Whistler 2011 / 2012 - The Community Blog
Who was it Finney?
Dan Thornton - works on blackcomb.
I really like that pic!
Another powder day. 52cm in 48 hours. Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeew! 
Don’t you mean…?
Had such an awesome morning. I was riding with Nev Lapwood from Snowbaord Addiction all morning. Just got back for a break. We rode upper and lower Insanity, International Trees, and Unsanctioned all morning; big pillow lines, deep pow, cliff drops - just awesome! Heaps of fun riding with Nev too. Blog to come later.
Stoked you had a killer morning buddy.. super jealous I missed out though.
Just at Vancouver airport now about to leave on the bus back to up Whistler.
Alpine has been shut for two days bro. Red even got shut down around 11:30am due to high winds. There’s still heaps of snow for you! You riding tomorrow or working till Monday?
Working until Monday unfortunately buddy
Rider’s Blog: Day 51
Another 20cm of snow fell overnight, making it 52cm in 48 hours, and 6 feet in 7 days! I got up super early and waxed my board (I was too tired last night haha), made breakfast, and I was down in the Creekside lift line before it opened. I was stoked to bump into Nev Lapwood from Snowboard Addiction in the early morning line. We’ve been meaning to go riding together for a while and it seemed like the perfect day to do so. There weren’t many people in line at all; in fact the lines were good all day. I guess a lot of people slept in today.
We went straight up Red Chair and Nev followed me to Goat’s Path and we rode Franz’s trees through the gully. There was so much snow - everywhere! Dipped straight back into the creek area off Franz’s Run. So much snow and pillows everywhere. But there were huge holes and I almost died after airing off a pillow; lucky I was riding fast because I flew over the biggest and deepest hole I have ever seen. I was in the air and for sure I was going to land in the hole (which dropped about 20 feet into the creek and rockbed below), so I rotated 90 degrees and grabbed the wall of the hole so hard I was able to anchor myself. Any lower and I would have been screwed. There are warning signs up the top and I know the area but that was the biggest hole I have ever seen. Anyway, nothing like a close call to get the heart rate up.
We bombed down and cut into upper Insanity. The snow was super deep and there were pillows galore. It was so much fun following Nev off all the pillows and cliff drops through there. Definitely the best Insanity run I’ve ever had. Went straight into lower Insanity and did the same the whole way down. Just before creek, Nev decided to hit the gnarly pillow steps which run under the Creekside Gondola (it’s those big man made steps at the dam). This had to be the the best first run of the day I’ve had in a long time; top to bottom deep snow and gnarly steep pillow lines.
From there we rode to Garb and went up. Went straight over to International Trees which was just epic. It was just the two of us in there and freshies galore. Nice and steep, pillows, flowing terrain - it was just sick! From there we went straight into Unsanctioned which was much of the same but more mellow. We were both so stoked we went up and did the exact same thing but took a different line.
Went back up and rode through trees down to Red. Nev was ready to call it a day as we had been riding hard all morning. To be honest, my legs were about to drop. I went back up and met Rico but I soon lost him on the first run (he didn’t see where I turned off into the trees). Anyway, we were both exhausted. I rode down to Creekside and called it a day. All the alpine was shut all day and they closed Red chair as I was getting off the chair (super high winds) and Emerald and Whistler Gondola got shut down soon after. So it was an amazing morning but the afternoon was over before it started. The alpine is going to be amazing when it finally opens.
Early morning snow clearing
Lots of snow
Nev and I
Stopped for a quick breather
It was snowing super hard
Nev getting covered in just a few minutes
International Trees
Nev about to drop
We got snow
Lucky getting amongst it
*insert generic comment on how jealous i am*
looks epic. *Insert my own generic comment on how jealous I am*
stoked for you!
*insert generic comment on how jealous i am*
*insert ditto marks here*
*insert all above comments and all the below comments that will follow.
EDIT :
OH AND I REALLY HATE YOU JEZ GRRRRRR