Day 86 - peeslosh

Weather today was mostly cloudy with partly sunny periods.  There was also some hail in the Village at the end of the afternoon.  Temps were on the cooler side and winds were a bit high in the Alpine.  I heard the snow up top was really nice and soft.  Temps must have dropped significantly overnight drawing out the moisture in the "oatmeal" snow that was up there yesterday.

We had over 70 kids signed up for snowboard lessons between Destination and Adventure Camp.  I was assigned level one's and oddly enough, only three kids were in that level.  Most everyone else had a full class of six.  My three boys were good, both athletically and with their behavior.  I enjoyed teaching them.  The snow conditions in the morning were literally a sheet of ice.  That made it easier for the boys to start off by learning the toe edge.  It didn't take long for the snow to soften up and after lunch the kids practiced their heel edge.  We ended up the day on the Covered Carpet, where someone had built a jump.

Day 85 - two thumbs up awesome

It's Easter week so lessons have picked up and it's quite busy at work.  Over 50 snowboarders were signed up for lessons and those include Adventure Campers.  I'm on Destination all week and I was assigned Lil Rippers.  Five showed up and luckily they were all different levels so I only had three level ones.

Freezing levels have raised since yesterday and snow conditions have changed to sticky and wet.  It rained on and off for most of the day, from the Village to the Alpine.

It was a pretty chill day.  There isn't much snow at the CLC and there are lots of kids so teaching has become interesting.  Because the snow is so wet, snowboard boots become drenched within an hour of walking around in the snow … that includes kids and Instructors.

Day 84 - off road

Surprise!  Whistler reported 7cm overnight but there was way more fresh snow than that.  It was pouring rain in the Village first thing in the morning and I wasn't looking forward to spending the day in the rain. Two out of three of my lower level Club boys showed up and after a quick breakfast stop at the CLC,  we reached the Roundhouse around 10am.  It was snowing huge flakes at the CLC  and it was a full on blizzard up top.

The boys had never had a good powder day as it's been a warm, dry winter this season.  I wasn't sure how well they would do and I thought they would get tired quite quickly.  We dropped into the open area between Whiskey Jack and Ego Bowl where we found knee deep powder. Wow!  I was shocked at how much snow was in there and it was decent snow ... in other words, it wasn't cement like I had assumed it would be.  To my surprise, the boys killed it in the powder and they loved it!  We spent the day in the Green/Blue areas of the Emerald Chair.  We hit lots of moguls, turned them into jumps, went through some open trees and found powder up to our knees. It was a really fun day. I wish I had my Go-Pro with me to video how awesome Jessie and Teppei were riding.

Day 83 - lost 18cm in two days

I've been off for a couple days so I'm not sure what the weather has been up to while I was off but I think we had a lot of rain.  The 188cm base from Wednesday is now down to 170cm with more rain in the forecast for the next two days and two nights.  The ski-out is now marked as marginal which means no one in uniform can ride down to the Village …. they must download, which is a pain in the butt.

Only two of my Club kids showed up as it's Spring break for most Whistler schools and I think everyone is on holiday.  We took a couple runs in the morning before lunch.  There was 3cm overnight which was just dust on crust.  Conditions were soft and slushy by mid-morning and it wasn't too busy all day.  My kids were pretty tired for some reason so the afternoon was a lazy one.  I was tired too so I didn't mind.  Plus the conditions were groomers only.  Lord knows I've had enough of groomers to last me until next year.  Fingers crossed the temps come down and this next wave of precipitation brings snow and not rain.

Day 82 - you are so kind

4cm overnight and snow base is up to 188cm.  woot!  It snowed in the Village in the morning but turned to rain all the way up to the Roundhouse by 11am.

Another busy day with over 40 kids in lessons.  I was once again assigned level 3's and had a full class by 9am.  We headed up the gondola and found lots of powder between Whiskey Jack and Ego Bowl.  The kids had fun, heck … I had fun!  We managed to find fresh snow all the way to Emerald Chair and we managed to sneak in two laps before lunch!  Even though we were in the Family Zone, it was quite fun.

After lunch was a different story.  The snow had turned to light rain and the powder had disappeared.  Conditions turned to mostly soft and slushy.  I wanted to keep things fun for the kids so we ventured into Marmot Trees.  That always kills a ton of time, so we only had one more run to do before it was time to head home for my weekend.

Day 81 - the Weird Family

4cm of snow fell overnight bringing the snow base up to 185cm.  It was cloudy in the morning and quite chilly up high but winds were calm.  It was quite foggy up there until noon.

I was assigned level 4's but ended up taking level 3's.  I had a full class card as over 40 kids were taking snowboard lessons.  My class ended up being three boys from Whistler who were high level skiers and three "destination" kids.  Typically with level three's, they start the day with very bad technique and we spend the day trying to correct that technique.  Today was no different.  We spent the morning on greens -- nothing exciting.  The best part of the day was venturing into Marmot Trees.  With all the recent snowfall, the trees are covered and Marmot was packed down with soft snow.  It was a pleasant surprise.  The kids loved it and it was fun to finally venture off those boring groomers that we've been shredding since the beginning of February.  

Day 80 - Settle Ryan Settle

Snow fell over the past couple of days and people are saying the snow in the Alpine is awesome right now!  The snow base is 185cm, which is the highest it's been all season.  I took the weekend off so I didn't get to enjoy any of the fresh pow that finally came our way.

Busy, busy, busy.  Over 65 kids in snowboard lessons today.  Lots of low levels which meant lots of people on the Magic Carpet.  I was assigned level two's and quickly filled up a class of six.  Unfortunately, I spent the entire morning shuffling kids around from level to level.  My six were strong and they practiced their turns on the Covered Carpet before lunch.  All of them were turning and since the snow conditions were quite soft and slushy, I took them up to the Roundhouse in the afternoon.  The kids did great and all finished their day as level threes.  The snow up top was nice.  Soft packed for sure.  I didn't slash any fresh lines but it was nice to sink an edge in.  Below Emerald Chair turned to slush quite quickly.

Day 79 - SNOW!!!!! and rain ….

It snowed!!!  Whistler Blackcomb reported 4cm overnight at Pig Alley but much to everyone's surprise, it was a bit more than that.  And it snowed most of the day making our snow base 169cm.

I was assigned to take a girl from an Adventure Camp class who wasn't too thrilled with her AC Instructor.  I was told she was a level 4 but then I was also told she was a level 3.  Since she was the only one assigned to me, I decided to team up with Maree, who was coaching level 3 and had five kids on her class card.  We made the decision to try and split the class from the top of the mountain instead of splitting them with a run down to the Village because it was raining quite heavily in the Village first thing in the morning.  Egobowl was where I found some nice fresh powder turns.  Forgot what that felt like!  But by the time we reached the top of the gondola, the fresh snow was quite turned up with no other fresh lines to be found.   Most of the kids had a difficult time turning as the snow was also quite sticky.  Maree and I quickly realized we had a couple of level two's on our hands and even one level one!  She took those kids up the Emerald Chair and downloaded back to the CLC while I continued to snowboard with the stronger kids.

After lunch, we got the kids sorted out and in the end I had two low level three boys and we spent the afternoon doing laps down to the Village, where it rained most of the day.  By the time the lesson was over my feet, hands, and legs were soaked.  More precipitation coming for the next couple of days with high freezing levels.  Hopefully the forecast is wrong and it stays a bit cooler than expected.  

Day 78 - Mr. Serious

Another sunny/cloudy day with warmer temps, especially on the lower elevation, with no new snow.  The morning started off a bit hectic as a couple of kids showed up quite late.  After taking a lap down from mid-station to the Village with another Instructor, we split seven level three's into high's and low's - with me taking the higher class.

We spent the morning on the lower half of the mountain because lunch was at 11am.  The afternoon was much nicer with softer snow on popular Family Zone runs.  The kids really wanted to do a jump so we ended up back at the CLC around 1:45pm and built a jump before the small box near the Covered Carpet.  It was a slushy ride down at the end of the day.

Day 77 - Irish you a Happy St Patrick's Day

Today was a great day!  No new snow overnight, light winds, partly sunny/partly cloudy sky, decent snow conditions on the slopes -- which means, not icy.  I could actually sink my edge into a bunch of turns in the Family Zone throughout the day.

We had about 25 kids in Destination to add to the already 25 or so in Adventure Camp.  I was assigned level threes and ended up with five for the majority of the day.  We started with turning tests on the Magic Carpet to make sure everyone could transfer from edge to edge.  We managed to squeeze in one run from the Roundhouse before early lunch at 11am.

My kids: Koji, Seigo, Matt, Enrique, and Jesse were all really cool engaging kids.  They started as low level threes who needed a lot of work on their technique.  They were all very eager to learn and improve so we spent the day doing lots of different exercises.  By the end of the day, they all raised their level from low three's to high three's.  Needless to say they were all super stoked at the end of the lesson as well!

Day 76 - twelve Lil Rippers

No new snow overnight and the snow base is currently at 148cm.  It was sunny and warm today.

Busy busy.  Spring breaks have started and things have picked up at Whistler Kids.  We had over 50 kids taking snowboard lessons and I was assigned Lil Rippers.  Snowboard Adventure Camp is also happening this week so we had 6 Rippers in AC and 6 Rippers in Destination.  Luckily Maree was floating and graciously offered to help me out with my six kids who were only in lessons for a day.  Stef and Freddie were on AC Rippers and we all hung out together for most of the day.  At least during all the breaks and play times.  Needless to say, I never left the CLC area.

Working Rippers is a lot of work.  It's very different from teaching older kids and it's exhausting at times.  Today seemed to go by pretty fast but even with four Instructors, I hit the couch as soon as I got home and didn't move for a couple of hours.

Day 75 - Maverick & Goose

Yesterday it rained, it rained a lot.  I was dreading working in the rain all day.  Apparently all of my Saturday Club kids are fair weather riders as well as none of them showed up for lessons so I spent the rainy day on my couch.

Back to work today.  It was cold, windy and cloudy.  Only Peyton and Teppei showed up and we headed to the Roundhouse first thing in the morning.  Snow conditions were quite horrible -- well at least in the Family Zone.  Runs consisted of ice and piles of shaved ice, but in the piles of shaved ice was lots of snow cookies.  It was very bizarre and not the easiest conditions for my guys to slide around in.  It was also very very busy on the slopes.  It's the start of Spring Breaks and people have started to roll into town.  This coming week should be a busy week.

Day 74 - rain

Wait!  What is this stuff falling from the sky?  It's rain in the Village but rumour has it, snow has presented itself from the Alpine down to the bottom of Emerald Chair.  Not sure how long the flakes will fly as temps warm up during the day but at least a couple centimeters have fallen by noon.

We didn't have too many kids in lessons.  Lots of Lil Rippers: 7 of them with a two being higher levels.  There were only five big kids.  I was assigned level two and took a six year old girl who had lessons yesterday.  She was turning seven next month so we could justify her going into her own class.  Casey had one level one while Kat and Jordan took care of four Lil Rippers on the Carpet.  Once we got all the kids going, it was quite clear all the kids were the same level so I volunteered to go home after lunch.  I ripped down to the Village in the rain and through the slush to start my weekend.

Day 73 - last of the sunshine????

Another warm sunny one here in Whistler.  We had about 15 riders signed up for lessons and I was given two level three boys.  We managed to fit in one complete top to bottom run before lunch.  Both boys were a bit on the slow side so it was a long day ambling down the Family Zone lap after lap.  I didn't mind.  The sun was shining and temps were warm.  It wasn't too busy on the mountain.  The snow base is holding steady at 142cm but lots of rain is coming starting tomorrow.

Day 72 - pass you my what???

Busy day in Snowboard-land, 23 riders signed up for lessons.  I took a level two class consisting of six boys, most of whom are all friends from Texas.  Whistler has been cold in the mornings and warm in the afternoons.  The Magic Carpet was hard before lunch so the boys just practiced their zig zags until after lunch when we started working on turns.  Around 1:15pm, I decided to take the kids down to the Village.  I knew leaving the CLC was a bit above of their ability level, but I was tired of the covered carpet, the kids were strong side slippers, and the snow was soft.  A couple of them connected a few turns here and there.  It took us only 45 minutes to get down and the boys had a blast!

Day 71 - nothing new to say

Well ………. what to say that hasn't already been said in every post since February 14th.  Whistler Blackcomb is listing a total of 79cm for the month of February.  I think they are being generous with that statistic.

Like I said, what is there to report today that hasn't already been said twenty times?  It was +3 in the Alpine today with sunny skies/ partly cloudy later in the afternoon.  One of my boys didn't show up again today (yay!) -- so I only had two kids.  We did a lot of snowboarding, probably the most we've done in one day so far this season.  The snow wasn't too bad, icy in spots but overall, with the warmer temperatures it was easy to get an edge in.  The lower you went, the slushier it got.  We spent the afternoon on Blackcomb and by the end of the day, both boys were exhausted.  

Day 70 - fifty seven degrees in Whistler

Back to work after three days off (and three days of biking).  I am quite sure I will not be completing 100 days of being on the snow this year.  If I don't snowboard on days off and I'm only averaging a four day work week, it's going to be tough to make 100 days.

Saturday is my "Monday" so it's tough for me to start the day.  But Saturday is also my favorite day because my Club Kids are my favorite kids, plus they are level five so it doesn't take long to get back into the swing of a work week.  

Still no new snow and temps were above freezing past 2500 meters.  The snow was nice, it really softened up as the day went on.  Of course, some trails had their icy spots.  Same as it's been for the last three weeks.  We worked on carving in the afternoon and took a couple of laps through the Park.  It was definitely a goggle tan day.  

Day 69 - fiddle sticks

It's very slow these days.  We had six Lil Rippers and four big kids.  I was assigned to levels 4-6, which meant I would have taken Luca again since he's a level 5.  Kat is a family friend and Luca really wanted to ride with her on his last day.  I wasn't too thrilled to trade with Kat as she had two level one boys who were in lessons yesterday and I knew I would spend the day on the Carpets.  That being said, I traded with her anyway and began my day at the CLC.

The weather was sunny but temps were colder.  Cold enough to keep most of the snowguns blowing all day.  The "gunned" snow was fairly soft at the Magic Carpet so it was good for level ones to practice on.  The morning went by quickly but the afternoon dragged on.  Matt had five Lil Rippers so I helped him out a bit here and there with the little ones since we were spending the day in the same area.    I've been called off for tomorrow so I guess I can enjoy another three day weekend.  Three days off is beginning to be the norm for me this season.

Day 68 - fast and furious

It was super sunny today but temps were quite colder and winds were whipping.  Peak Chair and Symphony never opened due to high winds.  I was assigned level fours but out of the 15 kids signed up for lessons, no one was a level four.  Luckily a level 6 showed up so I was able to take the level 5 kid, Luca, while Jon C. took the level 6.

I spent the morning following Jon and his kid around.  The two boys were evenly matched riding groomed runs but the difference lied in the Terrain Park.  The level 6 was riding medium jumps and features while Luca is still not clearing small jumps.  It was a long morning following these boys around.  Man, they ride fast.  I checked the GPS for the day and my fastest speed was close to 30mph and I think that's the speed the boys were riding all day long.

After lunch, my kid fell on a jump and wanted to head back to the CLC.  We ended up spending the rest of the day there as I made him a small jump to work on his 180s.  He is all about socializing as well as riding so he was happy to talk to the lower level riders hanging out on the carpets today.  

Day 67 - I like your S

On Sundays I have three boys who started as level ones and are now low level threes.  The kids usually show up around 8:45am and we get in line for the gondola around 9.  At 9am, not one kid had shown up yet and I was getting nervous I was going to have an unscheduled day off.  Luckily, Jessie got dropped off about five minutes later.  He was the only one in my class so I decided to hang around with Jon and Lisa and their seven Lil Rippers (who are level fours) so Jessie didn't have to spend the day with just me.

The morning started out as partly sunny and finished cold and cloudy.  The mountain has been able to blow snow and it felt good to get an edge into something other than ice.  Trail conditions are the same as they've been for the past two weeks:  icy in spots, sugar snow in spots, slushy in spots.  As I mentioned earlier, the temps dropped during the day and it even started snowing in the Village by 4pm.