Blackcomb 4/15/08

16 Apr, 2008

Monday’s conditions on the mountain were less than stellar. A couple people went up early to scout it out while the rest of us lazily got ready. The texts back to us said no visibility and a couple inches of snow on top of ice. That group soon came down and joined us for the day. So Monday was relaxing, hang out, movies and poker kind of day.

Tuesday was my last day on the mountain before I had to drive back to Seattle. We made it up relatively early with our group…everyone recovered who had missed riding before. I hooked Karmel up with riding the 155cm Never Summer Evo R so she could try out a rocker board for the first time.

Making our way up the mountain

Yesterday it snowed most of the day in the village, so today there were freshies up on top of the mountain. We made our way up high without any crowds on the mou

ntain. It was quite empty for 10am.

Mixture of clouds and sun

T0 get up to the glacier you have to take the T-bar and I hate t-bar’s as a snowboarder. But we managed to get up. I had the T-bar in between my legs which was fine for the entire ride.

Matt riding the T-bar up

A group of us waiting at the top of the T-bar

From there you hike across a ledge to get over to more terrain or you can drop in through a chute to get down. I chose the chute option.

Hiking the ledge

On the upper part of the glacier, it was freshies on top of choppy icy chunks of snow…so really bumpy and deceiving.

Joe on his skis

Karmel coming down on the NS Evo R

She got the perfect conditions for trying out a rocker, once in pow she just floated with it.

But when the terrain opened up, it was smoother and some good powder turns to be made. Our group managed to make fresh turns down the glacier and we didn’t even wake up that early.

Kendra making turns

Jamie enjoying some powder

Making sure everyone is ready for the traverse back to the chairlift

Matt coming down

The group of us

At the bottom of the glacier is the 4.8 kilometer cat track that takes you back to excelerator chairlift. We had some fun treating it like a race and passing each other on the way down.

Treking our way across the flats

Last run of the day with me, took the shot of the group with our bases of the boards. It’s always fun to ride with people who all ride different boards, each person has their own style of riding and the board that suits them.

After that run, the clouds came in with low visibility on the glacier so we stuck to the Excelerator chairlift and making laps.

Mark flexing his Venture snowboard

Joe tempted to pull this one off

I took off from the group at noon and made the drive back to Seattle getting in around 6pm. The construction on the Sea to Sky Highway took the most time getting down but it’s looking good with the Olympics rapidly approaching for Whistler in 2010.

Overall I had a really fun time in Whistler, met new friends, rode with people from all ability levels and got to ride 2 new companies while I was there.

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About the author

Shay

From the beginning of time, I was Shannon. From the beginning of snowboarding, I was Shay. From the beginning of online communities, I was Shayboarder. In the end, I’m the writer, photographer, editor, publisher, guru of sorts, product tester, curvy girl, and most importantly the snowboarder behind it all. Follow me on this journey through snowboarding, mountain biking, traveling and fun experiences!