December 10,2005-Whistler

One of the perks of the 5 day Whistler Edge Cards that my son, Gabe, and I had purchased last spring, was a free day of skiing to be taken before Dec.23rd. Saturday was open for us and three other telefriends (plus one who has gone over to the dark side).<br><br> Whistler is posting a 79 cm base, which is well below other ski hills in the region. We had mixed experiences with the coverage.I was glad that I brought my older World Piste skis, because rocks lurked above and below the surface.The snow was turning brown near the base of Harmony.The mountain will certainly need to get some snow storms before the all-important Christmas Break.<br><br> For a weekend, the lineups were not unbearable.The weather was warm (a thermometer on one of the building registered 25 C. midafternoon).The real temperature was closer to 7, with minimal wind chill. The views were great.<br><br> We came prepared with all of the gear to ski Flute and perhaps beyond there. However, we ended up skiing some of the steeper runs ie. Shale Slope,the Whistler Bowl,Little Whistler, plus a some groomers to heat up the quads.We were disappointed that West Bowl was closed due to inadequate coverage at the bottom. A highlight of sorts was a drop from Harmony Ridge into Symhony Bowl.The route was new to us. The low snow base made for some interesting turns through the trees. The photo is of my son after we had cleared the trees.<br><br>Enjoy,<br>Bob<br>

Thanks for the update. A friend of mine was also there and sent me the following email of conditions:<br><br>"What a weekend. Sunny during the day and 20 to 25 inches of fresh powder<br>every night. Yesterday I skied all day today with women from the Swedish<br>race team and it was so sunny that they kept asking me to rub suntan<br>lotion on their bodies. Last night as I was walking by the heliski place<br>they stopped me and told me that I just had won a free heliskiing day<br>so that's what I did today. And guess what...There were only 20 year old<br>blonds in the helicopter.<br><br>So a great weekend." <br><br>I like his report !<br> Zap<br><br><br><br>

i was at Blackcomb yesterday. Unfortunately it seemed like less than half the mountain is open because of a lack of snow. More south facing than Whistler. It was my first time there and we still had a great time. The potential with more coverage and on a powder day is unreal.

I was kind of surprised to see the 7th Heaven side of Blackcomb not running, since the runs all looked white from Whistler. At the worst stage of last winter's season, one could still ski a single run down to the 7th Heaven Express to access the upper section.<br> There is so much terrain on those two mountains; you really need to go back and spend several days exploring. I went 8 times last year and several times in each of the previous 5 years, and there is still lots of routes that I haven't done yet. For the time being though, you got to stay high on the mountains.Gabe is at about 7,000' on this picture taken below Whistler's peak.<br><br>