EVERYONE ELSE WAS THERE AS WELL

UPPER ALPINE CLOSED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE

By PETER THOMAS BUSCH

The week had been the most difficult in three years of snowboarding.

I was booked for work from Monday to Friday while several centimeters of snow fell on Whistler Blackcomb throughout the week after a slow start to the season.

Normally, I would have headed up the Sea To Sky Highway (Hwy 99) to snowboard the morning after a new snowfall of 2 centimeters or more. Being self employed allows for this skipping work without retribution the next day when arriving for work. I do limit snowboarding days to two days a week so as not to lose work opportunities, except for the holidays of course and some exceptional weeks of snow during the night and sunshine during the day.

Last year I got 26 snowboarding days in at Whistler Blackcomb. 

I got day 9 in on Saturday for the 2019/2020 season.

I would not say that the topcoat of snow was fresh, but the snow conditions were considerably better than days 1 to 8.

Most rewarding of all was that he Dave Murray Downhill was open all the way to Creekside, and of course, the ability to ski out to Creekside for the last run of the day after 3 pm.

The snow was a bit chunky, not in the chunky mogul sense but in the sense of a mix of hard frozen snow with soft snow and then some skied in patterns.

The disappointment of the day was that the Peak lift was still closed. Riding the Saddle is one of my favorite parts of the day. I like to warm up and get used to the snow conditions before making one of three passes down the Saddle.

The day was a good one with 21,788 vertical feet logged.

I could have done more, but unfortunately everyone else had the same idea as I on Saturday.

I started the morning 30 minutes earlier to avoid the traffic, but a lot of people eager to ski and snowboard after a long week of work after Christmas were already on Hwy 99.

There were not really any stalls, but the traffic slowed to a crawl at two merging points where the two lane highway becomes a one lane highway, on the top of Brome Ridge and again near the lights to Function Junction. Last year there was a slow down near the Tantalus Range Lookout.

These slow downs underscore the importance of following the posted speed limits, especially during wet or icy conditions.

All in all Whistler Blackcomb is back in business, just with a lot of experienced skiers waiting for the higher alpine to open up.