Short report – Blackcomb/Whistler is a great place to be and that’s where I’ve been.
The Long winded report – The where was ddk report – “In Heaven”. Arrived Sunday afternoon at Whistler, cool, broken clouds in the village, party week going full on, big loud bands and crowds. Got up early Monday headed up Blackcomb with cold north east winds and broken clouds with light snow flurries up top. Never say a lift line, saw lots of empty chairs on empty lifts, lots of random high speed groomers in between big mountain vert soft packed pow bumps. Saudan Couloir well worth the repeats. And ending the day down big soft Gearjammer bumps with a band blasting in the village on the way down – sweet, plus #1 skied all the way down with me on her very happy new skis. Jeeze I luv Blackcomb! Tuesday blue bird from the start. It’s a Whistler day! Spent to long early morning doing the cold perfectly smooth grommers waiting for #1. And then things got better. A few runs out Symphony – all nice packed pow ( it does have some great gladed skiing). Head back to the core area for a quick lunch (it is kinda a vaca day). This is when hamster mode kicked into overdrive. Peak Chair bumps, no lift line, no waiting, no standing around, nice conversation with a 70 year old ski instructor that makes me look forward to the next 10 years – he was good fast and strong. We were lapping Peak in 7 ½ minutes – did that for an hour plus. Tossed in a Peak to Creek run with #1 – sweet perfect soft corn the bottom half and mostly untracked. Finished the day with another nice soft spring run to the base with the music blasting. Wednesday was a lot greyer during most of the day, cold early and still pretty cold late. Back up Blackcomb on a day that was by far the least crowded. Low vert of the three days – packing and leaving early. But it was a big day – dusting of new up top smoothed the slopes, Ruby Bowl first and early, third person on the cat track out of the Blackcomb glacier, on to Pakalolo! And a few repeats of Saudan again ( great big dropping fun) plus a number of big bump runs at the bottom of Glacier. Colder firmer day so the slush was a lot lower on the mountain at the end, but the party at the base was full on again.
Other – Had Chicken Noodle the last day (they have it everyday, plus 5 others). Sadly Whistler ends its season on Sunday (Peak chair is one of the top two lifts in North America). Blackcomb. (and Whistler) has great snow coverage on the upper mountain, you can still ski to the base, but there aren’t as many options low down and not sure how much longer. So the hamster had fun.
