Today was going to be my last day on the mountain.  I got a text from Ed to say that he was on 7th Heaven, Blackcomb.  So I headed up there and we met for lunch.  After lunch we headed on to 7th Heaven.  Ed wanted to borrow my GPS logger to see how fast he can go down the piste.  The conditions were not great but he did manage 98km/h.  As for me, I wasn't too far behind.  It was however the first time in two seasons that I have ever ridden the actual piste on 7th Heaven!  But of a shocker that, as normally I only ride it when there is powder and then you avoid the piste!

We headed on back up again and did the same run.  This time, I knew where to go and rode it a lot better.  We headed on up for a third time, however by now Ed was feeling the cold and had decided to call it a day.  So we took the run back to the top of the Jersey Cream chair and whilst Ed headed off, I headed for the Peak2Peak, as I had a call from Chris to say that he was heading up Whistler mountain, and he wanted to ride it before they close it after Sunday 26th!

Myself and Chris headed up the Peak chair and at the top stopped to take a couple pictures of the Black Tusk mountain.  We then headed on down the Saddle.  At the top of the Saddle it was extremely icy and there was very little grip.  After that however it livened and loosened up, but got quite choppy.  It was then a case of pointing the board straight down the mountain.  We charged straight past the bottom of the Peak chair and headed for Big Red.  On the way we hit every single jib and jump that we could find, and trust me there are absolutely loads on the way down to Big Red.

After getting back to the Roundhouse we stopped for a quick beer.  After all, it was my last day on the mountain!  We then headed on down Orange Peel and down to Fort Knox.  We were going to see if there were people there that we knew, but Chris met a couple girls that he knew just leaving and they said there was no beer left.  So we rode down with them back to the village.  We took Crabapple down and out, and again there were loads of jib's and jumps to be had on the way.  Near the bottom however the snow had melted away and there was a huge patch of dirt that I had to ride over.  I was so glad that I lent back a bit as when I hit the dirt it was really sticky and it really pushed me forward.  No damage done though and I was able to ride on through it.  The rest of the run was just pure slush.

Well, it has been an interesting season, and so very much different than my last season here.  Mostly the mountain and my riding was very different.  I also met a lot of really good people.  It was just a very poor year for snow and as such a lot of the extreme slopes just didn't appeal to me.  This year was all about speed and getting my self confidence back after damaging my shoulder.

I'm already looking forward to my next time on the snow!

Visibility: Bright sunshine
Snow: None
Piste Condition: Icy early, becoming very slushy
Wind: Light to none
Temperature: +17 at the base to -7 at the top.
Crowding: Extremely Light, to practically empty
Lift Lines: Extremely Light, to practically empty

One of my last days on the mountain.  Boo!  But all good things have to come to an end!

I headed up with Village gondola onto the Whistler mountain, and straight up the Peak chair.  I decided to head on over to see what the Symphony amphitheater would be like.  Today I wasn't disappointed, as it was fast and smooth.   I got up some good speed and enjoyed it.  As the Symphony chair has been closed for the season for a while now, I had to take Burnt Stew out and back to the Harmony chair.  Whilst heading up the chair I could see that the Harmony Piste looked really good so I decided to hit that next.  It too was fast and smooth, until you got near the bottom of the run, where there were loads of big and hard cookies.  This made it really difficult and caused huge vibrations when trying to ride at speed.

I headed back up the Harmony chair and it was then that I decided to do the Symphony again and then the Harmony again, then repeat.  I did this run a total of three times before heading down past Emerald and onto Olympic and headed for the mid station.  This too was fast and fun.  It's surprising what late season can bring.

I had decided on the way up that I was going to head on over to Blackcomb, as they were having the Snowboard Half-pipe competition, and wanted to see if it was any good.  Boy was it good.  It was an open competition with loads of things going off all at the same time.  Much more interesting than the Ski Half-pipe, where it was minutes between one rider and another.

It was at the Half-pipe I caught up with Sam, who was taking pictures of the competition.  After the competition we decided to put in a few runs.  I offered to take a few photos of Sam, so we headed into the blue park.  I got a few good photos of him.  So we did it again, and some more good photos were the result.  It was late so we headed on down to the village and watched the band that was on (at the Tellus Ski and Snowboard Festival).

Visibility: Bright sunshine
Snow: None
Piste Condition: Icy early, becoming more very slushy
Wind: Light to none
Temperature: +12 at the base to -6 at the top.
Crowding: Extremely Light, to practically empty
Lift Lines: Extremely Light, to practically empty

Myself, Edd, Alex and Sally all headed out and took the Village Gondola up Whistler.  The very low temperature for this time of year meant that the piste was really icy.  We headed up the Peak and took the saddle.  The piste condition was so icy and bumpy that it made the riding challenging.  So much so that when we got to Big Red we all went in for lunch.

After lunch we took a line down through the old Whistler park (been taken down for a few weeks now) and onto Olympic.  I have to say that I really enjoyed the Olympic piste.  Whist not challenging in terms of steepness, it was riding really well and fast.  Speed is your friend!  We then took a hard left and headed down Crabapple and into the village.  It was here that we left Sally, as she had to go to work.  Edd and Alex had also decided that the conditions were not fun for them, so I headed back up the Village Gondola on my own.

I headed on back to the Peak chair and took the saddle down again.  This time however the snow had softened up just a little, even though there was loads of ice just there.  I rode back down to Big Red, and decided to try over in Harmony.  I took the easy route over to the Harmony chair and rode the piste.  This is my favorite run on the mountain, and today did not disappoint too much.  The lower part of the run was full of cookies and made it really difficult to keep any continual lines or speed.  I did the run a couple times before the lift closed.  I rode all the way to the Village gondola mid station, via Olympic.  Again Olympic didn't disappoint today.  There were a load of people across the slope and I had to put the brakes on, which was disappointing as I was getting a good head of steam on.

Heading back up the gondola I took my favourite run out back to the village.  That is Orange Peel, Tokum, and then Crabapple.  On the way down Crabapple I forgot that the snow had melted and there were patches of earth, so for about 5m I was riding (pretty fast) over the dirt.  Thankfully it was grassy.

Whilst the early part of the day didn't bode very well, I enjoyed everything from lunch onwards.

Visibility: Bright sunshine
Snow: 3cm
Piste Condition: Icy early, becoming more slushy
Wind: Light to none
Temperature: +5 at the base to -13 at the top.
Crowding: Extremely Light, to practically empty
Lift Lines: Extremely Light, to practically empty

Really late start today.  So much so that when I got to the top of Blackcomb, I just headed into the Rendevous restaurant for lunch.  So after lunch I headed down springboard so as to get some speed under my legs.  After that I headed on into the Terrain Garden.  It was running quite well and I was hitting my front side and back side 180's.  So I kept running around the Terrain Garden for a few runs.  The lift line at Solarcoaster was always busy and was starting to annoy me with people cutting the line and not going up in groups of 4.  So I decided to head on over to Whistler reasonably early, that way if it was bad I could get back on over to Blackcomb.

After getting over onto Whistler mountain, I headed up the Peak chair, with the intention of heading down the Saddle.  However, I wasn't paying attention and ended up going on over into the Symphony Ampitheater.  That was a mistake, a big mistake.  The snow was so sticky that I had to unstrap a couple times just to get on over the humps.  Not fun at all.  I then headed up the Harmony chair and took a run down the Harmony piste.  Again this wasn't that much fun.  I headed back up again and took the Saddle down this time.  This was a bit more like it, but only because it was steeper and therefore the board didn't stick so much.  I passed the Peak chair and rode on down to Big Red.  I headed back up Big red and took the peak chair again, and onto the saddle once more.  Back around, this time at the top of Big Red I decided to take the run out to the village.  It wasn't possible to get on over onto Orange Peel as the snow was just too sticky.  I did however take Crabapple down and out to the village.  The snow here is running very bare and there are only a few lines with snow on to take through.  So you have to be a bit careful when charging down the hill.

Visibility: Bright sunshine, becoming cloudy late
Snow: None
Piste Condition: Wet, slushy and sticky
Wind: Strong
Temperature: +12 at the base to +4 at the top.
Crowding: Extremely Light, to practically empty
Lift Lines: Extremely light, except on the Solarcoaster chair

Ah!  That's better.  I headed up with snowboard in hand, and instantly felt so much better in myself.  As I headed up Whistler however it was clear that the conditions were terrible (really slushy and sticky), there were only 3 lifts open (Village Gondola, Emerald and Big Red), but there were hardly any people on the mountain.

As there were only a few lifts open this meant that there were little options for riding.  However I had a good time, especially as on every run there was virtually no one else on the piste.  I rode around on Whistler until it was near lunch time.  I was sick and tired of the food at the Round House, so decided to head on over the Peak2Peak, grab lunch ad the Rendevous and then ride Blackcomb.

I started off riding "Springboard" and a few other runs.  I headed up the Glacier Express and took the T-bar up and over into 7th Heaven.  The visibility was awful so I decided to head on back towards Jersey cream and into the Terrain Garden.  I wasn't really in the mood for park riding, but I had a good ride through.  I put in a couple front side 180's and some back-side 180's.  Made me feel good.  So I rode around the Terrain garden for quite a few times before the end of the day.

I headed down to the village, but took it easy.  It was extremely slushy so quite dangerous for catching some big edges.  A girl in front of me caught a nose edge and flipped quite a few times and landed quite badly.  I made sure she was OK, before heading off, making sure that I wasn't going to take a nose edge and flip it out.

Visibility: Cloudy, with light rain
Snow: Trace to 1cm
Piste Condition: Wet, slushy and sticky
Wind: Strong
Temperature: +4 at the base to +1 at the top.
Crowding: Extremely Light, to practically empty
Lift Lines: Extremely Light, to practically empty

Day two of the dark side...skiing!  I headed up the Whistler Village gondola and straight back to the family zone.  Initially the skiing was not that great.  My right knee was giving me real trouble and I was struggling with the left turn.  However as the day progressed things really improved.  I rode around the mountain a lot more today and generally tried to increase the steepness of the terrain and ramp up the difficulty.

I mainly stayed around the Emerald and Garbonzo chair for the morning.  I did however head on over into the Symphony amphitheater.  I mainly stuck to the Burnt Stew trail and really got some speed up on the way down.

After lunch however I headed up the Peak chair and tried out the saddle.  The top was really icy and fully of moguls.  As my technique was not great this did mean that I struggled.  Not far down from the top I managed to do a face plant and hurt my busted shoulder a little.  I struggled a little to get one of the ski's back on, but after that it all went really well.  As the day wore on towards a close the average speed and linking of turns had increased in speed and were really smothe.

The run back down to the village was not great fun, because it was just so slushy.

All in all a good experiment to see how the 'other half' of the mountain ride.  I'm not a convert, as I prefer the snowboarding experience better.  It should help with any back country however.

I had contemplated it for a while, and decided to try the Dark Side.  That is I thought that I would try Skiing for the first time ever.  I thought that I would see what the other side were 'moaning' about.  So I headed into the Village and headed to Summit to hire some ski's. After a short time I was all kitted out and headed up the Whistler Village gondola.

Clicking in for the first time, it felt as though I was standing on top of a couple blocks.  It felt like I was on stilts!  The weather was awful in the morning and the first run was so tiring, because I was trying so hard.  By the time I got to Pig alley I had relaxed a little and it started to get a little easier.  I did start out with the old snow-plow, and making sure that I could stop, but as I passed the Chick Pea restaurant for the first time I had moved on to parallel turns.  These just seamed easier to do, along with the hockey stop.  I headed up the Emerald chair for my first experience of getting onto and off a chair with Ski's.  It was very much easier getting on and off with ski's rather than with a snowboard.  You just have to made sure you get up and keep the poles out of the way.

The second run down was very much faster and easier.  I likened the experience of parallel turns to using the stair climber at the gym.  I did still however find my balance to be a little off still.  After the third or fourth run down it was getting much better.  I took a few different routes down the mountain and even took Orange Peel down to Big red, and also ended up in a small mogul field.  I could tell that my technique was not good enough to ride mogul's as I didn't have a very good time getting through these.

By now I had taken a couple tumbles (splits to face, and wayward ski to falling over to my side, etc.) and the weather had closed in to be a white out, so I headed on in for a quick lunch.

After lunch things went even better with the skiing.  My timing was very much better and the speed was getting better and more controlled.  I still didn't feel that I was getting my weight forward enough but the turns were much easier and flowed.  I managed to get a good few runs down to Emerald chair and a couple down to Garbonzo.  All too soon however it was lift closing time, so I headed on down from the roundhouse down pig alley, and past Emerald, onto Olympic and then Crabapple.  The snow conditions were really wet and sticky down here and I was struggling with my left turn as my left knee was giving me some pain and trouble.  I pushed through it and skied all the way down to the bottom of the village.

Visibility: Overcast, with periods of snow & white out's, clearing late to sunshine
Snow: 5cm
Piste Condition: Everything from fresh powder, hard pack, soft, lumpy, bumpy, slushy and very wet
Wind: Moderate and gusty
Temperature: +8 at the base to -4 at the top.
Crowding: Extremely Light
Lift Lines: Extremely light

Slow start to the day.  Headed up Whistler and over into Symphony.  The riding in here today was actually really good and fast. I did a few runs in here before going over to Harmony to see if that was good too.  I was left disapointed.  The Harmony piste was not groomed and was not in good condition.  I gave it a couple runs but it wasn't very enjoyable.  I headed for a little lunch.

Afted lunch I headed on up the Peak chair and onto the Saddle.  The Saddle was running good too, if a little lumpy.  I charged on straight down to Big Red and waited for Chris, Mark, John and DJ , at the Roundhouse.  The plan was again this Tuesday to have a BBQ at the fourt.  We headed on down to find that there was again a lot of people this week.

After a couple hours in the sun there were only a few of us left.  Myself, Chris, John, Mark and DR.  At about 19:00 we had drunk all the beer and eat all the food and decided to head on down.  There were a number of freshly groomed lines down the hill.  On the way down toward Big Red we came up to a pister who was drifting into the right.  DR and Chris got through on the right before the gap closed, and I had to emergency break andpass on the left.  Thankfully the others followed me.  We charged as fast as the conditions would allow down Crabapple and into the village.

Visibility: Mostly sunny with occasional cloudy periods
Snow: None
Piste Condition: Choppy but soft on top of hard pack
Wind: Light to none
Temperature: +4 at the base to -10 at the top.
Crowding: Extremely Light
Lift Lines: Extremely light

It's tough to be motivated at the moment.  The cough from the flu is still here and the conditions are not great.  Saying that there were 10cm last night.  By the time I got up Whistler all the fresh lines were already done.  There were still some good stashes to be had however.

I headed on over to Harmony first and put in a couple runs to the side of the piste.  Things were a bit choppy but still good.  I stayed on Harmony until I headed for lunch.

After lunch I headed up the Peak Chair and into Symphony.  I was hoping that there would be good conditions in the trees.  I wasn't totally disappointed, but it wasn't great.  I rode a few rimes down, and even tried the Rhapsody bowl.  Under here you could really feel the hard pack and it wasn't a good line.  I then headed on back to Harmony and took a run or two down the piste, but it was really quite choppy and difficult to get the speed up.

Getting towards the lift close I headed all the way down past Emerald, onto Olympic and onto the Garbonzo chair.  I timed it right as the clouds started to move in on the alpine.  I made a couple runs down Dave Murray and onto Tokum back to Garbonzo.  I had had enough for the day and rode down to Creekside.  It was really slushy and full of moguls, but loads of opportunities to get some hits and kicks out there.

Visibility: Dark and cloudy with occasional bright patches,snow and hail
Snow: 10cm
Piste Condition: Moderately heavy Powder, on top of hard pack
Wind: Light to none
Temperature: +2 at the base to -10 at the top.
Crowding: Extremely Light
Lift Lines: Moderate to light

Didn't start to early again today as am still feeling unwell from the flu.  Headed on up Whistler with the view to just ride around the mountain, which I ended up doing all day.

The low cloud made riding in the lower part of the mountain a no-no, so I headed straight on over to Symphony via the Peak chair.  I wasn't really enjoying myself over here so headed to my favorite Harmony piste.  From here I rode Harmony Piste about a dozen times.  The piste was quite rough, and as I didn't have much strength I kept the speed down a little, but still managed 83Km/h.  Not too bad, and should be able to get into the 90's when I'm feeling better!  I stopped for lunch even though I wasn't too hungry, but headed back to Harmony after.  I eventually rode all the way down to Garbonzo for a last run down Orange Peel and Tokum, before riding down to the bottom of Creekside.  The run in was extremely slushy at the bottom, but still entertaining.

Visibility: Cloudy with occasional bright patches
Snow: Trace
Piste Condition: Hard and icy early, warming to a light slush layer later
Wind: Light to none
Temperature: +5 at the base to -5 at the top.
Crowding: Extremely Light
Lift Lines: Extremely Light

I took my time today and rode like it too.  I had been ill with the flu since last week and was just not feeling 100%.  I headed on up Whistler and just rode around trying to feel the 'mo jo'.  I tried a lot of the usual haunts and found that the Harmony Piste was by far the best piste of the day.  So I rode this a few times, before hitting the last Harmony lift.  I then headed on over to the Round House and waited for Chris to arrive after work.

Myself and Chris then headed off for a quick run down Orange Peel and Tokum.  On the way we dropped off his bags, before we headed on around again and re-collected them.  The plan was to the Fort Knocks as there was a huge number of people there drinking and having a BBQ.  Chris had brought a golf club and some golf balls.  These were hit by various people off the slope and into the trees.  At about 17:00 one of the piste patrol came along and told us to leave.  A small group of us simply headed down and around a little and out of sight.  Here we stayed for about another hour.

When it was time to go some of us dropped the cornice and rode on down, with the sun setting in the background.

Visibility: Bright sunshine
Snow: Zero
Piste Condition: Hard and icy early, warming to slushy later
Wind: Light to none
Temperature: +8 at the base to +5 at the top.
Crowding: Extremely Light
Lift Lines: Extremely Light