Day 40 - jeepers creepers

Last day of Adventure Camp and once again I only had two kids.  Easy work week to be honest.  The sun was shining full force today and it was quite cold, especially in the morning.  Uploading first thing in the AM is a gong show as it's so freaking busy.  We have over 500+ kids in Snow School in the Village alone.  Add to that Private lessons, Adult lessons, and general public.  Getting up the Village gondola between 8am-10:30am is a gong show to say the least.  Since I only had two kids, I uploaded via the Fitz Chair to Garbanzo.  I think we saved ourselves an hour of waiting in line.

Our first run was down Orange Peel to Tokum back to the Garbo Chair.  After that we ran back to the CLC because it was that cold (and I had to pee already!).  We then did Jimmy's Joker, which was full of humongous moguls.  Not so icy where they were torture but they weren't powder and I didn't find it fun at all.  The boys didn't know any better so they loved the run.  We ended up doing it twice before the day was out.

Certain lift lines were huge.  The easier trails were crowded.  It's definitely a busy holiday season.  The sun is forecasted to shine for the next four days so the views will be amazing.  I just wish we'd get a bit of snow to soften up the hard packed snow.

Day 39 - ok people, I'm out of here

I'm on day four of an eight day work stint and I'm exhausted already, which is funny considering I haven't even finished a regular work week yet, never mind the overtime.  I think I'm more bored than tired.  We haven't had any significant amount of snow in about a week and riding groomers is getting old.  I have a high level kid and it would have been nice if we had some powder to play in.  Oh well.

It was a sunny morning and not too cold but definitely crowded.  I had two kids who fit well together.  We ventured through the Whistler terrain park a few times, ran down Dave Murray to Bear Paw, the new Enchanted Forest tree run specifically cut for Whistler Kids is really fun and we did that a few times.  The day went by pretty fast but as I stated earlier, the groomers are getting pretty boring, especially since they are so crowded with holiday people.

Day 38 - Lu-Lah-Lu

I moved my AC kid to level four and although he's a bit on the slow side, his turns are looking good and he needs to start getting on more advanced runs.  We had four other level fours show up who were with Jake yesterday so he and I took a couple runs together to see if there was a split or if all the kids could go with me.

For some reason, my kid - who has been of A.D.D. all week was slow and quiet.  He couldn't keep up with the other level fours even though his form was way better.  We decided to split off from them and headed down to the CLC to see if I could find some high level threes to add to the class.  We grabbed two:  one kid I've had the last couple of days and a new kid.

We ran steep blues and easy blacks.  The kids were tired by the end of the day.  It's definitely still busy as lift lines were all over 10 minutes for a wait time.  Again, no new snow overnight.

Day 37 - busy now

Everyone must have been hung over on Boxing Day because it didn't seem too busy.  But now, all hell has broken lose and the Christmas/New Years crowd has arrived in full force!!  We had close to 200 skiers in Destination and over 40 Riders.

My AC kid is still a level three so we picked up four more kids from Destination and rocked Whistler for the morning.  I wanted to get the kids on blue runs so we tried Jolly Green Giant area for a couple runs.  After lunch we headed over to Blackcomb where the blue runs are pretty steep and great for high level threes to practice their turns on.  A couple of the kids were definitely challenged on these runs and by the end of the day, they were exhausted.

We haven't had any mentionable new snow overnight.  The snow base is sitting at 203cm.

Day 36 - what ever mega loser

It's the day after Christmas and Adventure Camp is running Wednesday to Sunday instead of Monday to Friday.  It's one of the few times in the season where AC is available for snowboarding.  I was assigned level three's and though I only had one kid who is in the camp, I "topped off" the class with four other Destination kids.

We had a late lunch (12:30pm) so it was a long morning.  Temps were cold but not freezing.  I think we had 7cm overnight.  We took a lap from mid back to the Village as a warmup then headed straight to the Roundhouse.  We had a contest to see who could guess the time it would take us to run from the top back to the Village.  Julian won with 55 minutes.  Not bad for a level three class.  To kill the last half hour before lunch, we took a lap on Olympic Chair.

After lunch, we lapped mid station a couple times before heading over to the CLC to do the jump.  There wasn't much to the afternoon with such a late lunch.  Levels 1-3 were on mandatory download so we jumped in the gondi around 3pm to end the day.

Day 35 - Christmas Swim

Merry Christmas.  What do you do after you wake up at 4:30am to open presents via webcam with the family back home?  Well, you go to Fresh Tracks breakfast on top Whistler of course.  There was no new snow overnight so getting to the Village at 6:30am didn't pose a problem with getting a guaranteed spot in line.

We met up with Patrick and Hannah for breakfast then proceeded to hit some easy trees around Emerald.  Found some decent powder on the five or six laps we took.  Late morning we headed into the Roundhouse for a coffee and a bit of a break.  Irish wanted to Skype home since they are eight hours ahead in time.

Afterwards, we headed towards Symphony via the Peak Chair.  The snow on the open runs is getting kind of choppy from the cold weather and winds, but the snow around the trees is still nice and soft.  We did two runs through Symphony and on the third run, Irish and I found ourselves in the Creek area.  This spot is kind of like a rollercoaster run with one track and with dips and turns everywhere.  There were a few markers X'ing holes in the snow where the creek was running underneath.  Just as I was about to finish the run, I came across Irish upside in one of those creek holes!!  Scared me to death... as well as him.  He got a bit out of control and launched head first submerging his entire head in the water below.  He somehow managed to get one foot out of his bindings when I arrived and he quickly stood up.  Luckily he was only wet.  Needless to say we went up the chair one more time so he could rush back to the Village before he got too cold from being all wet.  Scary, scary .... Stay safe out there.

Day 34 - Prior Twins

No new snow overnight which meant a nice sleep-in for me.  Irish and I weren't in too much of a hurry to hit the slopes since the powder was getting tracked out pretty fast and nothing new fell since yesterday afternoon.  I think we got to the Creekside gondola around noon.

I needed to get a few laps on my powder board.  I put new bindings on it and they needed adjusting.  I haven't been too thrilled with the board lately so I thought I'd try to get use to it.  Irish got himself a brand new board so he was testing that out for the first time.  We figured we use today to iron out the kinks with our equipment.

We managed to find some good powder on Whistler through some trees off Garbo and Emerald.  I think we did about five or six runs before we ran out of time.  I've decided to sell my Prior Khyber as I have a hard time turning the board in the trees.  It runs great over a lot of powder when you're going straight but I have a lot more fun riding my Endeavor.  And since that board is great through trees, powder, groomers, or park - I figure I will just ride that.

Day 33 - eyeless fish = fsh

Another 17cm of snow fell overnight.  Definitely not complaining as I don't think there is much precip forecasted for the week of Christmas.  We had another 25-30 kids in Snowboard School and I was assigned level fours.  Two of the kids have been here for a week already and two kids were new.  They were in a lesson with Erin the day before so I figured their levels were accurate.  One kid was cool and he was technically a level five while the other kid was out of control with his riding and quite dangerous at times.  He was technically a level three.  But I kept them all and we rode together fine.

We were told to stay out of trees so I decided to lap black diamond runs down to Creekside.  The snow was good and we did a lot of riding.  We hit Dave Murray and then headed towards my new secret jump trail.  The kids liked that and I got to take some pics of them hitting the jump.

I had a few chats with the boy who was riding a bit too fast and out of control.  He wanted no part of me helping him with his turns so he could stop falling.  That was all well and good until he kept putting the rest of us in danger with his speed.  Finally, around 1:15pm, I told him he was going home because he couldn't snowboard with control.  That brought a bunch of tears - and amazingly enough, he rode perfectly after that down to the bottom.  Of course I was crying wolf and didn't want to waste our time taking him back to Mom and Dad so he stuck with us for the rest of the day.  He confessed his control went from a zero to a nine (on a scale of 1-10) after my threat to send him home.  He finished the day on a positive, but I still had to tell Dad about the negative.  I also told Dad he was to be put in a level three class the next day (which he was).  All in all it was a great day with great kids.

Day 32 - Harmony Trees

Tis the season, the Christmas madness is starting to hunker down on Whistler.  Irish and I met up with Tim at Creekside around 8:30am.  There wasn't much in new snow overnight but what we have is still good, especially if you know where to go .... and we do!

I had to work at noon so I knew my riding was going to be cut short.  We managed to find some amazing snow in the trees around Emerald.  We were manning our time until Harmony opened.  That didn't take long.  No lift line at Harmony around 9:30am, that was nice.  We did two runs in the Gun Barrel area and on the third time up, the rest of the skiing population showed up at Harmony.  Boo.  It was a ten minute wait in line, not bad, but I had to cut out and head down to get to work.

Irish and Tim hit up Symphony for the rest of the afternoon.  Today was the first day Whistler cracked the chair open and they said the snow out there was amazing.  A bit jealous but I have a couple days off soon.

Day 31 - how about a nice punch to the ribs??

It's still snowing here in Whistler.  Another 14cm overnight.  Irish decided to give snowboarding a try after resting his broken ribs for two weeks.  We met up with Kyle at Creekside around 9am and made our way down to Garbanzo Chair.

After riding some fresh snow on the cat track from Red Chair to Garbanzo, we hit Dave Murray for a warm up run.  Captured some great snow there and continued on towards Bear Paw back to Garbanzo. We ended up lapping Emerald a few times, hitting the wide open trees between the chair and the park.  It was deep and most of it was untracked.  We all needed to be somewhere else later in the afternoon so Kyle headed off around 11:30am while Irish and I ran one more lap back to Creekside.  It was nice snow all the way down.  The day was short but very very sweet.

Day 30 - 24inches / 24hours

A boatload of snow fell over Whistler the last couple of days.  Our base is now over 200cm.  I wasn't blessed with the day off but I knew I had a good level three class and I'd be able to roll over some powder at some point.  Boy was I wrong.

Five of the six kids in my class were returning - and one kid was new.  He was a bit of a heavy kid and he wasn't thrilled at all to be coming to Snow School.  Mom and Dad said he has been in a Private lesson for the last four days and that he was linking his turns so he was a level three.  They all seemed confident he was turning so I added him to my class and we rocked up to the Roundhouse for our one run before lunch.

Luckily I had a shadow with me as the new kid was technically a level two.  I knew he wasn't going to make it through any powder so I opted out of the super pow run down Ego Bowl.  We slowly made our way down to the CLC - by the time we got there, this kid was exhausted.

I knew I should have put him down into level two at lunch but because he was so discouraged with coming to Snow School in the first place, I felt bad for him and I hesitated.  I figured we could take one more run from CLC to bottom and if he was too tired after that, then I could leave him with the lower level.  Boy did I make a mistake!

He was sooooooo slow.  Half way down I had to tell my shadow to take the rest of the kids up the gondola and I'd meet them at the CLC afterwards.   I needed to stick with the slow kid and put him into level two and I didn't want the other kids to have to wait for him.  I think it took this kid over an hour to ride to the Village.

Anyway, to make a long story short, I didn't end up riding too much today.  On the plus side, I have the next couple of days off.  

Day 29 - Powder Supply

I had a return kid coming into Snow School today. His dad emailed me a few weeks ago and asked if I could be his Instructor again. I've been teaching Andrei since he was five and now he is eight. He is a high level three so I knew I would be getting a riding level today.

By early morning, my class card was full with six level threes.   Most of the kids have been here for the majority of the week. We headed up to the CLC for photos and to plan out the day. It was snowing like crazy and winds were gusting up to 100km/hr at Roundhouse level. 

Once all the riders were checked in, we had fourteen kids between three Instructors in levels three and four. Since we had early lunch (again!) we decided to take a couple laps from mid station to the Village as one big group. After lunch we split into teams: Jake taking the threes while Meghan and I shared eight level fours. 

Did I mention it snowed like crazy all day?  The powder was amazing. Light and fluffy and good all the way to the Village. High winds or not, we decided we couldn't keep level fours from riding the whole mountain so we headed up the gondola. Boy were we in for a shock when we exited our cabin. We knew it was windy but we had no idea how windy. I have never experienced such high winds up there. I couldn't even put my board on the ground without fear of it blowing away. One of the kids was crying because he was so scared.

We managed to meander our way down Whiskey Jack onto Banana Peel towards Dave Murray and Tokum. I'm not going to lie, the snow was awesome but the wind was brutal. We eventually made it back to the CLC and had some hot chocolate. The gondola wasn't running by this point so we spent the rest of the afternoon on the jump that Morgan made.   The kids didn't seem to mind. At three o clock we rode to the village to finish the day.

Day 28 - Dumb Ways to Die

Although it was very, very cold day - it was also a very, very good day.  I was assigned the returning Level 4's from yesterday.  Jon took the lower level and we decided to take a run together first thing in the morning.  Temps early on were -13°c (or 12°F) so we figured we would take one run from the Roundhouse back to the CLC to warm up.  We definitely had a 3\4 split so after the break, we split for the rest of the day.

After lunch, my team headed over to Blackcomb via the Peak 2 Peak gondola.  The sun was shining a bit here and there so it didn't feel as cold in the afternoon.  We did some exercises on the blue groomers, then hit a black diamond with soft moguls a couple of times.  We even went through the Castle.  We worked on a number of skills needed to pass to level five, including spraying snow to the side.  Before I knew it, it was 2pm!

We ran from the top of Blackcomb down to the Village.  The kids wanted to do the jump at the CLC so we rushed back up to the Magic Carpet so they could get their jump on.  Before too long, it was time to ride out to end the day.    

Day 27 - team teaching

20cm of light and fluffy snow fell overnight.  My fingers were crossed for a higher level class.  I was assigned level 4's and ended up with only one on my class card.  Ellen, however, had seven level 3's so we decided to do a run together to figure out how the classes would split.

We exited the Whistler gondola around 9:30am and we were greeted with strong winds right in the face.  We couldn't put our bindings on fast enough as it was really whipping up there.  Ten of us headed towards Whiskey Jack.  The snow was AMAZING!!

It didn't take us long to realize we had a class of high and low level three's.  No one was a four.  That being said, Ellen and I taught the kids together.  I mentioned yesterday that I didn't feel like I did much teaching.  I made up for that today.  We taught the crap out of the kids today!  : )
We worked on our turns, jumps, side banks, powder stance etc.  Everyone in the class was receptive about learning new things.  Ellen and I really enjoyed the day.  Not to mention we got to hit a few powder stashes here and there in the Family Zone.

Day 26 - ripped to Ride Tribe

Irish broke a couple ribs last weekend so we didn't ride on our days off this week.  I've been off the board for three days and returned to WKids at 8:15am.  Christmas is creeping up on us but we have yet to hit the crazy numbers.  We had about 15 riders and 6 Lil Rippers today.  I was assigned the wee ones with Ellen and her shadow.

By 9:15am, only four Rippers showed up and Ride Tribe was looking for another Instructor.  Figuring Ellen could handle the four - since she had the help of the shadow, I was sent to Ride Tribe.  I didn't mind as I wasn't in a mood to babysit today.  I rocked up to the GLC patio and given the gift of two Level Four riders.  Sweet!

It was cold at the Rendezvous level (-11°C, 12°F) with only 7cm of fresh snow overnight.  The two teens were pretty quiet.  One was from Mexico and one is from Germany but is living in Whistler on a school exchange program.  I felt like I didn't do much teaching as both of them were pretty good riders with no counter-rotation problems and good stance and balance.  We basically shred around all day. Nothing crazy.  We stuck to groomers mostly, ducked in and out of a few trees, road some blacks and hit some moguls.  Before I knew it, the day was over.  I was happy I got to do some riding today even if it was only groomers.

Day 25 - Who knows the "f-word"?

My blog titles are usually quotes I hear from random kids during the day.  Turns out, everyone in that class, except for one boy, knew what the f-word was.  And the girl who asked the question was kind enough to whisper the word to the boy who had yet to hear that word.  I wonder if he went home and told his parents what he learned in Ski School today.

We have about eleven kids in lessons and I had three level three girls.  We spent the morning on the Olympic Chair since it took a while to get up the gondola in the morning and because we had early lunch (11am).  After lunch we went to the top.  The sun was shining and the snow was soft packed.  Temps were a bit cold, as it's usually colder when it's clear, but it felt warm in the sun.  I had a bit of a split in the class with one girl turning quite easily and quickly and with two girls riding quite slow.  One  rode as slow as molasses.  Ugh!  Anyway, we managed to squeeze in two runs on Ego Bowl before heading back to the CLC for the usual report cards and jump work.  All three girls improved their riding by the end of the day and that's what matters most.

Day 24 - that was a great adventure

Ten kids in Snowboard School including two Lil Rippers.   I was assigned to levels 4-5, but of course, there were no kids in those levels so I took the Rippers because Morgan wanted to go home.  I actually had three kids because one girl was the sister of the boy.  She was 7 years old but she was literally the same size as her four year brother.  She was the tiniest 7 year old I've ever seen.

The day started out slow but the kids were all keen to shred and they were all capable of doing it so there wasn't a lot of "hands on" - which was nice.  It snowed all day and that kept conditions on the Magic Carpet perfect.  I made a jump for them at the end of the day and before I knew it, it was time to go home.

Day 23 - Ride Tribe shadow

I was told to report to work at Ride Tribe this morning.  Jose told me we had 16 snowboarders so I felt confident I would get a class even though I'm "low man on the totem pole" over there.  I was assigned to be a floater, in other words, the boss didn't assign me a class.  With so many teens, I was still pretty confident I'd get a class.  But once everything washed out, there was only one class for each level leaving me with nothing.

I didn't feel like going home right away so I asked if I could shadow Jose's level four class for the morning.  Tall Sean was cool with that (even giving me a lunch voucher) though I didn't get paid for my time.  I like following Jose as he's a great teacher and I was hoping to get some new ideas on exercises I could do when I teach my classes.

It was freezing in the morning.  I don't know the exact temperature but I was soooo cold and couldn't wait to go inside for lunch so I could warm up.  We haven't had much snow in the last week and conditions were medium packed.  Not soft but not quite hard or icy.  I took the tree line named Side Order on my ride out and there was nothing soft or fresh in there.  Hopefully we will get some snow soon.

Day 22 - an investigator

What do you call an alligator wearing a vest?  an in VEST a Gator!!!  get it?

Anyway, back to the grind today with twelve Riders including one Lil Ripper.  I was assigned Level One's and spent most of the day team teaching with Holly who had Level Two's.  Between us, we had eight.  With the exception of one, all of them were returns.

I spent my day on the Magic Carpet.  Two of the kids were turning before lunch so Holly took them over to the Olympic Chair for a bit in the afternoon.  All of the kids improved greatly by the end of the day with two of them turning down the steep end of the Carpet.

The rest of the Instructors came over late arvo and built a jump.  All the kids hit the ramp for about a half hour before it was time to go home.

Day 21 - Mt. Baker jackpot

Whistler didn't have much fresh snow for the last couple of days but Baker was tweeting 27 inches in the last 24 hrs with more to come for Friday.  Irish and I decided late Thursday night that we might as well give it a try.  After a 4:45 wake up call, we hit the road and landed in the lift line before 9am.  The snow report said 7 inches overnight but by the looks of things, there was a lot more snow than that.

We quickly headed to the one of the highest chairs and we were amazed at what we found.  Powder!  Waist deep, soft, fluffy, light, pillows everywhere!  Probably the best champagne snow I have ever seen and we couldn't believe how deep it was.

Mt. Baker ski area isn't that big, but the natural terrain is fun.  There are nice trees, natural half pipes and chutes, and big open bowls/fields.  We had to be careful not to ride on terrain that was too flat.  The snow was so deep that it was easy to get stuck in waist deep powder within seconds.  Irish found himself digging out a couple of times.

We broke for lunch around noon.  It snowed for most of the day, but by 2pm the winds had picked up substantially, making visibility impossible.  We decided to call it a day.  We both hit the jackpot with Baker on this trip.  We have been there twice before and both times, the snow and the weather was nothing to brag about.  But this time, it was GOLD!

Day 20 - noodling

Had a great day at work today.  We had seven kids in Snowboard School split between four of us.  I took my level four kid, Max.  We spent the morning hanging out with Darren and the level three kids.  They were practicing their turns on the Olympic Chair and since turning was easy for Max, he practiced riding switch.  When he rode switch, he was the same level as the other kids (even better).  When given the opportunity to go up top instead, he opted to practice switch.  I love that about this kid:  he had a great ambition to learn new things on his snowboard and never took the easy way out.

After lunch we split from the rest of the crew and headed off to find some powder in the trees.  Our first run we dropped off Whiskey Jack.  The next run I decided to see what Marmot Trees was like and headed there via Rat Fink.  Max didn't quite make the traverse to Rat Fink so we managed to get down through the trees before the trail.  It was fun, full of soft pow.  Max did great but it wasn't easy for him.  We came out right at the entrance to Marmot Trees.  It was "cut" but it wasn't the kids' run that was cut.  We ended up below the Peak 2 Peak tower.  By the time we got to that point, Max was exhausted and sweating.  Even though he did great, he did fall a few times and ended up walking out in snow up to his knees at one point.  We rode to the CLC to take a much needed break.

After a break, we took two of the level three kids back up to the Roundhouse for one last run.  We kept to the green runs since everyone was tired and it was the end of the day.  The boys worked hard at their turns and I kept it fun by finding some jumps along the way.

Day 19 - Peak Chair Opens

We had five snowboarders and one Lil Ripper in Snow School.  I took my level three boy from yesterday and had an amazing day.  The snow was super soft packed with powder on the sides on the runs.  We took a few runs in the morning on Whistler, greens and blues.

After lunch we went over to Blackcomb because there are more Blue runs on that mountain.  We worked on level three and level four exercises.  It was a pleasure teaching Max because he was always doing what I told him to do, even when I didn't tell him.  Although it was pretty cold, the day went by fast.

Day 18 - 22cm overnight again

How I envisioned my day to go today was nothing like how it actually went.  It snowed another 22cm overnight and I knew I was teaching my returning level three girl.  I was looking forward to shredding a bit of pow, even if was only in the Family Zone area.

With the overnight snow came high winds.  Gusting over 100km/hr on both mountains.  The Village Gondola was only uploading to Midstation until 9:30am.  No chairs higher than Excelerator opened on Blackcomb until after 11am.  Meg and I stepped out of the gondola around 9:45am.

The snow was weird.  The high winds were blowing all over the mountain.  Not just at the top.  Normally the wind blows down the hill, but today it was blowing up, down, sideways, diagonal, every which way.  Normally on high wind days, the snow is a bit "crusty"- hard but soft.  It usually disappears once you drop down onto a run.  But today, that snow lasted all the way down to Emerald Chair.  Weird.

My student was a bit out of it today too.  Yesterday she finished as a strong level three turning down everything green.  This morning, she wasn't even trying to turn.  I told her numerous times I needed her to turn but she slowly zig zagged.  I was a bit annoyed.  She told me she wasn't feeling well so I gave her the option to go home after lunch and she took me up on it.

Jon had five level two kids and one was turning confidently.  So instead of leaving at noon, I ended up teaching him for the rest of the afternoon.  He was pretty good and by the afternoon, the snow was chopped up enough where it was soft packed.  We finished on the jump at the CLC.

Day 17 - another 22cm overnight

Another 22cm fell overnight bringing the snow total for the past seven days to 143cm or 56".

Snowboard School rocked out with four kids today.  Three never-ever's and my girl from yesterday - who was a high level two.  It was only Jon and I working and it worked out perfectly that the new kids had never ridden before.

We were told to teach on the Super Carpet because it was the first day of Valley Kinder, meaning there were about 130 of the little yellow munchkins running around the CLC area.  No problem as that's just where I wanted my girl to practice.  Unfortunately, the Lifties were a little late at getting the Carpet open.  Over an hour late to be exact.  By the time they got it moving, it was past 10am and almost time for lunch.

After lunch I felt Meg was ready for the Olympic Chair.  I figured she would zig zag most of the way but she started turning and turning confidently.  We did two laps on the chair when I decided to head to the Roundhouse.

The snow up top was amazing today (if you had to stay in the Family Zone).  Super soft packed and well groomed ... nice and smooth.  We took two laps down Ego Bowl, where Meghan was turning amazingly, considering she just started snowboarding yesterday!!  She finished the day as a strong level three and she will be returning tomorrow.  I'm looking forward to spending the day away from Mid-Station.

Day 16 - Morgan

After almost a week off (for lack of snowboarders taking lessons), I was back to work today even though we only had five kids.  There were a couple returning kids who were already spoken for so Morgan and I were set to fight over a level two class.  Luckily a girl rocked up who had never snowboarded before.  Perfect, now Morgan and I both had a class.  By lunchtime, my girl was pretty much the same level as Morgan's other kids, and although I could have gone home, we decided to team teach and headed to the Super Carpet after lunch.

Although we haven't had epic amounts of snow yet this season, the last 48 hours has produced 30 inches bringing our snow base to 66 inches.  Peak Chair has yet to open but Harmony Chair opened today.  You can imagine the lineup.  Unfortunately, I didn't get to enjoy any of the chaos or the fresh powder.

Day 15 - Blackcomb's where it's at!

Irish and I were awake at 7am but we didn't get to the Roundhouse until 11am.  It was raining in the Village but 17cm fell overnight.  Since Blackcomb was so great yesterday, we decided to head over there straight away.

First run was down to Jersey Chair as we wanted to hit some trees off 7th Heaven Ave.  Again, the traverse out there was kind of a pain but the rewards at the end were so amazing.  We both launched off the cat track into untouched knee deep pow.  Then down into two different sets of trees.  The snow was super light and fluffy.  We eventually made our way back over to the area again but not before hitting the snow all along the terrain park, the trees along the side of the park, Bark Sandwich, and the Castle Run.

When we returned to Whistler, we were surprised at how heavier and chunkier the snow was on that mountain compared to Blackcomb.  We definitely made the right decision going over there for the day.

It snowed all day and the freezing level is below Red Chair.  We've received 40cm in 24 hours and two feet in the last two days.  Forecast is calling for another front to hit us at the beginning of the work week.  The base right now is 152cm or 60in.

Day 14 - Karaoke Chairlifts

pow! pow! pow!
Met up with Tim, Conor, & Ruth first thing in the morning at Creekside.  Only 8cm of fresh snow fell overnight but over 20cm fell in the last 24hrs.  It was snowing like crazy when we got to the top of Red Chair.  We spent the morning on Whistler.  The snow was pretty amazing almost to Emerald Chair and then it got a bit heavy and choppy.

We stopped for lunch around 11:30am and then took the Peak 2 Peak gondola over to Blackcomb for the afternoon.  Irish took us towards 7th Heaven and we dropped into some trees.  It was a bit of a mission to get out there on the 7th Heaven cat track but it was well worth the effort.  Light fluffy knee deep snow all the way down the trees.  It was so fun.

We spent the rest of the day on Blackcomb as there was plenty of fresh deep snow to be found around the Solar Coaster Chair.  Again, it got a bit heavy and choppy almost at the bottom of the chair.  No biggee.  Around 3pm, we said our goodbyes to everyone and headed back down to Red Chair to download via the Creekside gondi.  It snowed most of the day and it's forecasted to continue through the weekend.  Patrol is hoping to open Harmony and Peak Chairs tomorrow.

Day 13 - Izayah again and Irish peeps

It was raining in the Village all morning, but snowing up top.  Izayah and I hit the gondola around 11am and met up with Conor and Ruth (and Conor's brother) at the Roundhouse.  It was like a blizzard atop the Emerald Chair and the snow was light and fluffy with plenty of fresh powder to be found anywhere in the Family Zone.

Conor's brother and sister-in-law were visiting from Ireland and even though this was only their second day snowboarding, they did amazing.  Izayah and I took a couple of laps with them before they headed in for lunch.  After that we headed towards Marmot Trees but ducked the rope on the cat track to get to the tower quicker.  By the time we finished that run, Ruth and Conor were done with lunch.  They ditched the brother and took one more lap with Izayah and I.  I took them through the powder in the terrain park.  Izayah got stuck big time and that lap wiped him out.  We headed back to the Roundhouse for some food and to call it a day.  Ruth and Conor did a few laps I'm sure.

A system has parked itself over the area for the next couple of day, bringing with it lots of snow and high winds.  Unfortunately, the freezing level is going to hover around the Chic Pea level so it won't be great for too far (unless they open the Alpine).  I will keep you posted on that.

Day 12 - CJ

Yesterday I went riding with Izayah.  Today, I had his little four year old brother, Christopher Jr. (CJ) in the Lil Ripper program at work.  Thanksgiving holiday has come and gone leaving only two kids in Snowboard School today:  CJ and another girl named Anna.

I knew CJ was going to be a good snowboarder because he did great on skis last season.  We spent the morning on the Magic Carpet where I pushed him around and let him straight line down the hill.  He could ride the length of the carpet without falling at all.

After lunch I decided to take him to the Super Carpet so he could get a much longer run.  He was very good at making sure he fell instead of running into the many adults around.  By the time we finished the day, I managed to get him sideslipping and using his "brakes".  Uncle and Grandma were very pleased to hear his report at the end of the day.

Day 11 - Izayah

It's that time of year again when my Hawaiian friends come up for the timeshare week.  Izayah doesn't take lessons anymore with Whistler Kids, I take him out riding on my days off.  Today was his first day back on the board since last Spring.

It was super sunny with an amazing blue sky.  The snow was soft packed and they was still a bit of powder to be found off piste.  I knew Izayah wasn't going to be able to do too many runs as he mostly plays video games in his spare time.  We got his board/boot situation straightened out and headed up the gondola around 11am.

We did a warm up run on Whiskey Jack.  I then decided to check out the Marmot Tree situation.  It had yet to be tracked out but the last bit of it was good.  Unfortunately, there was no grooming on the run that Marmot Trees dumps out of so Izayah had a hard time getting through the powder.  By the time he made it to Jolly Green Giant, he was exhausted.

We took one more run, broke for lunch then rode from the Roundhouse down to mid-station before calling it a day.

Day 10 - Silas

When asked how to spell your name, four year old Silas said,  "S, .... line with a dot, ...... line, ..... circle with a puppy tail, ..... S"  Get it?

Took three level one/two boys.  Two of them were seven years old and one was the older brother.  I think he was nine.  We spent the day on the Super Carpet where I told the younger boys to stick together and to be a team.  So they went down the carpet together, and came up together.  By the end of the day, the weaker one was able to sideslip and control his speed.  Meghan has seven level twos and we ended up team teaching on the Super Carpet in the afternoon.  The sun was shining but it was cold.  

Day 9 - My weiner is shrinking

Another fairly busy day at Whistler Kids. Once again I was assigned Lil Rippers and today I had five of them! (yes we are only suppose to have four to a class but we were short staffed). Ellen had Ransome and she was kind enough to help me out when he was taking breaks.

I think we had the smallest four year olds to date. One was super keen to ride and one was super keen to not ride. I managed to keep a couple of them on their boards while the others played in the snow.  By the end of the day, I was exhausted.  I heard conditions up top were amazing with periods of sun.

Day 8 - I wanna be a chicken

Another 25cm of snow fell overnight, only this time I had to clean it off my car.  I was pretty confident I would have Ransome again today at work so I knew I'd get to enjoy a bit of the fresh pow under my board.  I was pleasantly surprised when a second high level Lil Ripper rocked up because that would mean that Ransome would want to snowboard more.

We exited the gondola around 9:30am and proceeded to shred the pow!  The boys had a blast, especially Sam as he was a much stronger rider and could go through the powder like nothing.  He was jumping and going crazy.  Surprisingly, he was able to stay in it and go through it.  It was fun watching him.

I managed to keep them out there all morning.  After lunch we built a jump at the CLC, hit that for a couple laps, then went back up top for more shredding.  It didn't take too long for the day to come to an end.  We finished off with more jumps at the CLC then downloaded.  I'm willing to bet those two six year olds are going to be asleep tonight by 8'o clock.  Who am I kidding .... I will be asleep by 8pm!

Day 7 - Whistler Kids

First day of work for the 2012-13 Season.  Time does fly.  It was nice to see the familiar faces.  We were all steezed in our new orange uniforms!!  Thirteen kids were signed up for snowboard lessons including one Lil Ripper.  I was assigned the Lil Ripper and I was a bit concerned about what I would do with a Ripper considering there wasn't much snow at the CLC.  To my surprise, WKids most infamous Lil Ripper, Ransome, rocked up.  Sweet.  That meant I was actually going to snowboard for the day since he is a level 3/4.

Ransome and I headed straight to the Roundhouse once everyone was signed in.  It took him most of the day to get back to speed with his turns.  He has a new larger board this season.  The snow was still amazing.  Super soft packed.  Temps were cold (-9°C) with light winds.  I was freezing.  Luckily Ransome didn't want to ride too much so we spent a fair amount of time at the CLC, building jumps and drinking hot cocoa.  Before I knew it, the day was over.  Not a bad first day.

Day 6 - super soft snow

In the last week, we've received 50 inches of new snow.  Our base is now 100cm/39inches.  Roby and I decided to take a few more laps today and we headed up around noon.  Boy was I surprised when I hit the snow, not only had Whistler opened up more runs, but the snow was amazing.  Super soft packed and still some pow stashes here and there.

The weather was a mixed bag of everything:  clouds, sun and even some light snow.  It was a bit more crowded than yesterday.  Probably because of the 17cm of snow that fell overnight.  We didn't do much, I think we only did five runs before Roby's knee was giving her trouble.  It was enough to get out and get off the couch.  I had fun and I can finally admit, I'm stoked for the winter season.

Day 5 - more groomers

I still have a few more days left of unemployment and even though the snow is lacking in coverage, it's better to board and be bored than to sit on the couch with my thumb up my butt.  Roby was cool with spending a bit of time on the groomers so we met up at Creekside around 11am.

The groomers were nice.  Soft packed, a bit choppy but nothing crazy.  Because it's a weekday, the lift lines were next to nothing.  Of course, the runs did feel a bit crowded since there are only so many places people can go.

Roby and I took about five to seven laps, alternating between Emerald Chair and Red Chair.  It was nice to get out with Roby since she and I never skied/rode together.  Last winter she was in Big White for the season.  We have plans to do the same thing tomorrow.

Day 4 - at least it snowed

Whistler Blackcomb reported 22cm of fresh snow fell overnight.  The freezing levels had dropped to about 1000 metres and the rain had stopped.  After a long good night's rest, we woke up feeling refreshed and made it to the Creekside gondola around 11am.  The snow line had made it's way down to Village level and there noticeably way more snow coverage on the trails.

Unfortunately for me, every trail was roped off except for EgoBowl, Upper Whiskey Jack to Pig Alley, and Orange Peel to Red Chair.  Needless to say, after three runs, I was pretty bored.  The good news is another 34cm (13inches) is forecasted to fall between now and Thursday.  Hopefully that will allow Ski Patrol to take down some ropes .... 

Day 3 - WB Opening Day ... not so epic

Whistler opened today with a 12inch (30cm) snowbase.  It was pouring rain in the Village when we arrived at Creekside around 9:30am and there was no one waiting in line to upload.   People were also downloading at this time (not a good sign).  At Red Chair I noticed how wet everyone was.  Winds were gusting up to 100km.  Combine that with the rain and it made for the longest chair ride.

There is no snow at the top of Creekside Gondola.  There isn't much snow coverage up to the Roundhouse to be honest.  Whatever snow that is up there is mostly man made snow.  Visibility was terrible and most of the snow had been blown off the trails.  We took one run back down to the Creek gondi, downloaded, and drove home.  Not the normal epic opening day we have been spoiled with for the past six seasons.  I hope this isn't a sign of what's to come for the entire season.

    

Day 2 - Cypress

Cypress Mountain on the North Shore opened on Wednesday so what better way to get in form for Whistler than by spending a couple hours at Cypress....  Irish and I needed to be in the city anyhow so we decided to take a few laps.  There wasn't much open, just one run to be exact.   I think we lapped that run about five or six times in a half hour.  We got our money's worth though, spending about two hours up there, working out the kinks.  Whistler opens tomorrow so it's guaranteed to be a less boring day!

Whistler Early Opening Announced

Whistler Blackcomb announced today it will open early, Saturday November 17th, five days earlier than the scheduled Nov 22nd.  woot! woot!  Complete with Opening Day festivities:

This year, Whistler Blackcomb has set the bar high for opening day festivities. Along with a surprise musical act for guests waiting in line at the Whistler Village Gondola, the first 1500 people to upload either gondola will receive a gift. Tokens will range from hot chocolates to big ticket items like EDGE Cards, Snow School lessons, retail and rental gifts and surprises from partners including, Scandinave Spa Whistler, The Adventure Group Whistler, Extremely Canadian, Canadian Snowmobile, Coast Mountain Photography, CAN-SKI, Showcase, Powerade and Milk2Go.

Day 1 - Red Heather hike

A bit of snow fell in Squamish yesterday so Irish decided we should take a hike up to Red Heather to see if we could get a little bit of snowboarding in.  We packed our gear in the car and made it to the parking lot around 11:30am.

The trail to the warming hut at Red Heather meadows is about 5km through the forest along a gentle road.  It's not a steep climb but it is a long walk when you're carrying a snowboard and wearing a pack.  Luckily for me, Irish was kind enough to carry my board so the hike wasn't as strenuous.  Even without having to carry my board, I was still soaked from sweat by the time we reached the top about and an hour and a half later.

We went inside the warming hut and peeled off some layers.  Irish brought some tea, coffee, and peanut butter biscuits.  It wasn't too busy with people, about ten of us were out enjoying the mostly dry weather with the occasional sunny blue sky break.  After a nice half hour break, we strapped on our snowboards and headed back down the trail we originally ascended.

There wasn't much snow, I'd say about six inches on average, give or take a few inches depending on the tree cover.  It wasn't enough to cover all the rocks that lay on the trail.  There were a few spots where we had to walk.  I never even strapped in my back foot.  I rode the entire trail with only one foot in the binding.  We fell a few times as rocks tend to stop you quickly when you're on a board.  I don't think we were moving much faster on the boards than when we were walking.  That didn't matter.  We were snowboarding for the first time in seven months and we were having a blast.  I think it took us about an hour to get back to the parking lot where we high-fived and called it a great first day of the 2012/2013 snow season.

Day 114 | Birthday Trifecta

Happy Birthday to me.  Today was the perfect day to experience the Whistler Trifecta:  snowboarding, frisbee golf, and biking ... all in the same day!

Georgi and I met up with Jordan, Sean and Libby around 10:30am at Wizard Chair.  We spent a couple of hours hitting the park and riding the groomers.  The sun was shining, the snow was slushy, and the temperatures were warm.  You couldn't have asked for a better day for spring riding!

After a nice lunch at Gone Bakery, we hit the frisbee golf course and played 18 holes.  Cabo and Jack enjoyed chasing the frisbees all around the woods.

In the evening, a bunch of us met up at the Lost Lake trails and rocked our mountain bikes for a couple of hours.  TRIFECTA Baby!  TRIFECTA

Day 113 | Whistler Kids is now expired

It was the last day of Whistler Kids for the 2011/2012 season.  Once again the time just flew by.  I was scheduled to work and was assigned level fours.  We had less than 15 kids signed up for lessons.  Unfortunately (or fortunately) for me, none of the kids were level fours.  Apparently I didn't seem to mind not getting a class as I didn't put up a fuss to try and get one.  Most of the Instructors who did get a class were first year rookies so I'm sure it would have been easy to get my Supervisor to tell one of them to go home.  But everyone who seemed keen to work, worked ... and both Gillian and I were cool with not working.  She and I rode from the CLC to the Village around 10am, just after the rain had stopped pouring.  I cleaned out my locker and turned in my uniform.  I'm sure this is not the last day I will ride this season, it was just the last day of work.

Day 112 | carpet sunning

The sun was shining today and it was warm.  I was assigned level ones and ended up teaching a 1star, a never-ever, and two level twos.  We spent the morning on the Magic Carpet where I got the kid who had never snowboarded before sideslipping on his edges.  He was a high level skier so he picked up the technique quite quickly.  The other three were practicing s-turns.  The snow was quite icy before the warm sun softened it so we didn't spend too much time out on the ice.  After lunch I took the kids over to the Super Carpet  then ventured to the Olympic for a couple of laps before it was time to download and end the day.

Irish was riding with his buddy this afternoon so once my work day ended, I ran up the gondola and met up with him for a last run down to the valley.  It felt good to have a couple of days off and then get back on the board, especially when the sun is shining and the snow is soft.