Whistler, BC, Canada 3/5-?

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"Whistler rains a lot", people say.

So imagine my surprise when I woke up this morning just north of the Canadian border, south of Vancouver, within 2 hr of Whistler:

The problem with this picture is, I'm not at Whistler yet. I was going to drive the last 2 hr to Whistler and ski the day. But I suspect this unexpected wet snow, a good 3-4" of it, is going to make my drive time longer than expected.

As I hit the road, I saw people going all over the road in their SUVs. The plows were few and far between. I'm guessing, on a Sunday morning, they were just waiting for it to melt! Well, I don't want to wait!

So to make a long story (drive?) short, I drove cautiously at reduced speed. I arrived at Whistler just shy of 12.

Check-in was quick. My lodging for the first part of my stay, was at Whistler village, within a very short walk of the lifts. So in no time, I was on the Blackcomb gondola. (the lady at the guest service kindly suggest I head to Blackcomb where it's less crowded).

Since it was still snowing, visibility was at a premium. So I resolve to stay below the tree line. The edge of the trails had plenty of leftover snow smooth as cream cheese. My skis happily smear them about!

After a couple laps of both the Coaster and Excelerator chair, I moved on to the Jersey Cream. The snow was indeed creamy. But since this chair goes part way above the trees, the best part of the snow also happened to be in the whiteout! Needless to say, I made a lot of short radius turns just so my body knows which way is up and which is down.

3:55pm, I was coming down towards the Coaster chair again. Mindful of the recent story of someone left on a stopped chair at the end of the day, trying to make up my mind if I want to take the chair one more time. (since I started the day late, I really feel like milking every possible run) Snow was getting really good from the non-stop light snow all day long. Then I saw a bunch of people heading toward the chair, I decided there's enough of us that I need not worry about being left on a stopped chair by myself!

The last run down was a long one, or I made it a long one. That's where Whistler shine, I guess, the big vertical. Even though I wasn't skiing from the very top, it was still a pretty big vertical by typical mountain standard.

(Some section of the trails were pretty slick from too many people skiing all the snow off. Other section was the opposite, the new snow were pretty nice and no one had touched them yet)

Rain? What rain?

 

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Day 2, 3/5, snowing on and off

5" of snow had fallen according Whistler web site. In the morning.

Today, I joined the epicski.com annual "gathering". There were a big group of people at the meeting place. Not wanting to kill my legs on day 1 (yesterday was more like day 0.5), I went with a slower group. Unfortunately, it was a lot of stopping and waiting. And I was getting cold just standing around. Besides, we were missing the powder!

Fortunately, the Harmony chair finally open, the group went up it and came down Saddle, a blue run by Whistler's standard. It was pretty steep for a blue. But the best part was the side of it hadn't been tracked out yet! So those of us in the front of the group (I'm usually NOT in the front of the group but just for this occasion), dropped in on a perfectly pitched slope for the amount of powder.

Then, it was lunch break for the group. And a re-mixing of people happened.

In the afternoon, we stayed to play at the Symphony area for a bit, moved down into the trees when the cloud made it too hard to see. We found a lot of glades just right so were lapping them as best as we can. The group dwindled as people got tired and wanted an early end of the day (after all, a lot of people were staying for a whole week, no sense killing one's legs on day 1 or 2)

To finish the day, one other guy and I went over to the race area. Right past the starting house, were nice little touched thick coat of powder with no one on it! We laugh and giggle like little girls as we zoom down that run! It was one of the best run of the day, our last run.

(I don't take picture when with a group, since others would be taking photos. I'll poach a few when those shutterbugs share theirs)

 

[mishka]

with few friends went to the same epic.com event. Today, when pow on the ground, we decided not to join into the group events or skiing in the group more than....2


from today at Whistler in glacier

 

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No friends on powder day?

So I won't see you this year then, because tomorrow will have even more powder!

That's not counting on the 12" predicted for Thursday!

 

[mishka]

of course that's what powder day for lol

I will be there at around 8am on the gathering spot… will be on mad Russian skis

 

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Day 3: 3/7/2017, Snowing still...

Overnight, another 4-5" had fallen (depending on where on the mountain, there's more or less). As it was still snowing, visibility was poor.

Our group (advance, but no cliffs no rocks) headed up to Jersey Cream and did a quick lap of the Jersey Cream wall. I've seen it in better lights so I wasn't too concerned about the lack of visibility. Just drop in and ski. There were some bumps under the few inches of powder but nothing to worry about. Others who hadn't been there were less confident. But all made it in good spirit. And everyone enjoyed the lower part that's filled with powder. We did it again, partly because it was quite good, but mostly because 7-Heaven wasn't opened yet...

Our timing was pretty good. Just as we were about to lap Jersey Cream for a 3rd time, we saw 7-Heaven opened! So we were pretty close to the front group of skiers arriving at 7-Heaven (only the few skiers already ON the Jersey Cream chair were ahead of us).

The wind was brutal AGAIST us on the traverse. Our guide took us pretty far out to skiers left. I wasn't too impressed by that. We probably could have dropped down on the groomer and enjoy the fresh "hero snow" while getting a quick lap in anyway. On the plus side, we did hit some pretty nice fresh powder no one had touched. Plus, we did get to enjoy the nearly untouched hero snow on the groomer at the bottom part of our run.

2nd lap, our guide went skier right while part of the group went back to skier left. I joined the group going skier left and enjoyed the hero snow on the groomer again.

3rd lap, we went to Xeggie's (sp?), WAY out on skiers left. Visibility was pretty bad. Plus we had to sideslip down some wind packed snow with rocks poking up, a bit slow going. Though once past the rock field, we were rewarded with really good cream cheese snow lower down! So good the group voted to go back again.

After the 4th lap, we were cold and tired from poling/skating against the wind each lap. So we headed back to the bottom of Jersey Cream to warm up with a quick snack.

After our quick snack break, we took Glacier Express and did Spanky's Ladder in zero visibility! Snow was excellent but I can't say I enjoyed it because of the lack of visibility. Some other in the group was affected by the zero visibility even worse than I had. So it was a bit slow going. It took a while for us to make it all the way down. By then, it's well past our lunch meeting time. And I could see everyone was cold and tired so we beeline for the warmth of the lodge.

After lunch, I joined a couple who knew the mountain well. We went over to Crystal chair and did a couple laps in the well-spaced trees. That made for a great finale of the day. We again closed the chair by getting on it 3 min before it's schedule to close.

(You can see the nearly knee deep powder I was skiing through)

It's been 3 days that I skied till the very bitter end of the chair operation schedule. I'm surprised on how well my legs were holding up. (I'm not one who usually ski bell-to-bell) But my body is definitely feeling it though. I kept reminding myself I should pace it better since I'm here for a week. But the snow is so very good it's really not much effort to ski them. Nor could I peel myself away from all that powder. So while the chairs were still spinning, I kept going on them!

 

[dlague]

Nothing like being snow blind on terrain with no trees and flat light - you can get very disoriented.

 

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Day 4, 3/8/2017, Sun, cloud and snow flurries

Finally, the sun came out!!!



After 3 days (and more days for the earlier arrivers of our group) of mostly cloudy and snowy, which was great for producing and preserving powder, almost all of us were secretly (or not so secretly) wish for sunny days! While the powder was fantastic and everyone was enjoying it enormously, not being able to see where we were going in mostly whiteout conditions were challenging at best. As a result, much of the best skiing were done below the tree line where we can see, the top of the mountain had been only visited sparingly. And on those occasional visit to the open alpine terrain, we discovered the snow were in great condition, if only we can see enough to let it rip!

So this morning, when the sky starting to show, the consensus was to go up as soon as patrol open the top lifts. Though in reality, that entails a considerable wait while lapping the mid-mountain lifts, accompanied by the sound of avalanche bombs.

(our small group: the upside down picture pn the bottom)


When the Peak chair was open, the crowd was significant. Some in our group were considering just skiing another laps of the mid-mountain chair, in the hope the line on the Peak Express will dissipate. But then, someone noticed a snowboarder was dropping in on the cliff facing the lift. We all were transfixed at the display. He flew off the cliff, landed switched, somehow got himself turned around and dropped the lower cliff with a back flip!

That. pretty much settled the question of waiting in the lift line while having a front row seat watching the young and fearless showing off, vs another lap in the mid-mountain! We stayed and watch one after another boarders and skiers flying off the cliff bands in plain view of the lift. The longest lift line of our whole week went unnoticed.

Once on top, we dropped into the West Bowl, which has quite good snow. But the lines on the Peak chair deterred us from going back up. Since it's almost time for our lunch meet up time, we rode the Peak-to-Peak gondola to get over to Blackcomb. The view off the P2P gondola was jaw-dropping!



Unfortunately, the cloud moved in after we finished lunch. So our original plan of going up to the Blackcomb Glacier had to wait. We lap the good snow on the Seventh-Heaven chair several times, finding untouched lines each time. Until our legs couldn't take it any more...

 

[Jully]

Sounds absolutely ridiculous. Glad to hear Whistler isn't disappointing!

 

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I'm behind in my report of Whistler the last couple days, because I'm afflicted with a disease called "powder fever", the symptom of which being early rise but still have no time to post, coupled with extreme exhaustion at the end of day and falling to sleep as soon as one's done with dinner and shower.

But the fever is about to be over, due to the fact the freezing level will rise to above the mid-mountain station come Monday. In other words, half of Whistler's vertical will see rain rather than snow.

So, while I'm still awake for the next few minutes, I'll try my best to catch up on the more mundane days (before the powder dump)...

Day 5: 3/8/2017, Sun and cloud

Finally, the "river of snow" stopped just briefly, and we got another day of some sun and can see where we are. I took advantage of the good visibility to "tour" around the mountain as much as I could.

First thing in the morning, all the group decided to go up on the Peak Express chair, which took us to the top of Whistler mountain. The view was pretty amazing.

(Sorry for the upside down picture, I even tried rotating the original but same result. Hint: it's absolutely worth the effor to rotate your screen to see the picture the right way!)




Part of the group wanted to ski all the way down to the bottom. I didn't join them because I want to use the good visibility to traverse the ridges and mountain tops to take in all the amazing view that's been hidden under the cloud & fog the last few days. Along the way, I found untouched powder too. Not bad.

After lunch, one of the "semi-local" took a few of us up to Spanky's Ladder. A little hike that access all the bowls off the Blackcomb glacier. This time, he showed us a route that's easier than our previous venture to the same area. Further more, there's just enough visibility that I finally got to enjoy the good snow those super steep bowls had!

A few short section of trees round off the day. (in the back of everyone's mind, we were "taking it easy to save our legs for tomorrow" when the forecast was predicting a substantial dump!

 

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Day 6, 3/10, Powder day!

This day is so unique in my skiing life, it deserves a thread of its own:
http://forums.alpinezone.com/showth...-3-10-2017-quot-No-friend-on-powder-day!-quot

 

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Day 6: 3/11, Bonus Day, Snowing

After previous afternoon's hard work pushing through wet cement in pea soup, no one bothered to show up for the 8:15 meet up. More over, for most people of the group, this is their last day. So packing and check out took time. I also only had hotel reserved till today so I too, need to pack up and check out. Though for me, my "packing" is simply throwing everything into the trunk of my car. So after a VERY slow morning of moving about like a zombie, I headed towards the lift well after 9.

The main reason for the lack of motivation, was the forecast calling for RAIN today! Albeit only at the village level. Still, some people opted not to ski their last day given the forecast. I don't blame them for wanting to keep the memory of their last day of the trip being a powder day.

But when I opened the window, I saw snow flakes instead of rain drops. A quick check on the mountain website, another 4-5" had fallen since the lift closing of yesterday. I steel myself into my boots and headed out to the lift. Once on the mountain, I was pleasantly surprised at the cream cheese smooth snow, a good 3-4" of it! All my tiredness from yesterday magically disappeared and I was floating on those cream cheese grinning ear to ear again!

Noon was the designated 2nd meet up for the group. Only 6 of us were there. Everyone was commenting on how good the skiing is. Still, everyone was also dog tired from yesterday. So no hurry with lunch either.

I surveyed the scene, I mean the group. These were all expert level skiers of the group, strong and fast. I wouldn't have chose to follow these guys around. But today, I found no one else in my middle-speed group. And these guys all vow to take it slow and wait for me. Beggars can't be choosers. I figured I'll follow them for a while till them got tired of waiting.

We headed towards the Crystal area, where all the fun glades are.

1st run, down "In the Spirit", a well-known black glade. The spacing of the trees were just right, and the soft powder make it even more enjoyable.

But the Crystal chair was a painfully long wait. So we tried Solar Coaster instead, only to find it just as crowded. The sky was pretty much socked in. So all the chairs below the tree line were busy since few people dare to venture into the whiteout world above the tree line.

We settle in, resigned to long lift lines and also having to occasionally wait for other groups to clear a particular patch of trees we were skiing. At times, it reminded me a little like biking through Manhattan streets, simultaneously dodging both fixed and moving obstacles (For Manhattan street, potholes: non-moving, cars: moving; for Whistler glades, non-moving obstacles are obviously trees, moving ones are other skier and they can come from out of nowhere). Fortunately, Whistler has so many glades, there's still room for all of us on a Saturday after fresh snow! Having true locals to lead us around really makes it nice too.

I thought I was tired from yesterday, and was fully expecting to make today a short day. But the skiing in the trees were so much fun I just kept on following those guys (and gals) hoping back on the chair after each run. The last time we hopped onto the Crystal chair, the clock in the liftie's hut was showing 2 minutes past 4!

All in all, an excellent bonus day after the previous days of big powder.

And a fitting end to my first trip to Whistler.