Whistler/Blackcomb: 2/8/07 - 2/12/07

slightly condensed trip to whistler this year...drove up thursday (2/ evening and back to seattle on (2/12) after a full day of skiing...it's amazing how easy it is to make a trip to whistler...the edge card provides fantastic deals for lodging plus the 2-for-1 shell vouchers makes it even more doable

thursday 2/8: first buddy lands at noon but airline doesn't have his bag...you know, the one with the snowboard in it!! not sure how you lose a bag on a direct flight (??)...he ended up having to rent one day...final arrival to seattle at 2:15 pm and quickly heading north...stop in vancouver to meet friends for dinner...whistler arrival around 9 pm

friday 2/9: a little recent snow, but basically this day was the end of an almost 2 week dry spell...started on blackcomb but had a miserable morning on the ice and uneven grooming (aka jackhammer skiing)...one of those days when you say "only the groomers" but somehow end up elsewhere...tried the very iced and bumped out Pakalolo that resulted in me sliding down a good 100' after making the narrow entrance...don't have those iced-out double diamond tele skills quite yet switched to whistler late morning as the sun had softened some of the runs...over to the new symphony area to get a feel for the new terrain...friends gear arrived that night, so he only had to rent the one day

Video of Will sliding down Pakalolo; sadly my fall was not captured on video

saturday, 2/10: reports of 2 cm new were really 6-7 cm in most places...but new snow on top of the hard ice crust made for some tricky turns...first 3 runs down peak chair were great before heading towards symphony for the softer afternoon snow

Video of Dan above Peak Chair (Shale Slope?) w/ our first new snow on top of the crust

the world is our playground


will resting near top of symphony


sunday, 2/11: again reports seemed off w/ 5 cm reported but at least double that in the alpine areas...visibility was a challenge for most of the morning with little definition and ability to see the bumps waiting to take your legs out...haha...the gate access to flute was closed all day due to visibility...we did have fun exploring a cornice drop off with little definition between snow and clouds...that was lots of fun!!! haha...planed to hike it the next day

snow field in Garibaldi Provincial Park


monday, 2/12: 5 cm new reported but previous days plus winds made for some great spots before and main route into whistler bowl was skied out...a few runs off peak chair again before heading into lower flute bowl for a few more fresh runs...we were all set to hike up next before weather moved in...decided to just stay down with the low monday crowds and plenty of fresh snow...legs were cashed from the 4 days of skiing, so we stopped around 1:30 and were headed south by 2:30...stopped at boundary bay in bellingham for some good brews and memories before my 2 friends headed back east

Video of me coming down lower Flute bowl in the best snow of the week

all in all another terrific trip to whistler, i miss the backcountry experience though...even with a fair amount of fresh lines, riding lifts with thousands upon thousands of people just isn't my thing any more...the next step is getting my east-coast buddies into some backcountry set-ups for ski in/out hut trips b/c that has become my ideal ski vacation