03/25 - Blackcomb

Woke this morning to loud drips outside. Uh oh. Mixed rain and snow at the base, mostly rain. Glad for the covered hood on The Wizard chair. By mountain top, it was just snowing, but not really dry snow. A couple of warm-ups on Jersey Cream revealed soft, groomed snow, and softened styro-snow off-piste. Headed over to Crystal Chair for a couple of Arthur's. Those bumps are getting even bigger with big drops in between. What a kick. Headed up Glacier Express to find howling winds on top, poor visibility, and wind-crusted snow. Dang, that chair's out for the day. So spent the rest of the morning skiing Jersey Cream chair line and the bump runs to the skiers right of the chair. After lunch, tried 7th Heaven. Snow quality was Ok, but again howling winds and poor vis on top limited us to 2 runs. Back to the hamster wheel on Jersey Cream. The snow was getting quite wet requiring goggle wipes on the way down. Would have quit a little earlier until we rode the lift with an op who told us where there was a couple of fun hidden runs I hadn't done before. That added three more runs.

We finally succumbed to the weather and quit early with a run down Bark Sandwich. Another kick-ass fun bump run in the glades. As we headed down the mountain, the gortex definitely got a work-out. 31.5K today. Still a good day and a nice finish to our three days of skiing.

The forecast is calling for several big wet storms through the week-end here. I suspect that will add snow at night, but be kinda wet during the day given the temps.

Random thoughts and questions: What's with the Canadians and the safety bars on the chairs? It's like they're panicked to get the bar down as soon as their butts hit the chair. If your head or other appendage is in the way, it's gonna get whacked repeatedly until it is out of the way and the bar safely down. I thought our brothers to the north lived on the more wild side, but not when it comes to the damn safety bar.

How come my local ski area (Crystal Mountain) can't set up lift lines with the same efficiency as our Canadian friends? I'm almost embarrassed by the mind numbing lack of sense used for lift line ropes at CM compared to here.

As reported earlier by DDK, Citta's in the Village will be closing the end of May. This is a great little bar right in the center of the village with affordable comfort food, good drinks, lively atmosphere, and a nice vantage point to watch people. While they have lost their lease at this location (for 30 years), the owner is probably going to open a new place in a different location, but it won't be Citta's.

Lastly, there are great deals to be had on ski equipment up here rivaling anything on the internet. While there is 12% tax, that just happens to be the same exchange rate for conversion to US dollars. LD got a pair of 2014 K2 Superstitious skis with integrated Marker bindings for $599 out the door. Cheapest I found on the web was $719.

Another great trip to Whistler Blackcomb!

“Safety” bar at Whistler is pretty intense, always knew that if it didn’t drop in the first butt plant that likely the other folks on the lift where either not Canadian or Europeans…sign at the bottom of all the lifts says to use the safety bar, someone told me that in Europe it’s the LAW – can get fines if you don’t use them. Canadian folks are incredibly more law abiding and “nice” – high lighted by having a single line merging into the main line on both sides of most chairs (think about FQex at Crystal and the amount of effort required by folks that can count), at Whistler there is no lift opp interaction, but more than once the person on the other side would indicate it was “my turn” if I was not paying full attention. But Whistler does seem to be able to set up merging lift lines that flow pretty nicely and they are set up exactly (almost) the same every day…apparently folks at Crystal have never skied anywhere else (at least the operations folks for the lifts).

Other – cant wait to hear about the “hidden” runs are, I know of a number of runs hidden in the trees that I need to do next time. More new skis for Ms. D….lordy what a ski bucket budget….gotta be set for at least a season or two now.

Glad you had a great trip! I be ready to go back soon – especially based on rumored spring Crystal skiing plans.

I didn't know that they allowed bringing hamster wheels across the border

Glad to hear yr ripping it up despite the wet weather. Viva la GoreTex!

Love that cone of silence on the Wizard chair on rainy mornings!