December 17-18, 2007 Whistler

Jill and I plus another couple used our Warren Miller 2 for 1 coupons and had a couple of nice powder days.  The Sea to Sky highway between Horseshoe Bay and Squamish is memorable in the dark, raining and with all the construction.  Try to drive it in the daylight or follow the pack.  Sunday evening they received 10" new and Monday was cold snowing lightly and some sun breaks.  It was extremely crowded.  In fact, I've never seen so many folks in all the years I've skied there.  Must be the early Xmas arrivals.  We skied Blackcomb on Monday and they had all the lifts operating and we skied in Blackcomb glacier.  Good coverage until you approached the runout from Diamond Bowl.  A few hardy souls descended Diamond and Ruby bowls. Looked a wee bit "sporty" to me.  You can ski to the base areas now. 

Tuesday we skied Whistler in light snow showers.  We started from Creekside and our first run was Upper and Lower Franz which had 1" new on a ballroom groomed surface.  Our quads required 3 stops on the descent.  4100 vf - yahoo.  We followed that with another 4100vf run from the upper restaurant onto the Downhill run.  Again another perfectly groomed slope.  2 runs = 8200vf.    The Peak and Harmony chairs were operating.  Finished the day in the Symphony area but the Symphony lift was not operating. It amazes me all the good skiers and riders in Whistler.  The competition is fierce.  Best to make a couple runs then tour out.

Too bad that you couldn't have held out for a couple more days. I skied Whistler today with a half a foot of new powder and generally good visibility. I was also surprised with the number of people out there. I thought that all of you Americans were going to stay away with the dollar at par. The powder was pretty carved up by the end of the day. My summer/fall turns didn't do much to prepare me for the vertical that I skied today. Normally I don't like to quit before the last lift stops, but I could barely make it down the peak to creek run at 3:00.