Whistler Blackcomb 2014-2015 — Official Thread
joined the fresh tracks lineup at 6:15 and waited patiently. breakfast was short and sweet as it was not the reason to be up there today!
first run was great, off the edge of whiskey jack and through the trees down to ego bowl playing on the sides, knee deep+ off and maybe boot deep where it had been groomed, a fast and fun run down to green.
2nd run, similar start but took a more tree lined approach and cut further right, warming up the legs and getting amped for a big day…. then came the cat track crossing on bobcat (?).... jumped off something, landed and the nose dug into the ditch sending me into the cat track hard with my elbow getting crunched! took a minute, composed myself and rode out like a champ, up green chair and then it was time to make new friends at the patrol hut and then the medical clinic.
tl:dr - 1 good run, radial head fracture (broken arm near elbow), seeing the ortho specialist on wednesday, tylenol3 works wonders!
Oh Steve :-(
tl:dr - 1 good run, radial head fracture (broken arm near elbow), seeing the ortho specialist on wednesday, tylenol3 works wonders!
farrrrk man I’m sorry to hear that - sounds like an epic start to the day too. dont worry i did something similar in my first season - was in january, went up early for a few warm up laps in the park before heading with some friends through the crystal zone searching for left over pow from a couple days before. 2nd run fell backwards off the rainbow rail and broke my wrist. shook it off and rode the rest of the day hahaha. didn’t know i’d broken it till i got home and took my gloves off - wrist expanded to 3 times the size in about 20mins. slapped a cast on and 3 days later i was riding again with my cast on. fingers crossed for a fast recovery man!
it could have been worse i guess… and ive been pretty lucky so far in my riding career with minimal injuries.
at least i should be good for feb, march and april when it really gets going!
Sorry to hear that Steve! All the best with your recovery. Hope you’re back on the mountain in no time.
Little clip from the last 48 hours or so. Looks like dreamy conditions at the moment.
Today wasn’t as epic as I thought it would be but still fun nontheless. I didn’t get first run down anything cuz I got here a lil bit late. Met up with Jeremy, Shane, Dylan, Dan, and Johnny, at the bottom of Franz’s, and rode down to red. Did Ratfink after that where Shane and Dylan went their own way (as Jez said, don’t follow Shane unless you’re comfortable in all kind of terrains haha) and I’m riding with Dan, Jez, and John. Wasn’t untouched, but still good snow.
We rode down to the village after and met up with Lu and her friend. Did mostly mellow trees and the bike track where Jez took us, was pretty fun. At noon they all decided to head home and I met up with Andy grunge and my other friend from Vancouver. At around 1pm or 2pm it started to rain and the snow got super wet. They open the T-bar at Whis and took 1 run down that. Heaviest wettest “pow” I’ve ever ridden. The rest of the day was spend just cruising and small park (jumps were crap, landings and run in was bumpy and can’t get enough speed). All in all ‘twas a fun day.
Gear nerd:
So much more tiring to ride the FA compared to the Lando. I’m so tired by the end of the day. On a side note, it’s easier to ride switch on the FA (even though it’s 10mm tapered). I guess Burton Freeride Geometry works.
Was an awesome morning until rain got on the snow and made it heavy.
Went up Blackcomb and managed to me one of the first few on Crystal.
Going up the chair kept stalling and it was annoying, but when we got up there were only a handful that managed to get up and MAN THE RUNS WERE AWESOME.
We went down the regular run and my thighs were BURNING.
At some parts the snow was thigh deep. THIGH DEEP!!!
To quote the g/f “It felt like I was doing a press all the way down!”
That first untouched run down Crystal was WORTH IT.
So good. There were delays heading up the lifts, and the rain started.
We took 2 more runs before heading to Jersey. When we were at Jersey, 7th heaven lit up so we went up and crossed over to 7th, where it was snowing not raining. We managed to get up, there was no winds and the snow was at least knee deep.
(we did attempt to go to the bowl but vis was down to 0, and with the amount of pow we couldn’t tell where the cliffs were.)
As we were going down the lift line path, we noticed the lift weren’t carrying people anymore, so they must have closed it up due to having too much snow.
So lucky to get that one run in the alpine, but going down was a bit of a dodgem situation in bad sticky snow.
This is at the bottom of the 7th run just before it hits the lifts.
After that I saw the g/f off, and went to village where I met up with Rico (skip11) by accident and we had a pretty easy whistler + park laps (see his post.) Gotta try to get that pic of me doing the rainbow. =)
I’m very sorry to hear that, Steve. I hope you recover fast and get back to snowboarding soon. 
I had a great few days in Whistler, starting the AST 1 course over the weekend, and riding pow with friends yesterday. The whole experience of the last few days was super fun… getting on a splitboard, learning more avalanche skills, driving in crazy weather, digging my car out three times, getting stuck in Whistler for the night (thank you Dan and Lu for taking me in!), and riding a 167 powder board yesterday. My report from the AST 1 course will be coming soon, so I won’t say too much about it now—but it was awesome! Here’s a few photos summing up my last few days. More coming soon with the report.
^ Nice pics.
Looked like an awesome day.
Was up in the mountain late today….. I had the g/f’s work gala where I got slightly tipsy on chilean wine and ate enough to make me not want to move around.
Was pretty slushy today, it reminded me of the snow conditions in Oz..
We lapped the park a few times, took a few kickers boxes and rainbows and worked on my ground tricks.
I found that I’m more confident in the slush as that’s the snow I’m comfortable with,
Managed to work on clean noseroll ollies and almost got dialed in a clean 360.
With 2 more days before I have to leave, I’m slightly disappointed that I didn’t push myself harder to progress, but then again I also had to find my snow legs without getting injured.
Are you riding on Thursday, Andy? I’m driving DRC into Whistler in the morning and we will shred that day. Would be great to catch you on your last day!
^ Hey Jez, I think I may do the thursday morning, then pack up and go in the arvo.
Flight’s actually on Friday morning, but the g/f’s booked the fairmont hotel at the airport via her work.
So yeah. I think we’ll meet each other then! =)
Sounds good, let me know your plan. Looks like the mountain might be a bit of an ice block tomorrow.
but then again I also had to find my snow legs without getting injured.
Wise man!
Can’t believe your trip is already over!
I’m on my way suckers! Well hopefully eventually if there’s ever an end to these flight delays. Looking forward to catching up with old friends and meet new ones after a couple of weeks travelling solo. Currently pushing through a fair bit of fatigue and a decent man flu and not sure if all these united lounge spirits are going to help the cause so you’ll have to forgive me if I look like I’ve never ridden a snowboard before.
Jez absolutely no pressure to ride tomorrow if the conditions are going to be bad. Honestly at this stage I’d be happy to pat a dog, share a hot tub, a nice meal and call it a day.
I’ll be in vancouver on Saturday (hiring a car from Whistler if anyone wants a lift with a first time right hand side of the road driver) and catching the NHL game from row 1 seats.
Jez absolutely no pressure to ride tomorrow if the conditions are going to be bad. Honestly at this stage I’d be happy to pat a dog, share a hot tub, a nice meal and call it a day.
Haha, I’m not letting you off that easily. Don’t worry, there’s always something worth doing.