FRUITLESS EARLY MORNING STARTS

SEASON HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE POWDER DAYS

By PETER THOMAS BUSCH

The day had been started early for several snow days, like I’m talking 5:30 am for coffee, to get a good start to the day with a hot meal, but to also beat the line-ups for uploading at Whistler Blackcomb.

On Monday the early start was fruitless with a 45 minute line-up at Creekside resulting in my first run starting not until after 9:15 am. 

I was somewhat happy though, as I was able to park at Creekside, whereas on snow days etc. the lot is often full and the line-up long. You have to drive around the line to get back on the highway and drive just a little bit longer north to the Whistler Village parking.

The line-ups for uploading have normally been no shorter at Whistler Village and Blackcomb this year.

On Friday though the early start really paid off. Creekside had started uploading early and I was early as well. So I was able to park, gear up and upload at Creekside at 8:30 am.

My day started at 5:30 am with a double espresso, as I gradually transitioned my body away from sleep and into the kitchen to prepare a bacon and egg breakfast, with a bagel, and another double espresso.

Creekside parking has a washroom. So I normally hit the washroom on my way to the line-up for uploading.

On the first two runs, I warmed up my legs on Ego Bowl and the Terrain Park, without the tricks, and just carving mostly to test my fitness level for this particular day.

I have recently been riding the black diamond Bear Paw to the Garbanzo Express. On Monday, I had rode Bear Paw before warming up. This early adrenalin push caused a strain in my right quad that gradually weakened more and more for the rest of the day.

And so I rode Bear Paw a couple of times on Friday only after completing a couple of shorter, less challenging runs.

Bear Paw is a short exhilarating trail that only takes a few minutes. And the Garbanzo Express typically has a short lineup of a minute or two. The lift is probably one of the hidden gems on Whistler, giving access to a number of ungroomed, short black diamond runs almost simulating a backcountry experience, but always near the lift between the Whistler Village Gondola mid-station to the north and the Big Red to the south.

Bear Paw is a wide groomed run through the trees that may have been patterned after the wooden rollercoaster at the Pacific National Exhibition in Vancouver.

Before the next run, I had to use the park tools at the Roundhouse Lodge to tighten up my bindings. And then I thought I would take the Peak Express into more of Whistler’s black diamond trails. But the Peak Express was on stand-by for some reason, without anyone in any of the chairs.

So I took Peak to Peak and made the decision at about 10:30 am, all things considered (feeling well, planning to stay until the last run of the day at 3 pm, etc.) to do the Mountain Traverse, and hit 7^th Heaven first things first.

The Peak to Peak is a nice 15 minute break from the day, that I would normally take after lunch or when my legs need a longer break, which is when I usually take lunch.

Once over on the Blackcomb side near the Rendezvous Lodge, the 7^th Heaven trailhead to the 7^th Heaven Express is just a short brisk one minute walk with your equipment. You have to take your skis or snowboard off anyway for the gondola ride over, so this little detour on foot is of no real significance.

The donkey trail “expressway” to 7^th Heaven seems to have been widened this year, which is a good thing because there can be a bit of a stampede to get to the lift from Rendezvous Lodge.

7^th Heaven was not so badly skied out on this particular day. The area had not received any new snow the last few days since Sunday, but nor had the snow that was there frozen over. The snow in the ungroomed areas was kind of like a crisp meringue.

I headed down one of the ‘off piste’ runs, Xhiggy’s Meadow into the blue run, Sluiceway. The ungroomed Sluiceway was rather chunky all the way before merging with Lower Cloud Nine. 

Then I headed back up to take an easy out to Rendezvous. The easy out had been groomed. And the edge of my board cut into the meringue, allowing me to make a wide turn with my body just a few inches off the ground.

I did this stunt intending to ‘wow’ the crowd on the chairlift.

I headed out to Catskinner. But this black diamond had been recently groomed. And so the short trail under the chairlift was without the difficulty normally found here after a recent snow fall when the trail gets carved up quite a bit, resulting in the black diamond status on the short steep upper trail.

The Catskinner Express has the black diamond run. But families and beginners have access to this lift as well on green and blue runs to the south. The Blackcomb terrain park is one run over to the north. And so the freestylers can do laps on the terrain park by taking Catskinner, or the freestylers can ride out to the Blackcomb Gondola area in a south-north direction.

From the top, I moved over, passed the terrain park to Springboard and then merged into Honeycomb. I rode Honeycomb again before taking the Excelerator again, and then skiing down to the Glacier Express.

I was fairly confident at this point in being able to complete the Mountain Traverse since I normally leave 7^thHeaven until later in the afternoon, and I had already been there at about 11 am. 

I rode the Glacier Express and then followed Glacier Drive until branching off on Tagline to the Glacier Ridge Express. 

At this point, I had reached the far midway point of the traverse and so I needed to start thinking about heading back over to Whistler to complete a few black diamonds and the Dave Murray Downhill to Creekside.

Crystal Hut is at the top of the Glacier Ridge Express. Skiers and riders can take a bathroom break here, as well as get a small meal without reservations. I had a small bowl of Goulash stew and a sports drink from the cafeteria style food line. I ate my meal outside on the small outdoor patio with the big view of Whistler Valley, where I was joined by several Whiskey Jacks.

I decided to ride out to the Village and then upload on the Whistler Village gondola.

The ride out to the Village, beginning on Zig Zag and White Light before finding Grub Steak near the Blackcomb Gondola, was just the start of a long trail run from the Crystal Hut to the Village. 

By the time I had uploaded to the Roundhouse Lodge from the village, a cold snowy cloudy front was creeping over the Saddle. So I thought it better to get the Saddle completed before it became totally engulfed in fog.

I rode the Saddle and I just kept going to Creekside, taking the Fish Eye to Upper Franz’s and then circumnavigating Big Red into the Lower Dave Murray Downhill.

I then uploaded from Creekside and I headed to the Garbanzo Express to do a complete Dave Murray Downhill from the starting gates to the finish line at Creekside.

But I noticed Garbanzo was open until 3:15 pm, so I took Bear Paw again and then uploaded on Garbanzo, one more time. I had time to do at least one more, perhaps two more of these loops, but I had some concerns about riding out with tired legs on the last run of the day with that stampede of all the other skiers/riders riding out on the last run of the day.  

So I headed to the starting gates and began the complete Dave Murray Downhill to Creekside.

The Downhill was in good condition with a thin topcoat of snow still covering most of the run, even the normally icy patches that appear at the end of the day when the run is skied out.

I ended up at Creekside just before 3 pm. I could have uploaded one more time, but I have found that when you are done, you’re done.

Once you experience the satisfaction of completing the mountain traverse, you can keep interested in repeating the challenge by keeping track of the vertical feet for the day, and trying to get a bit more vertical every time.

I do a lot of carving, so I get a lot more riding in than my vertical feet numbers indicate. But I believe my legs hold out longer because I carve, and because I do not just ride as fast as possible straight down the mountain.

On April 21, 2018, my first year snowboarding, I had a day pass on Whistler Blackcomb. The total for the day was a manageable 18,126 vertical feet on 11 lifts. I had been learning to snowboard with a season pass on Cypress. Before snowboarding, I had been an above average to expert skier who preferred to stay away from black diamonds.

I purchased a Whistler Blackcomb season pass for the 2018/2019 winter. My best day was 39,970 vertical feet on March 8, 2019.

Last season was cut short when the mountains closed because of the pandemic. My best day was the last day of the season on March 14, 2020. I had noticed that the tracking system had been hit and miss that season, but I managed a record season high of 32,035 vertical feet.

This season I have been hitting several days in the upper 30,000. Yesterday, March 12, 2021, was a record day for me with 44,516 vertical feet, and completion of the mountain traverse with still a lot of carving being done.