fell overnight but I believe there was more than that.  And because it was quite windy, the wind gusts blew the snow even higher in some places.   I told my kids to report to duty for 8:30am.  My plans were to take them across Peak to Peak and ride down Blackcomb.  Because they were fairly slow riders, it would take them until lunch to finish that run and the afternoon was sure to fly by.  Unfortunately, because of the winds, the P2P never opened.   Instead our first run was down Ego Bowl.  I was stoked to be riding in such great snow but the kids kind of had a hard time of it, especially the 8 year old.  By the time we got back up green chair, they were all freezing and wanted hot chocolate at the CLC.  Bummer.  We hit the gondola and downloaded to mid-station.

Because of the blizzard like conditions up top, the kids weren't too keen on going back up there.  So we spent the rest of our morning doing valley trail laps.  It wasn't too bad as there were plenty of fresh tracks to be found.  Personally I was disappointed to be teaching a lower level group (still) when it was a perfect pow day.  With the exception of one kid, these guys weren't really progressing too quickly.

My luck had changed during lunch though.  One kid was getting checked out at noon to ride with her mom and dad.  When Dad showed up, he decided to check out the cousins as well, since they looked so tired.  I said, "Sure!" - trying not to show my enthusiasm knowing with only the strong kid left in class, we could hit the pow back up top!  That's what we did.  We had enough time to take a lap down  through the powder on Ego Bowl, then ran down Pony Trail to Expressway.  He wanted to take Olympic Chair back up and ride down to the village via Fantastic so that's what we did.  The afternoon ended wonderfully, thus also ending two weeks of Adventure Camp.