Whistler 2013 / 2014 - The Community Blog
So the dumbass who jumped from the gondola was dumb enough to post a lovely little video on YouTube. So the new facts are the girl in the cabin was in on it and the guy who did it is a moron for showing his face and posting the video on his own channel..
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QuSRkTk1BYo
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LC0au5gKOvk&desktop;_uri=/watch?v=LC0au5gKOvk
He’ll get millions of hits on YouTube now, and most likely make the prime time news as well!!!!!
Whistler should move to get the video taken down to stop copycats????? And prevent him from makin money out of it!!!!!
Definitely.. Check the second one out its POV..
It’s a wonder that the doors don’t have proxy switches that alarm, or even stop the gondola?????
They do but it’s all in the station. The gondolas mechanically lock when they leave the station so there are sensors and alarms in the station if they enter or leave the station with the doors open.
The guy had to ratchet the door open and hold it open to jump out completely destroying the mechanism.. 10k worth of damage..
So when the door opened, did the gondola stop?????
Also looks like it’s finally turnin it on snow wise for you guys too!!!!!
Videos are private now?!
I think the guy got wise but others saved and re uploaded it..
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rurBUhnI7GQ&desktop;_uri=/watch?v=rurBUhnI7GQ
Crazy. How’s the snow? Did the big dump arrive?
great stunt but so stupid to gopro it and put it on youtube.
so stupid.
Sorry it’s been a while since my last update but being able to ride again after 3 weeks off over Christmas/New Year I’ve been out on the hill pretty much open to close on all my days off which has left me pretty shattered afterwards and not in any state to string together a long post on here.. until now.
We’ve seen some pretty amazing weather the past 4 weeks where it’s been like riding in late spring with some crazy inversion that has seen temperatures such as +12 degrees. It’s made for some amazing sunrises and work conditions. As a by product, we’ve had no snow so things are suffering a bit out there but not as bad as you’d imagine. Somehow the cover has maintained through this whole spell and it’s not bulletproof ice out there. Just have to see how it goes over this next week as we’re seeing some more winter like conditions with lows of -12 in the forecast for the end of the week.
Sunrise From Bottom of Peak can make for some amazing colours in the sky.
If you look closely you can actually see the moon here.
It’s been great being back on a board, even if it was a little scary as I almost caught an edge on my first turn back, but by the end of the run things were looking back to normal. I’ve found since getting back on the board I’ve been feeling a whole lot better than the start of the season. I’m not sure what has caused it, but it’s been great.
I’d originally wanted to ride all lifts on both mountains for my birthday but didn’t manage it due to my foot but with in the past I decided to go for it all the same. Met a few mates in the village for first chair and went for it. Went with a similar idea as last time and started on Whistler then moved to Blackcomb and then finished off on Whistler. Everyone in the group had done multiple seasons and as such we were pretty quick at moving around since we were all familiar with the terrain. Managed to get a lap through the Blackcomb Park and the Terrain Garden swell which was pretty nice to mix up the groomers. Finished with an hour to spare before last chair and even managed to stop for a drink and quick lunch break in the village so couldn’t have goner any better given that the lifts were still on early season hours and open from 8:15am-3:00pm.
As mentioned earlier in the thread Rhys was in town over australia day and the following 2 days in which we managed to get a lot of snowboarding done following the catch up drinks which fell on Australia Day. Managed to cover all of Whistler thoroughly on Monday with another friend Jeremy. Covered most of the alpine along with a lot of mid mountain hit laps and a handful of park laps in the mix aswell.
Only managed one photo on Australia Day unfortunately.. This isn’t Rhys.. but it’s a mate who decided to really get into Australia Day
Whistler park is back in it’s usual location although it’s starting a few hundred metres lower at the treelike which is a little disappointing as the top features were always great. Given the lack of snow it’s not much of a jumping park with the majority of the Medium Features being rails. Even so it’s great fun and getting a lot of traffic as the Emerald line up is now back to what we’re all used to.
Unfortunately I ran out of time to copy across all of the GoPro footage that Rhys took but I did manage to get one screengrab from on of the laps when we watched the footage.
Jump is a lot of fun and has a great float feeling about it. Reminds me of how the bobcat line felt a few seasons back.
Last week was super cold with lows in the -20’s before windchill which brought it to -35 which I think is the coldest conditions I’ve worked in here. Very few people up the hill which is easy to understand and as such I didn’t get too much riding in as I didn’t really want any frostbite so not too much to report there.
Anyway, enough of the negativity, lets move onto the past 2 days.
Crazy. How’s the snow? Did the big dump arrive?
Snow is great, the past few days have been amazing, we finally got some good snowfalls with 50cm in the past 72 hours and there looks to be a whole lot more in the forecast which is great given that this has been a very dry season, basically halfway through and the cumulative snowfall is only 359cm and the average is 1,174cm’s so as you can imagine we’re a long way behind where we should be. With this latest snow it’s really starting to look a whole lot more like winter which has everyone in town buzzing again.
Yesterday met up with some of the guys for first chair up and were amazed to find that there was nobody lining up in the village despite the new snow and the cloud breaking way to clear skies. Managed to get a few nice warm up laps in off Garbanzo before deciding to go and have a look out towards Harmony. Managed to time it perfectly and scored the 2nd chair up Harmony and the 4 of us put the first lines the whole way through from top to bottom which was a pretty amazing way to kick off out riding in the alpine. Got to the bottom to find there was hardly anyone there still so we dropped in off the horseshoes (cornices off harmony ridge that drop into the bowl below) Definitely a memorable few runs with the sheer amount of untouched powder we managed to score. Also was nice to change it up and ride Harmony as I very rarely head there on snow days anymore as I generally prefer the terrain peak chair has to offer. From here we decided to check out Symphony and once again managed to get some brilliant knee deep turns down towards Rhapsody Bowl. Following this we then decided to drop Piccolo Face as it had hardly been touched, was really stoked on this as it’s a great steep pitch that managed to hold a whole lot of snow with the SE winds we were getting during the storm the night before.
From here we decided to mix it up and shot back to Peak Chair to have a look at West Bowl which was pretty disappointing in all honesty as the snow cover isn’t really there after a large avalanche which was triggered when patrol were doing avalanche control after the last storm a few weeks back. As such there was a lot of debris down the bottom of the bowl which we were hitting. After this failed attempt we stopped in at the roundhouse and after a quick break decided that we’d head back to Symphony and go hike Flute Bowl. Once we were out there we decided to drop into North Flute which was almost untracked with less than 10 lines out there. Without a doubt this was the real highlight of the day, hike was done in next to no time at all as there was a pretty decent boot pack in already and the snow on the way down was perfect, endless faceshots the whole way down left us all with grins from ear to ear. After this we all decided it was safe to call it a day and rode all the way out on the next lap.
Given the workout I wasn’t too sure how I’d go today but after waking up to numerous messages stating that we had received another 35cm overnight all the way down to the village the decision was pretty clear. Get my act together and head up early all over again. Unfortunately there was a distinct difference today compared to yesterday and that was the huge lift lines. Village gondola lineup was past longhorns and Fitzsimmons was almost off the snow running into the gondola line up. This wasn’t helped by the fact that the mountain was about 20mins late to open as Ski Patrol had to perform avalanche control around the mid mountain area such as under Red Chair. In my previous years I can only remember that being bombed only a handful of times, basically a once in a season sort of thing.
Eventually the lifts opened and we were all on our way up again, Met up with Mark a friend from 2 seasons ago at the top of Garbanzo and we were gone.. Charged down Dave Murray Downhill and the snow was so deep it was rolling up to our armpits just about. Managed a few laps around Red and Garbanzo before going to have a look at Harmony, got out there to find most of the bowls tracked out in next to no time. Still managed to find a nice little cliff drop under the chair at the top which was brilliant, nice soft landing and a bunch of fresh turns afterwards. From here Mark and I went in separate directions. Mark went out to Symphony and I went on a bit of a mission out towards Crystal on Blackcomb but wasn’t really feeling it so rode down to the village and jumped onto the Whistler Gondola. Was stoked to see that Peak had finally opened as the high winds had finally died down. Raced down there to a full maze of people but this didn’t really deter me as I’ve got some pretty nice stashes up there now. It was already getting on a bit by this stage and peak was only going to be open for another hour and a half so I decided to gamble a bit, tok Liftee’s Leap into Whistler Bowl which was a great choice, still some soft snow in there to get an edge into compared to the usual entry which has been very icy due to the cold temps and lack of snow over the past few weeks. Charged through the bowl down along the ridge into one of my favourite zones and was greeted with untouched thigh deep powder. Couldn’t have asked for a better end to the day really, managed to get 3 laps through here down to Red before Peak shut a little after 3.
Needless to say after doing a full day from open to close I’m absolutely shattered but oh so satisfied with one of the best weekends of riding I think I’ve ever had, got to ride with a good crew on both days and finishing off with some solo laps in one of my all time favourite areas on Whistler I couldn’t be happier right now.
What I was greeted with when leaving the house this morning was basically better than christmas.
Fresh off Peak Chair
Final lap of the day and the weather had really started coming in again with another 20cm in the forecast for tonight.
I’m back to work tomorrow which is a bit of a blessing in disguise as it’ll be a good chance to hopefully give the body some form of a break even if I’m shovelling snow it’s far less exertion than a full day of riding.
Looks/sounds like a hell amount of fun mate!