Born in England but gave up offshore job and associated snowboarding/travelling lifestyle to live wi...
Born in England but gave up offshore job and associated snowboarding/travelling lifestyle to live with my danish girlfriend and 2 year old daughter in Denmark. Life is good.
Member since:05.07.2005
Reviews:38
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Before you hit me for going off-topic, I know this isn't a review as such, but It gives insight into the conditions and atmosphere which can be found in the resort and I hope these will effect peoples decision of where to ski - thus making it "on topic."
I had spent all of the previous season in Whistler, and had come back for three weeks (all I could spare) to visit friends and hit the slopes again. I got lucky with the snow, especially on the second weekend of my trip. It started snowing on the Saturday, and snowed all Saturday night. Sunday was a good day, but with flat light and snow flurries we rode through the trees for most of the day. Sunday night it was snowing when we left the pubs and still snowing when we woke up early next morning. A quick ring round at 6am flushed 4 of us out to the lifts for an "early bird" start - a special pass whereby you get access to the lifts at 7am, a breakfast on the mountain and first tracks when the ropes go up an hour before all the other punters.
Well, we weren't the first out of the restaurant, but I was watching as the powder hounds and speed merchants set off down the red slope as soon as the rope
went up. It was immediately apparent, however, that something was very, very, very wrong. 5 metres down the slope all their boards had sunk into the snow much, much deeper than they had anticipated and 90 percent had faceplanted. I remember looking round at one of my mates who was staring, open mouthed, at the scene. Remember - this was ON PISTE, it would have been pisted during the night - and it was almost waist deep.
We blasted about for a while in our group, hitting our usual favourite places and having a great day, but the question discussed on every chair, every lift, was, "when would peak chair open?" Peak chair accesses the top of Whistler mountain, and opens up the entire South side of the resort. 3 huge alpine bowls funnel down into tree runs and pillow lines all the way down to the creekside resort below Whistler. The answer, it turned out, was just after lunch, as we were standing at the restaurant not 200m from the lift queue. I ran to the slope and rode down to the lift queue with only one foot strapped in. With one remaining friend I joined the queue (some of whom had been waiting 3 hours, ignoring all other lifts in the resort) and we settled down to wait for our turn.
We were still waiting when the riders from the first chair came over the shoulder of the mountain back towards the lift. Now, the piece of mountain directly facing peak chair is a bit special. Its very steep, and has a windlip away to the left (5m+drop), a cliff band called the waterfall low down to the right(5m-15m drop), and a double-pop called "air Jordan", where a 15m cliff is bisected by a badminton-court sized patch of snow about a third of the way down. The next five minutes was like watching a snowboard movie. People were simply destroying the powdered slope, dropping 5, 10 metre cliffs to each side, and the queue was taking notice. Everyone was pointing and talking, cheering the biggest drops. There is a bit of a walk up to air Jordan, so it took a few minutes before the first guy showed up - a skier. He took a while to find a good place to drop in, well aware that at least 500 people were watching him from the queue. We weren't even sure he wasn't going to bottle out until, standing otherwise dead still, he raised one of his poles and whirled it 3 times round his head. It was total showmanship, and the crowd erupted, knowing that there was no way back now, and they would shortly be seeing something that normally is only accessible on film or DVD. Sure enough, he didn't disappoint, a 360 down the first 5-6m onto the middle patch of snow, and then, without time to do anything other than straightline downhill from the landing, a huuuuge backflip down at least 10m to the waiting powder below. As he rode away there was a cheer like you normally only hear in a football stadium, and everyone around us was buzzing, pulses racing, eyes shining, talking too fast. This is the kind of atmosphere I have only ever experienced at this resort, which can only happen in a resort like this, where there are so many people who are so committed to skiing and snowboarding. People are ten times more likely to talk to you here than they are in Europe, because they know that to put up with the queues and the costs you have to have the same desire to ride the best conditions.
We finally got up to the top and sure enough, the powder was, effectively, bottomless. Put in a hard turn and the snow kicked up by the tail of your board would hit you in the face. Bend your knees from dropping a little rock and you would go totally underneath the surface. I got caught out by a new windlip at one point and found myself dropping at least 3m onto an almost flat landing. I rode away in awe of just how easy it is to ride with that much powder Conditions that give you a feeling of almost total invincibility, you can take more air, ride steeper slopes, faster, secure in the knowledge that a soft landing awaits when your suffering leg muscles finally give out.
Just to add a bit of a postscript, I think Whistler is a unique resort for the reasons outlined above. It isn't cheap and I don't think it's the best value for beginners or even intermediates, but if you are keen to ride the very best conditions with some of the best riders - give it a shot. Not the least of the attractions is that you will meet some great, like minded people - the girl I was riding with that day told me later, "I've figured out why my cheeks were hurting - its because I was smiling so much"
You don't get that feeling just anywhere, whatever the price..
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I have been here!!!!!!!!!!! It is a lovely place. Was Summer when I visited the Rockies so skiing was off sadly. It is generally a beautiful part of the world x
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Advantages: Friendly, informative, good snow, excellent skiing, cheap meals, quick moving queues Disadvantages: long journey and price of flight, we had to get a bus to the lifts
Helenp59 13.02.2001 ·
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