Day 96 | hello powder

Another 7 inches of new snow in the last 24 hours.  It was snowing in the morning and I kept wishing for Spring/Summer.  It's April and another 50cm is forecasted to fall by Tuesday.
Juliette and Ella showed up at their regular time... late and after 9am.  I didn't care as I wasn't in a rush to ride.

The conditions were powder and soft packed.  We took a couple runs before lunch and after lunch we did another level assessment with Gunner and the rest of the riders.  That took up most of the afternoon.  Afterwards, the girls wanted to do the jump on the Xtrack.  The sun was shining by then so we chilled out at the CLC area until it was time to sign out.

Day 95 | Is Blackcomb in USA?

It was an easy day to work as only Mia and Ava showed up for Club.  We took a couple runs in the AM before lunch.  Six centimeters fell overnight and the snow is still super soft packed.  We weren't allowed to run the trees so we had to stick to groomers.

After lunch all the Club classes met up with Gunner for an evaluation of levels for next season.  We rode down Orange Peel to Tokum.  Gunner gave us a lot of great feedback on the kids' riding.  It was time for some hot chocolate after the "test" so we all met up at the CLC where we hung out until it was time to ride to the Village for sign outs.  Like I said, easy day to work.

Day 94 | fresh tracks

Irish and I finally got out of bed early enough and made it to Fresh Tracks.   It snowed six inches overnight but the Alpine never opened yesterday so anything we hit today was going to be amazing .... and it was!

Once the bell rang, we hit Mom and Pop trees twice then ran down to Red Chair via the trees off Whiskey Jack.  We then headed to Harmony and waited in line for about a half hour before the chair opened.  The sun came out during that half hour but it was cloudy for most of the day.  Fresh lines down the side of Sun Bowl awaited for us as we headed into Symphony dropping off the cat track into the trees.    We managed to squeeze in about four or five runs in Symphony before Irish headed off to work.

I ran into the kids (Libby, Sean, & Jordan) at the top of Symphony Chair just as Irish was about to leave.  They were riding down the face under the chair dropping the rock and the cornice.  I somehow managed to get up enough guts to drop the cornice myself.  Bel, from Snowboard School saw us under the chair so I beckoned for her to come on down and drop it with me.  She did!  We ended up having a group of about ten people dropping the cornice about three different times.  It was fun.

By 2pm I was exhausted so I ended to the never-ending cat track and made my way down to the Village. Back to work tomorrow and I'm sure there will plenty of nice, soft snow to be shredded tomorrow with my Saturday Club kids.

Jordan dropping Symphony Rock

Day 93 | too many kids in a gondola

Thirty inches of snow has fallen in the last 48 hours here at Whistler Blackcomb.  I haven't been able to enjoy much of it until today.  I was assigned level fours and took five kids up the gondola.  They all insisted their s-turns were strong.  I realized once we hit Whiskey Jack that I had mostly level threes and a level two.  I made the mistake of jumping off the groomer into the powder at the SLOW sign.  It didn't take too long before four kids were so stuck, in the almost waist deep snow, that they ended up taking off their snowboards and walking down to Ego Bowl.  (tee hee)  That's the first time that's ever happened!!!  They were all huffing and puffing and cursing the sight of powder.  : )

We slowly made our way down to the CLC where we took a much needed rest (long lunch) and tried to figure out how to shake up the mix.  The level 5 Instructor ended up taking the one level 4 and I team taught nine level threes with Bel.

We spent the afternoon riding green groomers.  The snow was super soft packed and most of the fresh powder was tracked out.  We weren't allowed to go through trees.  The winds were gusting up to 100kph so the Alpine never opened.  The day went by pretty fast and I think we did a good job at getting the kids to like the idea of powder.    

Day 92 | untitled

Called in sick yesterday but was back to work today.  I was able to take my AC kid named Oscar who was still only a level one.  I added three other Destination kids to the class, one had never snowboarded before.

15cm of snow fell overnight.  Temps were mild which left a heavy/wet fresh pack of snow on the Magic Carpet which was impossible for the kids to learn how to sideslip on.  For the first couple hours, they did nothing but straight line.  I was able to put an edging lesson together once we got the carpet area side-slipped enough.  After lunch we went over to the Super Carpet.  By the end of the day, two girls were turning, my AC kid was kind of turning, and the rest were just getting down however they could.  

Day 91 | Monday blues

The sun and the warmth has disappeared, gearing us up for the winter storm heading our way at the end of the week.  I was assigned level ones for Adventure Camp and ended up with four Destination Kids and two AC'ers.  Not very busy in Snowboard School today with only 20 kids total.

I spent most of the day on the Magic Carpet.  The three older girls were great on their edges and progressed quickly.  The three younger kids weren't quite getting it.  By 1pm I was bored with the CLC area and decided to try the Super Carpet area.  It was a great time waster as the time flew by quickly once we got over there.  My two seven year olds weren't quite grasping the side slipping concept but they weren't too bad.  They could control themselves enough to not run into any adults on the carpet.

The morning started off sunny but as the day went on, the clouds rolled in.  In fact, it was sprinkling a bit when it was time to leave.

Day 90 | photo shoot mixup

Juliette and Ella were asked to participate in a Whistler Blackcomb photo shoot in which the photos are to be used in new marketing product for WB.  Lauren's two girls were also asked to participate.  All the kids were keen to do it and since they only needed one Instructor for the shoot, Lauren took the two classes.  I was given the choice of having the day off or to cover Jonnie's class of two lower level kids.  I chose to work and cover Jonnie's class.

Laura and Cameron showed up on time and we spent the day with Morgan and his Lil Ripper Club kid.  We spent the day on blues and greens around Emerald Chair trying to get the kids to understand the technicality of "counter-rotation".  Once again the sun was shining and the temps were warm.  Another Spring like day, warmer than yesterday with even Spring conditions on the snow.  I spent the day working on 180's off drops.  Finally got it down too.

Another ice cream apres at the CLC.  We also built a ramp for my new Chuckbuddy.  The day went by fast.  I was able to see Juliette and Ella during lunch and at the end of the day.  This job isn't a bad gig, especially when the sun is shining and you spend the day team teaching and working on your own riding.

Day 89 | Handmade near Canada in the USA

Saturday Club is easy these days when only three kids show up every week.  This week it was Jaden, Max, and Ava.  I rode the kids pretty hard.  The sun was shining and the temps were warm.  We did a little bit of everything:  black runs, switch riding, Marmot trees, terrain park.  It was also Beach Party Weekend theme which meant we had ice cream at the CLC around 2pm.  All the teams were out, soaking up the sun, eating ice cream.  The day was amazing.  Definitely gave us all Spring fever!

Day 88 | chicken on a snowboard

I reported back to work late but healthy.  All five AC kids showed up on time and we were at the Roundhouse by 9am.  With only 3cm of new snow overnight, it meant we were allowed to go through trees.  We took a warm up run down Whiskey Jack, stopped to get our group photo taken and then headed to Marmot Trees.  The snow through the trees was nice and soft.  The kids had a bit of a hard time but they all loved it.  Next we took a run through Enchanted Forest then headed to the CLC for some hot chocolate since we were pretty cold.

After a quick break, we squeezed in a run to the village before lunch.  We did a lot of snowboarding today.  The conditions on the groomers were nice.... super soft packed.  The sun was shining in the afternoon.  (the goggle tan is coming along quite nicely)   It felt like a busy day and it went by fast.  In fact, we never made it to the CLC for ice cream apres.  No one seemed too concerned as they were having fun on their snowboards.  That's all you can ask for.

Day 87 | Spring not sprung

Today is the first day of Spring, but not in Whistler.  With another 12cm of snow overnight and another 15cm forecasted throughout the day, Spring is not coming quickly in these parts.  Winds were gusting up to 100kph at ridge top so the Village gondi was running slow.  All my AC kids showed up on time and we needed to "test out" a new kid from level two so the first run we did was from mid-station to the Village.  Lots of nice fresh tracks found on the run down.  The kid fit in perfectly so we rocked to the Roundhouse after a short hot chocolate and fruit break.

I wasn't feeling very well so I made a call to my Supervisor while on the gondola in order to get another Instructor to cover my class.  By the time the kids and I hit as much powder as we could off Ego Bowl, we met up with Breon at the CLC.  He took over the class while I rode down to the village to go home.

Day 86 | another week of AC

A Lil Ripper that I had in lessons last season has requested me to be his Adventure Camp coach this week.  He's a level three, thus I've been assigned to his level.  I started with a full class of six but by mid-afternoon I needed to put one back down to level two.  I knew in the morning he was actually a level two but I thought I could work with him.  His turning was great, he just got too tired and wasn't able to keep up with the kids who had a bit more speed on the easy green runs.

Everyone's stance and balance needed much tweaking but by the end of the day, the team looked much better.  We spent most of the day up top on the soft packed powder conditions riding Ego Bowl and Whiskey Jack.  It was super crowded after lunch, especially in the Family Zone.

I'm hoping we are able to ride through trees tomorrow as a couple of the kids need to learn how to bend their knees.  A few laps through Marmot trees should help take care of that problem.  Unfortunately, another 10cm of snow is forecasted to fall tonight so trees are probably not going to be an option for the rest of the week.

Day 85 | mushy monsters

Ella was a no-show once again this week so it was just me and Juliette and Caleb.  We spent the morning on Whistler riding blacks.  Jimmy's Joker, Dave Murray, and Bear Paw to be exact.  Jimmy's was mogulled out but the kids did pretty good getting down.  When we hit Dave Murray, we practiced our switch riding (both kids did amazing!) and Bear Paw should have been the run of the day as the grooming was exceptional and the run was amazing ...  though Caleb said it was too easy.

After lunch we tagged with Lauren and Morgan and took a lap through the Terrain Garden on Blackcomb.  When we were on Solar Coaster, we saw that Caleb's brother Jaden was about to run his border-cross race so we stopped and watched him race.  We also ran into Caleb's dad watching the race.  Afterwards we had time to run down to the village from Blackcomb then head up the village gondola for one last rip down from mid-station.

Once the kids were checked out, I met up with Irish at the Roundhouse where we hit the trees through the terrain park.  By this time, there was a lot of fresh snow from the snowfall that had started around noon.  I'm hoping for decent conditions tomorrow.  We finished the day by running through the trees on the way down to Creekside.

Day 84 | Kiss Me I'm with Irish

We are down to the last four weekends of Club.  Everyone showed up this week except for Mia.  Ava's parents took the liberty of "dressing the Instructor" -- Yes, I rode around dressed like that all day.  We weren't allowed to go through trees so there was no fresh powder to be found.  The snow on the groomers was nice, very soft packed.  We spent the day on Whistler mostly in the Green Acres area.  At one point we took a lap with the level five and level three class.  I think there was a group of 14 kids riding with 3 Instructors.  It was during that lap that D.T. fell and hurt his neck thus resulting in yet another call to Patrol.  He was cleared but we ended up sticking to green runs for the last two laps of the day.

Day 83 | Privates Request

Sixty five inches of snow in the last seven days! and still counting ......
One of my Adventure Camp girls booked me as a requested private for a half day.  As much as I was excited (especially for my pay rate), I was a little disappointed as today was set to be an epic pow day.  With all the snow we've received lately, combined with the Alpine not opening yesterday, I knew today was going to be amazing up there.  Unfortunately, my kid was a low level two so there was no early morning powder riding with Irish or with anyone else for that matter.

I met with Savannah at 8:45am and we were atop the gondola before 9:30am.  The snow soft and I figured it would be easier for her to practice her turns up there rather than at the boring Olympic Chair.  We took two runs down Ego Bowl before heading in for a hot chocolate.  After our break, Savannah wanted to go to the Olympic Chair so we downloaded to mid-station and managed to squeeze one run in before needing to download for noon to end the lesson.

Afterwards, I headed back up to the Alpine where the lift lines for Peak Chair and Harmony were over 15 minutes long.  I got in the singles line at Peak with intentions of going to Symphony to find Libby and Sean.  But the longer I stood in line staring at the Peak, the more I wanted to stay right where I was.  When I got off the chair, I found myself heading to Christmas Trees.  The snow was pretty chopped up on the way, but there were nice lines to be found in the trees.  Unfortunately, the run was too short and before I knew it, I was on Highway 86 heading to Red Chair.

I rode towards Harmony traversing right through Ratfink.  When I popped out of the trees and looked at the Harmony lift line, I decided to head back to Emerald Chair as I didn't feel like standing in the queue.  My last run was through Enchanted Forest and back to the village.

Day 82 | your momma so skinny that ....

Last day of Adventure Camp and although no one made it past level two, all the kids improved quite a bit.  I'm surprised considering I didn't think any of them would ever get off the Magic Carpet when they first showed up on Monday.

We hit the Super Carpet first thing in the morning.  The conditions were groomed but super soft so it was a bit easier for them to progress.  After lunch I took five of them to the Olympic Chair and left one girl behind on the Magic Carpet (she wasn't quite ready for the chair).  We managed to squeeze in two runs on the chair before needing to get back to the CLC for Adventure Camp ice cream and cookies.  The day went by super fast.  I was tipped well and I managed to some how secured a requested Private lesson with one of the girls for Friday.  SA-WEET!!!

Day 81 | who can't use a little hot chocolate in their life?

Day two of Adventure Camp and I picked up two girls who were with Bel yesterday so I now have a full class of six (five girls and one boy).  Another 20cm of snow fell overnight so the Magic Carpet area was pretty powdery.  The kids spent the morning working on edging and some started learning how to turn.  I took them over to the Super Carpet for half the morning and the entire afternoon.  Everyone is improving but not as quickly as kids usually do.  I don't mind as the kids are all really nice and the day goes by fast.

More epic snow up top --- super light and super deep.

Day 80 | freshies on Magic Carpet

Back to crazy busy at Whistler Kids .... over 500 kids this week including over 60 in Snowboard School. We received 29inches (74cm) of the most amazingly light snow in the last 72 hours!  The winds were gusting up to 100kph resulting in the closure of top half of the Village gondola all day and Red & Green chairs never opened until close to noon.

My fingers were crossed that I would get a high level class but I was assigned level two Adventure Campers.  Once everything was sorted out, I ended up with level ones.  Darren and I split eight kids.  A couple of them are "muppets" and won't get past the Magic Carpet this week but all the kids are super nice.

There was a ton of fresh powder at the CLC area.  We didn't even teach the kids to sideslip in the morning because there was too much snow.  They all strapped on their boards and just straight lined.  It snowed like crazy all day.  Surprisingly the time went by pretty fast.  We managed to get a few kids side slipping in the afternoon and of course, we built a huge jump.  Darren and I split up the kids by age for the next couple of days.  I'm hoping to get my kids turning by the end of tomorrow.  But with more snow in the forecast, that might be a tough task.  

Day 79 | It's a powder world!

Our snow base has finally reached the 300cm level!!!  About 100cm is forecasted to fall between Friday and Wednesday night (have I mentioned that already?).  Today was the third amazing powder day in a row!

Even though I only had my level three kids today, we managed to find a ton of fresh, deep powder on green and blue runs.  Ella was a no-show leaving me with just Caleb and Juliette.  They both did amazing in the powder.  Which was pretty surprising given that at some points, Caleb was going through snow that was almost up to his waist!!

We ran pretty hard in the morning without taking a break until it was lunchtime.  By 11am, Juliette was exhausted.  She had fallen quite a few times but for someone who is only about 4 feet tall, she did amazing well through the deep powder.  After lunch, most of the good stuff was tracked out.  We still managed to find a couple of good stashes ----

Once the kids were signed out, I headed up Blackcomb to meet up with Irish.  We took a couple laps through In the Spirit.  A great gladed run that nobody seems to go through.  It was also puking like crazy when we left around 4pm.  Hopefully tomorrow will be another amazing day.  Better yet, I hope I get a class that can turn so we can find the pow!!

Day 78 | buttery

For some reason, only two of my five Saturday Club kids showed up this week.  Fine by me as it was a powder day and the less kids you have trying to crawl out of powder, the more turns you get.  : )

Max and Mia were excited when we hit Green Acres and they saw how much powder was up there.  We weren't allowed to go through trees but there was plenty of fresh snow to find in the morning that we didn't need trees.

After lunch I decided to venture up to Peak Chair with them.  We rode down Whistler Bowl and out to Doom and Gloom where we met up with Devon's level five class.  I was amazed how well Max and Mia did in the powder and on the steep runs off Peak.  But of course, by the time we got out of all that powder and ran back to the CLC, the kids were pretty much toast.  We practiced some 180s off the CLC jump and then called it a day with the kids.

I met up with Irish at the Roundhouse once I finished work.  We managed to squeeze in a few tree runs before the chairs closed at 4pm.  

Day 77 | wedgies

Slow day at Whistler Kids Snowboard School today.  We had one level 4, one Lil Ripper, and 6 never-evers.  I wanted the work so I took the Lil Ripper.  It was another easy and chilled day on the Magic Carpet hanging with Devo and the never-evers.  After lunch, Devon took his class to the Super Carpet so I followed with the Ripper and my hula hoop.  She actually did much better on the longer run than she did on the short run at the CLC.  I will have to take the smaller kids over there more often.

The sun came out in the afternoon and the temps were close to 50°F!  It was nice to enjoy some warm weather.  The snow is coming though.  A couple feet is forecasted to fall between Thursday night and Tuesday afternoon.  

Day 76 | Jomi, Jomo, Yoshi, Pedro

Another working day and I was assigned the level fives but one Instructor called out sick, leaving us short one, so I ended up splitting the three Lil Rippers with Jomi.  I wasn't too upset about it since the Rippers were pretty easy and the day went by fast.

In the morning we made a full "boarder-cross" track off the Magic Carpet, complete with something to ollie, boards to slide, and a hula hoop to scoot through.  Jomi took the one girl who was turning after lunch and ran up the mountain.  I stayed behind with the two who weren't too interested in riding.

Nothing too interesting happened.  There was a high cloud cover all day and it was pretty chilly.  We haven't had any new snow since Monday.  The snow base is now at 272cm.

Day 75 | Handle Like Eggs

Back to work after an awesome day of shredding yesterday.  It was a beautiful blue bird day but it was cold in the morning.  Single digits in the Alpine.  I was told I'd be taking the level 5 Adventure Camp kid who moved up from level 4 with Bel.  Although I was tired and sore from yesterday, I was keen to take a high level and enjoy the sun and pow.

By 9:10am, my kid had yet to show up.  I headed up to the CLC for a cup of mocha and waited a bit longer.  I contemplated what I would do if I got the day off.  Pippa did Bordercross training and I knew Sean and Libby would be riding.  But I was so sore from tumbling down Ptarmigan yesterday and the only thing I wanted to do was go home.  So that's what I did after ripping down to the Village from the CLC on perfect corduroy.  Hopefully tomorrow my kid will show up.

Day 74 | Shredding Symphony

The forecast had been calling for lots of snow for today, so on Saturday I switched my Thursday off to take today off.  Irish and I planned on doing Fresh Tracks and we were hoping the snow would be nice so we could spend the day together.  Well, we never made it to Fresh Tracks but we did make it to Creekside  Gondi for 8:30am.

It was snowing all the way down to the Village and the snow report said there was 15cm of fresh snow in the last 12hrs.  When we reached Red Chair, we decided to take Expressway down to Garbanzo.  We hit about 6 inches of fresh all the way down.  The first lap we did was under the Garbanzo Chair.  Although there was a ton of nice powder under there, it was quite a difficult run to do right out of the box.  I was tired and I kept falling A LOT!  I was nervous I wasn't going to be able to last the day.  Second run we hit the Dave Murray to Tokem and then into In Deep.  That was nice.  Another lap from Garbo and we ran down the nicely groomed Ptarmigan.  Finally it looked like Harmony was open so we headed that way.

Symphony was also open so we dropped to the left of Sun Bowl and that was amazing.  Untouched and pretty deep all the way into Symphony.  We then dropped into the trees off the cat track and found no one in line at the chair.  Up we went.  I think we reached the top of the Symphony chair before 11am and we headed towards the Glissando and Staccato Glades.  To make a long story short, we ended up shredding those glades until close to 2pm.  The snow through there was amazing.  Light, deep, and mostly untouched the entire day.  Not to mention it snowed most of the time we were out so tracks kept filling in.  We finally had to force ourselves to leave because we knew we were too tired to continue.

We made our way to the Roundhouse where we took a much needed food break.  The top of Emerald Chair was sopped in with a snow cloud and it was snowing like crazy.  We headed back outside around 3:15 and took a couple runs through the Mom and Pop trees (which we awesome) and finally made our way back down to Creekside.

The snow was amazing and we had a great day.  It was so much fun.  Back to work tomorrow and hopefully the snow continues through the night and I get a high level class.  : )

Day 73 | parents vs. kids race

It was Race Weekend for Club where parents raced against the kids at the GMC Race Center on Blackcomb.  Our race time was 10:42am which meant I had to spend the morning on Blackcomb instead of Whistler.  It was raining in the village and super windy so I wasn't too thrilled with the idea of having to take chairlifts all AM.

Luckily for me, by the time we reached the top of Jersey Creme, Juliette had to use the restroom.  So into Rendezvous we went, which meant the kids got distracted by the Nintendo Wii games.  We spent an hour inside nice and toasty.  It was snowing like crazy outside and the winds were gusting.  No one really wanted to spend too much time outside.

Around 10:30am we made our way to the race course.  The only parents to show were Juliette's.  Her mom couldn't race as she has a hurt knee but her dad not only raced against Juliette, he then hiked back up the course and raced against Caleb (so awesome).  I raced against Ella.  The race was bit of a time waster as the parents were about 15 minutes late for our start time and it took JF a bit of time to hike back up for his second race.  By the time we finished we had to race back to the CLC for lunch where we ended up being at least a half hour late for.  But it was no big deal.

After lunch the kids spent some time on the Lil Rippers SBX then we took one last run from top to bottom.  The day went by pretty fast.  I was too wet and tired to take an extra lap with Irish so we ended going home early and calling it a day.

Day 72 | Happy Birthday Max

Only three out of my five Saturday Club kids showed up today:  Jaden, Max, and Ava.  I'm determined to get the kids to as close to level five as I can so each week I pick out new skills in level four and we work on those.  Since there was no powder this week, we worked on ollies, switch, and carving.

Our morning routine was the usual:  one run from Roundhouse down to CLC for hot chocolate and fruit.  It was super windy at the top of the mountain (gusting up to 80k in the Alpine) so the Village Gondi was running super slow.  It took us close to 45 minutes to reach the Roundhouse.

After our break we spent the next hour riding switch on the Magic Carpet.  The boys picked it up quite quickly while Ava was afraid to let go of my hands and try it on her own.  We also practiced some ollies in this area as well.

It's Parent/Child Race weekend so our race time was scheduled for 1:42pm at the GMC Race Center on Blackcomb.  The Peak 2 Peak wasn't running today due to the high winds so after lunch we ran to the Village then uploaded on the Blackcomb side.  We made it just in time for our race and met up with all the parents at the course.  Max came down with a sudden nose bleed as soon as we crossed into the race area.  Luckily Dad was there to help take care of that.  After the race, Ava and Max were signed out which left me with Jaden.  His dad and sister were skiing together so we took a couple of runs with them before heading back down to the village for sign outs.

Since the lifts are open until 4pm now, I ran back up Blackcomb to meet up with Irish and a couple of his buddies from Ireland.  Well, one is from Deep Cove and the other is here on business from Ireland.  We took a run through the small park and one last lap down from Rendezvous before calling it a day.

Freezing levels were high.  It was warm up top leaving the snow to feel soft like Spring.

Day 71 | Blackcomb Powdercats

My neighborhood friends, Libby & Sean invited me to go cat-boarding with them today.  They booked us with Blackcomb Powdercats which operates out of the Callahan Valley.  I have already been heli-boarding so I was curious how the cat would measure up to the helicopter, especially for half the price!!

We started our day around 6:30am with a quick breakfast at Moguls.  Powdercats met us at the Hilton lobby promptly at 8am and shuttled us to their base about 15min south of Whistler.  We geared up with avalanche receivers, loaded our snow equipment onto the cat, and headed up to the terrain.  The cat held 14 people.  There were 12 in our group and two guides.  We took our first "warm-up" run around 10am where they measured the snow at 50cm / 20inches.

The snow was deep and soft and the terrain varied from open bowls to old growth tree runs.  Turn after turn after turn the light, blower pow was flowing around our bodies. Every run seemed to get better each time we got out of the cat and started skiing.  We managed to squeeze in 7 runs before the day was done.  Unfortunately, there was a slight mechanical problem with the cat during the afternoon, otherwise, we could have easily taken 8 runs.  Our guides, Christian and Vic were great.  It was an expensive afternoon, but I felt it was a great value for the money. No lift lines, private runs, and deep powder.  If you're ever looking for a fun and different way to enjoy the snow, Blackcomb Powdercats is highly recommended.

If you're curious as to how amazing the day was, check out the video.    

Day 70 | Happy Leap Day!!!

I knew it wasn't too busy at work this week but wanted to stay on the schedule to make some money.  I knew there were a few Lil Rippers signed up so worse case scenario, I could get a Ripper class.  Luckily for me the level five that was in lessons with Ellen on Monday rocked up first thing in the morning and I took him.

It snowed 10cm overnight night so I was happy to be shredding some pow.  I also took my powder board with me to ride so I could adjust my new bindings.  The first thing we did was take a warm up run from mid-station back down to the village with Morgan and his level four.  We all piled into the gondola after that and headed to Peak to Creek, which was the run of the day!  

P2C was an epic run!  There was so much untouched deep powder.  The boys did okay in the powder while Morgan and I had a blast!  By the time we finished the run, it was time for lunch.  We only had about 10 kids in Snowboard School with five Instructors so we all sat together and shared lunch responsibilities.  Only half the tables were set up in the CLC, leaving half of the building empty, so the kids did a dance contest in the empty half.  Marco came in and got the kids practicing handstands.  Have I ever mentioned that I love my job?

My kid took a few laps on the Magic Carpet where Morgan built a couple of sweet jumps.  Afterwards we headed up and took a few more laps through the small park.  He was checked out at 2:15pm because he was going dog sledding so it was a pretty easy day for me.  Not to mention, it's my Friday!!  Can't wait for tomorrow ...... going Cat-Boarding!  whoop whoop

Day 69 | life or death

There was a whopping eleven kids signed up for snowboard lessons today:  3 Lil Rippers, 3 AC, and 5 Destination.  Unfortunately, I lost at Rock, Paper, Scissors and had to take the Lil Rippers.  The sun was shining and although the snow is still nice up top, the arctic air produced single digit temps.  I wasn't too unhappy that I spent the day at mid-station.

My Lil Rippers were pretty easy to handle.  They didn't speak much.  They didn't need any help with anything.  They didn't want anything.  They simply did what I asked them to do.  One was from Mexico and didn't speak English.  They were pretty boring to be honest.

Luckily Gill and Kat had low level AC'ers and spent the day on the carpet as well.  That helped pass some time.

Day 68 | Spark & Chompy

I love my Sunday Club kids.  Caleb was missing for the second straight week so it was just the girls and me.  The sun was shining, though it was a bit chilly, the conditions were perfect.  I was surprised how well the girls rode through the powder, especially Juliette.  Ella had a little bit of trouble in some spots.  We weren't allowed to ride the trees so we had to stick to the sides of runs to find the good white stuff.

Juliette made us some secret notepads (cecret not pad - See pic) so we could take notes when we were talking in our secret fort, which we nicknamed "Smurfville"- so no one would know what we were talking about.  We also had a lot of fairy chit-chat.  I decided I was going to get a fairy and I named her Spark.

I had the GoPro with me and took a lot of footage of the girls riding through the powder, trees, and park.  I did my best to keep them riding until just about the end of the day when I finally let them have their time in the secret fort.  After about 20 minutes of talk time in Smurfville, it was time to go home.  The day went by super fast as the girls are always super fun.

Day 67 | flowers vs zombies

Since the snow was so amazing yesterday, Irish and I woke up at 6am and headed for Fresh Tracks.  By the time we reached the queue at 6:30am, the line was to the road past Pan Pacific Hotel.  There was no way we were going to be part of the first 650 people up the gondola so we headed over to Gone Bakery for breakfast and then I went to work.

Max was missing from the Saturday Club gang but everyone else showed up early so we were at the Roundhouse by 9:30am.  We headed down Green Acres in search of fresh powder.  It wasn't hard to find the stashes as there was still plenty of powder to be found.  We squeezed in a few runs before the kids were ready for fruit and lemonade at the CLC.

After lunch it was more of the same.  Duke twisted his ankle flying off a powdery pillow and ended up going home around 2pm.  The rest of the gang spent the next 45 minutes playing on the Lil Rippers Boarder X track set up at the CLC before heading down to end the day.

Lifts are open until 4pm starting today so as soon as my kids were checked out, I headed back up the gondola to meet Irish for a couple more runs.  We were able to hit Mom and Pop trees twice and then ducked into Enchanted Forest before ending the day.  It was super fun to get a little shred time in with the boyfriend.   

Day 66 | Peak Chair before 9am

I am scheduled to work eight days in a row but on day three, I was called off.  Go figure.  I talked Irish into taking the morning off and going for a shred.  We weren't expecting much for snow but thought it would be nice to finally ride together.  Whistler Blackcomb reported 7cm (4 inches) of snow this morning.  But it was forecasted to snow all day reaching accumulations of up to 30cm.

We reached the top of Red Chair at 8:30am and noticed that Peak Chair was open.  Giddy up!  The visibility was terrible, the winds were moderate but the snow looked amazing.  We decided to check out Shale Slope as a first run.  We picked our way through the low visibility and it didn't take us too long to realize there was a hell of a lot more fresh snow up there than just 4 inches.  Fresh tracks down Shale and up again on Peak.

Second run we were hoping to get into Christmas Trees but didn't make the high traverse and dropped down into Frog Hollow.  Fresh tracks to Highway 86!
Next attempt at Christmas Trees.  This time we both made it.  Fresh tracks all the way through the trees!  Simply amazing!  "Let's do that again" - I screamed!  So we did.

We were in line at Red Chair around 11am and realized the winds had picked up enough to put the Peak Chair on Standby.  No worries .... we headed to Harmony.  Visibility on Harmony was next to nothing.  We ran the Ridge heading to Gun Barrels.  It was quite a trek to get there since we couldn't see a thing.  I kept falling and getting dizzy.  Once we got to the meadow, the visibility was so much better.  Fresh tracks through the meadow and when we dropped down into Gun Barrels, we couldn't believe how deep the snow was in there.  It was up to my thighs in some places.  All untouched and super soft!  "It's so fluffy!"
AMAZING!

It was getting close to noon and Irish had to get to work but he easily talked himself into one more run down Gun Barrels.  It was snowing so much throughout the day that by the time we got back up there, our first tracks were already covered!

Alas it was finally time for him to head to work.  I went inside the Roundhouse for some lunch and a much needed break around 1:15pm.  Once I was rested, I met Emma over on Blackcomb and took one run through the powder over there.  Through some trees and finally back down to the village.  By now I was exhausted.

The day was amazing!  Never have I had so much fun and done such awesome runs.  I wish the visibility was better but you can't have everything.  The snow was perfect ... and there was a lot of it.  You can't ask for more than that!  Welcome back Winter.

Day 65 | se7enth

I was assigned level fives at Whistler Kids and the only kid to show up was one level six guy from Seattle.  I asked him what he was working on and he said:  switch, back 1's, nose presses on boxes, and board slides.  I knew immediately I probably wasn't the person to be teaching this kid but I wasn't about to trade away one level six for seven level twos.  Even though I couldn't demo what he was working on, at least I could give him feedback and criticism.

In the morning we lapped the Whistler small park.  He did straight airs with some grabs for most of the jumps on his first run.  On his second run, he did Back 180's on every small jump.  Landed all of them.  Next run he practiced board slides.  Finally it was time for lunch.

I was dreading the afternoon as this kid wasn't talking too much.  Plus his riding was insanely perfect so there wasn't much critique or feedback I could give this kid.  He was an amazing rider.  He opted to go to Blackcomb for the afternoon and took a lap through the blue park straight away.  He didn't hit the jumps but hit almost every hop on box and rail.  Next we rode through the Terrain Garden, which was nice because I actually got to hit the features there.  We met up with the guys from Ride Tribe at Solar Coaster and decided to tag along with Devon and his class of level fives around 1pm.

Meeting up with Devon was the best thing that could have happened.  Devon is a great Instructor, always funny and enthusiastic.  Plus he's a great teacher.  Not to mention it gave my kid some other kids to run with.  We ran out to 7th Heaven and tried to find some powder through the trees.  There wasn't much to find and although the snow was okay, it was a bit icy at times.  We took a couple laps through 7th and a couple more laps through the Terrain Garden before the day came to an end.

When Mom picked up Zach, I suggested she change tomorrow's Whistler Kids lesson to a FreeRide lesson.  This kid is too good to not be in the FreeRide class.  Mom thanked me for all the kind words and was able to change his lesson.  

Day 64 | blame it on the Rhayne

It's now time to get back to work and stop slacking off.  It's Presidents' Week and I'm scheduled for eight days in a row ... though I was given the choice to have today off or work Ride Tribe.  I chose Ride Tribe and ended up with five level two teenagers.  One was from Seattle, one from New York, one was Canadian, one was from Brazil (so exotic) and the last one was from the Caymen Islands (jealous!).

We spent the morning on the Super Carpet learning how to turn.  With the exception of one, they all managed to turn down the gentle slope by lunchtime.  After lunch we lapped the Olympic Chair.  The kid from the Caymens fell earlier and hit his head pretty hard.  I ended up having to call Patrol to take a look at him.  He definitely had a concussion and his neck was hurting as well.  As a precaution, Ski Patrol strapped him to a backboard before sledding him down and taking him to the clinic.  I hope he is okay.

The day ended with a pretty big split:  two kids made it to level three and two kids stayed in level two.  The sun was shining and it was warm at mid-station.  It was pretty windy up top but the snow still looked to be pretty good.

Day 63 | Creekside Gandhi

Today was SiAire's last day to snowboard for the 2012 season.  It was cloudy with light flurries.  We reached the top of Red Chair around 11:30am and rode around green chair for the next hour while we waited for the rest of the crew to show up.  Within the hour, we met up with Libby, Sean, and Pippa.

We ran through the park for a few laps before hitting Harmony.  Visibility was next to nothing off the Harmony Chair and off the Ridge.  We all dropped down into amazing powder around Little Roll but we couldn't see a darn thing.  Instead of taking a second run, we headed back to Emerald Chair.  Pippa and I ran through Mom and Pop trees then the we all took a couple more runs through the Family Zone trees before calling it a day.

Day 62 | projectile vomiting

Sunday Club and Caleb was a no-show so it was just me and the girls.  It was chilly today, especially in the morning.  We took our usual morning run then had a hot chocolate break at the CLC.  We had time to squeeze in one more run before going in for lunch.

We sat at Lauren's table with her two level four girls.  Hailey wasn't feeling too well and ended up vomiting all over the lunch table about three minutes after we got our food.  I thought little Juliette was going to throw up after seeing Hailey's puke.  I have to admit, it was pretty gross.  We moved over to another table and got new lunches.  The ironic part is Juliette kept talking about puke during our hot chocolate break saying the hot cocoa was made of puke.

After lunch we took a lap through Marmot Trees and then through the terrain park.  The girls did all the jumps which was good because Juliette usually chickens out.  The snow was still nice ... soft packed on the groomers and some powder in the trees.  The girls and I made a secret fort in the woods off of Whiskey Jack.  We're going to go back to it next week and talk about fairies.  Their idea, not mine.  But cute just the same.  I love Sundays!

Day 61 | Jaden saves Jaden

25cm FINALLY fell overnight!!!  Thank god for snow!  ... and it was light and fluffy.  Just what we needed to cover up the ice that had accumulated on all the runs over the last two weeks.  I was thankful I had my Club Kids as I knew I could shred some powder without having to take the chance of getting a level one or a Lil Ripper class.

My plan was to run Peak to Creek as soon as Peak Chair opened.  It was the run of the day and on a powder day, it's the best lap you can take.  Our lunch was scheduled for 11am - and unfortunately, that's about the time the Chair opened.  Even worse, once we got to the CLC for lunch, I was told it was rescheduled to 11:45am!  The kids didn't want to take another run so we stayed at the CLC for an hour and a half.  So much for Peak to Creek.

After lunch we stayed in the Emerald Chair area and although we weren't allowed to go through the trees, we found plenty of fresh and amazing powder through the terrain park and in the Green Acres area.  It was a warm day (not above freezing) but not too far from it.  I ran the kids pretty hard through the powder and by the end of the afternoon, we were all pretty tired.

Hopefully this is the beginning of much more snow to come --  So far, this season hasn't been anything amazing.

Day 60 | all jib - no jump

Drove down to Seattle for a few days to visit some friends. While we were here, we thought we'd give Crystal Mountain a a rip. It was me, SiAire, and Izayah. We rocked up around 10:30am and got Izayah set up with some rental boots and a helmet. Lift ticket prices for kids up to ten years of age were $5! That's not a typo, that's five dollars! Naturally 11 year old Izayah was 10 today. : )

The sun was shining for a bit in the morning but the clouds quickly came in covering the Alpine and it snowed most of the day. The snow was soft packed and really nice. It was a groomer day for sure. Izayah is a low level three so we didn't venture too far off the greens and blues.

We broke for lunch around noon. SiAire rocked over to the gondola but visibility up there was really horrible so I stayed where I could see. Izayah doesn't ride too often so he was pretty tired after four hours. We threw in the towel around 4:30. I would love to come back when the sun is shining and the snow is powder. Not sure if that will ever happen though. I'm starting to think my luck at ski resorts in Washington is nothing but bad.

Day 59 | Von Boyage

Happy Valentines Day!  I was scheduled back in Destination for today and it felt like I haven't worked there in ages.  It's tough to get back to Whistler Kids in the middle of the week because we have a three day Adventure Camp program and most kids in class on Tuesdays and Wednesdays are already assigned to an Instructor.  Luckily for me there was one level five kid who wasn't in AC and I was able to grab him.

Once again, no snow!, and the sun was shining at full power!  Deep dark blue skies are amazing in this part of the world but we need snow.  Most everything off piste is now just ice.  Even groomers beneath Emerald Chair are ice rinks.  It kind of sucks .... but having the sun helps. 

I wasn't sure what to do with the level five kid since he wasn't a big park rat.  We ran down Raven then over to Harmony where we dropped off the Ridge and into the gun barrels.  Mistake!  Pretty hard and crunchy in there.  After lunch we dropped the park for a couple of runs then we rode the Peak Chair and down Highway 86.  I managed to keep us moving enough to make the day go by sort of fast.  It was really a waste of a level five kid to be honest.  I sure wish it would snow .....    

Day 58 | a farewell gift

Today was the last day of the six week WESP program.   I knew when I started the day that the two brothers would not be returning for the last week.  That made for an easy fun day with my remaining four WESP'ers.  Unfortunately, there still isn't any new snow but the sun was shining and it was a beautiful blue bird day.

Since it was so icy on Blackcomb yesterday, I decided we would ride Whistler at least until lunch so we headed from Base II to the Village around 9am.  Our warm up run was down Tokum, which was suppose to be the run of the day but it was groomed horribly.  The snow was hard packed to Emerald Chair and a complete ice rink from there down.  We spent most of the day in the terrain park.  The Park crew has set up some very small jumps which are perfect for kids working on getting comfortable having their board in the air.

We had to run over to Blackcomb to eat lunch but the kids wanted to return to Whistler for the afternoon. We took another couple runs through the park and a few down some black and blue runs.  We ended the day with a final run down from the Blackcomb Gondola.  Two of the kids moved up to level four, two stayed at level three.  One mom gave me a great Valentine/Thank You gift bag loaded with sweets and a $20 tip.  Thank you Zayden's mom!

Day 57 | do you believe in fairies?

Sundays are, by far, the best day to teach.  My Sunday Club class is a lot of fun!  They are starting to get a bit more comfortable with each other and with me.  Today they were wild and a bit out of control.  We had big plans to ride with Lauren and her one kid Nicole.  It was Race Weekend so we had a time to run the GS Race Course at 11am.  We figured we would ride on Blackcomb until lunch.  We wanted to hit the terrain garden, the GS course, and the Snowcross track.  Unfortunately the conditions on Blackcomb limited us to what we could do.  Most of the runs were very icy so we never went through the terrain garden or to the snowcross track.

Nevertheless, the kids had fun running the race and taking the Peak 2 Peak over to Whistler.  After lunch they wanted to hit the boxes and the jump at the CLC.  After that, we took a couple of laps from mid-station to the Village where we had a snowboarding snowball fight (you can only grab snow and throw snow while you're moving on your snowboard) ..... It helps with kids bending their knees.  I have to admit a couple of them got me pretty good in the face with a snowball.  Ugh!

Day 56 | Train Man

After another four day weekend, it's back to work for Saturday Club.  All but one kid showed up.  The conditions are still Spring-like and no snow is in the forecast.  Our snowbase is currently 225cm.

We took the usual morning lap and then headed to the CLC for fruit and hot chocolate.  It was warm up top but there was a cloud hanging over 2/3 of the mountain making visibility next to none.  By the time you hit green chair, the snow turned into slush.  It was a typical Club day, nothing exciting to report.  Definitely no powder to brag about.

Day 55 | perfect park day

Whistler Kids is slow so I was called off.  No problem as I would like to ride with my nephew as much as possible.  Especially these days when the temps are warm and the sun is still shining!  We met up with Libby and Sean and headed to Creekside.  Jordan was already in Harmony shoveling around this rock he likes so we could jump off of it.  Kyle also ended up meeting us out there.

Si'Aire and Jordan took three different runs off the rock kicker.  Sean took one or two and I took one.  We captured everything on video and took some pics so Facebook will be showing off the footage soon.  After "Jordan's Rock" we headed to the park.  Took a couple runs through the green side and Pippa caught up with us.  We spent the rest of the afternoon in the park and finally parted ways around 3pm.  Si, Libby, Sean, and I rocked down to Creekside and headed home.  It was a very, very fun day!

Day 54 | ride more, text less

Another warm sunny day in Whistler.  I had my WESP kids and I thought it would be a great day to ride the park.  We started early, around 9am.  At that point, it was still pretty cold.  We took a groomer warm up ride from the top of the Excaliber gondola down.  From there we headed up Wizard and went through the terrain garden a couple of times.  We managed to fit in quite a few runs before we had lunch.

During lunch the two brothers in my class, who usually fight, got into it again so I sent them to the den for the day ... leaving me with four kids.  Four is super easy to handle so we headed to the Snowboard Cross track.  WOW!  That thing is huge!  We also did the GS race and another couple runs through the terrain garden.  The day went by remarkable fast.  The sun was shining and the snow was soft.  I'm looking forward to the next four days off and enjoying some riding with the boy.

Day 53 | snow bord rokes

I love my Sunday Club class.  They are so cute.  I was determined to get them turning properly today.  The only thing we did was play follow the leader.  I would take the lead and they had to follow in my tracks.  Of course we had some fighting on who was to go first and who was to go last so we had to keep taking turns and rotating the lineup.  Juliet's dad, JF Pelchat, also took a few runs with us.  We did quite a bit of snowboarding on greens and blues.  We even took one lap through the park where Ella and Caleb totally sent it!  I was hoping that if they followed in my tracks, they would get rid of some of their counter-rotation and their turns would start incorporating more inclination and angulation in their ankles .... almost getting them to start carving.  Low and behold, it actually worked!  By the end of the day, Ella's turning was completely different than when she started in the morning.  That made me happy.

The last couple of days have been warm as an inversion is in the atmosphere, leaving warmer temps up top and colder temps in the Village.  We haven't had any new snow for a few days and no precip is forecasted for the next week.  Yuck!

Day 52 | and then there was one

Weird day with Club Kids.  Only three in the pack of five showed up and one already had a shoulder injury from riding yesterday.  Our first run was from Roundhouse down to CLC for a fruit and hot chocolate break.  Next run:  Roundhouse to CLC to drop the girl with the injured shoulder to the den.  Third run:  Roundhouse to CLC for lunch.

After lunch I was left with two kids as my injured girl ended up going home.  First run after lunch: warm up from Roundhouse to CLC to drop off second kid at the den because he crashed into someone and hurt his back.  He also ended up going home early.  That left me with one!

The remaining runs of the afternoon consisted of two laps through the small park and final run from the top of Emerald Chair to the Village for sign out.  Weird day with Club Kids.

Day 51 | Spring-u-ary

Spring has arrived in Whistler!  (wait, it's suppose to be February)  Sunny skies and inversions are forecasted for the next five days.  It was around 40°F / 4°C in the Alpine today!!  The snow wasn't powder but the warm temps and views of this incredible place made for an amazing day.

Si and I met up with Sean and Libby around 10am.  I met them at the bus stop a few months ago.  They are fellow Americans from Chicago spending a season.  We ran out to Symphony and enjoyed the breathtaking views that Whistler rarely shares during the winter.  Kyle met up with us around noon.  We didn't get to spend much time out there as I needed to be in the Village by 1:30pm.

Day 50 | Johnson in da House

Guess who is back in town?  Si'Aire is in Whistler for three weeks and today was his first day out on the hill.  Mother Nature was amazingly gracious as it snowed 14cm overnight, the sun shined all day, and there was no wind.  It was a perfect day.

We unloaded the Creekside Gondola at 9:30 and took a warm up run down Expressway to mid-station.  The boy's boots weren't fitting well enough so we ran from the top of the Roundhouse down to the Village but not before shredding through the park in the trees finding a ton of fresh powder!  After we got the boots squared away, we headed over to Harmony - ran down Harmony Ridge and dropped down onto Kaleidoscope.  Every turn down Kaleidoscope was a face shot!  There was so much powder in there.  : )

Next we took the T-bar Run down to the Peak Chair.  By this time the boy was already getting tired (and hungry).  I was hoping his legs would last for a few more hours but by the time we dropped into West Bowl, the boy was toast!  We rode Highway 86 back to Creekside gondi and downloaded from there.  I think this was a record setting first day as Si'Aire lasted 3.5hrs - and to be fair, I did take him down mostly black runs and tree runs.  Hopefully tomorrow his legs will last a bit longer.