Whistler Blackcomb, BC 3/27-3/30

[millerm277]

Weather: Sunnyish and upper 30s on 3/27 and 3/28......and nearly 3ft of powder between the night of 3/28 and the night of 3/29.

Report: It was my first time to Whistler, and we got a great deal on a house a minute from Creekside (w/ski out access).

I'll start with the bad:
- Gas is expensive in Canada.
- The lower part of Dave Murray Downhill was too thin and slushy to ski fast on. (and the rest of the stuff below the Creekside Gondola was closed)
- Don't order the Vietnamese soup in the lodge. (Friend did and got ill.).
- Flight home was delayed by two hours, so I just got in. :angry:

As you can guess, those are pretty minor and irrevelant gripes.

Now then, the good:
- 3 feet of powder was simply amazing, especially since they got the alpine lifts back up and running for the 30th.
- Did I mention the waist deep snow? :smash:
- They have a nearly perfect trail/lift setup for me, never too many people on the trails, but not much in lines outside of the Emerald Express occasionally.
- While the lower mountain skiing was great by itself, the alpine skiing on the days it was open (not while the storm was howling), was great for our family. The less skilled of our group could stay within the nicely marked "runs" and have nice conditions, while we could head wherever we wanted and meet up at the lift.
- In addition, there is far too much terrain to be skied in 4 days, I could ski there for weeks and not get bored.
- The people there are some of the most friendly I've ever met (both skiers and employees), everyone was genuinely happy.

Really, I have nothing much else to say. Good lifts, great snow the whole time, nice people, and a ridiculous amount of vert and terrain available. The Peak2Peak is neat and convenient. Oh, and the drive was scenic. The few pictures I got around to taking will be up tomorrow.

(Also, nice Olympic T-shirts for $15-20).

 

[speden]

Sounds nice, I'd like to get out there sometime.

What kind of skis did you use there? With all that new snow, I'm guessing you'd want to use some fairly wide skis.

Does the fresh snow get tracked out quickly after a dump there, or is there so much terrain you can get fresh tracks all day?

 

[millerm277]

What kind of skis did you use there? With all that new snow, I'm guessing you'd want to use some fairly wide skis.

I was actually on my Rossignol Bandit BX's (70mm underfoot) a lot of the time, but there's a free demo shop at the upper lodge on Whistler that you can use for a couple hours. (Well, it's supposed to be 2 hours...).

Does the fresh snow get tracked out quickly after a dump there, or is there so much terrain you can get fresh tracks all day?

-In the woods? Definitely not.
-On the trails, the main ones do, but the rest got little enough traffic that it was pretty close to fresh tracks. The runs off Crystal Chair that drop down to Blackcomb Glacier Road were especially good for that.
-Up on the alpine areas, you can definitely get fresh tracks all day, but there's a lot of great skiers there doing things that make me look like a gaper. :lol:

I wouldn't say you'll get too many runs that are completely untracked after lunch, but there's enough terrain that you will still be skiing stuff that feels like it a day later, even if it's seen a few people.

 

[soulseller]

where are the pictures?

Edit: missed the last part.

 

[Trekchick]

. The few pictures I got around to taking will be up tomorrow.

.

I'll get my popcorn ready