Monkey

Helen and I spent 5 excellent days at Whistler Blackcomb. They’ve had a lot of snow this year, and coverage on both mountains is excellent, from Diamond Bowl to West Bowl. We rode 3 days on Whistler and one on Blackcomb, with one day off in the middle. The weather was pretty hit-or-miss: a little new snow some days, with some big temperature swings. The first day we found spring-like conditions half-way down to Creekside, and on the last day it was frozen almost the whole way down. On Thursday Whistler’s alpine was closed all day, and the alpine on Blackcomb was mostly closed due to wind, with rain in the village. We managed to get up the Glacier Express in the hour or so that it was open on Thursday for a very, very windy hike up Spanky’s Ladder followed by an excellent run down Diamond Bowl. The Harmony area on Whistler was decent the entire time.

We checked out the new Symphony Express on the first day. It’s a nice area, though it’s surprisingly flat in spots. We didn’t get a chance to hike the ridge skier’s right but it looks nice over there. The cuts through the trees at the bottom towards the lift are nicely done. Instead of one or two wide runs they cut many narrower winding paths through the trees back to the lift.

Helen had a lot of fun this trip. She hit her first double-black diamonds at Whistler Blackcomb: Diamond Bowl on Blackcomb and a few of the Harmony Horseshoes on Whistler.

We stayed in Creekside for the first time, at the First Tracks Lodge which is right next to the gondola. The room was very nice… we’d definitely stay there again. (The pictures on the website are actually fairly accurate.) We had a one bedroom suite with a den, which is a little larger than the normal one bedroom that we booked. The suite had two full bathrooms and would have slept 6 very well.

After many years of staying in the main village Creekside was a nice, quiet change. We cooked dinner in the room every night, so the lack of restaurants wasn’t an issue. (There’s a good grocery store in walking distance from the lodge.) We don’t care to wander the village shopping, and we’re too old and lame to go clubbing, so we didn’t miss those. The only issue was access to Blackcomb. We ended up riding over there: up the Creekside gondola, over to the Olympic midstation, then down to the village and up Blackcomb as usual. (Essentially the reverse to get back.) There’s a shuttle, which is honestly probably a better option.

Here are a few pictures from our last day on Whistler.

I spent 5 days at White Grizzly in Meadow Creek, B.C. This was my first trip to White Grizzly and it was really quite nice. The owners, Brad and Carole, are great to be around and they create a wonderful family atmosphere that really made this one of my best cat skiing experiences to date. They run a single cat of (typically) 12 guests in an area the size of Whistler and Blackcomb combined. Our group this year was 10, all of them regulars for years except me. (I met the group through my buddy Simon.)The terrain was fantastic: steep and treed. Each run is about 3,000ft of vertical and a typical day is “just” 6 runs. We did 19,200ft on our last day! The trees are extremely tight in many places. They say that “if you have to ask how tight, then you should probably go ride somewhere else.” It’s all experts-only terrain with a mix of glades, super-tight trees, steeps, cliff bands and pillow drops. We had bluebird conditions 4 of the 5 days, and even with no new snow we had great conditions with deep, fresh tracks to be found every run.

I didn’t shoot any pictures or video to speak of. Too busy riding!