Day 28 - crap flap

Merry Christmas!  Despite the lack of fresh snow overnight, Irish and I were up dark and early to enjoy a buffet breakfast at the Roundhouse.  We had just enough time to woof down a couple of plate-fulls of food before I had to get to work.  We ran down perfectly groomed corduroy from Whiskey Jack to Ptarmigan, to Olympic.  The snow was soft and not hard packed so that was nice.

I gave Irish a kiss goodbye and rounded up my class of level threes.  Nick and I decided to team teach since we had a total of ten kids.  I'm not sure why but we decided to take the Peak 2 Peak over to Blackcomb for the morning.  By the time it was said and done, we only ended up doing one run before we had to go in for lunch and in order to be on time, we had to download the Whistler Gondola.

After lunch I picked up a couple of girls that I taught on Sunday.  They were now level three and asked me if I could take them with my group for the afternoon.  Knowing we only had time for one run before ice cream apré, I agreed to take the girls with my class.  This left me with a pretty big split but I made the most of it by making Cooper and Marven ride switch.  They both did great with it by the way.      We finished the day with vanilla ice cream and it even snowed.  It was a very merry Christmas!

Day 27 - I can't find my beaver!

Strange morning for me at work.  I only had two kids show up for Adventure Camp and as we were waiting in line for the gondola, my little boy Marven (from Hong Kong) suddenly felt hot and said he didn't feel good.  He almost passed out standing in line!  We quickly got him to the Whistler Kids office where we called Patrol and his mom.  Mom took him home as she said he had a bit of a cough in the morning but didn't have a fever.  Hopefully he got some rest today and he will rejoin us tomorrow.

When I finally made it to the CLC, classes were split and I only had to deal with my one kid:  Mr. Excitement.  We tagged along with the second level three AC class and I team taught with Nick for the morning.

Snow up top was still pretty good.  Soft packed with icy spots in the usual highly congested areas.  Nick and I worked with the class of six giving them different exercises to do in order to keep their bodies balanced and centered over their boards.  Nick has a split and by the end of the morning, the kids in the back were improving greatly.

After lunch I gave Cooper the option of going with just me or we could stick with Nick's group.  He decided to go with just me so we made the most of the afternoon.   I took him through Marmot Trees, through the trees in the Terrain Park and down the toilet bowl section of Dave Murray.  By the time the day was over, Cooper was worn out!  I'm sure Mom and Dad will be pleased with that this evening.

Day 26 - Mr. Excitement

The holiday season brings Adventure Camp to Snowboard Lessons.  It's a Monday through Friday lesson with the same Instructor all week.  Combined with Destination, we had about 75 snowboarders in Whistler Kids today and I ended up with three boys who were level three Adventure Campers.

We spent the morning on the lower half of the mountain, in the rain.  : (
By the time we sorted through all the kids and got our classes straightened out, the boys and I had time for two runs down to the Village before lunch.

While we were eating, one of my kids said his wrist was starting to hurt.  He said he hurt it the other day in lessons and his mom told him if it hurt too much he could go home.  So that's what he did.  I'm not sure if his wrist really hurt or if he was just being lazy.  I think lazy but it's the kids who usually don't complain much about pain that are the ones who are really hurt.

After lunch, I took the other two boys up to the Roundhouse.  The snow was soft packed and they loved it.  My one kid, named Cooper, was so excited about riding on top of the mountain he kept yelling (as he was riding):  "This is so amazing up here.  The snow is so soft and powdery!  Look at the scenery!  It's so beautiful!  Ronia, you are so lucky you work here!"  etc. etc.  It was pretty funny.

Day 25 - Christmas rush begins

 Close to 200 skiers and riders were signed up for lessons in the Village today.  Tomorrow we have 500 signed up.  Yes, Christmas is here.  I wasn't feeling very well today so I gave my level three class to Steve and ended up with a nice level one class with three cousins, all from the United States.

Two of the three kids have snowboarded once or twice before, with one girl being a never-ever.  All three of them were high level skiers so they picked up snowboarding quite quickly.  We spent the morning on the Magic Carpet where two of them were practicing turning and the never-ever was learning her edging.

In the afternoon, I wanted to take them to the Super Carpet but it was too crowded so I decided to take them to the Village.  The higher level kids were working on turning and the girl who never snowboarded before did a great job side slipping the entire way.  It took us an hour which helped the day go by quickly.

Up top, visibility was foggy with flat light.  The forecast called for 14cm but nothing fell.  Our currently snow base is 92cm (36").  

Day 24 - mustache boy

Back to WKids today and we had about 25 kids signed up for snowboard lessons.  Fourteen of them were level threes and Bel, Riely, and I had to split them up.  That split ended with Riely and I taking a class of six each ... one high level class and one low level class.  We had early lunch (11am) and didn't have time to make a run from the Roundhouse, so my class and I spent the morning on the Olympic Chair.

I took the low level class and most of them had a hard time turning down Olympic Run.  But after two runs, they were definite level threes.  I decided to take them up top after lunch.  We did two runs down Ego Bowl, working on our turns with different exercises.  By the end of the day, all six kids improved significantly!

Still no new snow and runs are getting hard packed (and crowded).  We are in desperate need of snow, if only to open more terrain.  Unfortunately, there is nothing significant in the forecast for the next week.

Day 23 - B.Long

The early Christmas crowd is starting to become visible.  Lift lines in the morning were long and the runs were more crowded than usual.  I taught a level 3 Ride Tribe class that started with 7 students.  I went straight to the top as Devon and Markus were suppose to take a run with me.  We quickly realized two girls were level twos.  I managed to get them down to the Super Carpet and put them with a different Coach who had one kid that had just started turning.

The rest of the day went smoothly.  We took a few runs in the Family Zone, one run down Orange Peel to Dave Murray and up Red Chair.  Another run down Jolly Green Giant with a final run from top to bottom.  Three kids ended at level four and two kids stayed level threes.

The snow up top was soft packed in most areas and icy/hard packed in busy zones.  The worst run of the day was from mid-station down where it was literally a sheet of ice.

Day 22 - I took your fun away

We had 17 Riders and 2 Rippers signed up for lessons on a warm Monday.  I was assigned Level two's but I ended up taking four Level one stars in order to help out Darren who had three Never-Evers.  Since I've been off for the last four days, I definitely wanted to get a class and work.

Snow at the CLC was exactly like Spring ... soft and slushy (grainy).  It was difficult teaching conditions for sure.  The wind was also blowing down there, which is very unusual.  I heard the winds were gusting up to 75kph up top.

By the end of the day, all my kids had reached level two and they were kind of turning.  We set up different fun things to do in each of the lanes in our practice area.  One was an obstacle course, one was  a limbo bar, and one was a jump.  Funny, all four kids enjoyed doing something different and they all said they had a blast.

Day 21 - Park with Pippa

With the lack of snow this season, it's no wonder I've been feeling pretty lazy about riding my board.  I didn't go up on Saturday (my day off) and I called in sick on Sunday.  I thought I'd better get a shred in today before I'm scrambling at the end of April to get in my 100 days.

I met up with Pippa at 9am in the Village and we headed up Blackcomb.  A dense cloud covered the lower elevations all day and went up to the bottom of Solar Coaster.  Visibility in these areas was next to nothing, which we quickly figured out by venturing over to the new Crystal Chair.  Instead of riding in the Crystal area, we headed over to the Terrain Park as Pippa wanted to hit a couple of jumps she's been working on.

The nice about getting up early and riding Park is that most of the "Park Rats" are still in bed at that hour of the morning.  We literally had the Park to ourselves and the snow was nice and soft with lots of untouched corduroy.  We took a few laps then ran into Jordan and Hector who also took a lap with us.

After a nice long break in the Rendezvous, we headed back for a few more laps in the Park.  This time it was much busier but the snow was still nice and the jumps were nice (said Pip).  I didn't hit anything as I'm still not feeling like getting much air these days.  I think I need a few nice soft powder days to build some confidence up.

It was a great day with Pippa as she was super stoked about hitting the two jumps she was practicing.  I think this was the longest time I've been out free riding so far this season.  Everyone in Whistler is hoping and praying that some snow comes soon!!!  It's almost Christmas for crying out loud!!!

Day 20 - Peak Chair

With the new snow yesterday, I figured I better go up and check out the conditions.  There wasn't as much new snow as I had hoped but there was enough to get some soft runs in.  I headed up the gondola around 10am.  Libby & Sean were going to meet up with me around 11am.   It was a partly cloudy day with the sun peaking out here and there.  The Peak Chair was socked in with a cloud.

My first run was through Jolly Green Giant/Terrain Park.  Plenty of soft snow through there though the moguls on the groomers were very icy.   I decided to give it a try hoping the backside had more visibility and I could get back to Red Chair to meet up with Libby.  Unfortunately, the backside of the Peak was closed so I headed over to The Saddle on the cat track which virtually had zero visibility.  One in The Saddle, I found lots of snow on the skiers' right but unfortunately I couldn't see a thing.  I'm prone to vertigo so I didn't enjoy that too much but I managed to eventually get down out of the fog and headed towards Red Chair via Wild Card.  It was 11:30am and I still hadn't heard from Libby, with a slight headache, I decided to download on the gondola and call it a day.

Day 19 - just another day at work

Another day at Whistler Kids Snow School.  It's not quite busy yet but it isn't dead either.  I was assigned level fours but gave them to Jon since he had been riding with them most of the week prior.  Instead I took the level one class who I had the day before.  Nick was my shadow and we spent the entire day on the Magic Carpet.  We managed to help the kids improve and a couple of them made it to Level 2.  There were no Lil Rippers so we had the carpet all to ourselves.

The best part of the day was the snow that fell.  By 2pm there was about four inches of fresh snow at the CLC.  It isn't much but every little bit helps keep conditions that much softer and less icy.

Day 18 - Ride Tribe to Ripper to Kids

I was scheduled for Ride Tribe and was assigned as a floater.  I didn't end up getting a class and decided to take a lap.  My plan was to make my way down to the CLC to grab myself some late morning grub.  My phone rang minutes from the Roundhouse and I was told Gunner needed another Instructor at the CLC so I ran down to take care of a Lil Ripper who showed up late.

There were a couple of kids who showed up late, including two never-evers (a brother and sister).  When I arrived at the CLC, Steve was teaching the siblings and the Ripper how to skate.  The little guy must have grown attached to Steve as he didn't want anything to do with me and wanted to go home when I took him away from Steve.  So I gave Steve the Ripper and took the two never-evers.  I was happy to get a class so I didn't mind.

Day 17 - Crustal Zone

We still have very minimal snow here in Whistler but the temperatures have gone back to normal.  Our snow base is currently 79cm (31 inches) and the snow guns are still blowing like crazy.  I didn't get a class with Ride Tribe yesterday and instead of taking a couple laps in the sunshine, I napped on my couch.  Today I thought I better get up there.  I was scheduled for an RST at 1:00pm and told Libby and Pippa I could ride until then.

Sean and Libby met me at Creekside and we rode down to the Village to go up Blackcomb because Sean is petrified of the Peak 2 Peak.  We met up with Pippa at the top of the gondola and headed towards the new Crystal Zone.  The sun was shining but clouds would roll in and out occasionally.  We took a couple of laps down Rock & Roll before heading over to Jersey Chair in order to hit the Terrain Park.  On the way over, Sean hit a rock and tore his edge completely out of his board.  In proper Sean fashion, he rocked down to Showcase to buy a new board.  We rode with him to the top of the Excalibur Gondola where Pippa and I headed back up.  We met up with some of her friends at the top of Jersey Chair.  I was cold and hungry so she took off with her friends and I headed back over to Whistler and called it a day.  Sean got a new board and I think they met back up with Pippa later in the afternoon.

Day 16 - cookies for lunch

Fingers and toes are crossed that this cold snap ends today!  A week of frigid temperatures is starting to drive me crazy.  Another sunny day in Whistler with still no snow and a high temp of 10°F in the Village.  I went to work and was assigned level twos.  I started my day with two of them, a boy and a girl.  One was kind of turning and one wasn't turning at all.  We spent the morning on the Super Carpet.

After lunch, I placed the stronger boy with Melissa, who also had a low level three/high level two.  I thought he would work well with her class and it turns out I was right.  He ended his day as a high level three and it was only his third day of snowboarding ever!  My girl and I spent the afternoon on the Magic Carpet where I was able to hold her hand and get her turning from edge to edge.  She finally did five linked turns without falling.  She was happy and I was happy for her.  Her dad thanked me with a nice $20 tip.

Day 15 - What was I thinking?

Thursday I asked Morgan to cover my shift because I didn't want to teach in the frigid temperatures.  Friday my Scheduler called and asked if I could work Saturday.... for some reason, I said yes.  When I woke up this morning to single digit temperatures, I couldn't help but ask myself: "What was I thinking?"

I was hoping I would get a low level class, or better yet, no class.  But when we were told 20 kids were signed up for snowboarding, I quickly traded my assigned level four class to a Lil Rippers class.  Ellen and I shared a class of eight.

We spent most of the day indoors, working with Burton's tools designed for Lil Rippers.  Ellen and I had the day completely organized and running smooth.  It helped that all of the kids were older (5-6years) and non of them were "muppets".  I was happy I came into work as the day was fun, the kids were cool, and I stayed fairly warm.  Win, win!!

Day 14 - Keep our air clean and our snow deep

It's getting colder!  -17°C in the Alpine today.  I was scheduled for Ride Tribe and the last thing I wanted to do was spend the day in the freezing temps.  I knew there were only 2 Riders signed up and I prayed they were someone's returns from yesterday.  Meghan was the only other Snowboard Instructor scheduled.  It turned out the two kids were brother and sister and today was their first day in lessons.  They were both a level three.

Meghan tried desperately to get me to take the class, saying she had to work her second job tonight.  But I wasn't keen on spending the day in the cold either so we Rock, Paper, Scissor 'ed for going home.    As you can guess, I lost!

The day wasn't as torturous as I thought it would be.  My feet warmers and hand warmers helped keep me somewhat comfortable.  The sun also helped.  Conditions are getting hard packed with icy spots.  Every snow gun that Whistler Blackcomb owns was firing today.  We took a long lunch and then had a long break at the CLC in the middle of the afternoon.

Temperatures are getting colder before getting warmer so I asked Morgan to cover my shift tomorrow.  Peak Chair is scheduled to open on Friday and the new Crystal Chair is scheduled to open on Saturday.

Day 13 - Meet Here, I Love It Here!

Frigid temps have settled in for the next couple of days and though I had the day off from work, Pippa wanted to take a few runs so we headed up Blackcomb around 10:30am.  The skies were clear, not a cloud to be found.  The snow was okay in spots, mostly soft packed, with some hard packed surfaces in the usual Blackcomb places.  We took a couple laps before heading into the Rendezvous for a ten minute warm up.  After a short break, we ran through the Terrrain Park then headed over to Whistler on the Peak 2 Peak gondola.  It was a bit colder on Whistler as most of its runs were in the shade.  By the time we reached the Village on an almost non-stop run, my feet were freezing!!  We called it a day shortly after 1:30pm.

Day 12 - HEAVEN!

Clouds are parting and clear skies are making way for some single digit temperatures.  We somehow managed to accumulate 2 feet of snow in the two days.  The best was today!!  Because of the cold,  the new foot of snow was super light and dry.

I was suppose to work at Ride Tribe but because no Riders were signed up, I was asked to report to Destination.  I was given my choice of which class I wanted and I chose to take Anna, an eight year level four from Hawaii.  I've had Anna in the past and I knew she was a decent rider.  I didn't think the day was going to be anything exciting ..... and then I strapped on my board and hit the fresh pow.  WOW!!!  I almost forgot what it was like to ride in knee deep snow.  By the afternoon the temps dropped even more and the clouds and winds rolled in.  I was glad I was able to enjoy the perfect snow first thing in the morning.

Day 11 - better put a ring on it

Most of the Americans headed back home today so Snow School was pretty quiet.  We only had 15 kids signed up for snowboarding.  It was pouring rain during sign-in and I was dreading spending a day in the rain.  I was assigned Lil Rippers and although four were signed up, only two showed before 9am.

I was pleasantly surprised when I walked off the gondola and found partly sunny skies at mid-station.  I was also pretty excited with my Rippers as both of them had been in lessons previously and I knew they didn't require a lot of "babysitting".  We spent a good half hour working on the Magic Carpet when another Instructor brought up the two Rippers who showed up late.  I was told both had taken lessons before and I shuttered at the thought of having four kids under the age of six!!  It didn't take me long to figure the two kids who were late couldn't do a thing (on a snowboard or for themselves), including putting on their bindings or taking them off.  They were, as we call it, ...... muppets!  which meant I was going to keep my girls who could ride and another Instructor would be taking the two who couldn't ride.  Sweet!

7cm of wet snow fell overnight giving us a base of 30 inches (76cm).  Last year at this time, we had double the base ... and last year wasn't a very good snow year!  It's not looking good for this year at all!!

My day was as expected with a couple of Lil Rippers.  It included some sideslipping, some colouring, lunch, and even some jungle gym time.  Nothing exciting and nothing excruciating.  

I would like to note:  if you are a parent with kids under the age of seven, and you do everything for your child - I'd like you to know that you are NOT helping out your kid by not teaching them how to do things for themselves.  !!!!

Day 10 - some snow

Another day at work with my level four boys.  Today I only had Andrei and Ransome, who were both pretty tired from the last two days.  Billy had four kids in level 5/6 so we tagged around with him for a few runs here and there, however we spent most of our day at the CLC building a jump and hanging around in the snow.

The good news is that we received 7cm of snow overnight so conditions are improving as it snowed a bit during the day as well.  The bad news is freezing level is right around Chic Pea so there isn't far to snowboard before the dry snow turns wet.

Day 9 - Is it April yet?

Another busy day at Snow School and on the mountain.  American holiday is here!  We had about 35 Riders and I had level fours again.  It took a while to get sorted but in the end I had the same class of boys I had yesterday.  It was a weird weather day, dense fog at midstation up to the bottom of Emerald Chair and sunny / partly cloudy from Roundhouse to the chair.  I was happy to see the sun but as soon as I strapped on my board, I wanted to die ..... icy hard packed snow everywhere!  It was horrible.

On our first run, we headed to Franz.  There weren't too many tourists venturing over there first thing in the morning.  It was nothing but an ice skating rink until the cat track where it turned into instant slush.  After we got off the Red Chair, I decided to head over to Jolly Green Giant, thinking the snow might be softer.  Boy was I wrong.  Jolly Green wasn't groomed so I got the boys traversing on their edges over the huge moguls all the way down the run.  That was fun ... NOT!  I broke the run down into a couple of different exercises so the boys didn't complain about the conditions at all.  I was tired of the ice so we kept heading down after Green Chair where we ran into a wall of fog but at the least the snow was soft.  We spent the rest of our morning on the lower half of the mountain.  After lunch we took one run down Ego Bowl then headed to the CLC for our jump session.

Day 8 - Happy turkey/return back to work day

American Thanksgiving was late this year so getting back to work at the end of the month is a little tough on the pocket book.  But it finally came and we started the season off as quickly as the last season finished.  I had a request from a return boy named Andrei.  Andrei has been riding with me since he was five.  He is nine now and he is a level four.  I filled my class with three other boys, including handsome Ransome .... another kid who's been coming to lessons since he was four.  Ransome is seven now.

Blackcomb opened today and since I was pretty bored with riding Whistler with no new snow, I thought I'd relieve a bit of boredom by riding on Blackcomb.  Our first run down the green line was hard packed and icy.  Not fun at all.  The runs under the Solar Coaster weren't groomed and they ended up being pretty fun.  It wasn't powder by no means as it's been too warm but the snow was soft enough to somewhat enjoy.

After lunch it started to rain/snow/sleet so we took one lap down Whistler to the Village and then built a jump at the CLC where we spent the last 45 minutes.  It was a decent first day back to work.

Day 7 - raining at Roundhouse

I bought a pair of new snowboard boots so I felt I needed to "break them in" so I headed up the hill around noon.  Just before I got to the top of Red Chair, it started to sprinkle.  Temps have been above freezing for the last couple of days so conditions were spring like with icy patches here and there.  Sarah and her friends from Hawaii were going to practice on the Super Carpet so I headed down and spent a couple of hours walking up and down the carpet helping them learn their edges.  Around 2pm it started to rain hard so I headed back up the gondola to make my way down to Red Chair so I could download and call it another day.

Day 6 - lil shredders

I was batting a thousand for a while with days open vs days riding - I was five for five and then I got lazy.  Well I hit the slopes again today and this time with my two buddies:  Izayah (from Hawaii) and Oak (from Club).  Temps were warm, above freezing past the Peak.  We are in desperate need of snow but I don't think anything is forecasted to come our way.  It was the first day for both the boys so we stuck to the groomers, even making our way down to the mid-station gondola.  It's nice the snow guns have been able to build up enough coverage so we can get that far down.  We were up there for about three hours and that included a small lunch break.  Both boys were super stoked just to be back on the snow.

Day 5 - subzero

Clouds dispersed and temperatures dropped drastically.  At noon it was -13C at the Roundhouse.  I met up with Roby and although we knew we wouldn't last long, we wanted to go up and get a couple turns in.  The sun was shining so it didn't feel as cold as thermometers would make you think.  We stuck to groomers as Roby forgot her knee brace and didn't want to ski anything bumpy without it.

As I mentioned, it was a full blue bird day.  The groomers were hard packed and off piste was okay (nothing great).  Though I didn't venture off the groomers much.  We managed to stay out for an hour before heading back down.

Day 4 - best snow yet

It snowed most of yesterday and well into the night.  WB reported 11cm of the fresh stuff.  At this point, every centimeter helps with coverage.  The winds had died down a bit and temps were a tad warmer with partly cloudy skies.  It was nice to see and feel the sun again.

I headed up with Libby and Sean and we ducked a rope to get onto Jolly Green Giant.  The snow was amazing and definitely felt a lot deeper than reported.  Unfortunately, Libby's legs were really sore from yesterday and she couldn't muster another run so we headed toward Red Chair via Dave Murray where they downloaded for Starbucks and I headed up for another couple of runs.

Day 3 - Skittles

Sean and Libby have a No-Weekends pass, which means they can only ride Monday through Friday, so today was their first day up the hill.  11cm of new snow fell overnight and conditions were the same today as they were yesterday (snow flurries and high winds).  We met up with Pippa after taking one run down the Family Zone.  We managed to find some decent snow through the terrain park area and also on Dave Murray.  I think we all lasted about two hours before calling it a day.

Day 2 - A Kiwi & A Irish

We met up with Pippa around 10am at the Roundhouse and gave this snowboarding thing another go. The weather was the direct opposite from yesterday with clouds and lots of snow blowing.   And blowing good as gusts up top were probably close to 75kph.  The good news is that the snow was better as we rode a bit more off piste. Technically we were still on marked runs, but they were roped off so I guess that counts as off piste this time of year.  It was Pippa's first day of the season and after abut four or five runs, we all called it a day.

Day 1 - Opening Day

Another season has literally snuck up upon us in Whistler.  With a record setting dry October (driest October in 22 years), we were all still in "bike mode" when suddenly it was time to hit the slopes!  It was a bluebird day and everyone was stoked to be back on the planks.  The snow base was 60cm (24") with the typical Red Chair and Emerald Chair running.  There weren't many runs open, in fact, Lower Whiskey Jack was roped off.  Most of the runs had the snow guns blowing, building up the base.

Irish and I were in line at Red Chair by 9am.  Two hours later, the lift line for Green Chair was out the gates!  We rode the Family Zone for a few runs before heading in for coffee and a snack.  We called it a day around noon but it was nice to get out and get the muscles back in snowboard shape.

First snowfall of the 2013/2014 season!