Going to Whistler on 2/16/08 need suggestions

I am heading up to Whistler this weekend for the first time. Only have one day to snowboard and was looking for suggestions on where to focus my one day of riding?

I enjoy riding Double blacks if not to bumped up or icy. Love riding in the trees and blacks. Have ridden at Crested Butte CO, Telluride CO, Alpental, Hyak, Central, and Alyeska AK. Have also ridden is the WA backcountry around the Kendall clearcut. Looking for inbound terrain since I will not have a beacon with me.

Also what is the road like to Whistler? Is it pretty narrow like US 2 or is more like I 90?

Any and all information regarding best runs, roads, etc is appreciated.

Broncoman

Whistler is easy to diss because of crowds and cost, but on a nice day with good snow, it's a fantastic place to be. Appears you'll have decent snow and may luck out with more snow on Friday, then good conditions on the weekend.

Go ahead and pick one of the mountains. While it's possible to get on both in one day, the places you want to be are high up if the visibility is good, so no need to waste time going all the way back down. Under no circumstances get roped into stupidity like a lunch appointment at the bottom. There is food up on either mountain or a sandwich in your pocket. Every moment of the short window of lift time you buy is precious.

Lots of people favor Blackcomb, and it's great. The glacier is an immortally great and fantastically scenic run even if you have to circle round a long way to get back to a lift. A fun variation is to stay high and left above the main funnel, and then you end up going down a steep slope to the main track. Seventh Heaven has fun trees. The steep bowls immediately above Jersey Cream are great. I have not done Spanky's which is apparently epic if the snow is good.

But I like Whistler best, for no good reason. Harmony has lots of choices of chutes off Harmony Ridge on either side. Also from the top of Harmony, there is often fresh snow leading down to the bottom of the Peak Chair in the vicinity of the T bars that never run. If Symphony is running (you never know) then hike up Flute a few times (in bounds) and your chances of fresh snow back down Lesser Flute are pretty good (the main run on Symphony is nice enough but too flat). From the top of the Peak, start on the Peak to Creek and then cut right and down into open bowls. Also from the top of the Peak the main bowl in front is usually a gnarly mogul mess, but endure the entry and cut either hard left or hard right and there is usually better snow (to the right, note escape tracks that lead to points of entry down toward the next bowl to skier's right). If you happen to be staying at Creekside, or don't mind riding a bus back to the village, time your laps on the Peak so your last run is Peak to Creek all the way down (how few stops can you do it in?), with amazing views if clear in the upper parts. It has very encouraging signs like "7 km to Dusty's", "3 km to Dusty's" etc. on the way down.

Hope that helps,

With my limited experience at Whistler-Blackcomb (5 days), I'll go with Travertine's suggestions. If the visibility is good (and right now the forcast is looking sunny Saturday onward), GET HIGH. Whistler has a lot of fun HIGH. Anything off it's miles wide top!

At Blackcomb, Spanky's ladder and Ruby Bowl (which empties into the Blackcomb glacier basin) was the funnest steeps my bro and I found. If you're looking for that "terrain". It was funny, b/c though they are good steeps and get the blood moving, the patroller discouraged it calling it "extreme" terrain. It wasn't. Just really fun, and goodly steep. If you can ski steeps at Baker and Alpental...there really isn't anything at Whistler/Blackcomb that's marked that is going to scare you.

The Drive: Always expect hell at the border and maybe you'll be pleasantly surprised. There are 2 or three entrances, you might research traffic cams before deciding on a route through the border and Vancouver. The Sea to Sky highway up to Whistler is a bit of a mess due to construction for the Olympics and has delays at times. I'd guesstimate a 5-6 hour drive from Seattle to Whistler Village.