Day 52 - single digits

Se7en degrees outside and se7en kids in snowboard school. I didn't get a class so I spent the day riding the fresh pow. Found some good tree runs in the Family Zone and then joined my c0-working crew for lunch at the CLC. I figured if I wasn't getting paid, I might as well eat a free lunch and socialize with the people who were working.

After lunch my plan was to hit Symphony and hike the Flute Bowl for the first time but visibility on top of Harmony Chair was next to nothing. It's difficult to ride when the sky is the same color as the snow. You feel like you are in a white tube and you have no depth perception. You can't see the ground, the sky, nothing. It's really a strange feeling and it's super easy to fall and hurt yourself because you can't tell what your surroundings are.

Anyway, I took a couple runs in Harmony. I am not familiar with the Harmony area at all so I landed myself on a flat run above a cliff and had to hike out in knee deep snow. That was my workout for the day. I decided to head back over to the Emerald side of Whistler where the visibility was much better.

From there I explored tree runs around Emerald and I ventured down Tokum for the first time! Great blue run. As usual, I always make one extra run more than I should. But the snow was so great I decided I could make one more and ran straight into a tree off Tokum (the only good thing about running into a tree is that you smell of pine for a few minutes after). Once I climbed out of the tree well* I proceeded to yardsale in the powder on Crabapple. I hate when I don't stop when I know I should. Luckily I didn't get hurt and it was a good 4hrs of riding.

Pierogis for lunch rock!

* Tree Wells: More people are killed in coastal snow regions by tree wells than by avalanches! A tree well is a phenomenon unique to big mountains with deep snow packs. A tree well forms when snow falling on evergreens accumulates between the trees but not around the tree trunk. As the snow is shed from the branches above it falls away from the tree creating a moat around the base of the trunk. As the snow gets deeper so does the tree well.

Day 51 - TELUS Winter Classic

The TELUS Winter Classic is an action packed weekend event featuring a fun Race Classic, food and wine galore, famous live and silent auctions and spectacular entertainment all for charity. It's the reason why we are spending the weekend in Whistler. Today was race day and a slalom course was set up at the bottom of Ego Bowl.

Kevin and I raced head to head. The first trip down he wiped out trying to make the turn around the third gate. The second race was a bit closer but I pulled out the win. After that we headed to the village, Kevin practicing his carving and I was practicing riding switch (backwards riding). We had a couple pieces of leftover pizza for lunch back at our hotel then I headed up to Blackcomb while Kevin headed to the Whistler Brewery to drink some beer with his vendor.

It was snowing all day but by late afternoon the runs were choppy with lots of patches of snow and ice. It was windy on Blackcomb and visibility wasn't great. I took Cat Skinner down to Cruzer where I ended up back in the village. One more run on Whistler via Orange Peel and Bear Paw then over to Crabapple and back to the bottom where I met the rest of our group at the pub for a beer.