indiggio

Crazy day with the snow squalls rolling through. Bump line on Chute got super deep and long bump line on lower Challenge was another leg burner. Bug squall #1 Big graupel squall in the afternoon Challenge bump line…

It was a fun morning regardless of the looks of the place, kinda like an ugly prostitute, she may not look good, but she knows how to satisfy. First run down Coming Soon was horrendous, as it was ungroomed and firm with random bumps and ridges all the way down. I wasn't prepared for that and came rolling in with some speed as usual thinking it was groomed, nope. Never returned to the mess. Paradise and Nightweaver had soft carveable snow, as did Challenge which was tight up top and widened down below. Later some of Glenn's bump kids set a line on the upper headwall with a kicker at the bottom but they were way tight, which kept the speed in check. We ended up setting a line all the way down lower Main which was a real burner if you did them all in one shot. We also set a haphazard line down Chute that was just a mess, as they started out just right, but got way too tight at the bottom. Unfortunately the rain started coming down too hard about 11 and we all bailed for beers in the lot.

Indeed!

Yes, a friend works for NS as a conductor and one of the biggest issues between the union and management is that the companies are trying to whittle crews down to just 1 person and eventually 0 because of all the automation. The unions keep fighting these reductions claiming fully automated trains are too unsafe.

And not the engineer?

03/01/2024 - Whistler Woke up to another 4” of snow in the village and reporting 8”+ up top. Typical morning walk over to Moguls for breakfast sangwitches, failed to mention this place earlier. Gold for us as they open at 7am, only bested by Starbucks, but the girls at Moguls are locals, so why make a conglomerate any richer? Breakfast bagel and cinnamon roll, delicious and recommended. Up the Whistler gondy, anince we had yet to ride it, into heavy blowing snow at its top. Of course it had to stop for a bit midway. Took a warm-up run down towards Big Red, which shortly diverted into a bump run filled with freshies, wonderful! Headed down towards Emerald, we found some untouched down Ratfink and Dapper with drops into Coyote woods. We kept alternating between Big Red and Emerald, looking for trees and stashes on both. We thought it was gonna be a crowded disaster, but it turned out not to be too bad, with only a 30 minute moving line to the Whistler gondy and 10-15 minute waits at the other lifts. Unfortunately with the blowing and fallen snow, the upper lifts were closed. Dinner was back to the Old Spaghetti Factory for some seafood pasta primavera. Whistler is a huge place, unfortunately with huge crowds to boot. It also didn’t help it’s been a bad snow year and people chomping to get out since many have tickets to use. It’s interesting to hear/notice all the different people who come here, everywhere from Australia to Britain, in both directions! It probably wouldn’t have been so crazy had they had a decent snow year. Regardless we all had a grate time and lots of fun, hoots and hollers.

02/29/2024 - Blackcomb Woke up to a mostly clear and cold morning with another few inches of new snow overnight. Got in the Excalibur line that stretched back to our hotel, but was moving pretty good. Midway up it decided to stop for like 15 minutes. Lift issues seem to be everywhere. Up Excalibur and right back down through some gloriously soft, knee-deep chunder. Back up and down to the Jersey Cream but we could see people loaded on the Crystal Ridge, so hoping to evade the crowds, we headed down there only to find it packed. Back down to Jersey, which was stopped, then moving backwards to unload people, frustration set in and some broke for other lifts down low. The Glacier just opened so we got in that line and waited as it too was having some issues. Came down through the glacier in dick deep powder as Slim found out when he lost a ski and had to search for a bit. After a short lunch break, we headed out via Jersey. We could see the top of 7th Heaven, so we headed down to it. Up 7th and down into some trees with crazy deep and untouched snow. Lapped that and headed back to Whistler via the Peak-to-Peak and then down to the village in a nice snowfall. Dinner was at the Amsterdam pub for a God-DAM burger and poutine, delicious! Turned out to be a grate after storm ski day with lots of deep fresh to still be had. Slim (top dot) fighting to find his ski…

02/28/2024 - Whistler Up at usual 0-dark thirty, went to look out the window at the forecasted deluge and wondering how we’re gonna stay dry until we got up to the snow line, much to my surprise when I opened the window to see easily 12” or more snow on top of everything and still puking snow. Definitely better than rain, but this is gonna be crazy. We debated going out and standing in the already long lines, not knowing if they were gonna start spinning on time or wait for the bull rush to subside. We decided to let the bull run and we’ll pick up seconds. With the way it was snowing, that wouldn’t be terrible. Out for a walk the lift lines snakes through the village nearly back to our hotel. Stopped for a breakfast sandwich and checked the lines on the way back to find them all but gone. All the alpine lifts weren’t running for obvious reasons and the 2 main gondolas were only serving to mid station, so it was up the Fitzsimmons and then ip the Garbanzo into a snowmageddon. Figuring visibility would be better a little lower, we headed down to Creekside through some of the deepest snow I’ve ever been in. Freshies were still available if you stayed next to the trees. Snow down low was already getting sticky and some needed to drop a layer, so we split up. We headed up the Creekside and then up Big Red. Amazingly people were coming down the lift line without abandon, but we knew what was lurking just beneath the new snow. Garbanzo lift seemed to be the sweet spot holding mostly nice snow and just a little sticky at its base, so we lapped it until we had enough. Not the longest of days, but definitely the most fun skiing through boot, knee, thigh deep snow. Dinner was feee nachos on the club.

02/27/2024 - Blackcomb/Whistler Day started out bluebird but wasn’t forecasted to end that way, so we planned on getting up to 7th Heaven as soon as possible and also take the Peak-to-Peak tram run. Since the run from Blackcomb back to Whistler is closed, we need to end the day in Whistler. Up Excalibur, Excelerator and Jersey Cream and high-speed lapped the Jersey Cream on perfectly groomed packed powder with a skiff of new on top. Bailed out of Jersey Cream as the lines started to lengthen down to the Crystal Ridge Express. Rider’s Revenge woods had some nice snow, so we lapped them for a while. Clouds were on the horizon so we took the P2P across and had lunch in the lodge. After lunch we waited for one of the glass bottom teams and took that back across. That tram is a feat of engineering. Took the 7th Heaven up and lapped in. Snow was mixed soft with some firm bumps beneath at the top. Found some better snow in the trees just above the lift base. Made our way down and up the Catskinner to catch another P2P back to Whistler. It was long about 3pm, so we high speed lapped the Emerald lift until 4 then made our way back to the ranch. Dinner was at The Mexican Corner. Not bad but nothing to write home mom about. Supposedly a dumping tomorrow.

02/26/2024 - Whistler Day started out with some flurries falling and much colder temps in the village which locked up all the melted from yesterday, but with some snow overnight we heard some avy bombs going off at the peak. Took the Fitzsimmons 8 out and the. the Garmonzo up higher, the snow was perfect packed powder with a few inches on top, glorious. However there were patches of ice lurking that were taking some down. Lapped the Emerald lift area a bit and made our way down to Harmony to try to get some goods up too but they announced avy work wasn’t done and didn’t have an open ETA. Bailed down to Garbanzo and the skies cleared so we went up to the peak. Plenty of good snow to be found ip here. A whiteout squall rolled in that sent ip to the lodge for some lunch. The place was still packed at 1:30pm. After lunch ran the Glacier bowl T-bar for some fun. Then it was back up to the peak and down to play around off the Harmony and Symphony lifts. Made one last run ip to the peak to do the Peak-to-creek run, but it was closed part way down. Dinner was at 21 Steps with the rest of the tour group. Nice place and good food.

Pretty bad. Lots of the lower runs are barren. Riding with locals said it’s the worst they’ve seen it in like the last 15 years. They also have said this week is the best conditions Have been all season so far.

02/25/2024 - Blackcomb Ip early as usual so searched the are for breakfast shops and came across a fitting place, Moguls. Had bacon, egg, cheese wrap that they baked after rolling it up which was pretty good. Of course it was raining in the village and pretty hard too. We made our way up to the gondy center and took the Excalibur out. Only took a couple hundred feet and the rain had changed to snow. From the gondy it was up Excelerator into heavier snow and fog. Unfortunately with the wind that was also blowing up higher, 7th Heaven and above weren’t open. Rand down Buzz Cut in the few inches of powder which was fun, but was lipstick on a pig at the bottom. Back up Excelerator as the lines were beginning to lengthen. Took the Jersey Cream express into the eye of the storm. Over a ridge and the wind rocked you like a hurricane. Headed down Wishbone to Cruiser for a nice long run through pow to crust to beginning mush at the bottom. After lunch the fog started to clear but the winds hadn’t really subsided so we headed down to the Blackcomb gondy since there shouldn’t be any lines which there weren’t and we found out why midway up. The winds were picking up and pausing the gondy. At one point we sat for 20 mins as the winds felt like they were going to blow the car off the line! People said they’ve been coming to WB for 17 years and never saw the gondy stop for wind before. You know it’s bad when the lifites are taking vids of the cars flailing. Decided to call it and head back to the hot tub. Dinner was at The Old Spaghetti Factory in high was pretty reasonable for salad, pasta, bread and dessert. Recommended. Afterwords WB on Sundays puts on a Fire & Ice show w/ slope style athletes jumping through a hoop of fire and native Canadians dancing and playing music. Sorry not many pics as it was way cold and windy. View of Whistler while stuck on gondy… Ricing the wind… IMG_8757.mov Fog clearing out… Dinner… Fire & Ice show…

02/24/2024 - Travel Rick, son and myself left the house @ 2am headed for Newark to meet up with Slim, Gary, Gah skier George & Jr. for flight @ 6am headed for Toronto, then bro Vancouver. Uneventful flight and even stayed awake for all of Oppenheimer. Good flick. Since we’re actually on an Upper Bucks tour, we had to wait around a bit for the tour bus to arrive. Typical Pacific Northwest weather: rain and fog. Drove through downtown Vancouver because there’s no highway around it. Brilliant! Drive up to Whistler provided some amazing views of the Howe Sound, with mountains knitting straight up out of the water. Unfortunately I was on the wrong side of the bus for pics. After a grocery stop in Squamish, we resumed the ride into Whistler and checked into The Listel Hotel. Some pretty nice digs right next to town square. Dinner was some slices from Dat Tony’s which were delicious, the sauce was crazy good! Recommended for the food, no place to sit though. It didn’t matter since we were starving. Walked around the square a little and stocked up on essentials from the cannabis and liquor stores. Some light snow was falling and supposed to continue through the night. Leaving Newark… Vancouver airport… Vancouver… Squalmish… Witch of something imprint on the mountain… Whistler…

How do you know they have more money than young folk? Maybe youngs should pay more since they have longer potential to make more money.

They're already paying too much!

Easy, youngs should get a break as incentive for parents to bring them to the mountain, as they're the ones that want chicken fingers, fries, waffles, lessons, adventure camps, etc. All the high-margin stuff us olds don't typically partake in.

A lot of places still use the hand scanners for some reason. Every mountain that I went to on my NH tour did. Some even still used a wicket ticket!

Won't be long, he's moving down to the Carolinas, giving up security and looking for a heavy machinery job soon or so he says.

Skiing's definitely not the profit center, but the motivator to bring people to the mountain where they've got (most) people captive in terms of food and beverage sales, where the real margins can be made. Skiing is definitely a loss leader for the mountains, but tubing on the other hand...

Why aren't they at Camelback then?

The summit VIP lot is paved, you could park up there to keep the dirt off your shoes.

SP was handing out cookies in the OG6 line today! @saltyant can also be in charge of the cookies in addition to hit chocolate.

It's far easier on the organizer to handle groups of 6 and they tend to just let them go ahead right away.

If people aren't grouping up on their own in the VIP line, we actively "help" people group up just so the line moves along quicker.

Recipe for a shit-show...