Today was my last day on the slopes of Whistler, as I head back to real life and the UK tomorrow.  I could tell that it wasn't going to be a good day, as it was raining heavily in the village.  I arrived at the top of the mountain and it was snowing really heavily.  The snow was extremely wet and very shortly I was soaked.  Not good when you have a long day on the slopes yet to go, and a need to pack the gear later in the night.

I wanted to go back on over to my self made kicker and again try some more backside 180's.  I headed on over and could tell that it wasn't going to be that good as the snow was super sticky, and it was actually troublesome getting on over to the kicker.  I got on over to the kicker and gave it a straight air jump.  It was really sticky and it was actually difficult to get some air.  I rode it a couple times but could tell that it was not going to worth the effort.  So I gave up on my kicker and said farewell to the location of where I made some nice air's.

I decided to head on over to the pipe and park.  Thankfully, the weekends means that the Harmony Express is open, and so I don't have to take 'Sidewinder'.  I headed on up the Harmony Express, but by now I was totally soaked.  So much so, that I decided to head on over to the Roundhouse and get some lunch.  Gave me the chance to dry off a little.

After lunch I headed on out, and the weather and snow was even worse.  I really couldn't be bothered with these conditions, and decided to call it a day.  I simply got onto the gondola and headed on down.

A disappointing end to the season on the slopes, but all in all a good time.

Visibility: Very poor to OK.
Snow: 0cm.  However, it was snowing heavily all day.
Piste Condition: Sticky and very, very wet snow.
Wind: Light.
Temperature: From +9 to -1.
Crowding: Light.
Lift Lines: Light.

This will be the last weather report that I give from Whistler this season.  I head back to the UK tomorrow!

Let me know if you used or liked my reports!

I was in a bit of a lazy mood today.  I headed yet again over to my self made kicker, over by the Flute hike out.  My mission once again was to put more mileage into my backside 180's.

I started off with a natural warm up and put in some frontside 180's and switch frontside 180's.  The conditions of the kicker was a little poorer today, and it needed a little work to put it into good order.  Thankfully the ride out was in decent condition.  I then got to work again on the backside 180's.  I decided to mix it up and change it around between a regular backside air then a switch backside air.  They really have come on a good way since I started working on them.  Since I've been working on them for a while, I decided to call it on the kicker quite early and headed on up to ride the park.

Surprise...surprise!  We finally have a pipe on Whistler mountain!  It's taken them all season, but it's finally been built and is rideable.  It's at the top of the Emerald Express chair, and in a perfect position to ride then go and hit the park.  So, that's what I did!  The pipe was really busy, and didn't have a great drop in, and was also extremely soft, but at least it was a pipe.  I got some nice good airs off both walls.  I then proceeded on down to the park.  All of the kickers were rather soft and easy to ride into, they were also quite easy to overshoot.  I wanted to try some spins on the big jumps, but to be honest I chickened out as I was feeling really quite lazy.

I rode around the pipe and park a few times.  On one occasion though, I went to drop into the pipe, and the visibility was poor.  I managed to hit a big lip on the drop in and took an embarrassing tumble down to the bottom of the pipe.  No damage though   I called it a day when the visibility due to heavy cloud cover got quite poor.

Visibility: Great visibility in the morning with light hazy sunshine.  Increasing cloud and poorer visibility later in the afternoon.
Snow: 0cm.
Piste Condition: Sticky wet snow.
Wind: Light.
Temperature: From +17 to +3.
Crowding: Light to moderate.
Lift Lines: Light to moderate.

I headed on back to my self made kicker yet again today.  The conditions today meant that the snow had softened up nicely, so went for it.  I started off hitting it with just straight airs.  With the new sticky snow that fell yesterday/last night, the run it was initially a little slow.  So hit it again with some straight airs to get it going.

Once the run in had warmed up and wasn't sticky any more, I started off with some warm up frontside 180's.  These feel very much more natural nowadays, which is bloody fantastic.  I then went to work on the backside 180's, both regular and switch.  Almost straight away they were coming together, and they were feeling so much more natural and effortless.  I guess it all comes down to putting in the effort into mileage!

I worked on changing the spin every time.  Going switch backside 180, then backside 180, then back again, and generally mixing it all up.  I think this really helped get my mind to concentrate onto the trick that I was going to do.  It was great practise.

After a few hours of this I decided to head on over to the Whistler park.  I rode through here a couple times, but the heavy fog really made it difficult.  You couldn't even see the jump when you were riding to it.  Thankfully the parkies had put some blue dye on the lip to make the spotting of the jump easier.

I rode around the park for a while and then decided to call it a day, and rode down to the gondola and took the down load.  The end to a very satisfying day.

Visibility: Foggy everywhere.  Poor visibility.
Snow: 1cm.
Piste Condition: Slushy warm sticky snow.
Wind: Light.
Temperature: From +8 to -3.
Crowding: Light to moderate.
Lift Lines: Light to moderate.

I didn't sleep to well last night.  My ankle was giving me a lot of jip, but it felt better this morning so I thought that I would go up the slopes anyway.  The weather really has changed since yesterday!  It was much colder, heavy cloud, and actually snowing!  The only trouble with the drop in temperature was that with all the snow melt yesterday, everything had turned into hard packed and icy.

I decided however, to go on over to the kicker that I built yesterday and give it a go.  It was obvious from my first jump that the whole thing was really icy and hard packed.  I gave it a go though.  I started off doing a couple straight airs, and whilst the landing wasn't pleasant it wasn't too bad either.  I then started to on the spins.  I started off and did some frontside airs.  These came off to be honest...mediocre.  I then also put in a backside 180.  Not a good landing!  I only managed to get around 90 degrees.  Guess the fear of falling/crashing in the icy conditions played on my mind.  I then did a switch backside 180.  This went better, but I decided to leave it for today, before I do actually hurt my self.  After all I only have a few day's left.

I then decided to hit the Whistler park instead.  I headed on straight over, hit the rail, then the step-up-flat-drop box, and then the quarter pipe.  Then I headed onto the first big kicker.  The run in was a little rutted, but the jump was flowing really quite well, and it was quite easy to hit the transition comfortably.  I them moved onto the two smaller jumps and did a frontside 180 and a switch frontside 180 on them.  Then the up rail, which has quite a drop off the end of it.  Then was the three big jumps in a row.  The first was OK, but the run out was extremely rutted and a little dangerous.  The second and third though, were in great condition.  So much so, that on the last jump I kept overshooting.  Every time around the park, I tried to control the speed more and not pop so much, but kept on overshooting.  Needless to say, this was not great for the ankle.

I kicked around the park for a few trips, as it wasn't too busy.  But my ankle was really starting to niggle and throb, so I decided to call it a day.  It was niggling so much, that I couldn't ride all the way to the bottom, instead I got the Whistler Village Gondola at the mid station and down loaded!

Visibility: Heavy cloud with none to poor to OK visibility.  With some low lying cloud patches.
Snow: 0cm.
Piste Condition: It was snowing higher up the slopes and as such put a small dusting of snow on to hard icy conditions.
Wind: Moderate to Strong.
Temperature: From +8 to -3.
Crowding: Moderate.
Lift Lines: Moderate.

I wanted to head straight on over to the kicker that I made yesterday and did so.  However, I must have entered the Flute area higher up in the trees, as I missed the area.  By the time I was over to the area, I was way too far down.  So decided to go to the Flute Bowl hike out and go around again.  On the way though, I noticed this really nice slope with a roller at the bottom, just off the hike out.  So I gave it a look.

I hiked up a reasonable distance and rode down and hit it.  It was really surprising as it had a good up kick to it.  It also had two other good points.  Firstly, the point where I was dropping in was shaded by the trees, and in this heat it was well worth it.  Secondly, the roller hid the kicker that I built behind it so well, that when other people were doing the hike out, I bet that they thought that there was nothing to it!  Perfect!

I started off hitting the kicker and just warmed up by doing some straight airs.  I could really pump some big air off this thing and really travel quite a distance!  I then started some warm ups on the frontside 180's.  The landing on this kicker was way much better, and it really allowed for me to get the spins in there.  I then got into working on the backside 180's.  They didn't start off too great, but then they really started to come together.  They were starting to feel much more natural.  I do think that the better kicker and the much better landing made it easier.  I carried on doing these for a while, all the time popping more and more air on the jumps.

I then started to work on the switch backside 180's.  A couple of day's ago, these were riding really quite well.  However, today, they took a bit longer to come together.  It didn't help too much with the direction that I was coming off of the kicker.  It kicked me off toward some trees, and the ride out was into a bit of a dip and a tree well.  It all came together after some time though.

I had to make sure that I didn't stay too long at the kicker today, as I didn't want to get stuck with the run out and no chair lift back to the roundhouse.  So had to make sure that I left the kicker before 15:30 to catch the last lift.

For my last few jumps off of the kicker, I decided to drop in and do all four 180's!  I started off with a switch backside 180 and a switch frontside 180.  Then moved onto the backside 180 and frontside 180.  I landed them all quite well.  I then wanted to take one big straight air off the kicker.  So hiked up.  All day though, I had been hitting the kicker without my helmet on and left it by the kicker.  On the hike up I forgot to pick up my helmet, so just had to hit the kicker and then go for another one.  The first straight air wasn't too big.  Good thing that I just had to hit it again   This time though I picked up my helmet and hiked further up the piste.  I really went for it this time, and really flexed those legs and popped some sweet air.

After the hike out, I rode around to the Emerald Chair and took the same route down as I did yesterday.  Today though, the wind wasn't warm and was a lot cooler.  Let's hope that the cloud cover will cool things down, and hopefully we'll get some new snow before I leave!

Visibility: Bluebird sunshine.  Late afternoon, some light clouds moved in.
Snow: 0cm.
Piste Condition: Super warm, sticky and wet snow.  Very poor slushy conditions further down the slope.  It is not reccomended that you ride all the way down to the base.
Wind: None.  Moderate wind starting late after noon.
Temperature: From +18 to -3.
Crowding: Moderate.
Lift Lines: Moderate to heavy.

Visibility: Bluebird sunshine.
Snow: 0cm.
Piste Condition: Very poor.  Super warm, sticky and wet snow.  Very poor slushy conditions further down the slope.  It is not reccomended that you ride all the way down to the base.
Wind: None to light.  The wind was actually warm, when riding to the base!
Temperature: From +22 to -3.
Crowding: Moderate.
Lift Lines: Moderate to heavy.

I headed straight on over toward the Flute bowl this morning, as I knew that everywhere else was going to be packed and the park was going to be full!  Instead of going through the main Flute control gate (gate 2) I headed on down to Gate 3 and looked for a nice place for to build a kicker.  I very quickly found this really nice slope with nice pitch and rode down it and popped some air, to locate the best point to build the kicker.

I spent about 1/2 an hour building the kicker and got a nice shape to it.  I took a couple straight air's off of it to see how it felt, and it felt OK.  I proceeded to spend the next few hours working on my backside airs.  However it was simply not very good conditions today.  It was extremely hot which made the snow wet, sticky and very, very heavy!  Thus, every landing was hugely difficult, and I only made a couple of the landings all day.  Today felt like it wasn't a step forward for my backside airs, but a stationary one.  I got sick and tired of bombing the landing, even though I was making some good rotations, that I gave up and decided to go give the pack a little look.  Perhaps tomorrow I'll go back and try and make some cheeks 360's   Especially as the landing is so soft!

So, I headed on over to the Emerald chair via Sidewinder.  It was not a good ride as the snow was so wet and sticky that it was really hard work.

I could see from the chair that the park was quite busy, but I decided to give it a go anyway.  The first big kicker was in very surprisingly good condition.  The only thing about this jump I don't like is the run in.  It just doesn't feel right!  I threw a couple front-side 180's in on the two small kickers and then rode the up rail.  Then comes the three big kickers in a row.  The first was good, but the run out was all rutted and not nice.  The second two kickers were sweet, but it was all too easy to get too much speed on them and come close to overshooting the landing.

I rode through the park a couple more times.  Nothing too exciting to report apart from overshooting the landing a couple times.  This really aggravated my now long standing ankle injuries and I just had to call it a day.  I rode on down 'Pony Trail', into 'Jimmy's Joker' and on to 'Highway 86'.  I was going to take the Creekside Gondola download, but forgot that it was closed.  So, I decided to continue on down and ride 'Cross Roads' and 'Lower Franz's'.  This run was actually quite fun and interesting, despite the very bad conditions (loads of bare patches and rocks).  It was really soft and mogully, but this made for a really fast mogul run.

All in all, not a great day on the slopes, but the suntan got a good working out

Yesterday was the last day of the season for Blackcomb mountain.  It has been closed to save operation costs, even though there is some 300cm of snow base on the mountain.  What a shame!

Everyone now has to go on over to Whistler mountain!  However, the operation cost cutting hasn't stopped there!  The Harmony Express chair is now only open Weekends, the Creekside Gondola, Garbonzo, Fitzsimmons and Franz's chairs are all closed (which join the Orange chair which was decommissioned early in the season).  The only lifts open on the mountain are Whistler Village Gondola, Big Red Express, The Peak Chair, Emerald Express and the T-Bars!  So, not only have we lost an entire mountain, it feels like we have lost over half of Whistler mountain too!

Given the very high price of season tickets, I have only one thing to say...Cheapskates!

Visibility: Bluebird sunshine.
Snow: 0cm.
Piste Condition: Very poor.  Super warm, sticky and wet snow.  Very poor slushy conditions further down the slope.  It is not reccomended that you ride all the way down to the base.
Wind: None to light.
Temperature: From +20 to -4.
Crowding: Moderate.
Lift Lines: Moderate to heavy.

Tonight was the last big day for the Telus World Ski & Snowboard Festival.  Myself and Will headed on down to meet Yugi (one of Will's friends) and buy some beers.  We didn't get there all too early, but we hiked up around the back of the Whistler Village Gondola and up the slope a little to get a good view.  No sooner had Will and Yugi cracked open a beer, the police were there and made them dispose of it.  No drinking in public I think!  Thankfully for me, I had all my beer in my pockets still

We caught the Ski and Snowboard finals.  It consisted of the remaining three riders having to pull 540, 720 and 960 airs, any way they wanted, off a 60ft table!  Nice!  Those guy's threw some sick smooth air!  When it was done, we headed on down into the Village Plaza to get close to the stage to hear the band Blackalicious, and watch the award presentations.

We gradually worked our way to the front of the stage.  I do have to say that Blackalicious were actually really quite good, and we had a really good time.  It did turn into a bit of a mosh pit up front, and it got bumpy, but it was all good.

After that we all headed on over to Citas and had some more beers there.  After that, I must admit that it got a bit messy as we had all had a lot of beers and had a really good time.  A good night was had by all.

Got on over to Blackcomb at a reasonable time this morning.  I knew that it was going to be a warm day today as the sun was out and there were no clouds in the sky.  The live temperature fees did say -10 at the top, so I knew that it wouldn't start out too warm though.

Getting on the Excalibur Gondola I met Dave, who took his CASI Level 2 with me, and some of his friends.  Chatted to them on the way up and got the Excelerator chair with them.  The line here was massive, and shortly after we got on the chair it stopped for over 5 minutes.  At the top they all headed on over to Jersey Cream chair, but I decided to head on over to the Solarcoaster chair.  Glad I did too, as there was no lift lines here at all!

I headed on straight over to 'Easy Out' and into the lower Terrain Garden entrance.  The mission today was to concentrate on the backside 180's!

I put in a good warm up front-side 180 on the medium kicker.  Then took the board straight off and hiked back up to hit the kicker again.  I did this literally all day on the mountain.  A hit on the jump then hike back up!  I tell you, it got really hot, really quick.  I had to take my fleece off and put it to the side of the kicker!

To start with I started to work on the backside 180 (regular into switch).  Initially I wasn't using my upper body to initiate the spin, and then tried to get that sorted.  I wasn't getting my head around and looking in the right direction, so worked on that.  I just wasn't pumping any air off the jump.  Then got to work on that.  I just kept on going around and around and must have made dozens of jumps.  I did this for almost three hours, until I started to get a sharp pain in my left calf.  So at this point I decided to go for some lunch.

A quick lasagna and a lot of liquid refreshments later to re-hydrate I headed on back out.

This afternoon, I went straight to work on the switch backside 180 (switch to regular).  All the work this morning didn't take long to pay off.  After a few poor attempts where I got no air what so ever and simply just spun on the snow, they really started to come together.  In what only seemed about 1/2 an hour, I was really popping some nice air and getting great rotations.  So much so what I was practically behaving like and American...Whooping!

I kept putting in the mileage on the switch backside 180's until I looked at my watch.  16:30!  Wow!  The mountains closes at 16:00.  So, since I was having such a great time on these airs, I decided to put another one in.  I then hiked up to collect my fleece and then put in another one.  Both were really good.  I then rode down and out of the Terrain Garden.  I did want to put in the backside's on the four kickers at the bottom, but decided that it was probably better to end the day's backsides on a good note.  So, instead I put in some big front-side 180's.

A quick run down to the base and onto the bus.  Man what a good day.  I really left the mountain on a high.  Tonight is the Telus Big Air competition (Telus World Ski & Snowboard Festival), so I'm going to go out to watch that tonight.  Expect a write up later or tomorrow!

Visibility: Bluebird sunshine.
Snow: 1cm.
Piste Condition: Good, but very slushy in the early afternoon.  Very poor slushy conditions further down the slope.  It is not reccomended that you ride all the way down to the base.
Wind: Moderate to light.
Temperature: From +5 to +13 at the base and from +4 to -10 at the Peak.
Crowding: Moderate.
Lift Lines: Moderate to heavy.

Visibility: Cloudy but OK to poor.  Occasional low lying cloud and some light snow/rain flurries.
Snow: 10cm.
Piste Condition: OK.  The freezing level is quite high, so mostly wet snow higher up.  Very poor slushy conditions further down the slope.  It is not reccomended that you ride all the way down to the base.
Wind: Moderate.
Temperature: +6 at the base -4 at the Peak.
Crowding: Moderate.
Lift Lines: Moderate.

Visibility: Cloudy but OK to poor.  Occasional low lying cloud and some light snow/rain flurries.
Snow: 0cm.
Piste Condition: Raining/snowing most of the day.  Very poor on piste conditions.  The freezing level is quite high, so mostly wet snow higher up.  Very poor slushy conditions further down the slope.  It is not reccomended that you ride all the way down to the base.
Wind: Moderate.
Temperature: +7 at the base -3 at the Peak.
Crowding: Moderate.
Lift Lines: Moderate.

Last night was Andy's last night in Whistler before heading back home.  So, he arranged for us all (himself, Myself, Bridget and Will) to go out for a meal.  He arranged that we would go to Caramba! which serves Mediterranean style wood fired pizza, rotisserie, pasta and seafood.

We were a little late in arriving but it was OK.  We got straight into the ordering and ordered a pitcher of sangria to share.  The sangria was really nice and went down well.  I ordered the Caramba pizza, which has chorizo sausage and Parmesan cheese.  It was a really good pizza, and I would recommend that you give it a try.  I also had the cheesecake desert and an espresso.  The cheesecake could have been better, and the espresso was a little cold, but good none the less.

The four of us made a good evening of it, and had quite a varied number of conversations.  All too soon though, the evening was over and we had to leave.  It was here we said our goodbyes to Andy, as the rest of us headed off to the Brew House for a couple beers.  It was here that Bridget was to meet some of her friends and also Will to meet some of his friends.  We stayed for a couple beers, before me and Will and his friends headed off to try and get into Buffalo Bills.  There was a huge line outside Buffalo Bills, at both entrances!  So, instead we headed off to Moe Joes.  One of Will's friends had VIP tickets and we got straight in and for free.  Thankfully they didn't ask me for ID as I had left my ID back at the house!  We had a good time in Moe Joe's and left about 02:00.

So, in the house now there is only myself, Bridget and the host Will.  I have an entire floor of the building to my self, until I leave.  Which is nice!

Visibility: Cloudy but OK.  Occasional low lying cloud and some light snow flurries.
Snow: 0cm.
Piste Condition: Nice conditions with some areas of crusty snow.  Poorer slushy conditions further down the slope.
Wind: Moderate.
Temperature: +5 at the base -5 at the Peak.
Crowding: Moderate.
Lift Lines: Moderate.

Myself and Andy set off this morning and headed straight to the Flute Bowl on Whistler for our first run of the day.  To get there though, we had to ride down 'G.S.'.  This is where we met Bridget, one of the other house guests.  She is also a skier.  We managed to persuade her to join us and hike the Flute with us.  I set off at a very fast pace, which slackened near the top, but I really wanted to get in front of this big group of Japanese skiers.  Thankfully I did.  I suggested that we go on over and hit 'Flute North Bowl'.  This is a cornice drop that I have done before and can recommend it.

We got up the hike and I waited at the top for the other two and scoped out the 'Flute North Bowl'.  The drop was only about 6-8ft and the snow at the top looked nice.  There was a rather large lump just below the drop, but I felt that it would be soft and give way easily.  Once the other two arrived and had a look, I got ready and set off.  I rode down the slope a little and then launched off the cornice.  On the drop I actually hit the lump, and unfortunately it wasn't soft at all.  In fact it was a big ice lump.  Fortunately it didn't cause me too much problems and I landed it clean and rode out straight into some nice carved turns.  The snow wasn't actually in that great shape, but it was good all the same.  I rode on over to the top of the trees between 'Flute Low Roll' and 'Lesser Flute Bowl' and waited for the others to drop in.  By the time I got there though, Andy had already dropped in and he wasn't having a great time when I turned around, however he recovered and rode it nice and sweet.  Next up to drop in was Bridget.  Bridget hasn't really done this thing before and was quite nervous.  However, she edged in and lowered her self down, and after the drop put in some nice controlled turns.

The tree's down to the hike out had really great powder on them.  I was hitting the turns so well that I was practically bouncing out of the snow between turns.  Lush!  We all took the hike out together.

At the top of the hike out, Andy said that he noticed a little run down through the trees a short was down the cat track.  So, my and him went to hit it.  The snow here was much more crusty, but when we hit the trees it really softened up and rode well.  The only trouble with this run was that it was very short, and involved yet another hike up and out.  We lost Bridget here as she didn't do this run.

After we got to the top of the Harmony Express, we decided to go for an early lunch.  To get back to the Roundhouse we rode down 'Little Whistler' which was quite mogulled, and on to 'Pika's Traverse' and let the board ride straight down the track as fast as we could.

Once we had a large lunch over with, we took a look through the park.  Well, actually we hit most of the top rails and hits before scoping out all of the lower jumps.  The lunch was sitting heavy on us so we decided to go and hit the cornice at 'Low Roll' which is on the Harmony Ridge.  On the way up the lift, provided the conditions are good, you can give the drop/landing a scope out.  It looked OK and the cornice wasn't too big.  We rode on down and gave it a look.  Where we were there was a carved line a meter or two below us, in where skiiers had simply cut a way in.  I rode on into the drop and really had to pop the jump and pull my knees up to get over the skiier cut in, so as to avoid a hard landing.  Thankfully I made the landing really good and for the second time today, rode out the drop in, and put in some really nice carves.  The snow here was actually much nicer than the drop in on the Flut Bowl.  Andy followed just after me and also made a good pop and drop over the skiier cut in.  The run down to the Harmony Express once again was not all that nice as there was loads of nasty mogulls, and only occasional nice powder.

At the top of the Harmony we wanted to head on over to the park, but to do this we had to get on over to the Emerald chair.  This isn't really achievable without doing Pika's Traverse, and we didn't want to do it two times in one day.  So we headed on all the way down the Harmony Ridge and kept our speed on the lower section and I just made it onto 'Sidewinder' with is a cat track that leads to the Emerald chair.

The park was in fantastic condition today.  For me all of the rails were working, all of the boxes were working, the quarter pipe ally oop was working and the big jumps were really working too.  At the top there was a long thin rail, then onto a down kink box, straight into a quarter pipe.  Then down onto the first big jump.  The first time I hit it, I had a lot more speed than I expected and my arms were all over the place, but I still landed it nice.  The two smaller jumps after that were not good though.  They may have been smaller, but the drop on the other side was big.  The first (and only as I swapped to the rails after that) time I hit it I threw in some front side 180's.  The drop did actually mean that on the first hit I over rotated by a long way and hit a 300.  The second jump I tamed it back but still over rotated.  After these were three really nice big jumps.  They were in some fantastic condition, and the run in was good that you could really launch yourself off them.

The second and third, fourth, fith...etc...time in the park, instead of hitting the two small jumps I hit the rails to the left.  The first was a kinked thin rail and was really good.  After that there was an up rail with a big drop off the end.  The first time I hit this rail I didn't have enough speed and actually stopped at the top of the rail and had to jump off the side   The other times after that I made sure that I had enough speed and really rode off the end.  In the set of three big jumps I was getting some great air and making some really nice indie and method grabs.

We had done the park enough for the day and we were getting really tired.  So we headed on down trough 'Franz's Meadow' and down into  'Lower Franz's' for the final run out of the day.  The conditions here were so slushy and heavy that it was really hard work.  You really have to put a lot of effort into this run in order to get down to the base.  The conditions of the slopes down here are also extremely bad.  So my advice is that you don't do the run, instead you take the download on the gondola.

Visibility: OK to good.  Occasional low lying cloud.
Snow: 0cm.
Piste Condition: Nice conditions with some areas of crusty snow.  Poorer slushy conditions further down the slope.
Wind: Light.
Temperature: +6 at the base -10 at the Peak.
Crowding: Moderate to Heavy.
Lift Lines: Heavy.

This morning myself and Andy headed out and over to Blackcomb mountain.  We warmed up with a run through the Terrain Garden.  After that we headed on over to 7th Heaven and on up to the very top of the mountain.  We had a look at 'False Face', which Andy hadn't done yet and decided against it as it was quite a bit sketchy.  Instead we dropped into the 'Couloir Extreme'.  It was a little mogully, but there was quite a lot of nice power in there.  To avoid the avalanche debris at the bottom, we headed on over to the right and into the 'Feather Tree', which is a light tree run.  We then headed on down 'Blowdown' and trough some trees.

Since we had a good time here, we then decided to go back up and hit the 'Secret Bowl'.  So, we headed on up the Glacier Chair and down to take the 'Horstman T-Bar'.  This T-Bar is very steep and is actually advertised as a double black diamond T-Bar!  At the top here we rode on over into the top of 'Secret Bowl'.  The powder in here, whilst very tracked was still in superb condition.  We rode around and over to 'Cougar Chutes' and upon my suggestion we headed into 'Purple Haze'.  The initial start of this is quite narrow and had a big snow ridge in the middle, but wasn't too much trouble for us today.  This run opens up into a nice piece of piste before joining 'Staircase' or 'The Bite'.  We rode down and on through the middle and took the opportunity to hit as many jumps as we could in here.

At the bottom I suggested that we go and hit 'Ladies First', which is a run at the extreme top of the Blackcomb Glacier and involves quite a hike.  Andy agreed and we headed on up.  The hike up from the 'Wind Lip' to the top of the ridge is a bit of a killer, and it took us both some time to recover.  We then had to traverse on over the ridge before hitting the real booktpack hike around the back and in the rocks.  I do have to say that the hike around the back and though the rocks is quite scary.  You have to continue along the rock ridge - past the notch, over the top, and in near the Permanent Closure fence that is placed there for keeping skiers out of 'Upper Lakeside Bowl'.  Both me and Andy were concerned about falling.  However when we got to the top it was well worth it.  So well worth it!  I headed off first and cut around into the main 'Ladies First' slope.  There was only tracks of two other people in the whole area, and they obviously had done it a few day's ago.  The powder was so clean, untouched, deep, fresh, and fluffy.  Brilliant!  Andy headed on off over to the left (as you look down) and I headed on over to the right, as far as i could go.  There was so much powder, and it was so steep, that there were some little 'sluff slides' when I was going down.  Nothing to be overly concerned about though.  We kept on over to the far side of the 'Blackcomb Glacier' and enjoyed some really sweet powder.  What a run!

By now it was well after 14:00 so we popped into the 'Glacier Creek' restaurant.  You can tell that they are really starting to shut everything down, as one of the restaurants was closed, and there was very little food options available in the remaining restaurant.

We decided to head on over to the Terrain Garden after lunch for another warm up.  I tried to throw a backside 180 on the jump and nearly pulled it off, but I'm still not happy with it.  The rest of the garden was really nice and all of the front side 180's were down pat!

On the way back up Solarcoaster, we decided to hit the Blue Park.  I'm still having trouble with the spines.  I really need to eliminate that mental block!  However, the big jumps further down were really nice and I popped every one with little effort.  On the way down though, one of the run outs on one of the jumps is really nasty and has loads of rut's in it, causing a lot of people to bail the landing.

At the bottom of the blue park is the Super Pipe and we decided to give it a go.  It was excellent.  The right hand wall was soft, but thankfully not too soft.  The left was, as is typical, a lot more icy.  Needless to say, my toe side was (right) was much better than my heal side wall.  There were a few 'natural' hits on the way down to the Solarcoaster and we tried to take advantage of as many as we could.

For the last run of the day, we decided to again go through the blue park.  I hit the spines better this time.  The jumps were again going fine.  However, this time on the jump with the rut's on the run out, I hit the jump to the left which had a much better run out.  Again, at the bottom of the park we hit the Super Pipe.  This time though my ride wasn't as good.  I simply didn't have the energy and only did well on the first half, before really going bad on the second half.

It was time to call it a day, so we both carried on down to the base.  At every single opportunity and every single cat track we tried to hit and make as many jumps as we could.  Andy took an innocuous fall and managed to give him self a bit of a dead arm for a while.  Thankfully he was OK though.

Visibility: OK to good.  Some small light snow showers with occasional low lying cloud.
Snow: 4cm.
Piste Condition: Lots more fluffy new snow.  Poorer slushy conditions further down the slope.
Wind: Moderate.
Temperature: +6 at the base -8 at the Peak.
Crowding: Heavy.
Lift Lines: Heavy.

I started off the morning looking forward to the powder riding, and headed straight on over to Blackcomb and up 'Spanky's Ladder'.  I ran on down through the 'Garnet Bowl', into the 'Diamond Bowl' and down and out of the 'Mid-Bowl Gully'.  The snow in here whilst prety much tracked out, was so light and fluffy that it didn't matter.  After having a good time up Spanky'spretty I though that I would go back again, so did.

This time I headed on over 'Spanky's Shoulder', through 'Skid Lips' and into 'Ruby Bowl'.  Rather than riding all of the way down, I traversed all the way over and high up into the trees.  This was not a good idea.  I followed some tracks and started to get a little concerned, when all but one of the tracks had hiked back out.  But, the idiot that I am when I go riding on my own, I decided to carry on and rode down a little.  I got into a situation where I was in some real trouble.  I was at the top of some cliff's with loads of trees around.  I rode down some of the way until I really got into a truly bad situation.  I was at the top of a rather large cliff, and the only way down was surrounded by loads of trees.  It was so steep that I actually had to take my board off and lower my self down by holding onto the tree roots and branches, and digging my boot's into the snow to get a grip.  Thankfully that was the worst of this area.  Further down there was a couple drops that I did.  Thanks to some riding with Rich, I've really got the confidence to do a drop jump of anything up to 10ft without any hesitation [as long as I can see the landing ].

Having gotten away with the last run, I thought that I would head back up to Spanky's again, and finish off the three main bowls down.  So I headed on over toward the 'Sapphire Bowl'.  Having remembered the lower entrance was very poor the last time, I headed for the top chute entrance.  I rode over and dropped in and stopped immediately!  The chute was super tight, only about 2ft wide, with rocks all the way through, and it was quite long and steep.  I really did not feel confident about this so wanted to get out.  The get out was only about 10ft up, but it was sheer and icy.  I gingerly took my board off and barley managed to not slide down the chute.  I had to use my board to dig foot holds, and really struggled to get up and out.  Even though it was only about 10ft up, it took me about 20 minutes.

My trouble was not over yet though.  I still had to get down into the bowl.  I headed over to the lower entrance.  It was in awful condition, but it was my only real way to go, so I had to do it.  One the way down, I had to jump/hop over some rocks to get down.  Nearing the bottom I caught something and lost control a little and went on over the edge and only just managed to hold on.  If I hadn't I would have definitely fallen over some serious rocks.  Thankfully my heal cup on one side managed to catch a rock, with the other side was in some snow.  I tried to pull myself back up, but there was no way that this was going to happen.  So carefully unstrapped the foot that was caught on the rock and quickly dug it into the snow to stop my self.  This gave me enough leverage to push my self back up the slope a little, get another good foot and thumb (dug my thumbs into the snow to make sure I had a good hold!) grip.  After a couple of those I was back in safer territory and managed to ride out.

The rest of the 'Sapphire Bowl' was good though.  Instead of going down the 'Sapphire Chutes' I decided to go over 'Zut Zut'.  The snow in here was really deep and there were a few good windlips that I pumped some air off.    Yet again though, I thought that I'd make my life difficult and rode a little too close to cliff edge.  Thankfully I was far enough away and flopped down and safely negotiated myself back up into the run, before carrying on.

OK, so I have had enough of trying to injure myself, so on the way up the 'Jersey Cream Express' I decided to have lunch to let my heartbeat slowdown.

After lunch I decided to head on over to '7th Heaven'.  At the top I decided to give 'Chainsaw Ridge' a go.  I headed on up to the peak of 7th Heaven as I would have done if I was going to ride 'False Face'.  The ridge was a little nerve racking to say the least.  The ridge was not very wide, with big drop's off to the right, and loads of rock's to the left.  It was also mogulled to hell, and they were all very large.

I rode down the ridge a little way, down to 'Hawaii 5.0'.  There was a little drop in to this of a few feet, but the landing was so soft and fluffy.  I do have to say that this run is described in the guide book as "Skiing for the ultra-hardcore.  Don't Fall.".  I have to agree with this description too.  It was super steep and really tight.  Well worth it though.

Since it was a day for going back to the same area and really giving myself some big scares, I thought that I may as well carry it on again.  So I headed on back up to 'Chainsaw Ridge'.  This time I decided that I was going to go further down the ridge and hit 'Bushrat'.  Again there was a cornice drop, but this was small at a couple feet.  I can't believe that it's taken me so long to do this run.  I did want to give 'Bushrat Shoulder' a go, but thought that 'Bushrat' was good enough.

Once I got back up to the top again, I rode even further down the ridge until I came to 'Regulator'.  There was some rather large cornice's here, some about 30ft+.  There was no way I was going to give these a go, so instead I settled for a small (relative to the big cornice) 12ft drop.  I got up some speed and rode over the lip and dropped down into some really nice powder, and rode straight into some sweet carves.

One thing I do have to say about all of the runs off 'Chainsaw Ridge' is that there is lots of very large avalanche debris.  So, you have to be very careful in this area, especially if the visibility is poor.

After that it was getting late, and of late my energy has been dipping a little [perhaps I need a vacation ], so I decided to call it a day.  However, not before having an end of day run through the Terrain Garden.  The rails all worked excellently for me.  However on the first kicker, I was in two minds as to what jump I would do.  Backside or front side 180?  Needless to say that I ended up doing neither.  Duh!  Further down the terrain garden, I managed to get myself sorted out and managed some sweet front side 180's on the four jumps in a row.

A rather ugly (due to conditions) run down to the village ensued, and I was expecting a concert to be happening, but it looked like there was nothing on, so I pitched it to the bus and on home.  A good extreme day, if I do say so.

Visibility: OK to good.  Light snow showers with low lying cloud.
Snow: 10cm.
Piste Condition: Lots more fluffy new snow.  Poorer slushy conditions further down the slope.
Wind: Moderate.
Temperature: +6 at the base -10 at the Peak.
Crowding: Moderate.
Lift Lines: Moderate to heavy.

Visibility: OK to poor.  Light snow showers with low lying cloud.
Snow: 14cm.
Piste Condition: Lots more fluffy new snow.  Poorer slushy conditions further down the slope.
Wind: Moderate.
Temperature: +8 at the base -8 at the Peak.
Crowding: Moderate.
Lift Lines: Moderate.

Myself and Andy headed off this morning and we were looking forward to hitting the fresh powder.  We headed on over to Blackcomb and headed on straight over to the 'Jersey Cream wall', and down through 'Blowdown'.  The lift lines today were huge so we headed on down toward the Crystal Chair.  We took this little tree run off to the right and popped out onto 'White Light' before getting the chair.

At the top of the Crystal Chair I suggested to Andy that we hit 'Fraggle Rock'.  It does involve a very small hike, but this does keep the average Joe away.  The powder on top of Fraggle Rock and the runs down was fantastic.  There were occasions where you got to the ice/crust below.    We hit this and rode straight on down the middle of everything, going into the trees where possible.  We rode down part of 'Log Jam' and straight into the trees after that, between 'Twist & Shout' and 'Ridge Runner'.  This is the area where I have got into some cliff trouble before.  My suggestion is that if you are going to ride the trees in here, you either stick hard left or hard right.  Do not go down the middle!  We rode mostly over onto the right.

After the ride up Excelerator he wanted to head on over to the 7th Heaven area, even though the lift wasn't open.  However, when we got to the 'Jersey Cream Express' there was a huge line waiting, so we headed on over to 'Fraggle Rock' again.  This time however, we stayed a little more central, but still on the right side.  When we popped out onto 'Blackcomb Glacier Road' we were at the top of a high drop.  Thankfully we managed to stop before riding over, and traversed over to an easier area.

This time at the top of the Jersey Cream Express we headed on over '7th Avenue', even though the 7th Heaven lift wasn't open.  We dropped off the cat-track and into the tree run 'Lines off 7th Avenue'.  These trees were great, and lasted a lot longer than I expected.  We joined 'Expressway' at the point where the gladded tree run 'Raptor's Ride' started so just had to hit that too.  This had been ridden a lot already, and was very mogully but still run to ride.

At the top of Solarcoaster we decided to go have a light and quick lunch and toilet pit stop.  Ahhhh!  That's better!

After lunch we wanted to have a look at the newly built jumps in the Black Park, so took a ride down 'Catskinner' and the 'Catskinner Chair' back up.  The park looked like there was loads of powder in it.  As both myself and Andy have a black park pass, we decided to go steal the powder in there and use our pass.  Our pass wasn't actually necessary, as there was no one checking.

Once in the park, we immediately headed lest through the trees at the top and took as much powder as we could.  We even went over the rollers of the jumps and popped some air.  Some of the drop offs were so steep that if you just made a small amount of air, you launched quite a long way.  We also hit the quarter pipe at the bottom.  This was really good and the ally oop worked well.  Since we had such a good time in the black park, we hit it again

It was getting late on, and the Glacier Express had been open for about 45 minutes (opened very late due to the snow and wind), so we headed on up the Glacier Express.  Andy had only ridden 'Spanky's Ladder' once before, so we headed on up the boot pack and onto the ladder.  The visibility now was getting poorer so we didn't waste much time in getting going.  We headed on into what is in my opinion the best bowl, the 'Diamond Bowl' via the 'Garnet Bowl'.  This run is so steep and narrow in places, but was so full of deep powder it was truly fantastic.

IT had been a long day, so we simply rode out the 'Glacier Road' past the top of the Excalibur Gondola and straight down the slope.

At the base, the Telus festival had started and there was a concert going on.  We stopped for half an hour and listened to this band called 'Default'.  Let's just say that they were OK, and were your typical American light rock band.

Visibility: OK to poor.  Snow all day.
Snow: 22cm.
Piste Condition: Lots of fluffy new snow with poorer slushy conditions further down the slope.
Wind: Moderate to strong.
Temperature: +2 at the base -8 at the Peak.
Crowding: Moderate.
Lift Lines: moderate.

Felt like winter today!  Loads of new powder, and really really cold too!  It's also been snowing all day today too, so we expect loads of new snow tomorrow.

The weather today wasn't good, not good at all.  It was extremely foggy, it was snowing all day and it was really quite cold too.

I headed again over to Blackcomb to get on over to the park again.  I really want to work on those backside 180's.  So I started off in the old favourite, the Terrain Garden.  The front side 180's were going really really well today, however, the backside just wasn't happening.  I tried the backside for a couple hours and only managed a couple of backside spins in all that time.

The weather was so bad at stages, but it was also snowing hard, that I decided to give myself a break and decided to put some speed lines down 'Ross's Gold (Gandy Dancer)'.  This wasn't too easy given the visibility.

I then headed back to the Terrain Garden once again.  I must admit that I really wasn't having a good day, do I called it quits early in the afternoon.

Visibility: Very poor.  Lot's of snow fall and low fog clouds.
Snow: 0cm.
Piste Condition: Varied. Heavy new snow with slushy conditions further down the slope.
Wind: Moderate to strong.
Temperature: +4 at the base -6 at the Peak.
Crowding: Light.
Lift Lines: Light.

I headed on over to Blackcomb mountain this morning.  I really wanted to work on my 180's today.  However, as soon as I got onto the mountain the weather really kicked in.  There was strong gusts of wind and a really heavy snow shower, so on the lift up to the top I really got battered.  Even while ruining down 'Easy Out' to get to the Terrain Garden I was getting battered.  My face was really getting wind burn, but thankfully the trees around the garden gave some shelter.

In the second entrance to the Terrain Garden, after the first box is a single medium sized jump.  I gave a backside 180 a throw but really didn't do a good job of it.  So, I took off the board and gave it another go.  OK, let's give it another, and another, and another, and another go.  Hmmm!  Not working well today.  So, after the umpteenth time of not getting all the way around, I decided to go and try and loosen up.  So carried on down the park.  The front side 180's were not going too well either, but they were working.  My problem today is that I simply was not getting enough pop in my jumps.

I headed on back around the garden again, again with the intention of throwing the backside 180's in there.  The first on went OK, but wasn't great.  With the 4 jumps further down the garden, I gave it a go on each and on each I failed miserably on all but one.  I went around and around the terrain garden all day giving it a go, but it simply just wasn't a day where it was going to work.

When the weather again got worse and I was getting really wet, I thought that I would call it a day.  I rode all of the way down really quite fast, given the conditions (especially the cleaning the goggles every 5 seconds) and was glad to get the bus.

Visibility: Ultra varied.  Heavy snowshowers, followed by low cloud fog periods, followed by brief sun, then repeat often.
Snow: 3cm.
Piste Condition: Varied. Heavy new snow with very slushy conditions further down the slope.
Wind: Varied.  From none to light to moderate to strong gusts.
Temperature: +11 at the base -4 at the Peak.
Crowding: Light.
Lift Lines: Light.

Visibility: A mix of cloud and sun.  Occasional low cloud fog.
Snow: 3cm.
Piste Condition: Varied. Heavy new snow with very slushy conditions further down the slope.
Wind: Light.
Temperature: +13 at the base -4 at the Peak.
Crowding: Light.
Lift Lines: Light.

I started out the day wanting to ride 'Exhilaration' and 'Excitation' on Whistler mountain, so started off with some warm-up runs.  I starred off riding switch down Ego Bowl a couple times, and then headed on over to the Harmony Chair, all again in switch.  I rode down the Harmony ridge for another warm up, and headed on back up the chair again, this time for a look at the runs.

As you get off the Harmony Express chair, you need to hike up to the right of the chair.  It's a short 10 minute hike up before you are there.  I went over to the lip of 'Exhilaration' for a look.  Man!  That thing was steep and extremely knarly, with a wicked cornice.  If I dropped in, it would have been about a 6-8ft drop, with a very short ledge and then another 6-8ft drop!  So, wisely I decided to pass this up and went to have a look at 'Excitation'.  This looked even worse, with a much larger drop in.  I took the only wise option and decided to back out.  Instead I rode around the 'Saddle' and under the two runs for a look.  Everything looks much smaller when you are way below it, but I'm still glad that I didn't do it.

The 'Saddle' and the Glacier Bowl was actually in very good condition, given the time of year.  I then headed on up the Peak chair, and rode down Highway 89, to do something different.  Haven't done that run for a while.  Nothing spectacular, apart from the appalling visibility in places.  I headed on back up Big Red and mozied on over to the Harmony Express chair again.  This time I rode along the harmony ridge and spotted the entrance to 'Hidden Chute', so I went to hit it.  The snow was not in great condition and was extremely hard and crunchy, but good all the same.

I rode around the 'Burnt Stew Trail' and 'Crescendo' for a while, riding switch in a number of different varied terrains.  This was good practise and does help the switch riding.

After doing that for a while I decided to call it a day.  So when I headed up the Harmony chair again, I decided to ride all the way home in switch.  This was no mean feat, I can tell you.  I stared off on the 'Saddle' and then took the Peak chair up.  I then rode all the way down 'Highway 89' to the bottom of Big Red.  I had to take a bit of a rest here, as riding switch does take it out of you.  I then rode down part of 'Expressway' and then into 'Lower Dave Murry' and over into 'Lower Franz's'.  The conditions of the slopes further down was extremely heavy going and fully of lumps, bumps and moguls, which was really hard going but well worth it in the end.

After yesterday's foray into getting my ankle back into normal riding, I thought that I would try the ankle back at giving the 180's a go.  So, I headed on over to Blackcomb and headed on up the Solar coaster chair to get to the park.

I headed on straight over to the Terrain garden to warm up.  The snow by this time hadn't warmed up though.  It was rock solid, and my warm up run wasn't that warm.  I headed on back around and on the way down tried loads of on snow spins and also tried to do my back side 180's on the flat.  These weren't going too well to begin with, but as the day progressed it was getting better and better.  I think that it really was to do with me getting more and more flexible as the day wore on, which allowed me to 'pop' the spin.

As for the Terrain Garden, it was actually in pretty good condition.  Today, I decided to give my backside airs a go on the medium sized jumps.  They did not start off too well.  I just wasn't getting around far enough.  I was experiencing a bit of a mental block to be honest.  I'm a very cognitive rider, and as such need to work out the mechanics in my head before being able to translate it to my riding.    As the day wore on, they were getting better, but just weren't really there yet.

My rail riding wasn't that good today either.  I guess I was concerned that my edges were a bit too sharp from my Instructor exam.  As such I caught a couple stupid edges on the box, that probably not have happened if my edges were a little more dull.

To give myself a bit of a perk, I went back to doing some front side 180's for a couple runs.  Again, these did not start off too well, but then really got better.  Popping off the lip and then making the spin is working really well for me now.  I suppose putting in the mileage really has helped.

I had a quick pit stop for lunch and had a nice salad, before heading back out.  I wanted to give the half pipe a go, so rode down the park and had a look.  Man that thing was hugely busy, so much so that I decided to give it a miss and hit the quarter pipe at the bottom of the park.

I then headed on over to the terrain garden again.  The conditions were getting really bad.  The snow was falling really hard and it was really wet and sticky.  Every 30 seconds or so, I had to wipe clean my goggles which made it really hard to see, and it was incredibly wet.  My gloves were soaked within a few minutes.  So I decided that this was going to be the last run of the day.  And what a last run it was too.  My best run through the terrain garden all day.  Hit every rail sweet, every jump had loads of pop off the lip and every spin 180 was almost spot on.  So, it was a really good time to call it a day.  The ankle managed to hold up really quite well, but it is aching a lot right now!

Visibility: Very cloudy, with low lying fog.  Occasional short hazy sunny period, with snow flurries through the day.
Snow: >1cm.
Piste Condition: Varied. Hard packed in the morning, softening up late in the morning, with very slushy conditions further down the slope.
Wind: Light.
Temperature: +12 at the base -4 at the Peak.
Crowding: Moderate.
Lift Lines: Light.

I got up really early this morning to take advantage of the last Fresh Tracks morning of the season, and was joined by Andy.  When we arrived at the Whistler Village Gondola, we could see that a hell of a lot of other people thought the same thing.  They actually had to turn people away, as there is a fixed limit number.  The breakfast is as always well worth the trip.

Andy was actually on ski's today!  He hired them the day before and had his first outing in them yesterday.  He didn't arrange any lessons, but was looking OK on the slopes.  So, I took a photo on his camera for him.

As for me, I started the day or quite easy.  My ankle is still really giving me trouble, so did not want to aggravate it.  Did lots of switch riding around the mountain.  Started out on Ego bowl, then headed on over to the peak chair.  It was my intention to try and ride the "Bonsai" tree run.  I headed around the Peak and shot up into 'West Cirque'.  This run should have told me that the conditions were not going to be that good.  Although it wasn't too bad, it wasn't all that good either.  I then hit the traverse to Sneaky Pete and rode along the ridge, and headed on into 'Bonsai'.  Big mistake.  It was so hard and crusty, that I can not tick it off my list, as I only managed to get down.  So, it's still on the list to get ticked off.

I rode back along the Highway and back up Big Red.  This wasn't all that easy, given that the fog was all around and very thick.  I then decided to head on over to the Harmony chair, via 'G.S.'.  I decided to head on down the ridge as I hadn't really done it all the way yet.  I veered off and into 'Gun Barrels'.  Not in great condition, but nice and tight.  I headed on straight back up the Harmony Chair and this time did all of the ridge down.  I headed on round again, and this time headed on out over to Burnt Stew Trail.  I rode as much as I could on this sloped in switch.  In fact I did this run about two or three times.

After doing this for a couple times, I headed on over 'The Saddle', which was in really nice condition, and rode down and took the Peak chair again.  This time, I decided to take the 'Whistler Cornice'.  I rode on over onto the 'Upper V.D. Chutes' and found this brilliant run through the trees.  I wish that I had done this ride earlier in the season.  The upper rides into the Lower chutes.  These were really so nice.  Not perfect conditions but good.

I rode round to the Big Red and took lunch.

After lunch I decided to ride through the park.  They had made some real changes in the park.  This is in preparation for an upcoming event in the resort.  Took the easy route though the park.  Only took the big jump, the two small jumps (180 then switch 180).  Took a look at the new jump, but didn't ride it.  Then took the two last jumps.  I wanted to ride through the park again, but the foggy conditions didn't make it easy.  So instead headed on over to the Harmony Ridge and rode the Burnt Stew Trail a couple more times, again in switch.  It seemed a little less foggy this side.

After that I rode 'The Saddle' again, and then up the Peak Chair.  The conditions of the snow now was really bad and sticky, so I decided to call it a day.  So decided to ride down 'Peak to Creak'.  I actually ended up riding 'Big Timber' and was on the look out for any opportunity for some place to possibly build a kicker later.  There was loads of moguls, but the condition of the snow down here was not nice.  Loads of un-marked obstacles and big holes in the snow.  There was a few 'safe' places to hit a mogul and do some spin air though.  I tried one backside 180, and mucked it up so bad that I landed straight on my ass and slid about 30ft!  Still, it was really soft.  Think I'll go back tomorrow and really try and make a kicker out there, and get those backside airs working, on my own, in in peace!

Visibility: Very cloudy, with low lying fog.  Occasional short hazy sunny period.
Snow: 0cm.
Piste Condition: Varied. Hard packed in the morning, softening up late in the morning, with very slushy conditions further down the slope.
Wind: Moderate.
Temperature: +10 at the base -4 at the Peak.
Crowding: Moderate.
Lift Lines: Moderate.

Again today I decided to rest my ankle.  Woke up early this morning and gave it a little flex and test.  It's still not great.  So, I decided to catch up with my blog posting and also let all of my friends and family know that I have passed my CASI Level 2.

I intend to go riding Fresh Track's tomorrow.  Tomorrow is the last day of the season where we can do Fresh Tracks, and I still have 3 tickets left.  I will try and sell the two spares that I have tomorrow morning.

Visibility: Cloudy.
Snow: 0cm.
Piste Condition: Varied. Very icy in the morning, softening up in the afternoon, with slushy conditions further down the slope.
Wind: Light.
Temperature: +11 at the base -6 at the Peak.
Crowding: Light.
Lift Lines: Light.

Today I decided not to go riding at all.  My ankle over the CASI Course was really, really sore and was giving me a lot of trouble.  So, I stayed in bed a bit longer and just watched TV and movies all day.

Visibility: Cloudy.
Snow: 0cm.
Piste Condition: Varied. Very icy in the morning, softening up in the afternoon, with slushy conditions further down the slope.
Wind: Moderate.
Temperature: +12 at the base -7 at the Peak.
Crowding: Light.
Lift Lines: Light.

Today's the day...Examination day!

The day started off really quick.  There was no warm-up run, as there was 7 in our group.  Dave joined us as a coaching re-test.  This meant that there was a lot of people to get through.

The format of the day was to get everyone to coach the morning on Carved Turns, then in the afternoon on Sliding Turns.

For me the mornings coaching was on Pressure Control for Intermediate Carved Turns.  I started off by giving an explanation of what, why, where, when and how we were to use Pressure Control in our Carved turns.  I then introduced an exercise called "Ollies and Nollies on Edge".  This was to emphasise the use of pressure on Varied terrain for carved turns.  While the slope was not too great, using the 'on edge' was the way to promote using edging for the carve.  On reflexion I didn't think that this was a great exercise to use, but it worked OK.  I then gave each individual some analysis and some Improvement suggestions for them to try.  We then put what we had practised into our riding again, and I summarised up at the end and gave them something to take away.

All in all, I thought that this coaching sessions went well.  Everyone else's lesson went really well too.

After lunch, we got straight back into the coaching again.  This time, I ended up having to go first, and my lesson was on Advanced Sliding Turns and working on the 'Edging' skill.  I started off with the static exercise and described what, why, where, when and how we were going to use the edging skill in our riding.  We then went for a little ride, before I introduced the exercises 'Drinks on the Shoulders' to the group.  This exercise was to promote Inclination and more importantly Angulation into their body position.  The exercises is designed to try and stop the students from inclining too much and get them to angulate the body more, by making them think that they have a couple jug's of beer on their shoulders, and getting them to not spill the beer.  This keeps the shoulders up and aligned along the edge of the board.  This went really well, and as everyones riding has improved so much, it really made giving the analysis and improvement difficult.  This is an area on this lesson where I wasn't as clear as I wanted or could have been, but it was OK.  Again, as should happen.  We put this back into our riding, and after that I summarised what we had just done, and lest them with something to think about.

So, I was done really quick and early in the afternoon and could relax more.  The afternoon seemed to take a really long time.  Everyone's lessons went really well, I thought.  At about 15:30 we were finished and Jeff left us to go and fill in the paperwork.  We had about an hour before he was going to be ready for us, so we all took a ride through the terrain garden.  You could see in everyones riding that we were all so relieved that we were done.  We rode down to the Marriot In hotel, where the instructors were doing the marking.

The waiting in the hotel was more nerve wracking than the actual teaching.  When it came time to give out the results, we went into the ream one by one.  First was Lisa, and when she came out and announced that she had passed the nerves were even more on edge.  Then was Michael then Patric, and then my self.

I had passed!  Whoo Hoo!  I am now a CASI level 2 snowboard Instructor!  Fantastic!

After me went Clair, who also passed, then Dave.  Unfortunately Dave did not pass his teaching re-test.  Sorry dude.  Next up was Roger, who also passed.  Not bad, everyone who was in the group passed, all except Dave who joined us later.

We all headed on down to Merlin's to celebrate and drink some beer, along with all of the other groups of students taking the course.

I have met a lot of good people on this course, and hope to keep in contact with them all.

Visibility: Bluebird with some clouds.
Snow: 0cm.
Piste Condition: Varied. Very icy in the morning, softening up in the afternoon, with slushy conditions further down the slope.
Wind: Light to moderate.
Temperature: +14 at the base -6 at the Peak.
Crowding: Light.
Lift Lines: Light.

Todays course focused on Intermediate and Advanced Sliding Turns.  I do have to say that my ankle was a lot better today too.  That was until near lunch time, when we were riding down, and I pushed it a bit too hard and re-hurt my ankle again.  Only this afternoon and tomorrow to go, so pushed through it.

The Tactics for Sliding Turns were:

• Stance & Balance
• Switch Riding
• Motorboat Turns
• Sliding Toe-to-Toe (front Side) / Sliding Heel-to-Heel (backside)
• Pivot / Steering
• Static Steering / Twist the Disks
• Narrow Corridor (Intermediate = 5 board lengths, Advanced = 3 board lengths)
• Edging
• Static Edging
• Clock Face Analogy
• Spray the Crowd
• Pressure Control
• Static Air
• Ollies and Nollies
• Riding Varied Terrain
• Small Straight Airs
• Timing & Coordination
• Tornado Turns
• Top Gun
• Figure of 8

The day went along in the same way as yesterday.  Coaching in the morning, and in the afternoon we had to do the coaching to the rest of the group.  Today I had Stance and Balance.  So, I got everyone to ride down a 'dark blue' slope in switch.  I gave analysis and improvement tips, and then went into Motorboat Turns.  I made a mistake here though!  I got them to do this exercise in switch.  I should not combine two exercises together.  Still, I did learn from this mistake.  Again the group was a fantastic help.  We all really do look out for each other and help as much as we can!

Visibility: Cloudy in the morning, becoming brighter in the afternoon.
Snow: 0cm.
Piste Condition: Varied. Very icy in the morning, softening up in the afternoon, with slushy conditions further down the slope.
Wind: Moderate.
Temperature: +12 at the base -7 at the Peak.
Crowding: Light.
Lift Lines: Light.

Today was a much better day on the course for me.  After yesterdays disappointing riding from my self, today I decided to ride through the problem with my ankle and really try and get that flexing working better.  It was working better too!

The day consisted of tactics for carved turns.  In the morning it was a presentation of all tactics, emphasising skill development for intermediate and advanced snowboarders.  The lessons were on Basic Carved Turns, and Intermediate Carved Turns.

• Stance & Balance
  • Carved Traverse
  • "Hockey-Stop-Hop"
  • Hop Between Turns
• Pivot / Steering
  • Static Steering Exercise / Twist the Disks
  • Headlight on Knee
  • Sidecut Turns
• Edging
  • Static Edging Exercise
  • Sponsor Turns
  • Pour Water from Boots
• Pressure Control
  • Varied Terrain (gentle terrain)
  • Cowboy Knees
  • Pump Turns
• Timing & Coordination
  • Shape, Size, Slope (Tornado Turns)
  • Top Gun
  • Counting

In the afternoon, it was our turn to provide instruction to the rest of the group on one of the skills listed above for either Basic or Intermediate carved turns.  I was given Edging for Advanced sliding turns.  I thought that my lesson went really quite well.  I started off with the Static Edging Exercise, got the group to ride for a bit (Whole), then moved on to using a exercise called "Sponsor Turns" (Part).  I watched each of the group ride down, and gave them analysis and improvement tips.  We all then put this back into our regular riding (Whole).  This is where the Whole-Part-Whole comes into play.  I then also had to provide a summary at the end and leave them with something to take forward.

I do have to say, that the whole group made the whole day so much easier.  We all got on really so well, and helped each other out as much as we could.  We had such a dynamic and fun group, I couldn't ask for getter.

Visibility: Bluebird with little cloud.
Snow: 2cm.
Piste Condition: Varied. Mostly hard pack, with slushy conditions further down the slope.
Wind: Light.
Temperature: +10 at the base -5 at the Peak.
Crowding: Light.
Lift Lines: Light.

Visibility: Poor but OK visibility.
Snow: 1cm.
Piste Condition: Varied. Mostly hard pack, with slushy conditions further down the slope.
Wind: Moderate.
Temperature: +7 at the base -7 at the Peak.
Crowding: Moderate.
Lift Lines: Light.

I knew this morning first thing that my riding wasn't going to be as good as I know it can be.  My ankle was worse this morning, and I was also really quite stiff too.

I ended up in a group headed by Jeff, which contained Claire (French), Roger (Spanish), Patrick (English), Michael (English) and Lisa (Canadian).

The day consisted of doing skills riding. Intermediate Sliding Turns, Advanced Sliding turns, Basic Carving Turns and Intermediate Carving Turns.  For each of these we did a number of exercises concentrating on each of the 5 skills (Stance & Balance, Pivot/Steering, Edging, Pressure Control, Timing and Coordination).  So it basically resulted in 20 different exercises!

My ankle and lack of flexing and extension was common throughout the day, and was a constant area where I was given advice on to improve my riding.  I even made a real effort this morning to ensure that I was warmed up before starting.  Let's hope that tomorrow I'll be more flexible and that the ankle will hold up!

For the 20 exercises we had to analyse each individuals riding, letting them know what they were doing good, and areas where they could improve.  For each improvement that we suggested we had to give them an exercises that they could try so as to improve.  This is an area of the day that I am good at, so this really made up for my poor performance in riding.

After the riding in the day, we headed back to the Marriott Hotel for the video review, Analysis & Improvement lecture and to perform the day's evaluation and review.

Tonight I have to make sure that I read all of the Analysis information in the Instructor Reference guide, and most of the Progression section.  I also do some homework.  I also need to come up with lesson plans for each of the riding skills and fundamental skills.  Basically I need to come up with an Exercise Workbook, or 'Toolbox'.

Decided to take a day off today for a couple of reasons.  Firstly, my ankle, that I hurt a few days ago, is really giving me some trouble.  Secondly, I have my CASI Level 2 course starting tomorrow.  So, with both of these reasons, I thought that I would stay at the house and rest the ankle and study the course manual!

Visibility: Smoke machine clouds, with very poor visibility.
Snow: 1cm.
Piste Condition: Varied. Mostly hard pack, with slushy conditions further down the slope.
Wind: Moderate.
Temperature: 0 at the base -7 at the Peak.
Crowding: Very Light.
Lift Lines: Very Light.

I met up with Rich early morning and we headed on up the Whistler Village Gondola, to ride Whistler mountain.  Today is one of the last day's that Rich is going to be in Whistler this season, and we wanted to get in some more of the extreme slopes that we wanted to.

The day started off with us having a quick coffee at the Roundhouse, and for us to plan out attack on the mountain.  We started off and headed on over to the Harmony Ridge.  The first 'drop' of the day was the 'KC Roll'.  As we arrived, the visibility was extremely poor.  In fact, the visibility stayed extremely poor all day.  Anyway, we had a look at the drop as best we could and found it really difficult to even see the edge, never mind how big the drop was.  Rich went first, off to the left and dropped in.  Turned out to be about 4ft for him, and the good news was that the landing was powder filled.  With him being below, game me enough definition to see my drop better.  My drop ended up being about 9ft.  Not the most elegant drop I've ever done, but it was OK none the less.

After feeling that drop, we decided to go back and give it another go.  The visibility was actually worse this time, and we struggled to even find where we dropped in.  It was my turn to drop in first this time.  Basically I did almost exactly the same drop, with the same results.  Rich this time, after a bit of a delay, dropped in too.

Next up was Horseshoe 5.  Now, according to the guide, this is described as the "tightest and scariest of the horseshoes"!  I was way disappointed, as to me it was neither and really quite easy to ride.  I suppose that the cornice's on all of the other horseshoes make them seam that much more scary.  I bet with less snow cover it would be more scary.  We then rode around Pitkas Traverse and had an early lunch at the Roundhouse.

After lunch we had a warm up run through the park.  It has been a while since I have been through the Whistler mountain park, and I do have to say that they have really put in some work and made it so much better.

 headed on up the Peak Chair.  Next on the list was 'The Cirque'.  It had an ugly rocky ramp entry and was really quite steep.  However, it really was a nice run down.  Probably the best run of the day.  Next up was 'The Coulouir'.  The entry into this was an extremely narrow and bumpy traverse.  Rich went in first...and lost it!  He hit a bump and fell over backwards.  He tumbled for quite a while, and I must admit that I was actually getting woried.  Thankfully he managed to stop him self, and was OK.  Phew!  Needless to say that I made my entry into the Couloirbackwardworried a lot more gingerly and safely.  Again, the ride down this slope was really quite nice, if choppy.  Rich wasn't about to let this be his run down the CouloirCouloir, so we went back and did it again.  Thankfully, this time his entry was much safer and we both rode that slope.

Next on the list was 'West Cirque'.  There is a short run down Highway 89, and a hike for a couple minutes.  The entry into this couloir was much easier that the others that we had ridden today.  It was a good run, and we headed on off to the left to catch the traverse to 'Sneaky Pete' and 'West Bowl'.  When we got onto 'West Ridge', we rode along for a bit and decided to take 'Everglades'.  This run is described as some of the best tree runs on either mountain.  On a day where I could actually see it, it may have been.  It was really nice none the less.  The trees are only small and short and make for some easy tree runs.

After th run all the way down to the Big Red chair, we headed on back up the Peak chair for the last time today.  This time we headed on to 'Stefan's Chute'.  The entrance into this was really knarly.  I had to jump over a line of rocks.  A nice little jump it was too, if I do say so my self   Rich came down after me and we rode as much of the powder don as we could.

After again heading up the Big Red express, we decided to have a quick coffee at the roundhouse, and also dry our gloves, which were soaked by now.  It was actually too late in the day to really get a coffee, so we only dried our gloves a little and headed straight out.  We rode straight over 'G.S.' and headed back to the Harmony ridge.  There are only 2 of the Horseshoes that I have not ridden yet, number 6 and 7.  We rode over to the edge of Horseshoe 7 and had a look.  Whoo!  It was huge!  About a 35ft drop.  There was no way that we were going to do that!  Instead we rode around and had a look at Horseshoe 6, which looked much smaller.  Rich rode off first, very quickly followed by my self.  Man!  That drop was much bigger than I expected.  Rich said that he didn't want to tell me how big it was before I rode off.  Cheeky bugger   It was about 12-15ft, but with a nice landing.  I must admit that we both had a really good laugh about this drop, as it was so unexpected, yet so...fun!

The Harmony Express by now was closed, so we headed on over to the Emerald chair, for another run through the park.  I took a video of Rich hitting this tap jump.  I then went and hit the jump up double box with drop.  I managed to get the board around and do a board slide, I even managed to board slide the drop onto the second box.  This actually shocked me a little (that I didn't crash!) and put a massive grin on my face, so much so that I couldn't stop grinning/laughing that I didn't jump off the end, but just dropped.

I then went on to follow Rich onto the large jumps.  However, on the run in to the jump I hit some real chop and tweaked my already damaged right ankle.  Not good for one of the last runs of the day.  I rode a lot more reserved down to the bottom of the mountain for the last run of the day.

All in all, another adrenalin filled day!  Excellent!

Visibility: Smoke machine clouds, with very poor visibility.
Snow: 0cm.
Piste Condition: Varied. Mostly hard pack, with slushy conditions further down the slope.
Wind: Light to moderate.
Temperature: +1 at the base -7 at the Peak.
Crowding: Very Light.
Lift Lines: Very Light.