Whistler 2011 / 2012 - The Community Blog
Rider’s Blog: Day 18
It was snowing heavily outside our house last night but unfortunately the freezing level rose considerably by this morning. That said, we still received 21cm of new snow overnight so I was out the door for first lifts. The holiday crowds are still in town so there was a decent lineup at Creekside Gondola. The alpine stayed closed all day due to avalanche danger and high winds. Patrol having been bombing the alpine all day.
Had a nice first run through the trees, although it got pretty heavy towards the bottom (riding down to Emerald Chair). Caught up with Finney and Chantelle and we went out towards Harmony way. I took a wrong turn into a powder field, so I had a nice 10 minute hike out in waist deep powder (which sucked, haha). Although once I got to the drop in spot, it was a sick run with lots of fresh snow and lots of fun rollers and drops - made the hike more than worthwhile. Emerald Chair was getting backed up so we rode the fresh groomers to Garbanzo. Caught up with Shane and his buddy and we cruised a lap through Hit Run, which is in the best shape it’s been all season.
When we got back down, Garb was completely backed up. Out of options we rode down to the village. We decided to call it a day as every lift on the mountain had huge lines. Went to the top and rode home. I’m looking forward to all the holiday visitors going home. Selfish, I know.
Garb backed up.
Village backed up.
Nice boys, looks like a but load of fun.
Mike, have you got new pants and helmet?
yes on both counts Dan, it was time to get a certified helmet rather than the old hard hat.
nice blogging Jez. i cant wait for JAPOW ......so close but yet so far away.
When do the holiday crowds go home usually?
Rider’s Blog: Day 19
Temperatures lowered overnight and it snowed another 16cm. It was still +2 degrees in the village this morning but the upper mountain had a very good cover of fresh snow. Today was all about the alpine. It was closed all of yesterday so there was approximately 40cm of fresh snow up there.
I caught up with Shaner and we did one run down to Red. We picked up his buddy, Rio (professional kite surfer from Hawaii), and we got straight in line at Peak Chair. Rico (skip11) also came and joined us in line. We were quite close to the front of the line, maybe only 15 to 20 chairs in front of us. We waited in line for at least an hour while Patrol finished bombing; it was pretty cold too. Finally the chair opened and we headed up. The front face was looking awesome, with two days of storm snow just waiting to be shredded. Rico and Rio buddied up, as it was their first time going down the front face. I was the first person down Key West; got a pretty sick line coming down near the trees.
The line was growing quickly and the front face was getting cut up, so we headed over to VD trees. Shaner and I had an awesome run through the trees; not one track going into the trees and the snow was deep! Rico and Rio took a lower line and we all met up at Grand Finale. The line was huge again at Red so we decided to call it a day. Those two runs were more than enough to satisfy me on a busy day. I rode to Garb, went up, and rode home.
bogmow, things should be back to normal by about January 10th.
Freshies
Rio (front, camo) and Rico (behind him) hiking out
man that looks so amazing…. Jez gets some recording going…
Yeap nothing but crazy lift lines all today again. Busiest I’ve seen it all season, even though there was fresh snow I was kind of glad I was working as I wouldn’t have lasted long with the sheer volume of people on the hill today.
Can’t wait until after new years when the crowds finally leave 
man that looks so amazing…. Jez gets some recording going…
Double Yes!!
Really sad news. A Whistler Ski Patroller died in an avalanche in the backcountry past Pemberton yesterday.
Article here.
terrible news.. RIP
Devastating. 
on a lighter note.. plans for NYE ?
<img src =“http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e80/blakegallagher/7c07183b.jpg” width =“800”>. Its snowing like crazy at benchlands
Not to sure about NYE yet. I heard of a party in Alpine so I might check that out. I’m not too bothered; I want to go riding on NYD anyway.
Rider’s Blog: Day 20
More snow overnight, making it 109cm for the week. I got ready fairly early this morning, walked over the bridge, saw the lift line at Creek and walked home. I really couldn’t be bothered waiting in that massive line, then doing it again on Red Chair, just to get to the top of mid mountain. I came home and chilled for a few hours.
Shaner came over and we drove into the Village around 11:30am. We went straight up Fitz and Garb without much of a wait. Hot run down to Red was pretty sweet. We went straight over to Peak where we bumped into Marc (who’d been lapping Peak all day). The three of us headed straight over to the trees. I was amazed at how deep and untouched it was over there - just awesome. We went back up and did the same thing again. Visibility went from bad to worse (it was puking snow and high winds) so we didn’t go up for another.
Marc and I rode through the trees down to Emerald. Again I was surprised by how fresh and untracked it was. I had an awesome line all the way down to Emerald, through the trees and off on the sides of runs through the bumps. We went down to Garb and followed by doing a couple of hit run laps down to Red, as the lift line was completely gone. Pretty much rode till last lift; a slow start but an awesome day.
Snowed a bunch down near the house in the afternoon.
Yeah as Jeremy said, without a doubt one of if not the busiest days I’ve ever seen. High winds up top were pretty full on with gusts of 70km/h+ and then later on in the afternoon after 2pm out of nowhere a full blown storm came through with high winds down the bottom of the chair and dumping snow.
Around 3pm it was completely calm with the sun trying to break through which gave me a shot to grab this photo out the back of Creekside Gondola.
NYE!
For anyone who dosnt have plans! Come onnnnn overrrr.
Having a ragerr’
just lemme know whos coming!
Pool table.. big house.. fun funnn!
Only catch.. I live in emerald.
I swear its really not that baddddd gonna be worth it !!