Some Whistler, but mostly Blackcomb, BC 2/25-26/2016

On Thursday, I left Lillooet in moonlight at 5:45 AM and drove winding road through Coastal Mountains for almost two hours before arriving Whistler and parking in Lot 7 above Blackcomb. I skied down to base area between Blackcomb and Whistler where I got my Mountain Collective set up, then signed in and paid for two day steep skiing clinic with company that probably should remain nameless for now. I had a couple of minutes to spare before 8:30 meetup, then we loaded Whistler gondola. Next we rode up Emerald and Peak express chairs to the sunny top of Whistler. We took a warmup lap on Whistler Bowl, then did the ski-off where I was placed in group with two guys living in Whistler and an Aussie lady who had recently passed her level 2 ski instructor certification and if she can add soon Africa will have skied all 7 continents in less than a year. But her planned trip to Morocco is on hold and she couldn't ski steep or ungroomed snow very quickly which made the morning boring as we spent a lot of time waiting for her. WB website shows we rode Peak chair a total of 3 times, Big Red Experess once and very crowded due to two other chairs having electrical issues Harmony Express. While we got some instruction on skiing steep terrain we really did not ski anything that I could not have found on my own.

After lunch they brought in another coach to take the lady (and I later heard had to carry lady's skis to get her up Spanky's Ladder). We all took Peak2Peak gondola to Blackcomb as coaches felt we had skied the E-facing goods on Whistler enough and snow would be better there. We really stepped it up in the PM starting with a warmup run on Big Bang side of Couloir Extreme, followed by a hike up Spanky's Ladder and a difficult line in Crystal Bowl where snow was excellent. We also skied Frazzle Trees, did another lap into Couloir Extreme and received coaching and practice on handling drops by skiing off 6-16 foot tall steep drops on edge of runs. We finished day with a high and exposed entrance into Ruby Bowl, followed by a steep chute into Playland. All three in our group joined our coach and another coach who took a slightly more advanced group of two for a couple of pitchers of beer at GLC. Our 3+ hr morning was about 10K and our slightly less than 3 hr afternoon was 14.5K.

On Friday, the lady again was in a group of 1 with a female coach, another male coach took slightly more advanced group of 1 while the three of us again had Jon. The two male coaches were both hungover since after sharing beers with us, they went to their company's annual party where our coach was honored for 15 years service, then they continued celebrating until about midnight. We went up Blackcomb gondola (Excalibur), then continued up Excelerator and Solar Coaster and finally 7th Heaven to the top. I'm a little unclear on all the runs we skied, but we did both a Big Bang side and a main entrance (not False Peak) into Couloir Extreme, although snow was not as good as previous day. Big Bang side was slightly re-frozen and snow under main entrance was mostly scraped off vs deep and steep sluff from previous day.

One of the highlights of the day was riding Showcase T-bar, then doing a short bootpack to the top of Blackcomb Glacier where we skied the Blowhole, then traversed into Sapphire Bowl. We did not ski the chute as it was narrow and chewed up, but instead went past cliff area signs (where I 'm sorry I did not get a picture of the other three skiing past the signs into a steep rollover), before skiing a steep apron that stayed above cliffs and held great snow. We also skied Pakalolo, Purple Haze, Smoked Salmon and run before Smoked Salmob. Both of the first two chutes had challenging entrances; the former due to bumps and the latter due to a lot of exposure rounding corner into very confined area and I mostly side-stepped where coach wanted us to side-slip. Snow after the entrances was excellent. We finished day with same run as previous day, the high entrance into Ruby Bowl, followed by a steep chute into Playland. My first turn on the top of the steep, 1,000' vertical slope was strong and sure, but I almost lost it on 2nd or 3rd turn which could have meant a long slide. Whistler's app showed my at about 29,750 vertical.

The weather was sunny and mild the first day and mostly overcast and warmer the second. We got a few flakes in the PM and watched the incoming storm cover Whistler. Snow was very slushy at bottom at the end of the day. My original plan was to drive towards border after skiing, then ski Mt Baker tomorrow. Instead I'm using a third day on my MCP at Whistler to ride fast lifts and ski what should be better (and hopefully new) snow and terrain. I'm signed up for First Tracks which costs $20 and allows you to load Whistler gondola at 7:15, then have a buffet breakfast at Roundhouse before getting on upper slopes about 30 minutes before lower lifts load. All these pictures taken by coach Jon.

I'm not sure why my recommendation of Extremely Canadian should remain nameless since I've been posting about them since 2005.

I'm surprised the Aussie lady wasn't slotted appropriately in the morning ski-off as Liz was last year. But Liz had skied the prior day with EC guide Steve Mayer. viewtopic.php?t=11790

I do not recognize the names of some of your runs: Crystal Bowl, Purple Haze, Smoked Salmon, Playland. I may have skied some of these not knowing the names, but I've also not skied the top entrance to Ruby Bowl yet. I'm sure you saw a lot you would not have otherwise, and are better set up for the third day on your own.

I think what I called Crystal Bowl is really called Diamond. It's straight off top of Spanky's Ladder where the top is called Garnet.

I was trying to keep company's name out of it as my experience was not the best with first morning that was partially wasted due to how they split groups. The 2nd day I got all I could handle but have to wonder what I missed due to not being in top group which would have pushed me harder.

Today I started skiing before 8:30 and got three laps to top of Whistler before it got crowded. I quit skiing at 2:40 with 33.5K by my watch, not their website which is useless from iPhone. (Their tracking had me at 30.5K vertical and loading 3,800' vertical gondola at 7:22. My first load of Emerald was at 8:29 and I loaded Peak at 8:55 when I saw it go green on status board before Harmony and Symphony.) No lunch break, but I did go back to car for ibruprofen and a beer for my back and went into company's office. I also had 14 min singles line at one Whistler chair and did 3 hikes at top of Blackcomb.

Now at mall by SeaTac.

How would you rate the couloir against main and little chute at Alta? Seen vids of it and it looks a bit nuts.

Couloir Extreme and the Spanky's runs are more complex than the Baldy Chutes. The latter have basically one line you must ski, at a consistent pitch just slightly over 40 degrees. There are all kinds of variations at W/B. The easier ones are like Snowbird's Upper Cirque in a big snow year. Others you can easily get cliffed out on blind approaches, have narrow chokes or short sections of 45+ degrees. Navigation is a big plus for signing up with Extremely Canadian to ski this kind of terrain.

it looked..complicated...maybe some day

Tony Crocker":36ymb9qa said:

Couloir Extreme and the Spanky's runs are more complex than the Baldy Chutes. The latter have basically one line you must ski, at a consistent pitch just slightly over 40 degrees. There are all kinds of variations at W/B. The easier ones are like Snowbird's Upper Cirque in a big snow year. Others you can easily get cliffed out on blind approaches, have narrow chokes or short sections of 45+ degrees. Navigation is a big plus for signing up with Extremely Canadian to ski this kind of terrain.

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I have never skied Baldy Chutes but think they are a lot more confining than most of what we skied at Whistler. Couloir Extreme was not that big of a deal, even on second day when conditions were not as good as first day. There were more difficult entrances such as False Peak that we did not ski due to rocks on entrance. Even the runs off the back of Spanky's Ladder are mostly not very confining, but navigation is critical and what goes one day or year may not be the same the next.

Following picture was taken from chair fellow clinic member and I used after apres at very loud Merlin's where company bought nachos, wings and more beers than we could drink. He rode it to employee housing and I rode it back to my SUV. Time was 5:53. It closes at 6.

There's a wide range in Spanky's. Garnet to Ruby is no harder than Middle Cirque though much longer. Average pitch of many of these runs may be in the 35 degree range though sections are much steeper. Long continuous lines in excess of 40 degrees like the Baldy Chutes are rare in lift served North America.

I knew I was leaving before storm hit, but my wife was not very happy when I left on President's Day for the rest of the month so extending trip into March was not a good option. I missed 34 cm storm. See http://snowbrains.com/whistler-b-c-cond ... -to-march/ which also has some pictures of bowls on backside of Spanky's Ladder. The entrance to Ruby Bowl we took both days starts at right side of highest flat at top, just to left of notch. Play Land is off the picture to the left. In the picture titled 'Glacier Chair...' Pakalolo is chute visible in center and Purple Haze comes down shoulder lookers right and is entered by coming around corner.