Day 123 | the final curtain

I ended my season at work the same way I started my season:  with a Lil Ripper class.  We had six kids pre-booked into lessons but ended up with a total of nine kids in four different classes.  We squeaked through with just enough Instructors scheduled.

I contemplated taking the one level five kid even though he is the most annoying kid on the planet.  I hate to sound so negative but the kid really is odd and it's very very annoying.  Zac asked if he could take him so I opted for the five year old Ripper instead.

It wasn't the perfect sunny Spring day you picture for your last day of work at the end of April.  It was cloudy and pretty chilly.  Betty, James, and I spent the morning on the Magic Carpet with the lower levels wasting as much time as we could eating cheese & crackers and coloring.  My kid wasn't too thrilled with the idea of snowboarding so we spent a lot of time in the CLC.  He was kind of a muppet as well.  He couldn't get off the Magic Carpet without falling even by the end of the day.

James built us a huge jump to kill time in the afternoon.  It was kind of sad as it was the last jump of the season.  My kid's Dad watched him hit the jump one time before downloading in the gondola with us.  The day went by pretty fast for the last day.  The CLC staff spent the day packing up the kitchen, washing the bibs, and putting everything in the Mini's room away.  Another Whistler Kids season is in the books.  I feel happy and sad at the same time.  I'm ready for summer for sure.

 

Day 122 | called in for overtime

After working a ten day week, I was looking forward to a weekend off but my Scheduler called on Saturday asking if I could work today.  No problem as it's overtime and I only have one more paycheck left before I enter the world of unemployment (and poverty).

Surprisingly there were close to 20 kids in snowboarding lessons.  Since I was on the overtime clock, I wanted to work.  I didn't care what level I was given just as long as I worked.  I was given the seven level twos.

We spent the morning working on toe edge sideslips.  After lunch we worked on S turns.  A couple of them were turning by the end of the afternoon.  The day dragged on pretty slow.  It was cloudy and cold.  At least when the sun shines, a day on the Magic Carpet isn't so bad.  Of course we built a jump as that always helps the time pass quickly.

Tomorrow is the last day of Whistler Kids.  We have four Instructors scheduled and three kids pre-booked. I hope the sun shines but the forecast calls for another return of winter.

Day 121 | a very good Friday

I promised my two Adventure Camp kids that we would hit the GMC Race Centre first thing in the morning.  They wanted to run down it before the course got chewed up.  Of course we had a new level 5 Destination show up and we needed to evaluate his riding before starting our day.  So we grabbed the level 6 class and headed down Lower Olympic.  It wasn't too long before I realized the new guy was actually a level 4.  Luckily, that class was right behind us so it was easy to put him into the correct level and my kids and I took off.

We rode the Peak 2 Peak over to Blackcomb and squeezed in two runs on the race course before heading down to the village and in for lunch.  Our plan of attack for the afternoon was to hit 7th Heaven.  We made it out there by 1pm and took a run down the vast openness.  Seems like everyone had the same idea as it was crowded when you first got off the chair.  Of course, the sun was beating down like crazy and the weather was amazing.  I also forgot that today was Good Friday and everyone was off from work so the slopes were a little busier than earlier in the week.

The kids also wanted to take a couple laps through the terrain garden so I decided to ride the back of 7th to get out of there.  That turned out to be the best decision of the day.  We headed down Blue Line where the snow off the groomer was soft and dry.  Max and I enjoyed the wintery conditions while Lottie stayed comfortably on the groomer.  We found a couple of rocks to drop and some soft moguls to explore on.  It was really fun.

Before taking our last run of the week, we stopped at the Rendenzvous for some water and a bit of a break.  Both of the kids were bummed that today was their last day and they were both headed back home (Hong Kong and England) tomorrow.  After our terrain garden lap we kept riding south to the village with Lottie staying on the groomer and Max and I jumping hits on the sides.  We met up with their Dads right on time.  The kids collected their Adventure Camp toques, I collected my tip money and we all said goodbye for another season.  It was a great last week of work and the fun I had with these kids was just another reminder of why I love my job!   

 

Day 120 | Beaver Tails

5cm of fresh snow fell overnight.  We are almost into May and it's still snowing.  At least the sun was shining today making it a great day.

I'm having a great week with my Adventure Camp kids.  The two Destination kids we had earlier in the week have been riding with their family .... but a different level 5 guy showed up today.  The first thing we did was take a run down to the village with James and his level 6's to see what group the new kid would fit into.   I was happy to see that he fit perfectly with James, leaving me with only two kids! 

I opted for the noon lunch leaving us plenty of time to do anything we wanted in the morning.  The first thing we did was warm up on Whiskey Jack.  The run was soft packed with fresh corduroy.  Simply heavenly.  Next we took a run through the Terrain Park.  Upper Peak to Creek was the run of the day so I came up with the brilliant idea of hitting that to Highway 86.  The snow up there was dry and mostly untracked.  Max and I followed the trail off piste getting sweet freshies while Lottie stayed on the groomer.  We made our way down Highway 86 getting fresh tracks on the side of the cat track.  We eventually made our way back to the CLC around 11:30am and refueled with lunch.

Yesterday the kids planned on bringing money to buy a Beaver Tail today.   They decided to buy one after lunch and ate it in the gondola.  We took the Peak 2 Peak over to Blackcomb to hit the race course and terrain garden again.  They closed the race course early but we were able to get one run down it.  The snow at the top of Blackcomb was soft packed and lots of it.  We hit a bunch of treelines and there was so much snow in some spots and lots of fresh lines.  Max worked on his ollies on the flats, off of jumps, and down drops.  Lottie just rode around.  I hit the jibs with Max.  It was a really fun day and we did a lot of snowboarding .... over 20 miles to be exact!  I took lots of pics of the kids.  Last day of AC is tomorrow and my fingers are crossed that we don't have any other kids who have to ride in our group.    

  

Day 119 | i don't have a title for today

Day three of Adventure Camp:  hump day!  I'm getting tired but the week is still going good.  I only had three kids.  We were on the move by 9:30am and heading up the gondola.  It was pretty chilly in the morning and still cold later in the day with snow at Rendezvous all afternoon.

We spent the morning in Whistler green park.  Even though the kids are level fives, they are still terrain park rookies.  I showed them the ropes and then sent them on their way down the jumps.  The girls were a bit shy and timid and only tried one jump while Max rocked all four plus all the boxes.

After lunch we ran down to the village and uploaded on Blackcomb.  We took a couple of laps in the Terrain Garden and then raced each other at the GMC Race Center.  That was fun and the kids wanted to do it again.  Unfortunately, by the time we got back over to it again, they had closed the course because it was almost 3pm.  We ran down Zig Zag to finish off the day.  It looks like we snowboarded another 16.5 miles.  whew!  No wonder why I'm tired.    

Day 118 | snow in my driveway AGAIN!!!

Yes, there was about a centimeter of snow in my driveway when I woke up this morning.  It's almost May!  The weather was a mixed bag all day with sun, clouds, cool temps, and lots of isolated snow showers.

My level four/five AC kids picked up two Destination kids:  one from yesterday and a girl from New York.  I was worried she wasn't going to be as good as the other kids but she fit in perfectly.  I promised the kids we would ride Peak to Creek after lunch so we warmed up through Enchanted Forest trees and Marmot trees.

Dark clouds were moving through all day and I was hoping Peak to Creek would be clear once we got up there at noon but no such luck.  The first 200 or so yards were completed sopped in with fog.  The kids were a little nervous since the visibility was so poor but we all stuck together in a pack and they made it through with no problems.  The run was mostly small moguls most of the way down.  We made it to Dusty's Creekside in less than an hour.  Not bad.

After that we were able to fit in a run from the bottom of Red Chair to the village and then back up to the Roundhouse for a last cool down run to finish the day.  We covered about 14 miles when it was all said and done.

Day 117 | Wallace Churchill the fourth

I am happy to report I found the joy in snowboarding once again today!  It's Easter Week and the last Adventure Camp for the year.  I was given level fours and the kids in my class are really cool and fun to snowboard with.  It probably didn't hurt that the sun was shining all day and the snow was soft packed.

Once everyone was up at the CLC and accounted for, I believe we had about 30 kids in lessons.  I had three ACers and one destination.  Lunch was early so we only had time for two runs in the AM, one down a green and one down a blue.  That was just enough time to realize I had quite a split on my hands.  Three of the kids were level four/five and one kid was a level three.  After speaking with the level three Instructor during lunch, I decided to keep the split.

After lunch the kids told me where they wanted to ride. One wanted to ride Harmony Ridge and one wanted to ride The Saddle.  So we made the plan to head up to Harmony, then up Peak Chair, and finally down to Highway 86.  By the time we went from one end of Whistler to the other, the level three kid was exhausted.  I decided to head to the CLC to give everyone a much needed rest.  I informed my Supervisor that Alejandro would be joining James in level three AC tomorrow.  Instead of spending an hour on a jump at the CLC, the kids decided to take one more run from the Roundhouse to end their day.

We had such a great time that the Destination kid is going to return tomorrow.  I promised the kids we would run Peak to Creek.  If we get lucky and don't have a split, I think we can snowboard about 20 miles.  Today our flaiks reported we ran 16.5miles.

Day 116 | blizz-fest

It's day three of Telus Fest but you'd never know it by the weather.  When one thinks of Telus Fest, one thinks of sunny spring warm weather.  Not this year, at least not yet.  At 2pm this afternoon, there was literally a blizzard at the Roundhouse!!  Actually the weather was weird all day.  It jumped from sun, to clouds, to snow, to ice, to sun, to clouds ... etc.  And the temps are cooler than normal.  Definitely not Spring.

At the morning meeting, we had seven Instructors working and three kids pre-booked for lessons.  All of our mouths dropped when we were told the numbers.  I thought my Supervisor was kidding.  I'm happy to report that eight more kids signed up in the morning, topping our numbers off for a total of eleven kids, five classes.

I couldn't bring myself to deal with another Lil Ripper class so I opted to take the Level four class.  There were two boys in level four and one boy in level five.  I took all three up Garbanzo to see if they could fit together.  We headed down Whiskey Jack and ran down Ptarmigan.  Once on Ptarmigan,  I quickly realized I had two level fives on my hands and one level three.  I gave the level fives to Devon and I took the one level three.

He was a chilled guy from Vancouver who was in Whistler Kids back in March.  He wasn't into side hits, trees, or jumps.  He liked riding straight down the middle of the run.  Fine by me as the groomers on Whistler were soft packed and really nice.

After lunch he wanted to head over to Blackcomb where we spent our time on the blues.  It was a nice afternoon even with the blizzard like conditions from time to time.  By 2pm he was ready to have a break so we took the Peak 2 Peak back to Whistler, rode down to the CLC and chilled out on the jump til it was time to download.  

Day 115 | still not Spring

Nope.  I jumped the gun.  Spring has yet to show it's face in Whistler.  At noon it was snowing on the Magic Carpet.

I opted out of taking one level four guy to share a class of Lil Rippers with Jordan Decker.  We had two four year olds and two six year olds.  One guy I had the other day, one guy barely spoke English, one guy just turned four like a day ago, and one girl who I had back in December.  Needless to say .... it was a long day!!!  And pretty much the same as any Lil Ripper that I've been having for the past two weeks.  I think I need to get back to teaching regular aged kids.  Maybe I'll do that tomorrow. 

Day 114 | Percy's

I haven't had a freeride day since March 26th.  As you know, I'm pretty much over the cold weather / snowboarding thing.  But I recognize there are still another two weeks of snow before I hit the beach and the sunshine so I should enjoy some Spring skiing before I leave.

I was scheduled to work but Morgan was nice enough to cover for me so I could spend the day with Aimee and Maddie and Oscar Percy.  They are kids from Oz who were with Aimee last season in Whistler Kids and their parents hired Aimee to spend two weeks with them as they holiday in Whistler again this year.  I spent a lot of time with them as well last season and since today was their last day in Whistler, I wanted to ride with them at least once before they left.

It's the first day of the Telus Fest and the sun was shining!  Not to mention, the snow is amazing for April.  The conditions are like February (middle of winter) - not to mention, with all the fresh snow, you can still find some fresh tracks.  Needless to say, the day was going to be amazing!

Maddie wanted to hike up Spanky's Ladder so we did that right out of the gate.  From the Glacier Chair you could see a line of people hiking up like an army of ants.  We decided to hit Ruby Bowl since it was something we knew the kids could get down.  The snow up there was amazing!  It's so hard to believe that it's actually April.  After Spanky's, we hit the Glacier Creek for lunch.

We then decided to cat track over to 7th Heaven and head over to Couloir Extreme, a double black diamond which is one of the top ten steep in-bounds runs in the world according to Skiing Magazine.  The snow down there was soft and although we didn't get freshies, the run down was still very nice.  It's awesome to check that popular run off my list.

The kids wanted to hit the Terrain Garden, then ride down to the Village and go up Whistler.  So that's what we did.  We met up with Pip and Jordan for a quick run through the Whistler Park.  We then made our way back down to the Village for a much needed smoothie.  I said my good-bye's to the kids and came home to rest up for another day of work tomorrow.

Day 113 | GRRRR ....... !!!!

Another 8cm of snow fell overnight and it's officially the second snowiest season on record for Whistler Blackcomb.  We've received 49 feet of snow and it's still snowing as I write this.

I was assigned level threes at the morning meeting but I opted to take the same Lil Ripper I had yesterday.  I don't think we ended up having a level three class so I made the right choice.  We had another 20+ kids signed up for lessons plus a total of three Lil Rippers.  One girl was going to be 7 years old next week so we put her with the level two class and I took the six year old who had never snowboarded before.  He got along great with my other guy and was really keen to snowboard.

For Kingsley (the four year old), he was more about the socializing than the snowboarding today.  But he was great at helping me show Braeden how to put on and take off his bindings.  It was quite cute to watch a four year old give instruction.  Once we got up the Magic Carpet, Kingsley mostly played in the snow while Braeden wanted to learn how to ride.

We ended up taking a pretty long break/lunch but spent most of the afternoon outside.  Having all these Lil Rippers has given me a chance to brush up on my face painting skills and I have to admit I'm getting quite good at it (see pic).

Kingsley's Dad checked him out at the CLC while Braeden and I took the gondola down to meet with his Mom and Dad.  The day went by pretty quick and Braeden should be returning tomorrow.

Day 112 | winter won't leave

Spring has yet to "sprung" in Whistler.  It was snowing in the Village again this morning with 8cm of fresh snow overnight at Pig Alley.  By the end of the day, that snow was rain with nothing but precipitation in the forecast for the week to come.

We had 25 kids signed up for lessons.  Most of the other Instructors had repeat kids coming from yesterday, which would have left me with either a level one or level two class.  Luckily a last minute Lil Ripper showed up and I opted to take him for the day.

He was a chill little guy who is turning five next month.  He was also in lessons yesterday so he could already straight line and side slip on his heels.  It was a typical Lil Ripper day consisting of:  cheese & crackers, snowboarding, jungle gym, and coloring.  Not to mention a ramp at the end of the day.

Day 111 | opted out

Weather:  pissing rain in the village, snow at the CLC but turning to rain by late morning, snow in Alpine with 60kph winds.
Kids:  17 snowboarders, 0 Lil Rippers
Me:  opted to go home

I didn't feel like spending my day on the Magic Carpet (in the rain) with seven level ones.  And since there weren't any Lil Rippers, I thought it would be a good day to volunteer to go home.  I've only volunteered once all season to go home, I didn't feel too guilty.  I had a few fun photos taken with Coast Mountain, drank a cup of tea, then snowboarded down to the village.  I was back at my place before 11am.

Day 110 | sniff! sniff!

Today was the last day of Club.  Fourteen weeks have passed just like that.  Boy the season always goes by so fast.   All of my kids showed up and we spent the day with Betty and Lauren's teams.  Betty set up a really cool scavenger hunt for her team and we (Lauren and I) decided to include our kids.  Betty didn't mind.

We piled 11 people into the Village Gondola and headed up to the Roundhouse.  The idea of the scavenger hunt was to figure out what were the runs Betty labeled on an old trail map.  Once the kids could confirm the runs, they were then given clues as to where to find easter eggs that contained "treasure".  It was suppose to take most of the day but because we had eight kids playing instead of Betty's four, they figured everything out before lunch.

After lunch we switched kids around from Instructor to Instructor.  Betty had boys who wanted to go through the Terrain Park and one girl who wasn't interested.  So she came with me and Lauren and we went through some easy tree runs.  Josh also had a level five girl who didn't want to chase her male teammates through the Terrain Park so she came with us too.  It was good for my kids to ride with a bunch of other kids in different levels because it pushed them to keep up with everyone.  They all impressed me with their speed and ability.

Since it's the last week of Club, we had some chocolate cake at the CLC at the end of the day to celebrate a season well done.  Jaden brought me back a postcard from Hawaii and the coolest keychain.  I received a very nice card from Mia and her Mom included a nice tip ($$).  That was very nice of her.  I told Jaden's parents they could request me for next season.  He's my favorite guy in Whistler Kids and would love to hang with him for another full season of Club.  But that's a very long time away!!!!

Day 109 | i can use adult scissors

If you're wondering where my odd daily titles come from, they're usually snippets of humorous things I hear kids say throughout the day.  Like today's title for example.  I was coloring with a 5 year old skier and out of the blue she tells me that she can use adult scissors.  My Lil Ripper said a funny one today too.  When I was explaining to him that he could go on the computer and look up his day on flaik.com, he told me that he didn't have a computer but he had a laptop!

Six year old Andrei was back today and I was keen to hang with him.  He was the only Lil Ripper taking lessons and I knew I could take him to the top of the mountain.  In the morning we practiced his turns again on both carpets.  After lunch we rode to the village and out of the blue, he started turning!  I was super stoked.  Of course, if he had his way, he would have rather did freeride (zig zags) instead of turning.  So we had an equal compromise on when he should turn and when he should freeride.

It was before noon when we hit the village and there was plenty of time to take him to the Alpine so that's what we did.  The sun was shining and the snow was nice and soft packed.  Not to mention there wasn't many people on the runs or in the lift lines.  Again, Andrei practiced his turns and did his zig zags.  We made it back to the CLC in less than an hour.  Not bad for a six year old.  He was thirsty and a bit tired so we took a break in the CLC for awhile before heading to the Magic Carpet and doing jumps.  We finished the day with another freeride down to the village.  Mom and Dad asked if he wanted to come to lessons again tomorrow and he said yes, but I told them I wouldn't be able to take him as I have Club tomorrow.  Not sure if he'll show up anyway or not.

Day 108 | I spell Lucas with a "L"

The sun came out full force today and so did the Springlike temperatures.  The morning started out pretty chilly with a temperature of only 26°F (below freezing) in the village.  I volunteered once again to take a Lil Rippers class.

The Magic Carpet was quite hard and icy first thing in the AM but it didn't take too long for the sun to warm up the corduroy giving way to perfect lower level conditions.  My guy was six years old and was able to zig zag down blue runs.  Dad wanted him to learn his toe edge and practice his turns.  We spent the morning on the Carpet doing just that.  There was another Lil Ripper hanging with Ellen.  He was only four years old and never snowboarded before.  Both of the guys were pretty cool and fun to hang out with.

After lunch we went to the Super Carpet to practice S-turns.  My guy was easy to teach and wasn't a complainer.  I would explain what I wanted him to do and he would do it.  He did a great job practicing for most of the day.  As a reward, he was able to spend the last hour and a half going over Morgan's awesome jump!  He's coming back tomorrow and I've already volunteered to take him again.  I'm thinking about taking him to the Alpine.

me - "Hi Lucas.  Do you spell that with a K or a C?"
4 year old Lucas - "I spell it with a L."

Day 107 | saliva on my apple

Back to work after a quick weekend off and for the third day in a row, I awoke to snow at my doorstep.  Whistler Blackcomb reported 4cm fell overnight but I had at least six inches in my driveway.  I was keen to teach an upper level in order to enjoy the fresh powder but I was given level ones instead .... and I started with seven of them.

It turns out four of them were in lessons yesterday and only three of them had never snowboarded before.  After getting the new guys up to speed on strapping in, skating, and basic mobility, we quickly hit the Magic Carpet where it was quite evident some of the other kids who were there yesterday were really level twos and not level ones.  After lunch I was able to give three of them to Melissa who had the level two class.

It was a typical level one day that started with me taking a few freshie laps down the Magic Carpet just because there was a good amount of snow and it was light and fluffy.  The weather was odd and a bit of every season all wrapped up into one afternoon.  Cloudy in the morning, sunny after lunch, clouds rolled in later in the afternoon and it snowed a bit, then back to sun for jump time.  By the time we got to the village, it was snowing/hailing and by the time I got changed out of my uniform, it was sunny again in the village.

Day 106 | grumpy pants

I made it through work for five days in a row and it feels like it's been a long five days.  I took another Lil Ripper today.  She was in lessons on Friday with Ransom and was such a sweet girl that I had no qualms spending the day with her.  Other than Club yesterday, I've had Lil Rippers all week.  Quite frankly, I'm over 100 days riding this season and I'm over it.  I could care less if I'm riding or just hanging on the carpet.

It definitely wasn't a sunny Spring day.  It was actually quite cold.  Phoebe didn't do much snowboarding.  I was okay with that.  We colored four pictures, played in the snow, climbed in the jungle gym, and did some hand painting (I was too nervous to paint her face).  I think our lunch hour was close to two hours.  Phoebe was such a pleasure to hang with that the day went by fast, which was perfect since it was my Friday and having her to finish my week was just what I needed.  Not to mention her Dad threw a nice tip my way and that was greatly appreciated.

Day 105 | Castle

It was girls only for Saturday Club.  Jaden is still in Hawaii but both girls have returned from their holidays.  The morning started off quickly with a warm up down Ptarmigan, which was the run of the day.  The sun was shining and there was about 5cm of snow overnight which made for a nice cover layer over the corduroy.  I was glad we got a run in early as the conditions were amazing with fresh tracks to be found.  I haven't been in the Alpine for almost a week and I had no idea what to expect but the snow was really nice.  The clear skies and sun made for a beautiful morning.

After a quick stop at the CLC for a drink and some fruit, we managed to squeeze in two more runs before lunch:  one down Tokem and one run through Marmot Trees to the lift line.  Tokem wasn't so fun but Marmot Trees down the gondola line was nice soft snow and quite fun.

After a long lunch we headed over to Blackcomb.  Conditions had turned from soft packed to wet.  Not slushy but wet.  The girls wanted to go to the castle and since I had never been, that's where we headed.  Again the sun was shining and the temps were warm.  Such a beautiful day.  We spent an hour at the castle.  The girls weren't itching to ride as they like to socialize together.  And because it was so nice, I wasn't itching to leave the sun.

We made it back to the village through the lower level Spring slush in time to finish the day exactly at 3pm.  Next week is the last week of Club and the work season itself is quickly coming to an end.

Day 104 | bloody nose

I'm being super lazy this week as today was my third day in a row working Lil Rippers.  I took the "handful", a cute five year old named Ransom who has been in Whistler Kids all week.  When Mom dropped him off in the morning, she said he was super tired and she was hoping he could have an easy day.  Done!  We spent the entire morning doing anything but snowboarding.  We colored, we ate cheese and crackers, we made paper airplanes, we played outside in the snow, we got a bloody nose (not me) .... we ate lunch.

Betty taught the second Lil Ripper, a cute, very polite and very well behaved five year old girl named Phoebe and Phoebe was not impressed with Ransom and his impolite and sometimes annoying behavior.  After lunch, we were all playing on the "igloo" and after countless warnings for not sharing, Random hit Betty with a ski pole.  I immediately took him into the den for a time out.  He was not very happy about that!  And the girl working the den was a hard ass as she made him sit, facing the wall with his hands on his knees.  I was just going to make him sit in there for ten minutes but she had a better tactic.  After fighting it for less than a minute, he eventually sat there quietly and did his time, which was only about ten minutes.

Ransom was a level two and has been able to snowboard down to the village for the past few days.  After his time out, he decided he wanted to snowboard so we ran down to the village three times before the day was over and Mom picked him up.

Day 103 | Fire Burnin'

I volunteered for another day of Lil Rippers since the two kids I had yesterday were returning.  The snow up top is nothing to be desired so I didn't mind spending the day on the Magic Carpet and hanging by the CLC.  Plus I got to color!

We had four Rippers so that meant three of us got to teach the little tykes.  It was me, Ellen and James.  Ellen took Ransom, who has been at Whistler Kids all week and he's quite a handful.  James took a new boy named Tavon and I took the brother and sister duo.

The bro and sis are both naturals on the snow.  I got them to do some toe edges and then got them turning.  They both picked it up pretty quickly as long as I was holding one hand.  I learned that Mom was a competitive Super G racer back in her day so that explained the kids natural ability on the snow.  Plus Dad wasn't too shabby either.

The day went by much faster than yesterday.... probably because the kids were meeting their parents back in the village at 2pm rather than 3pm.  I think Mom and Dad have a pair of snowboarders on their hands now.

The kids knew the lyrics for the chorus to Sean Kingston's Hip Hop song named Fire Burning.  Here is Luken's rendition:

  

Day 102 | Lil Ripper Construction Crew

Back to the grind and I was super tired today.  I volunteered to do Lil Rippers thinking we'd get to do a lot of coloring since it was raining in the morning.  Silly me as Lil Rippers are a lot of work.  Ellen and I team-taught three of them.  One was a handful and the two others were brother and sister and they were chill.  Not only that but they were really good.  They basically put their boards on and started zig zagging down the Magic Carpet on their own.  Apparently they are level five skiers.

I heard the snow up top was the worst.  Lots of powder overnight but really really wet and heavy all the way to the top of the Peak Chair.  The weather in the morning was cloudy with snow/rain but then was periods of sunshine by the afternoon.  The day kind of dragged on but what do you expect for a "Monday"?

Day 101 | Chasing two planks

I just finished five days of Adventure Camp and I was scheduled for two more days before my days off.  I was hoping to get some OT but we're not busy enough for that.  So instead of working seven days in a row, I worked five days and I have four days off.  Unfortunately, I got out of bed and reported to work before I received this information.  Of course, I was paid my stand-by salary but I would have rather stayed in bed.

The sun was shining in the morning so I didn't mind too much that I woke up early.  But one question remained, what was I going to do for the day?  Pip said she and her crew were going to ski groomers so I joined them at Creekside around noon.  There were four skiers and me... on my board.  We took a few laps down the blue groomers on Whistler then headed over to Harmony where Jordan and Veitch wanted to try some backflips off Jordan Rock.  I think we spent about an hour over there and didn't get much accomplished.  Poor Veitch broke his binding on his second attempt and had to walk back to the Roundhouse.  I headed out around 3pm and ran back down to Creekside.  The snow got nice and wet right where Dave Murray meets Expressway and it was awesome Spring skiing back down to the condo.

Day 100 | "Hi everybody!"

Last day of Adventure Camp and I have to say that I really enjoyed my three kids this week.  I promised them we would go on the Peak 2 Peak today so we did that first thing in the morning.  The sun was shining and the groomers on Blackcomb were really fun.  Slingshot was the run of the day and I told my kids to work on their speed so we zoomed down under the chairlift on perfectly groomed snow.  Normally I'm bored with that kind of stuff but I was really enjoying it.  Unfortunately our time on Blackcomb was cut short because of the low level Destination kid we had to pick up.  He should have been practicing on easy green slopes so keeping up with us on blues exhausted him after only two runs.  Luckily we were able to drop him down to a different level at lunch.

It clouded up and started snowing/raining in the afternoon.  After lunch we ran down to the village where we watched skiers and riders jump into a huge airbag set up at the bottom of Fitz Chair by Oakley and Camp of Champions.  From there we took one last run from the top, and of course, we went through Marmot Trees. I took a lot of fun photos of the kids and asked the parents to email me for copies.  One parent was kind enough to give me a $5 tip.  That was greatly appreciated considering I spent the last five days with these kids.

This is the earliest I have reached the 100 day mark and it was a great day.  I still have a month of riding left and Aimee is coming back to town soon so I'm sure I will hit 120+.  I foresee much Spring park riding in my future.

Day 99 | Buddha

I had another enjoyable day with my class today.  All three AC'ers were back and we picked up two more from Destination.  One girl was very enjoyable and improved quickly.  The boy was irritating as hell (talk, talk, talk) but everyone else was so pleasant that he really didn't annoy me as much as I thought he would.   Plus he was a level four so his snowboarding was up to par for being in a level three class.

It was sunny in the morning and cloudy in the afternoon.  Because we still had over 50 riders, it took some time to get all the kids organized.  I think we got underway around 9:30am and we managed to take a couple runs before heading in for lunch, including going from top to bottom.

The afternoon went by quickly as we took another run through Marmot Trees.  That is always a great time killer.  The snow is still pretty decent but if we don't get some fresh stuff soon, it's going to get crappy over the weekend when all the Vancouverites show up.  I have three more days of work and then I get a couple of days off.  I don't think I will be riding on my days off unless we get hammered with snow.  And there is not much snow in the forecast.

Day 98 | absolutely beautiful Wednesday

My great day yesterday was even keeled today with a split in my level three class.  Basically the four kids I picked up in Destination were much slower than my two kids in Adventure Camp.  The only one frustrated and complaining about the situation was me.  I don't think the kids even noticed.

With another day of over 50 snowboarders, it took awhile to get everybody up to the CLC and sorted out.  Once my class was in order, we got our photo taken and we headed up the gondola.  We only had time for one run before lunch.  I had to keep a very slow pace for the slower kids in the class.  One guy with us was technically a level two but because some Instructor moved him up to level three days ago, I had to keep him at level three.  I didn't have the heart to tell him he was really a level two.  Today was the second time this week he was in my class and both days I wanted to move him down but didn't.  Luckily he's riding with his family tomorrow and then going back home on Saturday so I don't have to deal with him on Thursday.

Weather wise, the day was amazing!  The sun was shining.  The sky was blue.  The snow was white.  A high freezing level left for great slush below mid-station and perfect conditions for jumps at the CLC.  The groomers in the Alpine are still nice and soft packed.  We took a run through Marmot Trees and the snow through there is still nice as well.  Wednesday is Adventure Camp apre day so we had some ice cream around 2:30.  The day went by fast and all the kids seemed to have fun.  

Day 97 | Justin Bieber

Adventure Camp started with my three AC kids heading to the top of the gondola with two other kids from Destination.  One guy I had yesterday so I knew what he was capable of, and one girl who was kind of turning down the Magic Carpet and I took a chance on taking her with my class.  She fit in well but unfortunately one of my AC'ers fell on his wrist and I had to call patrol to take him to get x-rays.  No idea if he will be returning tomorrow.

The snow up top was really nice.  Still nice and soft packed on the groomers.  I worked the kids hard today making them turn and turn and turn.  They didn't mind because I also let them go through some trees and jump off some side hits.  We also took a run through Marmot Trees.  It was super sweet in there.

One of the level one kids looked like Justin Bieber.  Everyone says he looks like the superstar and he even dressed up like Justin for Halloween.  Of course, I had to get my photo taken with him.  LOL!!!   He does kind of look like the teen idol.

Day 96 | March Adventure Camp

Busy times at Whistler here on out until the end of the season.  This week starts off with Canada spring breaks.  Since it's busy, Snowboard Adventure Camp is back in action and I have level threes!  We had over 50 riders in lessons today and numbers look to be the same for the week.  I have three kids in Camp but should probably have a full class every day for the week.  Today I had a total of seven, well .... six and a half.  I took a Lil Ripper who can turn all the way to the village but since he's so small, he gets super tired and needs much longer breaks between runs.  So he ran with me and the big kids every other run.

In a perfect world, my level threes would have enjoyed a day of riding green runs in the Family Zone on top of the mountain.  But in busy world, my level threes were really all high level twos.  We spent most of the morning working on our turns on the Super Carpet.  Fortunately, all the kids were turning after this session.  Their turns weren't very pretty but at least they were turning.

We then spent the remainder of the day running down to the village.  Snow was slushy and it was raining by late afternoon.  Throw in some jumps at the CLC and a final run to the village and we can call it a day.  Oh and I don't want to forget to mention how one of my kids let her snowboard run down Lower Olympic and into the woods.  Luckily one of the boys was all too happy to hike down and get it for her.  He was our hero! and proud that his mountain climbing lessons finally came in handy.

Day 95 | batteries in my butt

We're starting to wind down the weekly Club program.  Only three weeks left.  For the second week in a row I only had two kids.  There wasn't much snow reported overnight but I had a hard time believing that report once we got up top.  There was a ton of fresh snow everywhere and it snowed most of the day.

We managed to squeeze in three runs before lunch, which is good for us considering I have a girl who does nothing but whine and complain the entire day.  She hasn't missed a week whining and it annoys the crap out of me.  I try my best to ignore it.  I've talked to Mom about it but Mom just catered to the whining instead of nipping it in the bud.  It turns out she also has a brother in Club and his Instructor told me he is also a constant whiner.

After lunch we hung out with Betty and her three boys.   They started the season as level ones but are now clearly better than my kids.  We took the P2P over to Blackcomb and Betty took us through some tree runs by the terrain garden that I never knew existed.  The snow was amazing.  It was tracked out but it was still soft and nice.  On our last run, we followed Betty through Honeycomb trees and those were amazing as well.  I was super stoked because I just learned of three new tree runs that I can take my kids down on Blackcomb and they are off the beaten path so they hardly get tracked out.  

  

Day 94 | ketchup cake

The back of our ketchup labels at the CLC have an advertisement for ketchup cake.  If you want to try it, click here!  Not sure why you would want to though.
Another non-snow day but that doesn't matter because the groomers are amazing.  Soft packed conditions.  The popular, easy tree runs are getting a bit chunky and there isn't any powder to be found.  I would imagine the snow at the very top is still very good.

I had an easy day as I was assigned my returning level fours.  This time I only had two of them.  We started the morning riding down Green Acres and popping in and out of Marmot Trees.  11am lunch means we usually only have time for two runs in the morning so our second run was down Ego Bowl and through Enchanted Forest.

Yesterday I was super tired and I have to admit, I didn't do much teaching with the kids.  Today I was more on my toes and spent more time going over some lessons listed on the report cards.  After lunch instead of going over to Blackcomb and being tempted to run through the Terrain Garden again, I decided to stay on Whistler and hit up Marmot Trees.  The boys loved that run, especially the trees down the gondola line.  We also took a couple of laps through the Terrain Park.  The Park was nicely groomed and I wish I could have gotten some huge air myself instead of spotting the landings but I guess that's part of being an Instructor.  The day went by pretty fast and both kids were a lot more engaging today versus yesterday.  To top it off, one Dad gave me a $20 tip!  

Day 93 | Irish eyes

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!
Both mountains were pretty quiet today.  Hardly any lift lines.  Not that I cared since I was working and could cut the lines anyway.  No new snow overnight and the sun was finally shining.  It was a gorgeous day.  Perfect temps and perfect snow.

I started the morning with five level fours but got rid of two of them during lunch.  In the afternoon, we headed over to Blackcomb to take a few laps in the terrain garden.  We ended up spending the rest of the day in the TG since there was no one using it.  On our last lap I decided to head through some trees and the boys instantly got excited.  They hadn't shown any emotion all day!  They all said they wanted to ride the park but then said going through the trees was their favorite part of the lesson.  Oh well.  A couple of them are returning tomorrow so hopefully I can snag that class again and take them through the trees.

Day 92 | teenage boys

I was asked to work Ride Tribe today (13-18 years old).  As long as I get work, I really don't care where I work.   I knew I'd end up with a low level class just because I'm low man on the totem pole in that department.  No biggee as it's at the point in the season where I'm there for work and not worried too much about the snowboarding aspect of it.

Another foot of snow fell overnight, bringing our snowbase up to almost 400cm.  We've had over 6 feet of snow in the past seven or eight days.  I can't say I've enjoyed much of that as most of the classes I have taught lately have been low levels.  

Anyway, today I had four boys from USA.  Brothers from Memphis, a kid from Connecticut, and a kid from Houston, Texas.  All very nice kids and because three were from the south,  I heard a lot of "yes ma'ame"- very polite kids.

Naturally we spent our entire day at the Olympic area.  Spent most of the day on the Super Carpet and took one run up the Olympic Chair.  Three out of the four of them were turning by the afternoon.  The funny thing about teenage boys is that they learn by "discovery".  There's no holding their hands and helping them down the bunny hill as they try their edges for the first time.  They just stand up and go for it.  Quite different from the seven year olds who hang onto you for dear life!

Day 91 | 6am to 9:45am

Because of mega-snow and high winds, the Alpine hasn't been open in three days.  I was hoping it would open today (on my day off) so Pip and Jordan and I decided to do Fresh Tracks.  Unfortunately, lots of other people had the same idea and by the time we reached the Village at 7am, the queue was back to the ticket kiosk.  The 650 people cut off is right around that area.  Rather than stand in line and chance not getting up, we decided to eat breakfast at the Wizard Grill and upload at regular time.

When we reached the top of Wizard Chair, Solar Coaster was on stand-by so we rocked back down to Wizard making fresh lines virtually the whole way down.  The first third of the run was amazing!!    But the snow quickly got wet and sticky.  We were back in line at Solar Coaster at 9am and we were hoping it would open soon.  When a Patrol friend skied by, he suggested heading down to Excaliber Chair citing Solar wasn't going to open for awhile.  So we rocked down to Excaliber only to find another 20 minute queue (Excaliber has been running at 50% speed as it's running on it's auxiliary diesel engine, has been for almost a week).  By the time we got to some good snow, it was close to 10am.

Needless to say, I wasn't too thrilled to wake up at 6am just to stand in a line for virtually three hours.  But once we got to the snow, OH MY GOD it was amazing!  Pip works on Blackcomb so she's good at knowing tree runs and off piste runs with plenty of powder.  And there was plenty of powder!!  Especially through the trees.  It was easily up to our knees and very soft and fluffy.  Patrol did a great job at getting Crystal Chair open fairly early.  We hit up Outer Limits, a double black tree run.  From there we had to cat track back to Excelerator and the long lift line.  Pip was cold and hungry and wanted to take a break.  Jordan ran down to the Village while Pip and I downloaded.  The plan was to head up Whistler, thinking the lift lines were faster.  We were pretty tired of standing in line.  But by the time we reached the Village, Pip and I had decided to call it a day.  Getting up at 6am takes it toll.  LOL

I have tomorrow off and again I'm crossing my fingers the Alpine opens and we can shred the Peak all afternoon.  In the meantime, I'm heading to the dog park with Cabo!

Day 90 | extra sour

41 inches of snow in the past seven days!!!
I had a chance to play in the snow again today and the snow these days ... IS AMAZING!!!  I was handed two level fives and they were the nicest engaging kids.  It was nice to end my work week on a nice note.

We started the day with a run down greens to Emerald Chair.  The winds were whipping today like crazy.  The Alpine hasn't opened for the second day in a row.  None of us were interested in sitting on the chair again so we lapped the Village Gondola for most of the day.  We took a lap through the terrain park but that was virtually useless for jumps.  Kids never understand why you say "no park on a powder day" until you take them through it and then they realize why.  After lunch we ran from the Roundhouse down to Creekside.  That's always a time burner.  Before you know it, the afternoon was over.  I was wet and I was tired.

My kid brought some Warheads (extreme sour hard candy) and took a video of my reaction eating it.  It's pretty humorous ... and here it is:

Day 89 | dress your Instructor day

Nine inches of snow fell overnight and I finally got to get up into the Alpine and enjoy some powder.  I can say without a shadow of a doubt that I hate my 2010 Burton Feelgood in powder.  I think it's too stiff.  I can't lean back and control where I'm going on the thing.  Luckily I only have to use it at work and I'm usually restricted to powdered green runs on work days.  I can deal with it on those types of runs but it isn't too fun.

Anyway, my Club kids and I hit Tokum (the run of the day) before 10am and found some fresh lines and deep powder.  The Alpine never opened today so all the runs were tracked out pretty quickly, not to mention the lift lines were pretty long.  We didn't do as many runs as I would have liked today.  I'm not sure why.  My kids wanted to spend most of the afternoon at the CLC going over the jump.  I probably should have made them ride more but it was snowing pretty heavy and I was pretty wet so I didn't argue much.

Ava's parents did a good job of dressing me up today.  I felt kind of silly snowboarding with a hot dog purse but I got to keep the boxers so it was worth it.   : )

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
snowbase - 358cm

Day 88 | sour puss

My happy kid from yesterday returned today which meant I had level twos.  He was joined by two other girls, one from Panama and one from Texas.  The plan for today was to work on S turns.  That's what level two's do, they work on their turns.  We spent a little bit of time on the Magic Carpet and then moved over to the Super Carpet.  We lasted there until lunch.

My boy could easily turn all the way down the Super Carpet while the girls weren't really turning at all.  After lunch I decided to take them down to the Village.  That took over an hour.  My girl from Texas was really good at zig zagging.  I was told she goes down blue runs but the only thing she does is zig zag.  She didn't seem too thrilled with practicing turning all day, especially since she really couldn't do it.  She was quiet and wasn't excited about anything we did.  She walked around all day with a puss on her face.  I tried not to let it bring me down.  The other two kids were super cool and having a good time.  I spoke to her mom at the end of the day and her mother didn't seem to be surprised.  Oh well.  Like I said, I tried not to let her ruin the good time I was having with the other two kids.

Day 87 | Born in the USA

I was really dreading going to work this morning.  I contemplated going home if we were overstaffed but I really need the ca$h (who doesn't!).  I was assigned level twos but I opted for level ones as I didn't want to deal with a class of five kids from Panama.  Instead I got two very nice kids, one from Seattle and one from Florida.

Another 7 inches of fresh snow fell overnight and the Magic Carpet had some tough sticky powdery conditions first thing in the morning.  I started the kids on their toes then progressed to their heels and zig zags - all before lunch!  By the afternoon, the snow had packed down giving the kids an easy practice run so I got them to start learning their S turns.  By the end of the day, one was going off of jumps and both were connecting turns down the Magic Carpet.  They both said they had a fun day and were overwhelmed with how much they were able to learn in six hours.  The boy from Seattle expressed his joy so much to Mom that she booked him in lessons again for tomorrow and sent WB Snow School a very glowing email about me.  I found out that today is International Awesome Day ... and ironically, I had a great day even though I was expecting the worse.

Day 86 | echo!

Woke up in a snow globe this morning.  Whistler Blackcomb reported 2cm overnight but there was at least 8 inches at the CLC by 9am.  It was a blizzard for most of the morning and the snow was fluffy and light.  There weren't many kids in snowboard lessons and most of them were already "taken" by other Instructors.    The only kids left to take were a level one and a Lil Ripper.  I opted for the Lil Ripper, which turned out to be a good choice since the Level one was a miracle kid and ended up in the Level two class by lunch.  Needless to say my day was long and boring consisting of walking up and down the Magic Carpet.

Day 85 | Pip & Jordan

Still no new snow to report.  A front is forecasted to bring about 30cm by tomorrow afternoon.  I met up with Pip and Jordan around 11am on Whistler.  We lapped the Whistler Terrain Park for about two hours.  The Parks crew have been doing an outstanding job on the Parks this season.  They've added some nice S/M jumps under the lift line.  Not too big but big enough to practice getting lots of air and pop on, especially if you're starting to find the small jumps a bit too small.  They're labeled as Medium but they're not as big as most medium features.  They are sort of in between small and medium.  The park has also been extended down to the Emerald Chair.  Pip and I followed Jordan through the blue park for a few laps.    Then we switched back to the green park.  Conditions were really nice.  Soft packed powder and the transitions were nicely groomed, not rutted out.  It started getting crowded after 1pm so we called it a day around 1:30pm.

Day 84 | session

Ever since I passed my Level 2 certification, every year I start the season saying I'm going to train hard for Level 3 and once the season gets going I can't be bothered.  Today I took the full day Level 3 session.  It's only the second 3 Prep I've taken.  One of the top Instructors on Whistler Blackcomb is this guy named Jose and I wanted to train with him.

I was crazy tired in the morning and the last thing I wanted to do was ride.  I forced myself out of bed knowing that if I didn't ride, I would regret it by noon.  The sun was shining and even though we haven't had any new snow in a few days, the snow in the higher elevations is still pretty nice.

There is a Level 3 Course starting tomorrow and there are about eight WB Instructors signed up to the take the course.  Most of them were in the session today, trying to brush up on their skills before the exam.  We met up on Blackcomb and ran the GMC race course about three times.  Then we did some work on moguls before heading in for lunch.  Most of the afternoon session consisted of a lot of talking on what is expected on course.  I was super super tired and not feeling myself so I bailed around 1:30 and was back at home by 2pm to take Cabo to the dog park.  I was glad I got up and did some riding but I really wasn't into it.

Day 83 | Panama Invasion

It was a very stressful day at Whistler Kids.  There seems to be an influx of Spanish speaking people from Panama in town and they must be financially well off because their kids are rude as hell.  They claim to speak English but I had a hard believing they understood anything I said.  They also have no manners:  no please, no thank you ... and they bark orders at you like you're their servant.

There were about 20 kids in snowboard lessons, almost all of them Spanish, and most of them all know each other.  I was given level threes and I had three of them.  A couple whacky things happened today.  The first happened right out of the gate when Betty and I decided to take a run down to the village to sort out the level threes and level fours.  We checked all the kids on the Magic Carpet to make sure they could turn.  Then about 100 yards down Olympic run, one kid immediately fell hard trying to S turn.  When I checked on him, he was a level two!  He had an Instructor's name on his bib as well!  For some reason he just decided to follow us.  So I had to walk him back up the hill and put him back into his proper class.

The rest of the morning was pretty easy as we had early lunch and by the time we split the classes and had some photos taken, there was only time for one run down to the village.  The afternoon was a bit different. I quickly learned I had one kid who could speak very good English and two kids who didn't understand what I was saying.  I had the other kid translate to the other kids.  My first rule was to come into the group safely.  In other words, when I'm stopped on the run, don't come to me riding a million miles an hour and run me over because you have no control when you try to stop.  So what happened?  Three times the same kid bashed his snowboard into me because he was out of control.  The last time he did it, I actually pushed him off of me!  He looked at me surprised but he didn't do it again.

I also had a jumbo kid.  He lasted one run from the Roundhouse back to the CLC where I had to drop him off to take a break.  That left me with two strong kids so I decided to take them through the trees and then down Jimmy's Joker.  At the bottom of Jimmy's Joker, the oldest kid ended up getting stuck in the powder and he couldn't get out.  He cried out for me to help him and I told him he needed to take off his board.  After struggling, whining, and crying for five minutes, he finally took off his board, he walked back to the run and then he threw his board back into the powder and sat on the ground pouting!!  Luckily his board landed in powder and didn't take off dangerously down the mountain.  I sat there stumped for a moment, letting the kid cool down.  I started taking my camera out of my pocket to take a photo of him and when he saw me doing that, he decided to get his board back.  LOL!   He got his board, walked down the run to where I was sitting and then threw his board again and then threw his goggles.  Another Instructor stopped and asked if I needed any help.  I said I didn't know because I have never had a kid throw their snowboard before.  I gave him five minutes to cool down and then told him if he didn't put his board back on, I was going to leave him there and he would be spending the night in the snow.  Of course, he put his board on and we headed back to the CLC.

I had a Spanish speaking Instructor explain the dangers of his behavior and I let his father know of his actions when he was checked out.  The boys spent the rest of the afternoon on a jump at the CLC.  I couldn't wait for the day to be over and if it wasn't for the amazing snow conditions and sun, the day would have totally sucked.  Instead it was just a very long and frustrating day.  I am so glad I have the next two days off!

Day 82 | she said yes!

I don't know if she said yes.  Hell, I have no idea who Sarah is.  Thought it was an interesting proposal.
We had 7 inches of fresh powder overnight and after taking a couple of days off to mend a strep throat, I was ready to shred with my Club class.

I only had two kids in the morning and we were on the gondola by 9am heading up to the Roundhouse.  We strapped on our boards and headed down Whiskey Jack.  The snow was amazing!!!  Powder everywhere, the groomers still had nice corduroy and the snow was sooooo soft.  It was fun.  We weren't allowed to go through any trees so I did my best to find fresh tracks on the runs we were allowed on.  We managed to squeeze in a couple of runs before lunch and we were able to enjoy the fresh snow before it was completely chopped up.  We even took a quick lap through the terrain park.

During lunch, Ava was signed out leaving me with only Jaden once again.  After lunch, he and I went from the Roundhouse down to Creekside Gondola,  then took Expressway to the village and then back up to the Roundhouse for one last run back down to the village.  The great thing about Jaden is that he can go from top to bottom without stopping or taking a break.  My legs were burning halfway down but he was leading and he kept on riding.  If it wasn't for a heavy low level cloud, I would have called today perfect.

Day 81 | high winds close Whistler

More snow fell overnight and more snow fell during the day.  I was told I'd be teaching my return level threes.  I knew the forecast called for high gusting winds in the Alpine so I opted to give up the threes for a Lil Ripper, thus keeping me close to home (the CLC) and out of the crappy weather.   There were three Lil Rippers and Morgan took the other two.

The winds were suppose to reach 100kph by late morning and by 11am, Operations had closed the Emerald Chair and Red Chair leaving only the Village Gondola open.  But by noon, they had closed the upper line of that too.

We took the Rippers over to the Super Carpet in the morning.  There was so much powder that the only thing they could do was straight line down the run.  Morgan and I chased after them, picked them up when they fell, and put them back on the carpet to do it again and again.  The afternoon was a bit more laid back with lots of coloring after lunch.

Some people, including some Minis,  got stranded at the top of the mountain and had to be brought down in Cats.  Two Cats dropped off a full cab at mid-station.  I don't know the complete story there.  Assuming the winds were so blinding that people didn't feel comfortable skiing down.

Day 80 | be jealous 'cause I rip

There were 18 riders in lessons.  The week after Presidents Week is usually pretty slow so it's nice that we have some kids taking lessons.  I feel like I haven't been to work in awhile and I guess I haven't.  I took a lot of time off last week to hang with Si'Aire.  Now I'm looking to work as much as I can since there is only two months of work left.  My how time flies.

February went out with a ton of snow and March is coming in with snow.  Forecast calls for snow all week.  Conditions today were amazing.  Super soft packed with powder to be found here and there.  I had low level three's so there wasn't much gnarly shredding going on.  We spent the morning lapping the village run.  After lunch we went up top and rode Whiskey Jack and Ego Bowl.  I wanted to go to Marmot Trees but I didn't feel my kids had the ability to get back to Emerald Chair on the cat track.  These kids just needed to turn as much as they could down green runs.  So that's what we did.  The day went by pretty fast.