Local's report from last weekend:
"Whistler had yet another off the hook weekend. It SUPER PUKED Thursday night. 70cms of fine coastal snow. I didn't get to ski it but from watching some of Athans helmet cam video it looked epic. Only one lift in the whole Whistler Blackcomb arsenal spun, Solar Coaster. Avy control on Whistler side was hairball they made the fresh track people down load.
With all that fresh snow and no lifts running everyone from a billion square mile radius made the drive for powder. We went against our usual judgment and went Whislter on a weekend, the normal rule is Blackcomb on weekends and Whistler on a midweek pow day when playing hooky from work. Our timing actually worked out well. We got into the Harmony line after a few laps and had a rather short wait. After the previous days spooky avy conditions nobody expected an early alpine opening. With a good drop in the temps overnight the coastal snow got hit with the magic safety wand and went bomber. Patrol cracked the lifts about 9:45. We got first tracks down Boomer Bowl into Gun Barrels. It was deep and sweet. This lap took 15 minutes, and we were back on the lift before the hordes gathered. Back up and did the bomb drop off the cornice into the one of the Horeshoes and got another tasty fresh lap. Now is when we realized that everyone from a billion miles around was in Whistler. It took 45 minutes to get back around to the top. With lines growing we decided to head over to Peak and make our way to Khyber Pass.
While in line for Peak we heard they shut down Red chair for maintenance issues. Our original plan was to ski Khybers load back up, eat lunch on the Peak to Peak and head back over to our beloved Blackcomb. After some nipple deep turns in the trees and some very dense snow low down we reloaded Creekside to go up. With Red closed we made our way towards Garbo and Midstation. Holly **** balls long lines, plan b ski to village and upload via Whistler Gondola. Holly **** balls long line. Plan c upload Excalibur. Get to Excelerator, holly **** balls long line. See a pattern here. Skied the now tracked out Saphire a couple times. Called it a day.
Sunday morning rolls around check the snow phone to 11cms of new and supposed rising temps in the afternoon and strong winds. Once you've spent some time at skiing W/B you learn that "10-15 cm" can ski FNKA. That small amount of snow on good steep lines is awesome. Factor in wind loading and the fact that the snow plot notoriously has less than the alpine and it's all good. The other part of skiing Blackcomb is the "what lift to the goods" game. Do you go Crystal in hopes that the alpine lifts are going to be on hold for awhile and get some CBC or Fraggle goods in the trees. Or do you play 7th Heaven vs Glacier / T-Bars to get Chainsaw. We picked Crystal thinking the high winds would have loaded much of the alpine pockets and patrol would need time to clean em out. FAIL. As we were part way up the rickety slow Crystal we look over to see Glacier loading. ****. Get off at the top and make a b-line down to Glacier. As the first wave has cleared thru put the pow hounds from the front of the line have not made it back down we are picking our b-roll stashes thinking the a-roll is just been trashed. Get to the top swing over toward the Spankys line because we need to traverse that way any way. Just as we roll up to 10 people in front of us everyone starts grabbing skis and getting ready to hike. Patrol has just give the word it's clear. Jackpot, no waiting time and no massive line ahead of us. We sprint up the boot pack and head toward Ruby with only one person and the patrol ahead of us. WOW was it good. The "11 cms" and wind had filled in and smoothed it over into a perfect velvet of mach looney turns down the bowl. No face shots but damn good untracked goodness. So good we go back for another on the next lap. Next up was a "I wonder how badly Chainsaw has been hit" turns out it had barely been touched. Due to high winds and low viz it had barely been touched all morning. Game on. Once, twice, thrice, and more more more. BIG bomb drop off the cornice into Bush Rat yielded some waist deep wind blown blower. By lap three or four it seemed that word got out it was good. The tourons stuck down the gut and the hardcores sent everything.
Legs spent. Great weekend of powder. Thank you Ullr. I hope my sharing of stoke sends some powder to the rest of the collective."
Edit: I actually appreciate the cha dood beta chasing lines, but highlighted red for the ADD crowd.
