Whistler at Thanksgiving

Oh how I love Thanksgiving traditions. Whistler open already, Blackcomb opening day, Sushi Village for dinner. Deserted runs. It’s heaven. OK- not quite your traditional Thanksgiving traditions, but seemingly almost as reliable.

My rule-of-thumb is that if the snow depth reported on the Whistler Web site at Pig Alley is 1m, then the mid and upper mountains are in pretty fine shape. It hovered around 80cm on this visit, so I was a little reticent about the cover. There was no real worry though, as cold weather had turned the mountains into something akin to Killington, with fresh gun pow making sure the groomers were fun and fast all weekend. Off groomed was variable, but there was great fun to be had as long of you carefully hopped over occasional shrubbery, logs, rocks and open creeks and, ahem, crevasses.

The Roundhouse

Catskinner bumps

The crew

Crevasses!!!

Top of Solar Coaster

The crew on Blackcomb

Greg-zea

Whistler doing a Killington impression

Blackcomb base

By Saturday Whistler was open top-to-bottom, and the Blackcomb ski out was groomed and ready to roll, making it rude not to hit apres at Merlins. This seemed a suitably magical way to end some fine November skiing!

Thursday 8000m, Friday 9400m, Saturday 8500m very

Season Totals; 4 days, 31,900m vertical

Closing the Season at Whistler on Memorial Weekend

It’s mid-November 2015, we’re ensconced in Seattle, and despite the Godzilla El Nino, it’s snowing pretty hard in the Cascades. In fact, Whistler will open in 2 days 🙂 We might be skiing soon.

All this growing excitement reminded me that in the move West over summer I forgot to wrap up last season’s story. Mt Bachelor, our usual Memorial weekend gig, closed two weeks earlier. It was seriously bad year out West. Luckily, up high at Whistler was open and not horrible. It wasn’t great either, to be honest, with ribbons of slush that any East Coast micro ski hill would’ve been proud of on the run outs to Emerald and Franz’s chairs.

It was a bit better off the Peak coverwise, but emerging rocks and glue by noon made it tough going. In fact, the slushathon off the Emerald chair was the best afternoon option, and I don’t think we made it past 3pm.

Ah well, it was skiing. At Whistler this is rarely grim with all the other options to entertain. And it certainly wasn’t busy. But I do hope it’s going to be better this year. I really do.

6,200m, 6100m, 5800m vert

Final Season totals: 59 days, 472,o00m vert, 12 powder days

We’re off – 2012-13 Season Kick off at Whistler

This is our 10th Thanksgiving in the Pacific Northwest, and our 8th in Whistler. All have delivered fantastic November skiing, and this was no exception.

A calm, clearing Thursday was great for warming up legs that hadn’t clicked into boots and skis for 6 months. It was Blackcomb opening day, so we skipped the mayhem and as a reward scored first tracks on an immaculately groomed Franz’s (glacier) run. Even seeing grooming on that run, rather than hard packed death snow, is a rarity. this was a true pleasure. By noon we were ripping in something approaching mid-season style, turns flowing down the hill on the mostly deserted Whistler groomers.

And then it snowed a foot Thursday night, all the way down to the village. Back on Whistler for the morning, we saw Franz’s in a very different light – deep, virtually untracked pow, delivering the first face shots of the season. We managed 4 or 5 runs down that side of the mountain, pushing wider out towards the old Franz’s chair to keep picking up fresh lines.  It was even possible to ride down to the GLC at the base for apres beers. This was too good for November.

By Friday afternoon, benign and increasingly sunny, cold weather moved in. For some reason, the snow on Blackcomb seemed to remain in fantastic condition, more mid-winter than November. So we stayed there for 2 days, skiing mostly soft bumps, powdery remnants and the occasional groomer. Catskinner bumps into Freefall was my pick of the weekend, providing late afternoon Solar Coaster laps that turned legs to jello. Until you sat on the chair. By the top, it was all systems go for another …

4 days: 7900m, 8000m, 9000m, 7500m vert

Season totals: 4 days, 1 powder day, 32,400 verts

Closing Winter 2012, Opening Spring at Whistler Blackcomb

Closing weekend at Whistler is basically the place to be. This year, deep, top-to-bottom snow, cool but bright conditions, a festival to keep everyone partying and not riding, free demos all weekend  – it all adds up to the skiing equivalent of a Silvio Berlusconi Bunga Bunga party, for the whole family, of course. From the peak to the creek, Whistler and West Bowls, and some manicured mid-mountain groomers, there was amazing terrain and snow to rip from open until close. I even met my new Prior Husume skis – it was love on first run, so to speak, and perfect Whistler Bowl descents consummated the relationship.

We hung around for the first 3 days of Spring skiing at Blackcomb. Variable weather, including a mild Pineapple Express on Wednesday, meant you had to be ready for anything. In between some bursts of wild weather, we found some fine Spring conditions lurking in the mid-mountain trees and bumps, and even more surprisingly on the runs down to the village, which were Gortex-like with their rain resistant qualities. While it wasn’t the best Spring skiing ever, the compensation of Whistler Village, bargain top quality food deals (e.g $30 for 5 courses at Araxi – a total steal) and fun bars made it all rather bearable. Spring at Whistler is simply the best.

5 days – 10 200m, 10,000m 9100m, 10,400m, 5200m

Season Totals: 62 days, 519,700m vert, 28 powder days

The Usual – Thanksgiving 2011 at Whistler

Thanksgiving is all about tradition. For most folks around here, its excess Turkey and shopping. For us, it’s a condo in Blackcomb, 4 days skiing at Whistler-Blackcomb, and Sushi Village for Thanksgiving dinner. No turkey in sight.

7 of our 9 Thanksgivings in North America have been spent at Blackcomb. And the skiing has been fabulous every time. This year we were blessed with huge pre-season dumps, which continued all the way through the weekend. Opening day at Blackcomb was a powdery affair, followed by fabulous afternoon groomers on Whistler, which was as busy as a Herman Cain rally for appreciative female co-workers. Serious dumpage came down Thursday night, and early Friday morning we had several runs in deep Blackcomb mid-mountain fluff. Second tracks down Bark Sandwich made me very happy of myself!

More snow came down for another 5 inch powdery Saturday morning, By midday though unwelcome warm air, like hippies at hipster party, moved in and brought a sogginess to the proceedings. The first car of a fast Pineapple Express had rolled in, and for the next 24 hours the snow level oscillated around 1500-1800m. This made Sunday an interesting day. Sludgey snow first, rain low down, then serious fluffy deluges interleaved with flashes of sunshine. Highlight was first tracks down the Upper Dave Murray Downhill, starting at the Olympic course gate,  leaving perfect carved lines through 3 inches of vanilla ice cream. There’s a tradition I could start.

4 days: 5500, 9500, 8500, 5400

Season Totals: 6 days,  40,100 vert, 3 powder days

More new videos from last season

Various clips from around the Pacific Northwest during 2010-11 ski season:

Blackcomb in May

Trip report format from Snowheads. Read on …

Date: April 30th-May 7th, 2011

Our mob: 3 addicted skiers

Website : here

Basics : Whistler closes one of its mountains at the end of April, and keeps the other open until, this year, May 30th. It’s Blackcomb’s turn this year. Access is via the Blackcomb gondola from Whistler  and the majority of the mid and upper mountain lifts are open every day. For Edge Card holders, a $79 Spring Season Pass is available. Yep, 7 days skiing for $79 bucks on this trip 😉

The skiing: It’s been a record-breaking La Nina year at Whistler, and the snow depth was still like mid-winter, with skiing all the way down to the village. When the weather was good, the place to be was up high in Glacier Bowl and off 7th Heaven. The mid mountain runs got slushy later in the day, but rarely sticky, rather with fun, sugary snow prevailing all the way down the village. Groomers like Cloud 9, Ridge Runner and Zig Zag were at various times in perfect condition, fast and carvable. In the alpine, Pakalolo, Cougar Chutes and the bump runs off the Jersey chair were epic as long as you timed it right. The only downer was 3 foggy days, occasionally reducing the visibility to levels similar to Donald Trump’s credibility for President. This was the time to hit the tree runs, with Bark Sandwich, In the Spirit and Outer Limits being places to lay tracks in great spring snow.

Lift lines. Er … none.

Off-piste : There was so much snow you could basically ski anywhere. We had runs off Spanky’s Ladder, which were superb, and explored some precipitous lines off the cat track just past Heavenly Basin. Again, as long as you were smarter than the average bear with your timing, there was some really great off-piste skiing. Talking of bears, we saw some pretty big tracks in the trees below Crystal Chair 😉

The resort : Whistler Village is fantastic in spring. It’s not too busy, even at weekends, and there are bargains galore to be had eating, drinking and shopping. I invested in a new Salomon jacket for half price that should suffice for next season. So many bargains, so little budget ;(

Food : We deliberately explored new eating options, and exploited a few of the many special deals available throughout the village. Huge prime rib and lamb shanks for less than $20 each were excellent at Wildwood. We had good food in the Aubergine Grill, respectable bar food in Earls (perched at the bar watching ice hockey), and, the discovery of the week, great Japanese ‘pub food’  at Izakaya Harajuku. There’s some genuine, excellent Japanese food in Whistler, and Harajuku is up there with the best. A special 3 course menu for $19 per person was a great deal. So good, we went twice.

Hotel: We booked a 2 bed/2 bathroom condo in Bear Lodge from ownerdirect.com for C$900 for a week. What a bargain. A 5 minute walk to lifts, spacious and comfortable, and entertaining views of the (small) crowds outside Garfinkels at weekends as a bonus!

Costs: A helluva lot cheaper than in winter. Get the weekly paper and follow the nightly specials in all the restaurants and bars, and there’s serious money to be saved.

Conclusion: I love Whistler in spring. The skiing is still extensive and superb, the slopes are quiet, prices low, and the weather generally excellent (less so on this crazy La Nina year though, where spring skiing everywhere is as elusive as an Alex Ferguson apology).  One day I’ll spend all May there. One day …

Skiing stats:

7 days: 11900m,  7900m,  10200m,  12200m,  8900m,  9200m,  7900m vert

Season totals:

70 days, 23 powder days, 605, 000m vertical