Thursday, April 24, 2008
Arriving in Style
Mr. Hailey is the first of us to make his airline reservations. And he'll be traveling first class! Right on brah. Start the party before the plane even leaves the ground!
Monday, April 21, 2008
Whistler Finale
Since today was about quality over quantity, we decided to head back to the Flute Bowl and make some marks on the mountain. We started with a couple of runs down Jimmy's Joker and then hit the Peak Chair. It was another bright and sunny day, so we were not surprised to find clouds and driving snow when we got to the top. We snapped a shot of a family in front of the 2010 Olympic Symbol and they returned the favor by taking a picture of us.
The run-out from our hill led to tracked snow at the bottom of the bowl into a flat icy trail and finally into a glade run. So by the time we reached the lift I had had a complete workout. Our natural impulse was to do it again. So we did. Up the lift, down to the gate, off with the skis, start hiking. People at the bottom of the bowl would occasionally point up at us and wave or take pictures, but no one seemed inclined to make the hike, so it was our hill.
By the time we reached the lift after the second run, it was 2:20. The left closed at 3 and there was no other way out of this area, so we had a decision ahead of us: Try for one more run? Our first two runs had each taken almost an hour round trip, but we had taken leisurely stops after the hike. We decided to go for it.
It took 10 minutes to ride the lift and another 2 for us to fly down to the bowl gateway. We popped the skis and started trudging. I beat Aaron to the top; mostly because it was a single-file track and he couldn't pass me. But at my age I take the victories that are handed to me. We estimated that it would take 10 minutes to get down the hill and back to the lift, so we paused until quarter 'til and then hit it. We made it to the lift with 4 minutes to spare.
On the ride up you could see our hill in the late afternoon sun. Pristine, but for eight sets of tracks. One set had been there when we first arrived, one belonged to Aaron from yesterday, and six were ours from today. We made our mark and now it was time to go.
This was a great vacation for the two of us. I've always known that a day would come when Aaron would be a better skier than me, but I've assumed that we'd be at parity for awhile. Nope. 2008 - Aaron's a better skier than me. Much better. Period. I'm just glad he let me keep up this trip.
But he's got a ways to go to catch me at surfing. Hehe.
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Whistler Day Three
After our warm-ups we went up to the peak. The view up there is absolutely breathtaking, or at least it was 20 years ago. Now? I can't say; every time Aaron and I got to the top, a massive cloud would push in. Every Time. Notice the peak in the picture with bright blue skies? It was gray with about 10 feet of visibility when we got to the top fifteen minutes after this picture was taken.
We skied over to Symphony, with Aaron finding every opportunity to put some distance between his skies and the snow. I was able to get him to stop long enough one time for me to get the camera out.
The Flute Bowl, on the far side of the amphitheatre looked inviting so we made our way over there. If you kept up your speed on the run that led to the bowl, you could make it high enough to get to a gateway where you could take off your skis and start hiking, or you could drop into the good, but tracked-up, snow near the bottom. We did the latter initially, but eventually we had to give the good snow a try. I hiked about a third of the way up a clean white hill and dropped down to the bottom. Aaron went all the way up and had a great run through untracked knee-deep powder.
Around 1:30 we were starting to get pretty hungry, so we made our way up to the top of Symphony, down to Harmony Bowl, up to the Peak, down the Glacier Bowl, down Old Mans, up the Big Red Chair, and finally to the lodge. A mere 1-hour jaunt to food. After lunch we made a couple of runs down Jimmy's Joker and decided to call it a day.
We hit the hot tub, went into the village and got a pizza to take back to the room. There we watched various shows featuring people doing stupid things and hurting themselves. General note: If your buddies are very eager to video tape you leaping off of something, eating something, or blowing something up, maybe you should stop and reconsider. But then, I'm old and have discovered, to my chagrin, that I'm mortal.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Whistler Day Two
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.
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Whistler Day One
The last time I was back in this bowl was 1988, on a ski trip with Ron, Joe, and Greg. Back then you could traverse into what was called Burnt Stew Basin, pick a line, and ski to the bottom. From there your only choice was a miserable little cat track to get back to civilization. Now there is a high-speed quad serving the area and the Flute and Piccolo Bowls are no longer out of bounds. In a nod to us old-timers, however, you still have to take a miserable little cat track to get out of there.
We skied around Symphony until early afternoon then made our way back to the Roundhouse for a lunch of baked potatoes covered with chili, cheese, and sour cream. Yum! We made a few more runs off of Big Red Express and then worked our way back to the village. The spring conditions were really setting in, and by the time we got to the bottom the snow was the consistency of a slurpee.
Note to self: Tomorrow we download off the mountain.
After a quick soak in the hot tub and swim in the pool, we wandered through the village in search of dinner, eventually deciding on the Whistler Brewhouse. It's a little on the pricey side, but the food is good and the beer is excellent.
The Whistler Relay
Coming up next, How We Spent Our Ski Vacation...
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