Whistler 2012 / 2013 - The Community Blog
So how many boardworld members are there working the season here in whistler?
This been posted yet?
[vimeo]58644399#[/vimeo]
Just came back from Mount Baker in the States. Hot damn, so awesome. Two sick powder days while apparently it was raining here in Whistler.
So how many boardworld members are there working the season here in whistler?
Not working, just here to ride all season, and loving it so far!
PREPARE TO PARTY IN APRIL AND SLEEP IN MAY: THE WORLD SKI AND SNOWBOARD FESTIVAL TAKES OVER WHISTLER APRIL 12 TO 21, 2013
WHISTLER, BC, February 1, 2013 – The countdown to North America’s largest winter sports and music festival is officially on! From April 12 to 21, 2013, the 18th Annual World Ski and Snowboard Festival will descend upon Whistler, British Columbia, bringing with it a smorgasbord of snow sports action, music, art and fashion.
Tickets to the Festival’s signature events, including the OLYMPUS 72 Hour Filmmaker Showdown, the OLYMPUS Pro Photographer Showdown and Intersection go on sale as of today, February 1, 2013. Tickets can be purchased at The World Ski and Snowboard Festival E-store online but as previous years have demonstrated, they will not last for long.
To guarantee no one has to miss out on the action, The World Ski and Snowboard Festival is introducing some new events to the 2013 schedule including an encore presentation of the OLYMPUS 72 Hour Filmmaker Showdown. The winner of the Filmmaker Showdown will be announced at the original screening on April 16 and for some added suspense, The People’s Choice Award will be announced at the encore screening on April 17.
Also new to the event line up for 2013 is THE BEGINNING party, an all-night extravaganza of DJs, drinks, dancing and beautiful people to kick the Festival off in style. As always, The World Ski and Snowboard Festival’s ticketed events will be intertwined with an array of free sport, music and art affairs.
The Festival kicks off with the World Skiing Invitational (WSI) and the Association of Freeskiing Professionals (AFP) events, including the open Slopestyle competition in the Highest Level Terrain Park on Blackcomb Mountain and the Invitational Big Air at the base of Whistler Mountain. Both events are hugely challenging but the prestige of winning attracts some of the best skiers in the world. The AFP will also crown the 2012/2013 World Champions during this time period, a huge incentive for the athletes to really prove their worth and show the judges what they are made of. The progression of skiing is the name of the game at Whistler Blackcomb, so spectators are guaranteed to be awed and amazed by these athletes.
Once the ski victors are crowned, it’s on to The Shred Show Presented by Monster Energy from April 17 to 21. A full on snowboarding assault on the senses, The Shred Show features Slopestyle, Big Hip, Boarderstyle and Mogul Duel competitions, with the Slopestyle and Big Hip being TTR World Snowboard Tour 5-Star events.
All ski and snowboard events are free for spectators but on-hill events do require a valid Whistler Blackcomb lift ticket to access the mountain.
Arts and culture are another key component to The World Ski and Snowboard Festival, going hand in hand with the athletic competitions. Call for submissions for the OLYMPUS Pro Photographer Showdown and State of the Art are currently open with application information available at wssf.com.
The State of the Art exhibit in the Whistler Conference Centre Grand Foyer requires no entry fee and will be open daily from 12 to 6pm for the duration of the Festival. State of the Art showcases the works of artists from far and wide who are inspired by life in a mountain town. There are no rules at State of the Art and sub-cultures and anti-movements are celebrated openly.
No World Ski and Snowboard Festival would be complete without the celebration of music - enter the free daily Outdoor Concert Series. Located at the Main Stage in Skier’s Plaza at the base of Whistler Mountain, the free Outdoor Concert Series will feature some of today’s hottest musical acts from 2:30-5:30pm daily throughout the Festival. The full line up for the 2013 Outdoor Concert Series will be released soon.
For more information about The World Ski and Snowboard Festival, including the full 2013 event schedule, Call for submissions, ticket information, and photos and video visit http://www.wssf.com.
Time for another well overdue update, sorry for the delay but I’ve been sick for the past 3 weeks with this horrible bug thats gone through town.
My birthday was a hell of a lot of fun, we attempted to ride every lift on both mountains in the one day. Day started off heading into the village to grab some rental skis for Kim and once that was done we met up with a bunch of mates to embark on what was one of the biggest days I’ve had on the hill. There was a little bit of snow the night before, but through the day it continued to dump down snow which was just perfect as we pretty much rode more and more fresh snow off every lift as the day progressed. I can recall the order in which we rode all the lifts but some of the finer details have been lost due to some of the Alcohol consumed on the day as we had 2 very simple rules, you mist drink on every lift and if the lift stops you have to have another drink.
Here’s a copy of the map of Whistler Blackcomb to give you an idea of the terrain covered. 
Started off by heading up Fitzsimmons and then Garbanzo as Fitz was going to be closing early it had to be ticked off the list first thing. We then rode down Raven to get things going and this was a standout run as with the new snow from the night before and the pace at which we were riding there were roostertails being thrown everywhere which looked amazing. Eventually got back down to the village and then proceeded up the Excalibur Gondola. From there we rode back down to Magic chair. From Magic we did a switch lap down to the bottom of Wizard and then across to Excelerator. After this little stint we’d covered the majority of the lower mountain lifts with the exception of the Whistler Village Gondola and the Creekside Gondola.
Next we rode down to Jersey Cream and then followed by a short pit stop at Glacier creek we went up Glacier Express in order to access the Blackcomb alpine lifts. The visibility was pretty average up the top of the T-bars but there was fresh snow to be had and we weren’t going to let a little visibility get in the way of having some fun and proceeded to charge down from the Showcase T-Bar to Horstman. Unfortunately for my mate Sam he didn’t spot a slight change in the snow and managed to pull off one of the most impressive tomahawks I’ve seen this season.
After ticking off the T-bars we shot down to the bottom of 7th Heaven. Riding some great fresh powder through a lot of trees over towards Cloud 9. With &th; now out of the way we rode around to Catskinner which to my surprise had a tonne of untouched snow lying in the trees just to the side of Catskinner. After this we only had one more chair to ride on Blackcomb so we rode down to Solarcoaster via the Terrain Garden which was another highlight of the day as by this stage there were around 12 people in the group and we pretty much had the park to ourselves.
With Blackcomb now done we caught the Peak 2 Peak over to Whistler. At this point unfortunately the group was split up temporarily as some people ducked into the roundhouse. 6 of us rode down to Peak chair just as they were shutting it down due to high winds and low visibility. On Matthew’s Traverse at the top we were almost all brought to a stop due to the headwind we were trying to get through. Upon completing the traverse we then dropped down to Symphony chair and were once again greeted by more fresh snow and no lift lines which was definitely a recurring theme of the day. Next up after Symphony was Harmony which followed up by a run all the way down to the Village Gondola. Unfortunately we were running a bit behind by this stage and had to make the call to skip on Emerald and Olympic chair which were planned to be the next lifts. Riding in a large group whilst fun isn’t the smartest when time is main factor and with the group getting split up and a few other small periods where we were waiting for people to join the group we had to make the call to cut them out. After we got off the Village Gondola we then rode down to the Creekside Gondola which we then followed up with Red Chair. We decided to get a little adventurous at the end given how ‘tired’ we were and took Lower Insanity which ended up being a great gamble as there had been snow top to bottom and as such found even more great stashes.
Ending the day off we grabbed some Burgers and Beers at Dusty’s which I think was a pretty much perfect end to the day.
Here’s a picture that Hannah, my housemate from summer put up on Facebook from the day.
So how many boardworld members are there working the season here in whistler?
I’m on Peak Chair Thursday though Sunday - ride every Mon-Wed so if you want to meet up give me a yell on 6049672421.
A new guy from Chile just moved into the house I’m in. He showed us a video of him from back home, double back flips and rodeo 5’s.
Looks like my park riding is going to have to step up a notch lol
About time 
Hope you are feeling better!
It was a great day and I was glad to be apart of your birthday celebrations and it didn’t hurt that it was a great intro to Whistler.
I managed to stay with the group for most of the day (pretty impressive due to the conditions and that I had no idea where we were headed most of the time I had to follow people and trust where they were going!) even being one of the magic 6 that made it on peak chair!
That first run, Raven, was amazing! I wont say it was scary but it def got the blood pumping and the adrenaline kicked in due to the rooster tails. There were moments where you would go through a cloud of snow and not be able to see anything for a moment! I thought I was being a bit dramatic so kept quiet about how amazing/cool it was until someone else spoke up to the group! I was determined to stay right at the front of the pack as I had no mobile and didn’t want to lose anyone and the pace was pretty quick! I wasn’t surprised when I saw on a trail map it was a black run. Super fun though
I had done pretty well keeping up with the group but (and i can’t quiet remember why I was so upset but i will admit to there being a mini tanty on the hill and then me trailing the group that I endied up losing them on the way to G2 (?? i think that was the name that was being thrown around) and i didn’t understand the lingo and went to the bottom. The good thing is i ran into one of the lift supervisors that i had met in the morning and asked him to message Finney and tell him I was okay and that I would meet the group at Dusty’s.
So from Finney’s summary above it seems that I missed Village Gondola, Creekside Gondola, Red Chair and Olympic. I managed to cross all but Olympic off the next 2 days. Pretty impressive I think!
Okay now I will finish my trip report with the final piece WB!!
Sounds awesome guys!
Damn good effort nearly doing all lifts!
Finney, what were you drinking on each lift? From a flask?
So freaking jealous of your days over there they sound magic. Defs gonna do the drink every lift when I eventually get over there..
Finney, what were you drinking on each lift? From a flask?
Fireball mainly! My first experience of it! Just from a bottle didn’t sight a flask as such! I think I had a couple of hits of Jager too.
Saw a fellow boarder with the “boardworld” sticker today, but when i went up to approach them they rode away up to the fitz chairlift.
Orangey kinda jacket? Think it may have been skip? Or i could have just been some random who had a free BW sticker haha
Nah that was skip. Orangy t rice style jacket?
Blackbandana, we should shred soon. My mob is 6049354695
I’m taking tomorro off after doing 13 straight days. But will hea back out sun or Monday. Depends on how the long weekend crowds are
I wear a rasta sandbox helmet with BOARDWORLD decals and BOARDWORLD all over my k2 park star.
My jacket is a light green airblaster with big airblaster pill logo on back
Yell out if u see me!
Brad
@blackbanana: Yeah, that was probaly me haha. You should’ve just called me.