UPSET OVER SLOW START TO FIRST POWDER PISTE

PISTE             3

WHISTLER OPEN FOR SNOWBOARDING OUT TO THE VILLAGE AT END OF THE DAY

By PETER THOMAS BUSCH

The temperatures had dropped without the precipitation for snow so I watched the weather reports all week only to be delayed day after day for the first real powder day of the season.

The weekends are kind of out of bounds because of the crowds when the local Whistler skiers and those people off work travelling from the Greater Vancouver area converge with the international visitors in Whistler.

The crowds in the line ups and then also all the cars on Highway 99 are not worth the effort if you can sneak away mid-week.

Each day pushed the anticipated snow fall further into the weekend until I had to wait until Monday to enjoy the first fresh powder of the beginning of winter.

I was expecting icy road conditions, and then perhaps also having to drive through a snow storm, so I replaced my windshield wiper blades, which was long over due, and filled the windshield wiper fluid tank. Of course, I also kicked the winter tires and checked the oil when I filled up with gas the day before.

I had the car winterized in October with a safety inspection and an oil change. But the engine seal has a small leak so I have to check the oil level at every fill up. I carry a small bottle of synthetic oil in the tool box compartment inside the trunk of the car.

I had this big paragraph prepared on driving the corners of the Sea to Sky Highway in icy conditions, but the Whistler Valley had warmed up and the rain came. 

No one’s secret that the Village can get the rain but the snow still falls on the mountain, especially above mid station. The elevation climb uploading on the gondolas is rather dramatic – if you drive up you know a lot of elevation gain has already occurred before even reaching the Village when the rain starts getting thick and making loud thwacks against the windscreen.

Anyway, by and by Whistler Blackcomb had received about 20 cm of new snow overnight Sunday, making for a nice soft packed powder day on Monday, that lasted until about 2 pm when the runs started to have that skied out condition with some ice patches on the easy runs and irregular tracks everywhere else.

The mountain crews had been running the snow machines at night with a week of low temperatures allowing for Whistler mountain to open up the bottom of the mountain for ski/riding out at the end of the day.

After all that preparation the day before and a 7 am start, I had arrived at the paid parking by about 8:30 am. I took about 15 minutes to gear up and get to the gondola line for uploading. 

I was going to upload on the Whistler gondola but at 8:45 am the line up looked about 25 minutes long, so I uploaded on the Blackcomb side.

Unfortunately, the Blackcomb Excalibur gondola broke down as soon as the cabin was loaded up. The lifties really worked hard to get the gondola going, but after about 30 minutes they stopped trying and instead chose to separate the two sections so that people had to off load at mid-station and then load up again on the upper section of the gondola.

The disconnect took at least 30 minutes and then another 15 minutes at slow speed to get to Blackcomb mid-station.

By the time I started snowboarding a lot of tracks had already been made through the light pack of powder by people who uploaded before the gondola broke down. 

No to be deterred, I simply adjusted my routine, by skipping  a lunch break and boarding later in the day. 

The fog had rolled into Blackcomb about 12 noon so I took the Peak 2 Peak Gondola to Whistler.

I rode the trails under the Big Red chair, which have been augmented by out of bounds zones. Franz’s Run and the Dave Murray Downhill were closed but a number of the secondary trails were open such as Banana Peel.

I skied out beginning at 2 pm. The ride was the best of the day with lots of carving. I took a quick break at Whistler mid-station before continuing on and reaching the Village by about 2:30 pm.

A bad start, but another worthwhile day for a third day of the season.