Employee Ski Day

Ok, sorry for the lapse in entries. However, I had an incident involving an external hard drive and all of my photos (ugh...) so I'm starting from scratch. I was planning to post a few pics of my new skis (thanks mom and dad!), a couple videos, etc, which for the moment is unavailable.

Unpleasantries aside, today was spectacular. Using money from the occasional cash sale and tips, we bought "First tracks" tickets and the whole shop went for a day of skiing. It was spectacular. In spite of a serious snow deficit (whistler, I've discovered, is a snow vacuum) we had a blast. Again, I think pictures tell the story well, so here they are.

Umm, Whip cream and hot chocolate, I think.

Early morning gondola ride.

Attempt at creative photography.

Matt, Dave.

Matt stomps a log drop.

The good life

Three unknown snowboarders, livin' the dream. Top of 7th heaven chair, Blackcomb mountain.

Crazy Whistler Cloud Photos

I snowboarded for the first time this season. It was fun, but not particularly noteworthy. In fact, I don't know that I'll snowboard again for the rest of the season. I simply find that on any given run in any given conditions, I'd rather be on my alpine skis. They are more versatile, more fun, and I'm better at it. Ok, now that's out of the way, I'd like to mention that Whistler has the strangest weather/cloud patterns I've ever seen. This makes for excellent photo opportunities.

Today, it was raining and overcast in the village, and a brilliant sunny day at the peak. Somewhere in between rested a layer of clouds which made for some pretty cool light/cloud interactions. Several times I found myself frantically scrambling for my camera, not wanting the opportunity to pass. I'm no photographer, but here's what came of my desperate-pocket searching. As always, click to see the full-size image. Also of note, if you ever see a photo you'd like to keep, use as a desktop background, etc., open the full-size image, right click on the photo, and select "save as." You can then save the photo to any location on your hard drive and have it to keep.

This photo was taken at the top of the Creekside gondola. It looks like a black and white picture, but in fact this was taken in color.

Around 3pm the clouds and the sun conspired to make a hologram-like formation that was quite breathtaking. The photos, as usual, fail to capture the full effect.

See above caption, these two shots were taken in sequence.

Michael, my housemate, taking in the view of Blackcomb mountain.

Second shot in the Creekside gondola sequence.

Goings-on

While I haven't found anything particularly noteworthy about which to write lately, I'm sure there's a few new things in my life. So, I'm simply going to start writing and see what comes out.

Today was day three of my four-day mini-vacation. For some reason, the schedule worked out that I've got 4 straight days off. This is fantastic because I've had three excellent days of skiing and I think I'm going to snowboard for the first time this season tomorrow (gasp!).

The avalanche conditions are the worst they've been since 1976, the result of an ice layer underlying the snowpack which can rip off at any moment. This layer is buried so deeply that it will persist for the duration of the season, becoming problematic again in the springtime when melting snow lubricates the sliding surface. Unfortunately, this means that almost half of the terrain on the resort is closed, un-skiable, or out-of-bounds. Agh. Also it means that any backcountry travel is extrememy hazardous, which further limits the amout of skiable terrain. This is frustrating because I left Colorado to avoid unstable continental snowpack conditions, and this year and this year only, Whistler is worse than good old CO.

The good news is we're still finding good snow and having a great time. I laughed harder this morning than I have in a long time, compliments of Dave, Paul, Tanya, Tara, and Tim.

I successfully replicated dad's amazing chili. (Insert pat on the back here.)

I bent my skis. Both of them. Basically when i put the skis together, the tips bend backwards starting about a foot above the binding. Essentially I've created a mini-rocker on my ARVs. That's the bad news. The good news is now they double as a mogul, park, powder, and rock ski, and I used my birthday money to buy a new ski/binding setup. (Volkl Gotama 183 cm, Jester binding.)

So that turned out sounding somewhat negative, but in reality life is good. My house is great, my roomates are awesome, and I'm having the time of my life. Here's a few more pics from the last couple days.

Sidestepping up to ski a covert tree run on Whistler mountain. The snow was fantastic in here today, so we skied the run three times. This ascent was kind of cool--the path was hardly wide enough so your skis would stick off the edge.

The Danish eat their cheeseburgers with a knife and fork. I find this ridiculous beyond all sense of reason (and told them so) but if you travel to Denmark, bring some utensils.

This is the view from the peak-to-peak gondola, looking at blackcomb mountain. I realize as I type this caption that I may have already posted this pic, but oh well.

View of whistler mountain over a frozen Green Lake.

A Face-shot a Day Keeps the Doctor Away

Epic, sensational, unreal. Today was a spectacular day of skiing. Today I learned that I ski with my mouth wide open. I learned that today because I spent all morning coughing mouthfuls of snow out of the gaping orifice which occupies the lower third of my face. And no, it wasn't because I did a double-heel ejection header into a 4 foot drift (although I did). Rather, it was a result of back to back to back to back runs during which my face averaged more contact with snow than it did with air.

Whistler reported 35cm of snow at mid-mountain, almost all of which fell between the hours of 2pm-10pm last night. 35cm doesn't actually sound like that much, but whoo! It was enough. My day started at 5:30 in Dave's pickup headed to make First Tracks. We rode the gondola at 7:30 with several hundred other powder fiends, ate a huge buffet breakfast of sausage, bacon, eggs, granola, pastries, orange juice, and pancakes faster that I thought humanly possible, and waited for the go-ahead to shred.

By 1pm my legs felt like Jell-o. I had to take the cat-track down--I simply couldn't safely make a real turn to save my life. It was an amazing feeling. Unfortunately neither myself nor my friends could be bothered to snap a photo of me buzzing hip-deep down powder lines, so there are no photos of skiing. But I did take advantage of the down time on the lifts to snap a few photos which I hope you'll enjoy.

That, believe it or not, is my assistant manager. It's 6:15 am and he's crammed in the backseat of a pickup, gondola-bound.

The mob, waiting to be unleashed upon the unsuspecting powder. Behind is the Whistler alpine, which is not yet open because of severe avalanche hazard. The day the alpine opens, it will be neck-deep. I will be there. When they dropped the rope it was total chaos: crashes, cursing, anger, war whoops. I really really wish I'd been taking video--it'd have been hysterical.

Reflective lenses are BA.

Whistler alpine, shrouded in clouds. View from Red Chair.

Powdah....It's like Chowdah' for your FEET!

Today the sky got queasy, felt naseous, and PUKED on Whistler. In fact, it's still snowing very, very hard. I dug my car out from underneath 10" of the lightest fluff (I have yet to see the heavy snow everyone keeps talking about), and had to put chains on my tires for only the third time since being here.

By the time I had finished clearing the snow from the windows, the windshield already had about an inch of new snow. It was ridiculous. Unfortunately, the driveway at deerhorn place is relatively massive. After shoveling for an hour, Rico and I finally cleared all the snow, only to find that several inches had fallen in the meanwhile and we had to shovel the first part all over again. Rico had shoveled 2 hours previously, to boot.

As the aussies would say "Tomorrow is meant to be epic." I'm planning on an early morning. Whistler has a program called "First Tracks," which lets the first 650 people in the gondola line up the hill for the first run down. There is a huge buffet-style breakfast, and then you get to cruise down the mountain for untouched turns, then jump back on the gondola before the masses to get a second, epic run.

This means I'll have to get up around 5:30, so my bedtime was half an hour ago. See you bright and early!

A few photos

Well I've now got a camera (Thanks crystal!), so here's a few photos I snapped today.

This is me, standing on Whistler at the top of the Garbanzo lift. Blackcomb mountain is the backdrop for this pic. I have drawn a black arrow pointing to DOA, the chute I skied a week ago with some friends from the shop. Unfortunately, the avalanche danger is super-high so it'll be a while before we are able to ski it again. Click to enlarge.

Riding the chairlift on blackcomb mountain with some friends.

Breakfast of Champions, and those who know they won't eat another meal until 4pm when the lifts close.

Yours truly at 8am, feeling loaded after eating said breakfast of champions.