Visibility: Cloudy with periods of zero visibility
Snow: 10cm
Piste Condition: Powder.
Wind: Very Strong.
Temperature: +1 at the base to -7 at the top.
Crowding: Light.
Lift Lines: Light.

The wind was very strong today, and caused some really difficult snow blowy conditions that made it impossible to see!

Whistler, BC (Ski Press)-As of 10am this morning, Whistler broke the record for the snowiest month the mountains have seen since weather data collection began 25 years ago. With 46 centimetres (18 inches) of snow in the past 36 hours, January's snowfall accumulation so far is 461 centimetres (181.5 inches). The snowiest month previously was January 1992 at 459 centimetres (180.7 inches.)

"The continuous snowfall this month has been phenomenal," says Sara Aldridge from Whistler Blackcomb's snow and weather communications office. "Most mornings this month we've woken up to fresh snow; we’ve been experiencing perpetual powder days. This is classic Whistler weather – system after system lined up, one after the other, dumping snow on the resort. The locals are in heaven and our visitors are ecstatic."

This month Whistler received fifteen 10+ centimetre (4 inch) snow days. Of those; one was a 50+ centimetre (23 inch) day, three were 40+ centimetre (16 inch) days, four were 30+ centimetre (12 inch) days and one was a 20+ centimetre (8 inch) day. The snowiest day this month was January 13 with 58 centimetres (or 23 inches) of snow.

"I've lost track of all the great lines I've had this month; it has been outrageously good," says Leslie Anthony, Editorial/Creative Director of SKIER Magazine and Whistler resident. "I've experienced this type of weather pattern before but in smaller spurts. This is why I moved to Whistler."

With the record already broken, there's still more snow on the way. Environment Canada is forecasting a possible 20 centimetres (8 inches) over the next several hours.

After an epic day and pizza, some of us (myself, Jono [skier!!!] and Will) decided to put up in the garden a box and gas pipe.  Not just a flat box, but a box put up against a tree!!!

We decided to build up a large mound of snow at the base of the tree, about a 5 ft base, and prop the box up against the tree...the long way.  We then heaved (as the box is big and bloody heavy) the bot onto the top of the snow pile, and dug it in.  We then added a lot more snow behind the box and around it to support it and our weight.

It wasn't really our intention to ride it tonight, but we couldn't resist.  So we started to hit it.  It became apparent quite quickly that the angle was a bit wrong.  It was OK for me, a goofy rider, but the regular riders kept ending up in the tree/bushes to the right when coming off the box.  So, we decided to rotate it around to a better angle, which worked really better.

The three of us then proceeded to keep hitting the box.  We were all riding the box quite well.  With all of us getting higher up the box each time.  Will was really starting to nail it and was getting to the top of the box repeatedly with his lead foot.  Jono was doing well to.  As for my self, I was doing OK, but I was starting to get tired.  After all, we had been riding since very early morning.  So, I wasn't getting better, just more tired.

We called it a day, late on at night, at about 23:10!  I must admit that it was a good evening!

The day for me got off to a very slow start.  Everyone else had left before I had, but I wasn't too far behind. 

So I headed up and knew that they were heading on over to the Emerald chair, as I knew that they were doing the park.  So I headed on down the run, but didn't see them.  On the way up the chair, I spotted the posse about half way down, and knew that I could catch up with them.  Which I did on the way down.

We all (that is, myself, Will, Pete, Dawn, Andy, Jono, Steve and Sam) headed on back up the Emerald and hit the park.  There were quite a few good jumps and spines that I hit.  The best is that there are tree similar sized jumps in a row on the left of the park.  Brilliant.  Managed a couple grabs on there and only bailed one jump.  Still need to get my 'mojo' in-tune, as I'm still crap at jumps.  It's a confidence thing, which isn't helped if you cant even see anything.

We all did that for a while before Steve and Andy decided to head on off and either do something else or go home.

In the mean time, we all headed on up to the Peak chair.  The wind was really blowing up there and it was not pleasant.  Couldn't see more than a couple of feet in front.  Our intention was to hit some off piste to the left of Highway 89.  A tree/valley run called 'Cybers Pass'. All I can say about this run is 'Epic!'.  It was a really great, knarly, tree lined, steep, valley, jumpy run.  Awesome.  However, at the top we did get into some difficulties, as the powder was very deep and it was difficult to get going and onto the real run.

We were however, majory off piste, and so we all made sure that we kept stopping to make sure that everyone in the group were together.  There were some amazing features to this run.  There were some tree falls over the tight track, that meant that you had to ride under the tree and through the branches.  Thankfully Pete went just before me, and hung onto the branches and managed to get it to drop all of the snow off of the branches .  So I just rode straight through, with my lead arm up to protect my face.

There were a couple of problems with this run.  Firstly, even though Will has seasoned hear a few times, even he did not really know where we were going to come out.  Secondly, because of the conditions, it was really difficult to see anything and there were loads of bumps and the run out was quite flat.  So, this made it really difficult to keep your speed.

Eventually, we actually ended back on the right side of the mountain.  We could have even made a run on over to the Creekside Gondola.  However, as there was enough snow we decided to take the run down to Bayshores, where the house is.  This was a really tight but fun line.  On the way down, we met these two dudes building this massive gas pipe jump/rail.  It was massive, and you could tell that they had been working on it for a while.  Anyway, the run ended just up the road from the house and we walked home within 2 minutes.

After such an epic day, we all decided that it was Dominos time.  On Tuesday at Dominos here, there is a 2-4-1 deal.  So we all ordered a 14" pizza, some Pepsi and also some Cheesy Bread.  So fat.  Only managed to finishes the Cheesy Bread and half of my Meatzza Feast!  Will save the rest for later tonight.  We are planning to ride the gas pipe, box and 1/4 pipe onto a tree which are all set up in the garden.  May also try some of the trampoline tonight, to work on getting my knees up and making those spins happen (rather than thinking they will come around naturally!).

Will keep you posted...

Visibility: OK.  Cloudy with periods of sunshine
Snow: 40cm WOW
Piste Condition: Amazing powder.
Wind: Light to moderate.
Temperature: +2 at the base to -7 at the top.
Crowding: Moderate.
Lift Lines: Moderate.

Obviously, given the huge snowfall over night, the piste crowding and lift lines were busier than normal.

Visibility: OK.
Snow: 3cm
Piste Condition: Tracked powder.
Wind: Light to moderate.
Temperature: +2 at the base to -10 at the top.
Crowding: Moderate to heavy.
Lift Lines: Moderate to heavy.

Today just didn't really seam to get started.  I got up the slopes at a reasonable time.  It looked like they were going to open the T-Bars, so I headed on down to them.  Waited for a while, and it looked like they were going to open the Peak chair.  So, I took the decision to risk it and headed for that line.  A mistake.  Waited in that line for over 45 minutes before getting on.

OK, so the run from the Peak was worth it.  I was on about the 8th chair to get to the top, and while most people headed down 'Whistler Bowl', I headed on toward the Bagel Bowl.  There was only one person in front of me, and I caught him at the lip of the bagel bowl, and just charged off the drop while he was still looking at it.  It was a really nice run.  Oh so deep!  The only trouble was, that the run out hadn't been tracked before.  It was therefore very slow and difficult to get out of the bottom of the bowl and onto 'Highway 89'.  I wanted to do that run again, but the lines were massive.

By now the Harmony Express was also open, to I headed on up the T-bars.  Rode these lines for a while, before thinking I would give the flute bowl or Burnt Stew Trail a go.  By now the weather had closed in and I couldn't see very far, so I didn't have enough speed to get an easy walk into the Flute Bowl gate.  So instead I dropped off and hit the 'Crescendo' run.  My oh my was the powder deep hear.  It was extremely hard to keep my speed up, even when straight lining it.  I actually got stuck and had to hike up to the next rise before setting off again.  However, as I couldn't see anything I managed to get stuck again in a trough.  Another hike up to the top of the next ridge.  I eventually got out though.

It was really late now, so I headed on down and thought that I would get a few tree runs in that I did earlier in the week and hit the Emerald Express.  Did them a couple times and caught one of the last lifts up and headed on over to the Peak for the run out.  I thought that perhaps the Peak to Creak would have been groomed by now.  Nope, just as bad if not worse.  This time thou, I thought that I would do 'Big Timber' or 'Home Run'.  Ended up doing 'Big Timber'.  This would be a fantastic run if only it wasn't full of moguls and ubber-moguls.

Finished that run, and once again my thighs were killing me at the end.  Doing massive moguls on a snowboard is not that much fun, especially as further down the slopes the snow is really hard work.  Still, better than no snow!

Visibility: Poor.
Snow: 15cm
Piste Condition: Powder.
Wind: Strong.
Temperature: 0 at the base to -9 at the top.
Crowding: Light.
Lift Lines: Light.

I knew that today would be a good day.  It all started out by for the first time since the 'rubbage', when I put my boots on in the morning, it didn't hurt!  Yippee!  Nearly fully healed.

So, the weather wasn't too great, but there was some new fresh powder to be had.  I started the day off with a couple runs down to the Emerald chair.  For as usual after a snow dump, neither the Peak or Harmony express was open until much later in the day.  After the warm up, I started to get more and more adventurous.  Felt like my aggression levels were up, and ready for a challenge.  So, I did more and more nearly tree runs.  Some of these tree runs were really testing and were really testing me.  There was one memorable run, where I was flying down and only just squeezed through this gap between two trees, that I brushed my ass and my chest when going through!  Phew!  Hairy.

I must have been in one of those moods.  I kept looking for more and more challenges.  I was really charging through the choppy powder, and the tree runs.  I even did a couple little cliff jumps.  Nothing too big, but big enough. I also skipped lunch, as I was in the zone!

I was so engrossed in doing these runs, that I did not notice when the Harmony and Peak chairs opened.  So, when they did I headed on over to the Harmony and did some runs over the Harmony ridge.  I did have a look at the drop in to McConkeys.  However, that was really big and looked very rocky.  Perhaps when there is more snow, I'll do it, or if I have someone else with me to push me into it.

Really had a good day.  Spent as much time as I could over near the Harmony ridge.  However, as the time on the mountain got near to an end, I headed on over the 'Saddle' to get to the Peak chair.  Even this late in the day, the saddle (if you traversed off to the left) was pretty damn good.  Anyway, made the peak chair with only a couple minutes before close.  I then decided to try and ride the 'Peak to Creak' run.  Apparently it is the longest run in the resort!  So, I thought I would give it a try.

The top of the run was 'lush', and I dipped in and out of the trees.  Very good terrain.  However, further down it got extremely mogully.  I do mean extremely.  It was so bad, I was not regretting doing the run.  Doesn't look like this run has been groomed at all!  Some of those moguls were huge.  I wouldn't even call them moguls, I would call them glaciers   Anyway, I got down in tact and with my thighs really burning through the effort.

Visibility: Bad to OK to Bad again.
Snow: 10cm
Piste Condition: Powder.
Wind: Strong.
Temperature: 0 at the base to -9 at the top.
Crowding: Very, very light.
Lift Lines: Very, very light.

Visibility: Cloudy.
Snow: None
Piste Condition: Bashed piste.
Wind: Strong.
Temperature: +3 at the base to -6 at the top.
Crowding: Very, very light.
Lift Lines: Very, very light.

Again, it is raining in the village.  It looks like we have entered a rather dry period, and there does not look like there is going to be any fresh snow for a while :-(

Got some video footage together.  Very poorly edited, but there all the same!

View the video here: Launch in external player

It wasn't so much as riding today, but more like hiking and hitting a kicker

Virtually everyone in the house had all decided last night to go up and build a kicker.  So, at about 10am, Myself, Will, Pete, Dawn, Andy, Jono and Steve all headed out.  We decided to head up to Blackcomb and the glacier bowl, as Will knew where this nice wind lip was.  What a wind lip it was too.  it was a huge long wind lip, with lots of opportunities to choose where you wanted to hit it.  it also had a very steep run out and lots of powder.  So we picked our spot and set to work to get it set up.  Well, some of us did.  Some of the others were throwing them selves off the wind lip into the snow...

Myself, Pete and Steve all hiked up the slope with me in front making the foot holes, then Pete took over.  We got up to a reasonable height and whilst the guys at the bottom were slipping the take off spot, Pete side slipped down the run in.  Then followed by Steve and myself.  We three headed back up again, this time to hit the run.  First went Pete.  He went straight line down and only just made it up and onto the table.  So, I then set off.  No speed checks at all.

It's about now I have to mention that I prepare my own board and use my own blended wax mixing.  Normally going down the slopes my board rides quite a bit faster than virtually anyone else.  This was a fact that I forgot to take into account when I headed down the run in with no speed checks.

So, there I was hurtling down, and I honestly thought that I would simply pop out the top and only get a foot or two.  Well, apparently, I flew about 20 ft into the air, and way, way down the landing before bailing the landing.  Man, I have to say that I practically **it my self I flew so high and so far down the slope.  I had so long in the air to think about it, that was the more scary part.  Everyone was cheering and clapping.  Thankfully the landing was so soft, and I didn't physically hurt my self.  I do have to say though, that it definitely shook me up mentally.  Unfortunately, no one had their video camera's out.  Oh well, perhaps next time

So, we all sessioned this jump all day.  Will was pulling some big sick tricks, Pete was also throwing some nice spins, and everyone else was really giving it a go.  I was trying for a simple front-side 180, but didn't do too well.

Got some really good footage.

Now, Dawn is a small girl, and even though she was straight lining it from the same place as us all, she just wasn't getting the speed.  So, she started hiking further and further up the hill.  Then when she was practically at the top, she let rip and flew even bigger and longer than me!

We where there so long sessioning that jump, that the ski patrol came along and told us that we had to head down.

I do have to say, that it was a fantastic day.  I just need to get my head into focus and try harder at the jumps.  Instead of thinking that it is going to naturally come around, I have to make it happen.  I think that that is my big problem with jumps.  Other's make it look so smooth and easy, that I think it is too...but it isn't.

Anyway, I'm putting together some video and hope to publish it soon!

Visibility: OK.
Snow: None
Piste Condition: Bashed piste.
Wind: Gusty.
Temperature: +3 at the base to -6 at the top.
Crowding: Very, very light.
Lift Lines: Very, very light.

One of the earliest starts for me this morning.  Really wanted to get up the slopes quick, after the busy weekend, to experience some quiet board time.  I wasn't disappointed either.  Got to the gondola 10 minutes after opening, and there was no line.  In fact, all day the lift lines were tiny.  More often than not, I got straight onto the chair no wait.  That was mostly for the Harmony Express too!

Anyway.  I wasn't sure as to what I was going to do today.  Again i was hoping that the visibility would be good enough to make the Flute bowl worth while.  On the way up it looked very promising.  However, on my way over to the flute bowl, the clouds moved in and quashed any real hopes of riding the flute.  OK, yes I could still ride it if I wanted, but the visibility wouldn't have made the huge effort worth it.

So, I was nearly at the Flute Bowl, and I didn't make the flat far enough so turned off on to 'Crescendo'.  What a bit of good luck.  The whole area was covered in virtually untouched powder, and no-one was riding it.  I thought that over the last few days, all the powder had been stolen, but I was wrong.  Basically, all of the runs short of the Flute Bowl were un-touched?  That was 'Boundary Piste', 'Burnt Stew Trail', 'Crescendo', and 'Sun Bowl'.  Whilst it wasn't champagne powder, it was a bit crusty but powder all the same.  I rode all those lines practically all day.  I was nailing it so much, that my average round trip time was 17 minutes, from top of the Harmony Express to the top again.  I reckon that I got in almost 20 runs in there.  The good thing about this area is that because it was so open, I could make each run as difficult of as easy as I liked.

On each of the runs, I started the top of 'Burnt Stew Trail' in switch and rode as much as possible in Switch.  Sometimes it felt really mad, as there was practically no visibility at all at the top.  Sometimes I was going down, and couldn't tell if I was moving or not!  So, a couple of times it freaked me out and I fell over.  No biggies thank goodness.

As I was really going for it, and with the early start I had to have lunch.  Got up the Harmony Express, and hammered it down 'Pika's Traverse'.  Even though this is a green run, it really is a good little speed freak run, with lots of twists and turns.

After lunch, I went straight back on over to do the same thing again.  However, to get on over to the Harmony Express I needed to get a run down to the lift.  I hung a right after the bottom of the half pipe (which is really bad, and not worth riding as one side has two lips!) and headed on over to 'Ratfink'.  Instead of heading down this place as normal, I headed on right, right, right into the trees.  This has to be the steepest, tightest and scariest tree run I have ever done.  Gave me a great sense of achievement to pop out at the bottom, near the lift, onto 'Lower Ratfink' the green.

AS I said, I did the same runs as I had been doing all morning.  That was until it was near last lift time.  So, I headed up and rode down 'The Saddle'.  Again, the visibility was so bad, I couldn't tell if I was moving or not.  I managed to get one of the last chairs on 'The Peak Chair'.  I wanted to do the 'Peak to Creek' run.  As I headed down that, again in rear zero visibility, it became obvious that there run was chopped up to hell, and moguled.  Further down the visibility cleared up, but the condition of the piste didn't.  It was really hard work.  At one point, I was coming over what I thought was this mogul, but it turned out to be a big drop (about 8ft) over the other side, and I only just managed to not fall over it backward!  Scary.  Other than that, it was a tough thigh excesses to get down.

Visibility: Poor Cloudy.
Snow: Trace
Piste Condition: Bashed piste.
Wind: moderate.
Temperature: +3 at the base to -6 at the top.
Crowding: Very, very light.
Lift Lines: Very, very light.

Visibility: Cloudy.
Snow: 1cm
Piste Condition: Bashed piste.
Wind: Strong.
Temperature: +2 at the base to -7 at the top.
Crowding: Heavy to moderate.
Lift Lines: Heavy to moderate.

Currently, it is raining in the village!

I actually managed to get up the mountain quite early this morning, despite it being a weekend.  It is really quite obvious now that a lot of people from Vancouver (and other areas) come up to Whistler for the weekends.  Therefore the lines for the gondola was quite long, but I entered the 'singles' line and got ahead of the game.

It was my intention to avoid the crowds by going and doing the 'Flute Bowl' again today.  However, there were two reasons why this did not happen.  Firstly, the weather.  There was a high level cloud that was quite dark, and as such the visibility was very poor.  The second reason was my ankles.  They were giving me a bit of jip today and frankly I couldn't face the hike with my ankles the way they were.

Instead I headed on over to 'Ratfink' and did a couple of runs over by the 'Emerald Chair' and also the 'Harmony Express'.  I must admit that I just wasn't 'feeling' it today.  You know what I mean?  I ended up just below the bottom of the 'Big Red Express' chair at the top of 'Lower Dave Murry's Downhill', where I sat for a while and thought about things.  i wasn't feeling it, and it was still early in the day.  I decided that it was just too early to head on down just yet.  So, I ended up going up the big red.

Whist at the top of Big Red, I still had to decide what to do.  My #1 goal of this trip is to get my switch riding down pat.  So, the decision was obvious as what to do.  Keep my switch riding going.  I am so glad that I did too.  I could really see and feel a great improvement in my switch riding today, and I was enjoying it too.  I'm really starting to get confident and much, much faster.  I have even been doing some (ankle permitting) 180's on the flat, and carrying on the riding in switch.  Excellent!  I did this for the rest of the afternoon, skipping lunch, until the last lift.

As a treat to my self for doing so well, I allowed my self to straight line it down to the bottom (well, as close to straight line as was comfortable).  Really hit some high speed on the way down, and had some real sketchy moments.  But all was well, and I made it down (and everyone else) in one piece.  Whoo Hoo.

Visibility: Cloudy.
Snow: 1cm
Piste Condition: Bashed piste.
Wind: Light to none.
Temperature: -2 at the base to -10 at the top.
Crowding: Heavy to moderate.
Lift Lines: Heavy to moderate.

It looks like, every weekend not surprisingly, loads of people from Vancouver all come up to Whistler for the day/weekend.

Today got off to an early start.  There were four of us who all set off at the same time.  Myself, Pete, Dawn and Andy.

As the weather was as close to a blue-bird day as we have ever had, we thought that we would do the 'Flute Bowl'.  To get there we needed to head on over to the 'Harmony Express'.  So we headed on over and rode down the 'ratfink' to get to the express.  We could already tell that there was a good set of powder available.

We headed off from the top of harmony express and started the treck up the flute bowl.  When we started the weather was really good, and there was some of the best visibility that I have seen in Whistler since arriving.  If anyone has ever done it, they can appreciate just how much of a hike it is.  It took us over an hour to hike to the top, and it was one hell of a hike.  When at the top though, the weather had closed in, and when we headed off it was blind boarding.  As I hiked up to the top first, it was my honor to head off first.  With no visibility, the first couple of turn were difficult.  With the slope being steep, and the powder being deep, it was a good ride.  About 1/3 of the way down it cleared up, and I headed on into this almost natural but wide half pipe.  Wow, what a ride.  So steep and so powdery, and completley fresh tracks.  Brilliant!  The run out was great too.  We all really, really enjoyed it.

Then came the hike out.  Again, the people who have ridden the Flute Bowl, will also remember how long the treck out is.

Eventually, we got to the 'Harmony Express', and headed back up.  We all discussed it and decided to hit the 'Flute Bowl' again.  This time however, we were not going to hike all the way to the top.  Instead we headed only part of the way up.  This time however, the weather was much better.  Again, I got to head off first.  This time however, the run was much more of a blast fast through the powder, making only a few turns.  Again, it was a really good ride, but not as rewarding as the first.  Again, the hike out was long and hard.

By now, it was almost 1pm.  Two runs in almost 3 hours!  WHat run's though.  So, as we had all had a hard day already, we headed for some lunch at the RoundHouse.

After that we had a couple of run's through the park.  I must admit that my ancles are still giving me trouble.  The rubbage on my left foot is almost completley healed, but the right is still not great.  Therefore, I only did a couple jumps, and one of the spines.

It was now late, and Dawn's bad knee was playing up, so when we suggested going up the 'Peak Chair', she decided to head down the easy way and let us lads go to the peak.  When we got to the top there was this absolute amazing view, with the clouds below.  Pitty that none of us had a camera!  Oh well.  We headed on into the 'Bagel Bowl'.  It was quite choppy, but soft none the less, and we just charged it.

Visibility: Blue-bird, with some cloudy patches.
Snow: 14cm
Piste Condition: Tracked powder.
Wind: Light.
Temperature: +2 at the base to -10 at the top.
Crowding: Light.
Lift Lines: Light.

Visibility: Clowdy, poor visibility.
Snow: 3cm
Piste Condition: Compacted piste.
Wind: Light.
Temperature: -1 at the base to -7 at the top.
Crowding: Light.
Lift Lines: Light.

I was feeling quite fatigued from the last couple days 'switch' riding, so I decided to take a rest day.  So, I have spent most of the day watching movies, until the Internet access came back up.  Turned out that someone had tripped over the wire, and when they did, they had broken the splitter.  So, simply replacing the connector got our Internet access back.  We found this out, by the fact that the telephone up-stairs, was not working.  As they both use the same connection splitter, this lead us to thinking that it was the splitter.  So, we are back up.

Well, as you may have noticed, there has not been any news in my blog for a while.  That's because our Internet access has not been available for a few days.  I'll try and get everything up to date.

Visibility: Patchy, but with some very good bright patches.
Snow: 4cm
Piste Condition: Packed powder.
Wind: Light.
Temperature: 0 at the base to -7 at the top.
Crowding: Light.
Lift Lines: Light.

After all of the snow fall over the last few weeks, it's slowed down.  Therefore it's now all being bashed and flattened, not just by the piste bashers, but by all of the people.

I got up quite early this morning.  That's two in a row!  Even though I still had the Palmer set-up I took that board out, just in case there was some good powder riding to be had. Unfortunately, there wasn't any real powder available.  So, I decided that I was going to continue to try and improve my switch riding.  I rode practically all of the day in switch.  Quite proud of my self in that.  As there were clock's at the top of each run, I could tell just how long each of my runs were taking.  I therefore could tell that my riding was getting quicker (not necessarily better ).  The first run was about 35 minutes, and by the time I was on my last run, it was down to 28 minutes.  I really do intend to keep it up.

Only trouble with riding switch all day, is that 'regular' muscles that are not usually used when riding 'goofy' tend to take a bit of a bettering.  My neck, thighs and feet are achy and fatigued.

Tonight some of us went out to a night of Drum 'n' Base @ Garfinkels.  We went to see Bukem & Conrad LTJ Bukem and MC Conrad.  Was a really good night.  Was a $20 cover charge, but ended up being a good night.  I must admit though, that I did struggle to 'get into it'.  It wasn't because of the music because that was fantastic.  One of the best drum & Base nights I have been to.  Just couldn't get into the 'swing' of it.  Was just me.  Probably too tired from all the riding earlier today and yesterday.

Also, sadly, earlier in the day one of the house guests left.  Bridget's time with us was up and she had to go home.  However, there is some good news on the horizon.  It does look like she is going to be able to return later in the season.

Today, I got up really early.  After getting my board's prepared earlier in the evening, I wanted to take out the Palmer (Carbon Circle).  As it was a bigger (162cm) and stiffer board, it should handle the powder much better.  I got up early enough to just miss the first lifts.  This morning I was accompanied by Andy, who is my room mate.

As there was a fair bit of snow over night, the lifts to the top of the mountain as usual were not open.  So, we headed off down 'Ratfink' to try and find some powder stashes.  Even though there was some fresh powder over the night, there wasn't really any fresh powder.  It was all chopped up and actually a bit crusty, as the temperature over night was quite low.  We chopped our way though this and over to the 'Emerald Chair'.  We did that run again, and decided to try and head on over to Blackcomb mountain, as Andy hadn't as yet managed to get on over to there.  The run out to the bottom of Whistler gondola was quite difficult.  Whilst there was not much powder, this run out had not been done by many people.  There was a crusty topping to the snow, but it was none the less still quite easy to ride, if you managed to keep your speed up.

Once we headed on over to Blackcomb, we decided to head on over to 7th Heaven.  As mentioned in a previous blog, this area is very exposed and subject to a lot of wind and cold.  We managed to find some really good lines back down the the 7th Heaven Express.  On the third time up, the pass over toward the Blackcomb Glacier was open, so I decided to take Andy over to the Glacier Bowl.  Really glad we did.  The light was actually quite bright and there was loads of snow available.  We made some fantastic lines down the glacier, and Andy really enjoyed it.  It was a cool ride.

When we got to the bottom, and took the ride out (which is 3 miles along a cat track).  When we got back to the lift, Andy needed to head off to get a bank account sorted, so I left him at the top of the 'Jersey Cream Express', and headed for some lunch.

After having lunch I decided that since the glacier bowl was so good, I'd go back and have another go.  This turned out not to be a good choice.  The weather closed in and the visibility had dropped to virtually none.  I did not enjoy the ride down, and a couple of times, where I did not see a ridge, I flew over them and bailed it big time.  After the two bails, I was a little sore.  Again, after the ride out, I decided to call it a day.  On the way down, the weather got worse, so I decided to close out the day by taking the gondola down.

This was Bridget's last evening, and as such we headed out to a Sushi restaurant.  I'm not good with fish normally, but raw fish...not a good idea.  However, I was willing to give it a good try.

As there was a lot of snow through the day, the roads were covered in snow.  So, after waiting for the bus for a while, some people passed us by and told us that there were no busses and that there was an accident further up the road.

First out was raw squid.  I do like calamari, so I thought I would give it a try.  It was an interesting but not unpleasant flavour and texture.  I then had the seafood dumplings which were excellent.  Lastly I had some tuna roll 'thing'.  This was spicy and not too bad, but not entirely my thing.  All good all the same.  Lots of wine went with the meal.  Then to end the meal we had some sake.  I have never in my life so far had sake.  It was actually quite pleasant, and a good end to the meal.  The only trouble was the bill.  It worked out that my portion of the bill amounted to some $70 Canadian.  A lot of money when you on the budget.  However, it was Bridget's leaving meal, so no problem.

We ended the evening by having a last couple of drinks in Dusty's.

Visibility: Poor, wish some bright patches.
Snow: 14cm
Piste Condition: Crunchy powder.
Wind: Variable.  Light to strong
Temperature: 0 at the base to -7 at the top.
Crowding: Light.
Lift Lines: Light.

I've been needing some new gloves for a while, and today was the final trigger to get my ass in gear.  They were soaked by midday.  So, when I got off the mountain I went off to Showcase (where I knew had the best Burton gear in Whistler, from asking around), and had a mooch around.  I found a set of gloves that were good for me, but was also drawn to getting a new pair of pants.  I normally take two pairs of pants with me all the time.  Whilst one is drying for a whole day, I can use the others.  However, this time I didn't bring the two pairs.  Doh!  My current pair are also starting to loose their waterproofness.  So, given that I do like retail therapy, I thought that I would check out the System pants, that matches my jacket.  The have everything I need from pants, and they are designed to go with my jacket.

So, I left it at that and went back to the house to drop off the mountain gear, get showered, use the hot-tub, and have something to eat.  After that I decided to head back into town and give those gloves and pants a further look into.  Needless to say, half and hour later after thoroughly testing, pulling, playing, un-zipping, and trying them on for size I walked out with both the gloves and the pants!

 

Gore Mitts	System Pants
TECH & FEATURES Storm-lite® 1.0-E Shell (5,000MM, 5,000G) GORE-TEX® 3L Insert Brushed Microfiber Lining Toughgrip™ Palm Removable, 4-Way Stretch Liner Soft Chamois Goggle Wipe Heater/Vent Pocket Thermacore™ Insulation	TECH & FEATURES Storm-lite® 5.0-E Shell Fabric (20,000MM, 5,000G) 3-in-1 System Pant with Removable, Lightweight Fleece Pant Fully Taped Seams Inner Thigh Vents Knee Articulation Double-Stacked Cargo Pockets Shell-to-Liner Vent Interface Internal Waist Adjustment Microfleece Fly and Waistband Microfleece-Lined Handwarmer Pockets Ghetto Slits Double-Headed Fly

I got up really early today.  As usual, I am really struggling with sleep.  For today however, this was a good thing.  This was because there was some 30cm of new snow over night.  WhooHoo.

So, I headed on up and almost as expected 'The Peak' chair and all the other lifts that get you to the top of the mountain were either closed or not yet open.  So, I simply headed on down the hill and took the Big Red Express back up again.  This run, despite the powder, was not that good for me.  I must admit that I still felt really fatigued, just like the day before.  I even contemplated after another couple runs, just going back and calling it a day.  The rubbage on my ankles were really killing me too.  The left rubbage is much better and close to healed.  However the right is really quite bad.  It is healing, but quite slowly.  It is my fault, well actually it's the "snow god's" fault for always dumping such great vast amounts of powder

Anyway, whilst coming back up the Big Red, I noticed that the 'T-Bars' were open.  So, I thought that as there were a lot of people in the line, I could take a bit of a rest and then see what happens.  I eventually got to the top, and noticed that the 'Harmony Express' was now open.  Hmm.  I think I was being told something.  And I was!  On the run down to get the 'Harmony Express', I actually had a really good (and very deep) powder run.  The fatigue whilst hadn't completely gone, was more than acceptable.  Also, the rubbage had gone numb again, so I wasn't feeling that either.  Great.

The run down from the 'Harmony', I decided to go around the ridge, and do one of the big drop-in's that I did earlier in the week.  The drop was bigger than I remember, but that could have been because I couldn't actually see it.  I am definitely getting batter at these big drop-ins and nailing the ride out. 

I then met Dawn and Pete on the way out of this run.  Dawn was stuck in a deep powder hole and I rode past and jeered   OK, so I waited at the ridge for her and Pete.  So, we hooked up and basically did the same run as I had just done again, two more times.  Was well worth it.  We headed down the 'saddle', as we all needed a quick rest, and carried on until we got to the bottom of the Big Red, and headed into the 'Ravens Nest' for a hot chocolate and a dry out. Needed the dry out, as it had been snowing all day, and as such we all got rather wet.  My first hot chocolate of the trip, and it was fantastic.

We headed on up, and decided that for the last few runs, we would go through the terrain park.  There was loads of rails.  Nailed a few myself, including one really big one that just seamed to make me go farther whilst going along on a 50-50.  I also found an excellent spine, it felt really good and natural, despite the rubbage.  As we all enjoyed that, we decided to go again.  Bloody Harmony Express was extremely busy.  Took about 40 minutes!  However the second run through the part was good too.

By now, the lifts were closing and we started to head down.  We could only make the village run out.  Dawn was having some real trouble with here knee/ankle by now.  She tweaked it earlier in the week, and aggravated it earlier in the day.  So, rather than take a carpy run down to the village, we took the easy route and took the gondola down.

Despite the dodgy start, the day ended up being really good.  Also, as it had been snowing all day, it looks like it could be another great day tomorrow.

Visibility: Poor.
Snow: 30cm overnight, also snowed heavily all day (except 1 hour)
Piste Condition: Deep crisp powder.
Wind: Variable.  Light to strong
Temperature: 0 at the base to -9 at the top.
Crowding: Light.
Lift Lines: Heavy.

It appears that today, it was busy because there was a 'college weekend'?  I suppose that it could be to do with the NFL playoff weekend!

Tonight was the night where we nearly get a full house.  That is the last 4 people were set to arrive.  However, one of the group of 3 isn't coming out until the end of January (3 blokes sharing 1 room, only 2 beds?!?!!?).  This also included Andy, who is sharing with me.  All of the new arrivals are 18.  Damned young whipper snappers.

For the evening, I must admit that I spent most of my time catching up with my blogging.  I must admit that I have even amazed myself in my dedication on keeping my blog up to date.  Let's hope that I keep it up.  Are you getting anything out of this?  Or is it just good for me to keep a diary?  For the rest of the evening I spent what was left of it just watching TV, and then played some more Uno!

Summary

Visibility: Poor.
Snow: 2cm overnight.
Piste Condition: Tracked powder.
Wind: Light to medium
Temperature: 0 at the base to -9 at the top.
Crowding: Very light.
Lift Lines: Virtually no lines.

The day's Riding

This morning, I was starting to feel all of the excessive that I'd done over the last 15 days.  As such, I didn't really get into it today.  This coupled with my 'rubbage' and also surprisingly for the first time this trip 'pinchy cramp' didn't make for a great days riding.  There was however a few good points never the less.  This morning I decided to head on over to Blackcomb mountain, as I have only been there once so far.  I headed straight up to the glacier.  I managed to time it so well, that they had only just opened the 'Showcase' T-bar before I arrived.  Sweet.

As there were a few people in front of me, I decided to hike up a bit, and beyond the other people.  Glad I did.  Managed to get some great powder.  My carved powder turns are coming on a treat.  I can really bounce, almost jump into them, all with no loss of speed.  In fact, I'm probably gaining speed.

Did a few other bit's and bob's around the mountain before deciding to head off to 7th Heaven.  On the way, I met a guy from Putney, London.  Then on a different lift I managed to meet three people from North London.  What was it about today?  Bloody Londoners all over the place?

Did you know, that Whistler mountain used to be called 'London Mountain'?  It was called London mountain until the locals started to call it Whistler mountain because of all of the Marmot's and their whistle calls.  Nice bit of trivia there for you.

Anyway.  I headed over to 7th Heaven.  This areas was very exposed, and the wind was really bad up here.  Didn't enjoy it too much.  Will go back when I'm not feeling so physically tired.  Did a couple runs, one in switch, but really wasn't feeling it.  Glad it was after 14:30, so headed down.  Was feeling so tired, that I even took the gondola down!  Must have been tired!

Last Evening

As I've been doing loads of snowboarding and thus lower leg exercise, I thought that I could do with an upper body work out.  So I offered to clear all of the snow, and did.  Man it was a lot of work.  I was literally dripping sweat when I finished.  Still, a good workout.  Unfortunately, the hot-tub had only just been topped up with water and wouldn't be ready to use, so no hot tub :-(

Whilst in Vancouver yesterday, I managed to buy a pack of Uno cards.  So we had a few games before calling it a night.

Summary

Visibility: Poor, but brightened up at the end of the day.
Snow: 11cm overnight.
Piste Condition: Powder.
Wind: Light to medium
Temperature: 0 at the base to -8 at the top.
Crowding: Very light.
Lift Lines: Virtually no lines.

The day's Riding

After the late night yesterday getting back from Vancouver, I wasn't super keen on going up early.  However, I woke up quite early and decided to head out anyway.  What I wanted to do this time was get some pictures and video of the tree that Tim managed to hit.  So, this was the first thing I did.  There was tonnes of powder around, especially when trying to get to the tree.  Below are some of the photographs:

As you can see, it is quite a substantial tree, and quite immovable.  You can also see that there is quite a gap too.  Tim said that he had lost it a bit and just hit the tree.

After that, I must admit that I was a little apprehensive in my riding.  However, with all of the powder it was hard to resist.  I managed to get up 'The Peak' chair and came straight down the face.  It was a really good ride.  Loads of unspoiled powder.  Did that again   Then headed off to the 'Bagel Bowl'.  It's such a pity that the light is so poor.  Nearly knocked a big chunk off of the wind lip, but it held and I carried on down.

Later, I headed back up Big Red and decided to have some lunch in the Roundhouse.  I managed to meet Pete and Dawn in there.  So after lunch we all headed off together.  We were all doing loads of switch riding, but I could tell that they have done a lot more switch that I have.  They left me way behind.  After catching up, we headed on back up Big Red.  By now it was getting on late into the afternoon, and most people had left the mountain.  The fools!  If they had stayed, they would have had some great breaks in the cloud and have had some of the best visibility I've had since getting here.  So I showed the two the face of the Peaks, which we did a couple of times because it was fantastic!

It was getting late, and by the time we got to the top the last lift had gone.  No worries, as we were going to do the Bagel Bowl.  It was well worth it.  The visibility was great and I streaked down the thing.  Was going so fast and carving it so much, that my knees where scraping the snow on the toe side, and my back was brushing the snow on the heal side.  Fantastic!  What an end to a really, really good day.

Last Evening

Did not really have an evening last evening.  This was because it took us some time to get back from Vancouver.  We did not get back until midnight.

Summary

Visibility: Poor.
Snow: 11cm overnight.
Piste Condition: Powder.
Wind: Light to medium
Temperature: 0 at the base to -5 at the top.
Crowding: Very light.
Lift Lines: Virtually no lines.

The day's Riding

Actually, I did no riding today.  Instead myself, Max and Will went off to see Tim in hospital in Vancouver.

The night before I packed a load of his stuff into his backpack, to take to him.  Early afternoon we went on down to the Village and Budget Car rental to hire a car.  It would work out much cheaper to hire a car between three, and it also gave us the possibility of doing some shopping.  We managed to hire a car, and set off for Vancouver.  We stopped off at Squamish and had a quick look and an outlet store.  We then ducked into a 7/11, and bought Tim a 'get well card', a mountain bike magazine and some chocolates.  I do have to say that the ride down to Vancouver was quite scenic and reasonably enjoyable.  We found the street where the hospital was located quite easily, and parked.

In the hospital, we found out where Tim was located and 'tried' to make our way up to the 10th floor.  The main lifts were out of order, so we tried some other lifts.  These did not appear to go above third, so we eventually managed to get back to our original start point, and we took the service elevator

We found Tim's room with no trouble, and he was dozing when we entered.  We had a good chat, and gave him our card.  He was obviously still in a fair bit of pain, but seemed much better.  It does however, look like he is going to have to be taken back to the UK.  I really hope that everything goes well for him, and especially to make sure that the insurance company pays up.  We said our fair wells, and left him to his dinner.

After seeing Tim, I must admit that my spirits were lifted, as I don't think it is as bad as it could have been.

We headed off to try and get to some of the snowboarding shops.  We did not reckon however, that they would be closed before 18:00!  Oh well, better luck next time.  So instead we headed off and got some Mexican/Spanish food.  It was really good, and so very much cheaper than in Whistler.

After than we headed back.  The road back was not as enjoyable as the drive down.  The road markings were terrible, and it was very hard to see the road, never mind the lanes.  Also we hit this amazing fog bank.  The visibility literally reduced to nothing within a matter of a second.  Still, we made it back, safe and sound although a bit tired, as it was now midnight.

Last Evening

I spent some time getting some of Tim's gear packed up to take down to him the next day.  Other than that again, I did very little.

Summary

Visibility: Poor.
Snow: 35cm overnight.
Piste Condition: Some of the most amazing powder ever.
Wind: Light to medium
Temperature: -2 at the base to -9 at the top.
Crowding: Very light.
Lift Lines: Virtually no lines.

The day's Riding

I wasn't really in the mood to go riding today.  Tim's accident was still very fresh in my mind.  However I never really slept well, so was quite awake early.  So by about 09:30, I headed out to the slopes with Max, who is another house member, and a skier.  It was very obvious as soon as we got out of the house that there was a load of snow fall over night.  Some 35cm!  It looked fantastic.  There were virtually no lines for the gondola either.  We got to the top, and the T-Bars were open, so we decided to take these and ride down the 'Headwall'.  At the top of the hill, we could see that 'The Peak#s chair was going on standby.  We rode down the 'Headwall', and it was fantastic, and plowed through all of the powder to get down to the chair lift.  OK, so we had to wait for about ½ hour in the line.  The atmosphere was really good though.  Lot's of fun, and there were sporadic snowball fights, that evolved into full blown and organised barrages.

Once we got up the top, we headed off to the right and headed for the 'Bagel Bowl'.  We dropped into the bowl via the 'Cockalorum'.  It was quite a drop in.  Some 3m drop in, but I pushed the aggression up a bit and just went for it.  The bowl was full of powder, it was fantastic.  This was probably some of the best powder riding I had.  It was really good.  It was a little choppy as there was a lot of avalanche debris in the bowl, but it really was good.  Only trouble was, that on the way down to the Big Red Express, there was a huge band of freezing fog.  As soon as you hit that bank, it literally froze on your goggles.  Made it really hard to see.

Once we got back up 'The Peak' chair again, we decided to hit the run again.  This time trying to head right and over into some more real powder.  We headed on up the 'Big Read Express', and headed over toward the 'Harmony Express'.  Up we went and over onto the Harmony Zone.  We made some really steep, and heavy duty rides down the 'Sun Bowl', traversing off to the left, until we got into some really steep terrain, along with trees.  I must admit that this was pushing my steep and tree riding, but it was well worth it.  I was really amping up the aggression and making as much out of it as I could.  Had to, it was so steep.

On our way back down we met up with Dawn and Pete, and we all hooked up and went back to do the 'Sun Bowl' again.  This time, we went a little more extreme, and really did some major traversing to get to some great terrain, with some trees.  Again, a fantastic run.

Next run, up we decided that we wanted to try and get down to The 'Peaks' chair, before the lifts closed.  So, this time we went along the 'Harmony Ridge', and looked for a suitable drop in.  The first drop in we saw, was way too much for me, Pete and Dawn, but not for "Maximum Max".  He dropped right in and rode it.  It was an extremely big drop and steep run out.  So, the other three 'chickens' went further around and eventually dropped into a dope in between 'Camel Back' and 'Low Roll'.  Even the drop in we found was a good couple of meters.  We all did it though, and again the powder was really good.  It was choppy by now, but was really good.  It was a great charging through all this fantastic powder.

We managed to get up Harmony and headed down 'The Saddle'.  The powder was getting really choppy now though, and the light was really poor.  We managed to get the last lift up the Peaks.  Was great timing.  We headed back over to the Bagel bowl.  The light was getting really bad now though.  As I knew where I dropped into the bagel bowl before, I upped my aggression a little and carved into the drop with some speed.  Managed to hold it too, although it felt a little bit bigger drop than earlier in the day.  We all carved out that powder stash.

Max said that he wanted to try to take the 'Peak to Creek' run out back down to Creekside, and we all agreed.  Not a brilliant idea.  For the snow was really nice and fluffy higher up, it was extremely heavy and difficult lower down.  It mashed and took almost everything out of all of our legs just to get down.  I have never been so tired getting to the bottom of a slope.

As a treat, we all had a quick jug of beer at Dusty's.

Last Evening

What with the news about Tim, we all had a quiet night in, and watched TV and played cards.  Thankfully he managed to get through to his parents and let them know.  Will also had him Mom phone Tim's Mom.  Must admit that I really didn't sleep well either.

I've had my Burton 2/1 System jacket for a while now in Whistler, and I thought that I would add some additional personal findings.  My previous postings can be found here and here.

In regards to the build quality, I simply can not fault the jacket at all.  Every stitching, piece of material and quality is spot on.  The length of the jacket including the sleeves is great for me and provides me enough extra space.  The little extra piece of rubber on the end of the sleeve pulls makes it easy to pull the sleeves tight and join the Velcro together.

The jacket is really water proof, and I have not had a problem with it in this respect.  The pockets are also great, and ideally placed, although I do think that the breast pocket's could do with being a little less deep.

The 2/1 system is good, however the loops on the sleeves to hold the sleeves together is practically a waste.  It does not take much for them to come apart, especially when you are 'trying' to take the jacket off.  My only real gripe is about the jacket are the vents.  I have found that they are too far back under the arms, and as such it does make it really hard to even see the zip.  This is really poor when the wind is blowing and your vents are open.  Also, the pull straps for the vents are really weak, and fiddly to find.  Also, the mesh could do with being improved in some way to stop the mesh coming thou the zip.  For what ever reason, in my new jacket, the mesh always comes thou the zip.

I don't know what it is, but the jacket sleeves don't seem to keep my arms very warm.  When the temperature is about -10, and there is a little wind, my arms get cold.  Even though my arms have exactly the same layer covering as the rest of my body.  Could just be me.

I would still recommend the jacket to anyone who is in the market for a jacket.  I'm getting close to the need to get a new pair of pants.  Does anyone have any information on the System pants?  Would appreciate it if you could let me know!

Summary

Visibility: OK.
Snow: 5-10cm overnight.
Piste Condition: Powder.
Wind: Light
Temperature: 0 at the base to -8 at the top.
Crowding: Very light.
Lift Lines: Virtually no lines.

The day's Riding

Myself and Tim headed out just after 10:00.  We headed straight up to 'The Peaks' chair.  We headed off to the right and started to head down the 'Whistler Bowl', then headed across some really treacherous little rides on over into 'Surprise'.  There was some really nice powder turns to be taken.  This was really good.  The visibility wasn't too great but it was acceptable.  We went back down to 'The Peak's' chair, to try that again.  This time we tried to cut under the chair lift as much as we would, again, some great powder runs.  We decided to go past 'The Peaks' and go down into 'Franz's Meadows', as when we were first coming up, it looked really good.

As expected there was loads of powder, and it was all light and fluffy.  Myself and Tim hit this little kicker, and both managed to pull off a nice little grab each.  We carried on, and then it happened.

Tim was leading the way down the meadows, and I was a bit behind.  I stopped for what ever reason, and then set off again.  I could hear Tim shouting, and was in obvious stress.  I quickly made my way over to him, to find him flat on his back and in what looked like, and was probably, a hell of a lot of pain.  For what ever reason, he had managed to hit a tree, full side on.  He was in a lot of distress with his left shoulder, but mostly with his left hip.  After a quick check to make sure that he wasn't in extreme trouble, and whilst talking to him the whole time, to make sure that he kept consciousness, I got some people on the chair and a rider going down, to summon help.  I took my jacket off and put it over him and waited for the medical guy's to come.  Soon enough, this first aid person, called Ian arrived.  And immediately started to look after Tim, making sure that everything was as good as could be, and also summoning the 'blood waggon' (thankfully there was no blood), and the doctor.  Someone with the 'blood waggon' arrived shortly followed by the Doc, and another assistant.  We all worked together to help the Doc and Tim, including using some heat packs, and then Tim getting some morphine to ease the pain.

The Doc said that he had obviously dislocated his shoulder, and either fractured or broke his hip.

We actually had a struggle to get Tim onto the waggon, given his injuries.  Also, given where we were located, just under the chair lift, and in a valley, they did struggle to get the waggon down onto a safe area.  They had to use someone at the front, and someone lowering the waggon with the rope.

I followed the waggon.  I also had to carry Tim's board, as there was no space on the waggon, as Time needed a lot of extra padding to his sides.  Following the waggon, and carrying a board in poor visibility is not that easy.  I do have to say that I was only thinking of two things.  First was myself being slefish..."Don't fall with the board", after all I didn't want to have to use a waggon myself.  The second was about Tim, "I hope he is OK".  It took what felt like an absolute age to get down the slope to Whistler (Not Creekside).  It was a very thought provoking time.

At the bottom, the ambulance was already waiting for us.  Unfortunately I was not allowed to accompany Tim, as they would not allow the snowboards in the ambulance.  I made sure I knew where they were taking him, and hurried off to get the bus back to the house.  I was hoping that there would be someone in the house, but there was not.  So I quickly dumped the boards, and got changed.  I quickly headed down to "Route 99" and flagged down a taxi to take me back to the medical centre.

I arrived at the medical centre to find that Tim was in getting his x-ray's, so I waited.  After about 10 minutes he was wheeled back into medical bay 1, where I got a chance to talk to him again.  He was really quite groggy, obviously from all of the pain killers.  He was in surprisingly good spirits, despite the pain.  And apologised for ruining my days riding.  Like that really mattered now.  They had managed to pop his shoulder back in again, so that was very encouraging news.

After talking to him about stuff in general, to keep his mind off things, the doctor from the clinic came along, and gave Tim the news about his hip.  Apparently he had managed to fracture it and it was not all that good.  To get it sorted he was going to have to have surgery, and he was transferring Tim to Vancouver General Hospital.

Next came getting the bill sorted.  The deal is that you pay for all treatment up-front, get receipts, and then claim it back from your insurance company.  So, I had to help Tim get this sorted out.  Fortunately, the bill's so far were only $800 Canadian.  Tim had to pay be credit card.  I made sure that I kept all of the paperwork, and made sure that everything was all sorted.  I tried to call his parent's to let them know, but for what ever reason, I couldn't get through to them.  I even tried my mobile, and also the pay phone.  Still no joy.  Buy now, they were getting ready to taking him into the ambulance to transfer him to Vancouver General Hospital.  I pot all of his stuff into a bag, including his iPod (at Tim's request) and also his wallet with his credit card and insurance.  I was left with his jacket and boot's which I was to take back with me.  I saw him into the ambulance and wished him all of the best.

Going back to the house and delivering the news was not very pleasant.  Everyone is obviously very concerned.  Myself and Will are planning to go down to Vancouver to visit Tim, and take his glasses and some clothes for him.  Not sure if we are going to go tomorrow or the day after.  I think it will all depend on his surgery.  If he has surgery tomorrow, then it is not a good time.  I do hope that it all goes well.

Last Evening

Given today's news, I think that all I'll say is that I did very little last night, but watch some movies on TV.

Summary

Visibility: OK.
Snow: 5-10cm overnight, light rain in the morning
Piste Condition: Light powder.
Wind: Light
Temperature: 4 at the base to -4 at the top.
Crowding: Very light.
Lift Lines: Virtually no lines.

The day's Riding

Today I didn't make it up the mountain.  I had the hangover from hell, what with too much drinks last night.  So instead, I got up late, watched TV and did some work on my board.

Last Evening

Since last night was a Friday night we planned to go out to Tommy Africa's.  So, a little later than expected, at about 21:00 we headed out.  That was myself, Tim, Pete and Dawn.  We had planned to meet Max and Bridget at Tommy later.  Any way, after a couple of beers at 'Tappleys' and some live acoustic music, we headed on to Tommy's.  It was quite a good night, but there were far too many people in there.  Also, the gogo dancers weren't up on stage.  What a shame   It was quite a late night, and we didn't get back until about 03:00.  We also had a few drinks back at the house, got a bit roudy, but no real harm done.

    Another quiet evening in last night.  We did play a lot of PSP games.  It looks like Everybody's Golf is the game of choice.  We also played some card games, sh** Head was the order of the day.

Summary

Visibility: OK.
Snow: 10-15cm overnight, rain in the morning
Piste Condition: Heavy, Wet, Sticky.
Wind: Light
Temperature: 6 at the base to -3 at the top.
Crowding: Very light.
Lift Lines: Virtually no lines.

The day's Riding

I made an effort to get up the mountain as early as I could today.  However, as soon as I got outside I was already thinking that I shouldn't have bothered.  It was raining in the village.  This rain appeared to be falling all the way up to the top.  Which it very much was.  What a shame too, as there was loads of snow over night, which had turned to solid, wet, and sticky snow because of the rain.  There would have been some lovely powder if it hadn't rained.

Anyway, so I set to it. It was really heavy going though.  I tried going some new places over by the 'Harmony Chair', where there were no other people.  Man it would have been so nice, if it had not been raining.  There was obviously a lot of powder around, even though it was wet.  Got load of nice tracks in.  I went down this really steep run, and it was fantastic.  Only trouble was, when trying to speed out of the bottom, it was so wet and sticky I almost flipped forward.  This basically summed up the whole day.  Was good in a way, but bad in others.

Last Evening

Another quiet evening in last night.  We did play a lot of PSP games.  It looks like Everybody's Golf is the game of choice.  We also played some card games, sh** Head was the order of the day.

Summary

Visibility: Poor.
Snow: 5-10cm overnight
Piste Condition: Powder.
Wind: Medium
Temperature: -2 at the base to -8 at the top.
Crowding: Crowded in places, but generally very light.
Lift Lines: Virtually no lines.

The day's Riding

OK, so I haven't blogged this straight after the day's riding, so it's all a little fuzzy.  But, basically I headed up the mountain reasonably early.  There wasn't much in the way of lines for the lifts.  Which was good.  There has been a nice amount of powder over the night, so the riding was actually quite good.  Didn't do very much switch riding today.  Naughty boy that I am.  Need to make more of an effort. 

Last Evening

Another quiet evening in last night.  We did play a lot of PSP games.  It looks like Everybody's Golf is the game of choice.  We also played some card games, sh** Head was the order of the day.

Summary

Visibility: OK.
Snow: 5-10cm overnight
Piste Condition: Powder.
Wind: Medium
Temperature: -2 at the base to -8 at the top.
Crowding: Crowded in places, but generally very light.
Lift Lines: Virtually no lines.

The day's Riding

Ok, so I actually didn't make it up the mountain today.  The reason?  The rubbing on my ancles were really killing me, and I decided to try and let them heal a little.  This was especially because we are expecting a lot of snow tonight.

Last Evening

Last night myself, Tim, Will and the two new guests Pete and Dawn went down to Creek side and Hoz's bar.  I had something to eat and a couple drinks.  Myself and Will stayed a bit longer and played darts.  Other than that nothing much else done.

Summary

Visibility: Poor.  Light snow started about 13:00 and has not stopped all night.
Snow: 4cm over night!
Piste Condition: Tracked powder.
Wind: Medium
Temperature: -2 at the base to -10 at the top.
Crowding: Crowded in places, but generally very light.
Lift Lines: You can tell all the seasonal holiday people have gone home, as there was virtually no lines.

The day's Riding

Myself, Tim and Will (the house host) all headed off early-ish.  At about 10 we hit the lifts, however this was a different intro to the day.  We got the bus over to Whistler, and took the 'Excalibur Gondola' up the Blackcomb mountain.  We all then headed up the 'Excelerator Chair', where Will pealed off to head on over to the pipe, where me and Tim went up the 'Glacier Express', with a view to go over to the 'Blackcomb Glacier'.  The wind at the top of the glacier express was really quite heavy, and we had to then get a T-bar to get on up over to the top of the ridge.  Tim hadn't done a T-bar before and as such his first attempt didn't go so well.  Next one was good though.

There was a short walk up hill to start the glacier, and the first part was a very narrow ledge above the 'Blow Hole' run, which looked extremely steep, icy and choppy, so an easy pass there.  We did hike up and around the glacier as far as we could, and ended up starting on a different part of the steep.  Oh well.  The run down was really good.  Loads of powder, and loads of speed.  It was choppy and the visibility was poor, but all the same it was really good.  We carried on over to the other side of the bowl and rode high up and along to try and make the most of the powder.  Which we did to good effect.  The traversing over was a bit tiring on the thighs though.

The run out turned out to be an extremely long track called 'Blackcomb Glacier Road' and was something like 2.8 miles long.  It was really good fun, almost as much fun as the glacier bowl.  Got some great speed going in there.

Back up the 'Excelerator chair', we saw some tree runs that we wanted to do.  So, we headed further up and took the 'Jersey Cream Express'.  However, we were getting powder hungry at that point and ended up taking the 'Jersey Cream Wall', and not getting to the tree runs.  So we took the lift back up again, this time we made sure that we got to the right location for the tree runs.  We got a few really good runs in there, and they were quite challenging.  Back up again we went, but we had lunch at the 'Glacier Creek'.  By now it was already 14:45 and the mountain closes at 15:00, so we headed up the 'Jersey Cream Express' again, with a view to doing a run all the way down to the bottom of the run.

We headed down the side of the terrain pack and had a look at the super pipe.  By not I have to admit that my thigh's and my 'rubbage' was killing me, so it was getting really, really tough.  We did as many tree runs as we could find between the 'Freefall' and ''Lower Gear Runner' runs as we could.  This threw up a lot of different possibilities, and also a couple of streams to jump over.  When in one of the powder fields Tim tried a couple 180's.  However it was just too much powder and he struggled to get the board right around.  I too tried it (and failed) but made sure that Tim didn't see my poor performance .  The 'Village Run' was really quite weird.  It's was strange riding past car parks and houses, and still having a long run to the bottom.

Last Evening

Duh!  It's only really occurred to me, that "The Evening" part of the blog, is sometimes not complete, because unless I write the blog a full day after then my evening hasn't been completed.  So, I've decided to change tack and change it to 'Last Evening'.

So, last evening I had a massive headache.  Full blurred vision and everything, so stayed in and did very little.  Yes, I made sure that I check my emails and got the blog updated.  Did nothing else apart from watching TV.

Summary

Visibility: Very good, until after 14:00, when it started snowing and the cloud moved in.
Snow: Mega Fresh powder.  Some 30cm over night!
Piste Condition: Lots and lots of powder.
Wind: Light.
Temperature: 0 at the base to -6 at the top.
Crowding: On piste very busy in the morning, quieter after 14:00.
Lift Lines: I have never in my life seen a line so long in the morning.  The first two lifts up took about an hour!

The day's Riding

Me and one of the other house mates, Tim, got up early and were in the lift lines about 9:30.  Oh, my, god.  I have honestly never seen such a line for the lifts in my entire lift.  It took over ½ hour just to get onto the first gondola!  Then another ½ hour to get op on the 'Big Red' lift.  Not a good start, given that there was a massive amount of snow on the slopes, all that had fallen over night.  So, me and Tim decided to do some hiking, to make some fresh tracks and get some virgin snow.  As the 'T-Bars' lifts were still not running, we decided to hike up onto the 'Ridge Run' and ride down onto the 'Headwall'.  It was one hell of a hike.  Tim lead the way.  The snow was so deep hiking up, there were many an occasion where we had to crawl, in order to spread our weight.  We spent over ½ hour hiking up.  However, on the way up we started to hear all of these huge cheers from all of the people down at 'The Peak' chair.  We had a good view and could see these people making massive cliff jumps off of about the 'Left Hook' run area.  These were some big jumps.  One guy did such a big jump that he landed about 12m further down than anyone else.  Unfortunately, he bailed it big time.  It was very obvious that he was buried deep in the snow.  Thankfully there was someone near buy to help dig him out, but it took a good 6-8 minutes.  It looked like he was OK though, which was good.

I do have to say, that I did on two occasions up the hike test the snow to make sure that it wasn't going to avalanche.  It was good clean and extremely consistent all the way down, and had no obvious fracture points.

Anyway, we finished our hike and set off.  Obviously Tim had to have the honours as he lead the way up the hike.  We did take different lines though, so all my snow was clean and fresh.  The run down was very satisfying, however I was a tiny bit disappointed as it wasn't as soft and fluffy as I hoped, but still excellent all the same.  Real nice.  So we joined the Peak chair line.  Another relatively long wait.

Once at the top of Whistler Mountain, we decided to go and try and ride the 'Bagel Bowl.  So we headed off down the 'Upper Peak To Creek' run.  Loads of powder here too, but it was quite moguled.  I don't know why or how, but we managed to miss all the opportunities to get on over into the Bagel bowl, and ended up almost completely following  the adjoining 'Highway 86' run.  Not good.  As we were approaching the 'Big Red Express' chair, the crowds on the piste started to get very busy and in the ******* way!  We got down and the lines for the lift were much lighter now.  The light had started to fade and it was snowing just a little.  It's amazing how many people are fair weather skiers, and don't like it when the visibility gets bad.  As a result, the lift was quieter.

We decided to give trying the 'Bagel Bowl' another chance.  So we took 'The Peak' chair again, and headed off, this time determined not to miss the run.  We did kind of get into a bit of trouble with this.  I headed sharp right to where I thought would be the right place.  I was ahead of Tim and leading the way, however I ended up in front of this very nasty cliff, and stopped Tim before he got too far.  Cliff in-front, and also cliff the only other way down.  I took the best cliff option and slid down part of it, and 'lucked' the rest of it.  It did look from the bottom that Tim had the harder way down though, but we were both OK.

Now we could really see where the runs into the Bagel Bowl were.  Right in front of us.  There was a huge drop from the 'Cockalorum' run, so we went in via 'Stefan's Chute'.  This too was a very, very steep drop in, and it was also a very steep run.  There was loads of powder in there, but it had been tracked a fair bit though.  Torro Torro Torro.  I amped up the aggression and went for it.  Great run.

We got back down to 'Big Red Express', and as the lines were even less busy, we decided to do more runs.  This time though, we decided to do a little different and headed down under the 'Franz Chair'.  Again, a lot of powder.  We got down to the bottom the the Red lift and had lunch.  Did that run again, as it was actually quite good, but ducked out to the right before getting all the way down to the bottom.

Headed up after lunch, and by now I must admit that we were feeling the cold and were quite tired by now.  We headed straight back down the slopes and headed down 'Jimmy's Joker'.  Not entirely a wise choice as it was very moguled.  Joined onto the top of the run to the bottom, 'Lower Dave Murry'.  However, shortly after starting this run, we saw these people heading off to the left onto a cat track.  It looked like it was well run, and did look like a run.  It was very tight and had a lot of 'stupid' people on it.  The kind that stop in the wrong place, fall over lots, and start off without even bothering to look up the slope to see if anyone else is heading down.  This run was actually very interesting.  There were a couple of wide streams that we had to jump over.  Haven't got the spring in my legs quite yet, and only hopped over instead of ollie-ing them.  I luckily managed to do these without any real trouble.  However on the way down, I headed too far off to the left and managed to submarine my self so much into the snow that it took me a few minutes to dig down just to get down to unbind my bindings.  After a few hot and sweaty minutes I managed to dig out my board and headed off again.  The rest of the ride was good, but the bottom of 'Lower Dave Murry Downhill' is still very slushy.

The Evening

Both me and Time were tired after the long day.  Time headed quickly over to the 'Greyhound' depot to see if his new bike had arrived.  It had, but decided to head home before picking it up.  Man that hot tub is excellent after a long day.  I spent a good while in there tonight.  After that, got showered and headed over to the shops.  I already started to get a headache on the way down, but in the supermarket it really kicked in.  Blurred vision and thumping headache.  I had to leave my basket and head outside for a bit, into the dark and quiet.  After a minute or two it calmed down a little and I went back and got my basket and finished my shopping.  Still got my headache now, but it is better.

Happy New Year!

Summary

Visibility: Poor.  Lots of low level cloud.
Snow: Fresh powder.  It had been snowing all night and was snowing all day.  It's still snowing now!
Piste Condition: Lots and lots of powder.  Still bare in some patches, lower slopes are very slushy.  Basically early season conditions.
Wind: Medium at the mid-station, Gale force at the top
Temperature: -2 at the base to -8 at the top.  However, much lower due to the wind-chill factor.
Crowding: Not very busy at all
Lift Lines: Not very busy at all

The day's Riding

After the previous nights New Years celebrations, I didn't get up until 9am.  I did manage to get up the mountain at about 10.  The visibility certainly has not improved over the last few days.  The snow was really great, and as it had been snowing all night there was loads of powder.  Just a pity that I couldn't see very well.  As there were loads of powder, I thought that I'd push the switch riding a bit more.  So did that for a while.  When there was good visibility, I used those opportunities to powder hound and ride regular.  There is just so much terrain to ride on, there was always some un-tracked powder for me to steal.  I skipped lunch, so as to keep riding, as it really was a good day.

Tomorrow should be better, as it still has not stopped snowing.  That's all day, it's been snowing.

The Evening

Given that it's been snowing all day, I think I'll take the evening easy so as to get an early start tomorrow!  Going to play some PSP games

Here is a cuationary tale for everyone, when they bind up their snowboard boots.

On the first day in Whistler, when I laced up my boots I obviously didn't tighten up the inners very well.  So, as a result I got some major heel rubbage.  Today, was really painful, and as you can see below it's quite sore.