| Addicted To Powder Articles | | | | Snow Cure for the Summertime Blues | Sep 28, 2005| Resort - Whistler / Blackcomb | Thomas Hunterson | The summer solstice has come and gone, we are officially traveling towards winter at approximately 107,000 km/h. What did you do to celebrate? Did you light a bonfire and make burnt offerings to the gods of powder? This year I sat in a haze and reflected on last season.
There were many reasons to be disappointed. Skiers on Vancouver Island feel like children who were promised a trip to the fair that never materialized. Even the hardest bashers of our largest resort were anticipating the opening of a new chair complete with pomp and pageantry. Many of us who make the effort to travel to Mount Cain didn’t even get farther than the snow phone. I hope our local brethren skinned up and got a few turns. I was very happy to hear that Mount Cain was able to generate enough revenue to continue operation.
Even though the season was almost non existent some of us managed to squeeze in a few trips. The most memorable for me was an official A2P sanctioned event in Whistler. All the usual suspects were present; Klaus, Helmut, Dieter, and Boris. We had an epic powder day in early April. Dieter introduced us to his long time friend Bjorn. Bjorn is a veteran ski bum and has the best parking lot accommodations complete with all the amenities. He kept us entertained on lifts sharing his Burning Man experiences.
In the alpine the snow was knee to waste deep and we took full advantage. We were on Whistler Mountain when Bjorn took us to a drop he knew about. We would speed over the lip, air turn off it and land up to our waste in the fluff. On one particular run I released from my bindings on the landing. As I scrambled to find my gear Dieter landed within a meter of me. F@#CK I said. I began to move away from the landing zone. Klaus came over the lip next, just missing me. F@#CK!! I am going to get creamed, this is going to suck. Helmut came close as well. Luckily Boris had brought his A game and managed to avoid me by utilizing his hard wired tele skills. I had escaped uninjured.
Later we noticed the upper T-bars begin turning, the snow cat began packing around the base of the lift. Then we saw patrollers lifting up, that was our signal to get in line for some freshies. Suddenly we were in a stampede of skiers racing for the line up. Everyone stood in line like thoroughbreds in the starting gate as lifties prepped the T-bar. The lift started taking riders and soon we knew we would be one of the first hundred people on the terrain. As we rode the lift I was admiring the view of Whistler Peak when I heard Boris exclaim, “Woww, look at that, holly sh*t.”
I looked over to see a good size avalanche rolling down beneath the run known as The Headwall. There were two ski patrollers on the slope. One had just cut the avalanche free while the other spotted. The spotter dropped in and cruised through the sluff effortlessly. I wish I could ski like that. We knew our run of choice after that.
A short trek off the top and we were set to drop in. Klaus picked his line and charged. He skied out riding through a sluff of snow. He made it look easy as he usually does. Then I dropped in. The angle was steep so I landed in a hop turn stance. I sunk into the powder which then began to move. I was swimming downhill with the sluff, struggling to make a turn. I managed to face down the fall line and began to ski. I thought well, that’s one way to get down. As usual I skied the line without form or finesse.I feel bad for carving up the snow a better skier could have made art from. But I was there, I bought my ticket, I seized the moment. I sucked badly. As a note of interest, when we visited the same area the following week I noticed the the line we had chosen ran over a small rock bluff. No wonder I was swimming in it.
It is days like these that I ski for. Hanging with my friends high in the alpine. Meeting new people, taking some pictures and making turns through awesome terrain. I hope we have a better season next year with many new experiences. | |
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| Random Picture | | Beggars Canyon |  | | click on image for larger view |
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