Day 4: After staying up late the night before playing multiple rounds of Settlers of Catan with Tim and Anna, Kenn's friends from Vancouver, Kenn and I are very slow to get going. We have decided to take an easy skiing day as there is supposed to be 18cm of new snow on the slopes the next morning. Once we do get going, the leg's are absolutely demolished, skiing is "brutaful"-- new word coined by the family to describe skiing long runs in heavy snow with sore legs.
Skiing together as a family for the afternoon we call it a day when the alpine lifts start shutting down, but not before one more memory making moment. When skiing the Blackcomb Glacier bowl with Jen, Lee, and Kenn the day before, there is a long green circle run out at the bottom of the run, the only acceptable action in this case is to start a race to the bottom, with or without everyone's knowledge. Playing on this theme, Jen, Kenn and I decide to do a no hold's barred race from summit to base (there is some debate on whether the finish was trail home or chalet). No set course, no rules, first one down wins.
Blackcomb's longest run is about 11km, I would estimate my route to be at least 9km as I wound back and forth on cat tracks to prevent catastrophe. 9km in a tuck, skiing through clouds and fog with heavy tracked snow and thousands of skiiers is insanity, and therefore a lot of fun. I pop out of a cat track onto the run which leads to the trail home and see a red jacket and black helmet, oh no, Kenn has the lead. I kick it into high gear and over take him, miss the trail home and hike to the road where we meet with Jen arriving soon after. We decide never to repeat.
Day 5: Today is THE DAY, or is it? An apparent 18cm of snow has fallen, but as we ascend we realize the snow is heavy, wet and not as abundant as we thought. Not to worry, using Kenn's expert knowledge we find the wind loaded slopes of Blackcomb and make a great day of it. 7th Heaven is beautiful, and as I ski down looking at the abundant snow, thinking how nice it is to speed down this unmarked cache of powder, my tips catch and WHAMO I'm face down in the snow, my picture is now beside the definition of face plant on Wikipedia. We continue to ski 7th until it is tracked, and head over to Spanky's Ladder.
Spanky's Ladder (this is the exact chute we skiied! a little more gracefully than the subject of the video) is a small bootpack up the far skiiers right of Blackcomb onto some epic steep bowls leading into the glacier. It has been on the agenda since day 1 and we are all excited to ski it. Despite various danger and caution signs we continue and drop in, find some scary steep lines through a chute between large pieces of mountain, and eat lunch at the top of the run out from the glacier with some beautiful views. As we dodge danger, my mom finds her own, an ill fitting demo binding pops and she dislocates one shoulder and tears the rotator cuff in the other, bad news. We are told to keep skiing and meet at the hospital later so we head to Whistler where it is a complete whiteout.
Accepting defeat, we follow a group down, and much to our surprise, find an awesome drop with some good powder below. I drop in and watch from below as Kenn drops, gathers speed, and has a spectacular yard sale infront of a good crowd. No one is hurt, other than Wendy, and it is a hilarious way to end the day.
Wendy is in the Whistler emergency room and needs a ride, and there is no better vehicle for the job than Blance, Kenny's refurbished ambulance! We pick up the victim, some beer and head home to take of the shoulders and call it a day.
Day 6: I feel like those post is getting long, so I'll try and make this last one short. Day 6 was the most beautiful day of the trip by far. Perfectly groomed trails, extremely brisk weather, and cloudless skies made for great skiing on the groomed trails and picture taking opportunities. The view from Proposal Point is amazing, looking over peak after peak of the Rockies, and from Whistler, a picture perfect silhoutte of Black Tusk lay against the blue skies and white peaks. Kenny S. wasn't skiing today because of work commitments, but as it happens, a couple old friends, Graeme and Kenny N. from Sault Ste. Marie were living in Whistler. I met Graeme the first run down Whistler and we found some fun skiing and good times in the back bowls (as well as a few hang ups in the trees). We met Kenny at Roundhouse Lodge and decided to hit up Peak to Creek, a legendary run from the peak of Whistler to the base at Whistler Creekside. BAD IDEA. After dropping out of the alpine there was more than 4km of moguls turned skating rink. I said goodbye to Graeme at the bottom where he lived, met up with the family and enjoyed one last top to bottom run together.
Woah, this post is getting long, but there is one great story left to write, I will add it in another post so people don't get frustrated reading endless ramblings of a mediocre writer, leave me some feedback in the comments! too long? ok? Let me know so I can improve! Have a good night people, George out.
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