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!!!
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