Whistler Day Two

The second day of our vacation dawned with big fluffy snowflakes falling. We had already decided that we would ski Blackcomb Mountain today, so we took the Excalibur Gondola over to the Excelerator Chair. This got us to the bottom of the Jersey Cream area. It looked pretty good, so we did a couple of laps to warm up. Unfortunately, this seemed to be a very popular area for the ski schools as well, and the runs were filled with flocks of skidlets following each other down the hill like so many baby ducks crossing the road and we'd have to slow down as we passed each group. Aaron has been skiing since he was 3 and is an expert skier. But he's also 15, so 'slow' isn't really a part of his vocabulary. Rather than have some overzealous instructor make an example of him we decided to head for higher ground.

Off we went to 7th Heaven. The bottom of the area was a bit icy as you neared the lift, but the snow on the top was excellent. We started on Hugh's Heaven but with each run we worked our way further and further over until we were traversing into Xhiggy's Meadow and The Lakeside Bowl. There was plenty of powder and although it was somewhat tracked up it was still better than anything on the groomed runs. Around one o'clock we decided to stop for lunch at the Horstman Hut at the top of 7th Heaven Express.

Fueled and ready to go, we dropped off the backside of the mountain onto the Horstman Glacier where we found ourselves in fog and flat light. The snow felt good; but since we couldn't see where we were going, it was skiing by braille. It was only a small band of cloud, though, and soon we had dropped below it into better visibility. We found ourselves at the top of Heavenly Basin looking down on deep untracked snow, and a sign that said 'Stay on Road'. We took the sign as 'more what you'd call guidelines than actual rules' and dropped in. It was beautiful, knee-deep powder which eventually emptied into a field of Volkswagen-sized moguls. Ugh. There must always be balance, I guess, and the piper requests his due.

The bumps were a workout, but not enough of one to dissuade us from doing that run again. And again. What almost turned us off was cruising down the little run that lead to Heavenly and getting blindsided by a snowboarder who had ducked some ropes and was out of control. He definitely took the worst of it and while he lay on the ground trying to clear his head, I stood there channeling my inner Red Forman and pondering the merits of euthanasia.

We took a couple more runs down Heavenly Basin and decided to call it a day. Making our way to the Gondola, we rode down into the village. Our valet was waiting at the bottom to take our skis (really) and we tromped off to our room, tired and happy.

We continued our ritual of unwinding in the hot tub and pool before showering and heading out for dinner at Earl's Restaurant. Aaron had a chicken and lime quesadilla, which he described as the best he'd ever had. I had a chicken sandwich on ciabatta with apples, brie, spinach, and a fig-and-garlic aioli. It was delicious and I plan to try to re-create it at home.