Monkey

We spent the week at Whistler and rode Monday thru Friday. Overall, there wasn’t much new snow, but the quality of what was there from about mid-mountain up was really quite nice. It stayed nice and cold in the alpine the entire week, so the snow stayed soft. Wednesday was most excellent: sunny and calm, and what new snow they did have had been blown smooth by the wind the night before. The Peak chair on Whistler was the word of the day and we had many fresh turns. Good times. The other days were a mix of sunbreaks and clouds, with the clouds hitting the mountain in different spots. Coverage is very good pretty much everywhere on both mountains down to the bottom. The lower mountain refroze every night, so you had to wait for the sun to hit it and soften it again before it was worth it… I took Peak to Creek at the end of most days so it was slush by the time I hit the bottom each time. Who really rides the lower mountain there anyway beyond that? The sun came out again for me on Friday and my last run from the peak back to the room was perfect.

We stayed in the First Tracks Lodge in Creekside again, and as usual is was very nice. We ended up in an end unit this time and it was huge. We’re pretty sure it was bigger than our first few apartments The new Peak to Peak gondola made getting to Blackcomb from Creekside wonderful. We left the car parked the entire week, and we rode Blackcomb more than we have in the past. We rode in one of the “glass bottom” gondolas on one trip. I was a little disappointed… I was expecting the entire floor to be clear, but it’s just a small section in the middle, which I suppose is more practical.

Helen and I spend 6 nights in Whistler and we had a great time. Coverage was excellent, we had two days of fantastic weather, and even got a little new snow here and there. Unfortunately, Helen was recovering from a nasty cold, and I got it while we were there. So we ended up riding only 3 days. Our friend Marci joined us for the first couple of days of the trip, too, which was nice.

Thursday was an especially fun day. It was sunny and beautiful up top, with a thick layer of clouds wrapped around the middle of the mountain. We chose to stay out of the clouds and simply lapped the Peak chair on Whistler the entire day. We explored Whistler and Glacier bowls, and everything in between. Helen kicked ass on The Cirque and various parts of the ridge between Whistler and Glacier bowls, and I enjoyed myself with a run down West Cirque to Sunrise chute on the way to lunch.

These are pictures from Monday and Thursday, which were the sunny days of course!

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.