WHISTLER OPEN FOR BUSINESS

TWO MOUNTAINS IN TWO DAYS FOR GREAT RIDING IN CLIMATE CHANGE ERA

By PETER THOMAS BUSCH

I may have had to take two trips to Whistler this week to find enough snow.

Whistler Blackcomb has a substantial ski operation ongoing above mid-station with more marginal conditions below.

I wanted to put in a whole week of riding the first week of February, but the heavy Pacific Coast rains came and washed a lot of accumulated snow away. So, I waited until the temperatures dropped a bit and firmed up the runs at least before getting my snowboarding season underway in earnest.

Skiing out for the day is available on Whistler and on Blackcomb.

I managed to get in a good preseason conditioning session, with a number of 3 hour road cycling days before the road cycling season came to an end with the bad weather in late September. But when the opening of the snowboarding season was delayed because of the lack of snow, things slowed down.

I also started jogging again until just before Christmas when the soreness on the side of my knee began keeping me up at night. So, I took a four week break from 5 km jogs every second day, only to find out I needed a six week break to recover from the ‘runner’s knee’ likely developed from starting too quickly.

I also headed into the gym for a lightweight reconditioning of my shoulder after an injury at the early end of last snowboard season. The first week retraining my shoulders and upper body was delicate and depressing, but I managed to get everything maximized again before heading to the slopes for another riding season this week.

Of course, the conditions were less than ideal with freezing temperatures following a lot of rain. Upper Franz’s Run had a warning sign: ‘Icey Conditions, Experts Only’. I hesitated and thought about what ‘Expert’ meant, because I am not sure there is an ‘expert snowboarder’ for the ice shield that likely awaited. But you know, at that point at the top of Upper Franz’s, to take the easy out to the right involves unstrapping the board and hoofing in the snow for about 100 meters.

I went for the ride and found much success slaloming on the topcoat down the middle. I had a lot of fun on Fisheye as well. So, I uploaded again on the Big Red, and ran the series of trails again. I must have swept the topcoat away the first time down Upper Franz’s, because the second time down I caught an edge in the glacier ice and bounced headlong off my knees and onto my stomach in a kind of icy freefall.

I tried to stop the slide with my hands, but to no avail. So, I did a safety curl and managed to get right side up. I then used my snowboard to put on the breaks. My knees were kind of sore for the rest of day. My left knee has a nice big bruise turning various shades of brown since then.

The ‘glacier-type’ ice was even worse on the Saddle. And I immediately slipped back after trying to carve through the middle and skidded about 15 feet until my snowboard slowed the skid enough for me to stand up and turn out of the slide.

These two black diamond runs are always difficult in the best of conditions. The rest of the mountain though was groomed with a nice topcoat and was very doable until about 1:30 pm when I guess the topcoat was pushed to the sides and the ice underneath would show up in patches. So, I had a good grip that suddenly gave way to ice with the back end of the snowboard slipping out really quick.

On Tuesday, after the Emerald Express, I stuck to a stretch of Sidewinder underneath the snow machines, and riding through the heavy powder of the machines that began to drift a bit into the middle of the run. I then uploaded on Garbanzo.

On Friday, my legs had not recovered enough but my neck and back were okay. So, I went again to Whistler Blackcomb for a day of riding. I managed to get a good night sleep this time, but the early 5 am morning was still difficult to get underway.

I had to catch a commercial busliner by 5:45 am, from Downtown Vancouver to Whistler Village. So, I skipped breakfast and called a taxi to get me to the pickup location. On Tuesday, I took an apple and an orange from home to have for breakfast, eating on my way from the lockers to the gondola line. On Friday, I had a breakfast sandwich in the village before uploading to Whistler.

I had always intended to head over to Blackcomb on the Peak to Peak Gondola on Friday. But I wanted to get a few runs in on Whistler, because you never know what the conditions are going to be like on Blackcomb.

Of course, I wanted to go to 7^th Heaven. But I found a good carving run on the Lower Whiskey Jack, trying the Old Crow once. This carving on Whiskey Jack and the machine made powder on Sidewinder kept me going until about 10:30 am before I took the Peak to Peak.

The best run of the day on Blackcomb was the wide open Springboard from the top to the Blackcomb Gondola mid-station, which I found groomed with a thin topcoat. I did try the Honeycomb, but the bottom half was icy with otherwise marginal conditions. So, I went back to Springboard.

I tried Honeycomb after lunch at around 1:30 pm, but I found the same marginal conditions and finished the day on Springboard before riding out to Whistler Village at 3 pm.

The lack of snow is noticeable on the more difficult black diamond trails, and especially from a bird’s eye view on the lifts, but you know, most of those trails through the trees I would not go on anyway.

I have a season pass that provides motivation for snowboarding by burning a hole in my wallet at least until the tenth day on the mountains. So, I’ll see you there.