DIFFERENT MOUNTAIN WITH SAME GREAT DAY

STEEP EXHILERATING TERRAIN IN ALPINE

By PETER THOMAS BUSCH

I didn’t exactly take a wrong turn on my way to Whistler to end up at Mount Washington. I had some work on Vancouver Island, and so I had to take the ferry across Georgia Strait anyway.

Mount Washington is next to Strathcona Provincial Park between Comox and Campbell River.

The Alpine Resort has a small footprint next to the park with five chair lifts and 82 alpine runs.

The trails are steep, resulting in short exhilarating runs never too far from a lift, with a lot of the activity occurring near the alpine chalet.

I had been snowboarding on Mount Washington during my first season a couple of years ago.  So I knew what to expect as long as the snow conditions remained good and the visibility was excellent. 

The steep terrain does not allow for a second of a mistake so you have to be able to see every curve and every bump and every ice patch.

I remembered riding the Bulls after a morning warming up my legs and getting use to the snow conditions and terrain.

So I rode Coaster and then Whiskey Jack a few times before moving further west under the Eagle Lift to ride the East Bull and the West Bull.

The Whiskey Jack lift had less of a line-up so after the initial upload on Eagle, I uploaded on Whiskey Jack a few times until the line-ups became a saw off between Eagle and Whiskey Jack, at which point it didn’t really matter anymore.

Mount Washington begins uploading at 9 am, for good reason since the lion’s share of the skiers and snowboarders do not really arrive until after nine and keep on coming after 10 am.

I rode the Bulls until my head started spinning a bit. Then I headed west toward the Sunrise lift. I rode Invitation a couple of times. Invitation seemed longer and a bit wider than the other runs, and being west and exposed almost entirely to the rising sun in the west from early morning on, the snow was a bit softer.

I gradually made my way back to the Bulls to finish the day a few runs before closing time to avoid the traffic stall getting out of the small parking lots and down the long winding Parkway.

I came back on Sunday for a second day of snowboarding on Mount Washington.

I had given my legs a good work out the day before, but snowboarding the long runs on Whistler Blackcomb have conditioned a lot of endurance into my legs.

I headed over to the Sunrise lift and warmed up on Invitation before heading over to the Black Diamond run, Rick’s Ride.

If you have ever been on a rollercoaster, Rick’s Ride is like the downward spiral after the long gradual ascent.

I had difficulty the first time just getting use to the dramatic vertical descent, which was much more extreme than the Bulls.

The adrenaline charge got the best of my legs by the third ride, especially coming on day two of the two day snowboarding visit to Mount Washington.

I carved Invitation a couple of times before heading down to the Alpine Chalet for lunch.

I had left overs from the night before, and a swig of French red wine, somewhat fitting after the morning rides, eating lunch out of the trunk of my car.

The rest of the day seemed a bit anti-climactic, even riding the Bulls a few times before heading home early just after 2 pm.

Mount Washington is an interesting mountain worth the visit, possibly worth a third consecutive day.

I had another great experience riding in the alpine on the mountains in British Columbia.