We have normality

The blocking high that has kept Whistler in Groundhog day mode for almost 2 weeks finally broke down yesterday and delivered a powder day. I hear Wellington is about to enjoy a similar high pressure system.. except it is appreciated in the summer!

Yesterday I did my first fresh tracks breakfast on Whistler. Fresh tracks is a program where you pay to head up early on the mountain and have a full cooked breakfast at the top restaurant. Then when the mountain opens you get 25 minutes or so of riding before the first people who loaded the gondola at the bottom reach the top. The snow unfortunately didn't deliver as it was quite wet, and on top of a very hard crust. Today made up with that however with 11cm of dry powder and blue skies.


As with anything in life, it's the little things that can really put a spring in our step

While it may just look like an ordinary meat pie.. these are in fact a rarity in Canada (and at $6 + tax I can see why they may stay that way). I can say however that it is genuine, with meat chunks and tongue burning heat. (Remember.. always blow on the pie! Safer communities together.)

Last Friday night's hockey game was highly entertaining. Unfortunately the few photos I took didn't save on the phone so there isn't much to share. Our seats were 3 rows from the glass, and right next to the players box. Hockey is certainly a very fast paced game, and the NHL matches on TV faster again. One of our party from Whistler was also very lucky not to catch the puck with her face as it made it over the glass.

Brandon came with me and gave me the run down on all the rules and intricacies of the game, and although it doesn't seem that way there is actually quite a bit more than just getting the puck in the net and fist fights! (Although it wouldn't be hockey without a bit of roughing.)

Retro Rod

Monday night was our last staff party, and it was quite sedate compared to the others earlier in the season. I managed to get a little in with the retro theme with an old rental jacket (children's size of course). The 200' roll of fluro tape also went down a treat with all. It's hard to believe that we're already half way through the season!

Details for the upcoming trip to the interior have been a little more firmed up. Looks like it's going to be 4 days riding on the first week of March. Phil, Amy, Chris and I are already counting down the days. I'll throw up some more details closer to the time.

Tonight/Tomorrow in town is all about 'Straya day (Australia Day for the uninitiated). This is a very popular time for drinking, cricket, drinking, footy and more drinking for the large amount of Australians that are in Whistler. I think I'll be giving town a miss tonight and tomorrow, but here's an indication of how wild it gets.

Note the times!

New Years - Ski bum style

After a very snowy December, the last few weeks have been contrastingly dry. This has meant that the sun has come out a lot and the tourists are happy, but not a lot of riding being done. With a large number of people being sick as well, I have been called into work quite regularly and am doing around 6 days a week. This will go well towards funding a planned trip (more on that shortly), but my legs are starting to get a bit sore from a lot of standing and not much movement!

On the 30th I decided to have a break day, and joined Chris in his Ford F150 for a trip down to Squamish during the day. I was really glad just to have a day with no cares on timing, and enjoy the views on the drive out. It certainly made me realise that while we are not in the 'Alps' we are certainly in the mountains!

Only 300m above sea level

New Years eve itself was certainly eventful! As it was a busy morning on the mountain with not a lot of fresh snow, I decided to spend the morning practising my back-country beacon search techniques. Whistler Blackcomb has an early dedicated to this where they bury practise boxes with active beacon's in them. I was happy to find that I hadn't gotten rusty, but as always I learnt a few more things.

From the top of Glacier Chair

As it was Chris' birthday, we had a casual day ripping some groomers and then deferred to Crystal Lodge for a drink. This is certainly one of the most picturesque places on Blackcomb mountain.

Enjoying a birthday drink

Unfortunately I got called in to work for the afternoon. They were that desperate for the assistance that I came directly off the mountain and worked in my ski gear. For 4 hours I was in my ski boots dealing with customers, bending down to fit boots, and trying to walk. It was only the next day that someone pointed out that I could have just put on a pair of snowboard boots!

Not wanting to waste time, once I left work I headed straight to Merlin's where I had left Chris earlier in the day. The next 5 hours were spent happily talking, drinking and celebrating each New Years day as it came in around the world. The major talking point seemed to be around me being the only one in the bar still in ski gear, but as I had work the next day I decided to head to the fireworks at midnight in the village, and then quickly home to bed.

New Year's Day at Whistler Blackcomb

The Holiday Inn looking good in the sun

Unfortunately there's not much more to report. It looks like we are going to finally get some fresh snow over the next few days. Unfortunately I don't have much time off at all.. but things will look better in a week or two no doubt. Until then I will keep my creative cooking alive, trying to keep a bit of kiwi eating in Canada!

Bacon & Egg Pie

A White Christmas

The busy period is certainly upon us! With most of the North America's on break, the expectation is to have around 25,000 people on the mountains over the next week. Work has changed from being sent home early, to being called in to deal with the crowds. While this does mean a little less time on the hill, it does wonders to covering the arrears I have with staff housing.

Christmas has also come and gone, and while it's the first I've had away from home for a while we still managed to eat too much, stay up too late and share much. I actually felt like I had 2 Christmas days, as on the 24th it was not only a fantastic ski morning but a Skype call home to share presents with the family, and a shared dinner at the flat after a few hours work made for a big day.

Christmas day itself was mostly spent at work, but another dinner was soon to be enjoyed. While I felt like the lone colony member invited to the British empire.. Amy, Phil, Ed and Lucy together with myself managed to put on quite a spread.

Would you believe that since I left Vancouver, I have not travelled more than a couple of km's in either direction! That finally changed last night with my first trip to the nearby town of Squamish. With 6 of us piled into Chris' Ford F150, we hit up the all important stops. Walmart, Save-On-Foods and Timmy Horton's! What I thought was just a coffee shop turned out to be a sandwich/doughnut/snack amazement. I'm told these are all over Canada.. just not in Whistler.

Bemused at the need for a photo...

To keep myself entertained in the evenings without spending too much money I have started working on my next edit. There has been so many good days that I will let the pictures and video do the talking. I even managed to get a morning in on one of the biggest snowfall of the season so far (30-40cm overnight).

Getting airborne..

I have called this "Midget's Meadow" on the grounds that no-one has told me otherwise yet!

And this is what pillow's look like from above!

Powder Turns!

Always safe to ride with friends in the trees

We have also been gifted some great blue sky days that have made for good hiking opportunities. Brandon and I managed to get up into Flute bowl the other day. For a 20-30 minute hike we were rewarded with a number of deep powder turns. It certainly would have been easier with a touring setup, but I am holding off until spring!

Not a bad view

Brandon on the cat track

I'm sure there is more to tell.. but my mind is still a little fuzzy from being rather sick the last few days. It managed to knock me around a bit, but I'm coming back around now.

Christmas is coming

Life in the village is certainly starting to get a bit more crowded. This weekend is the start of the Christmas holiday season and already it feels like the number of people doubled over night. This means two things. First, I am going to get a lot more work.. which means more income, that I kind of need due to the lack of early season work. Second, the slopes are going to get a lot busier.. so time already invested in finding the hidden spots should hopefully pay off! Can't do much about lift lines however.

 

 

If you've wondered where I have been the last couple of weeks, the biggest bit of news is that the alpine has finally opened here. I am once again in my comfort zone, and happy to be back on the steeps! The first day that peak chair opened I didn't stop riding until the lift closed.. then had dinner at 3:30pm, as there was no way I was waiting for lunch, and a much needed beer. I didn't take the camera with me that day (bad decision), but I did want to focus on my skiing and make sure I would be comfortable in the conditions here.

With my confidence up, I also managed to get in to the zone which I have been looking at ever since I first looked at a trail map for Whistler. It's called 'Spanky's Ladder', and if you ever get a chance to go up it, the description is apt. The climb is almost vertical at points, but thankfully short. This gets you access to some fantastic bowls and chutes on top of the Blackcomb Glacier

The trail map of Blackcomb Glacier

This week when the sun came out, I had two fantastic days up in this region with plenty of fresh tracks, fun snow, and air time. Some great footage was taken, but I have yet to put this together into an edit.. so for now the stills will tell the story.

Blackcomb Glacier (Main Entrance)

Awesome pow turns

 

Pretty quiet out here!

Gladed Tree's on a blue sky day

Discussing line choice at the top of Spanky's

Lower entrance to Diamond Bowl

Believe it or not, there's skis in there somewhere!

Hopefully the multitude of photos this update makes up for the lack of them earlier. If you want to see more just check out my Facebook page as I regularly put photos up.

Another highlight of this week is that I was lucky enough to take part in the 'Slide for Hunger' charity event. Although you may think this sounds skiing related, it's not! In fact it involves sliding down an icy tube at speeds up to 100km/h about an inch of the ground wearing nothing but a helmet on a small sled. It's called 'Skeleton' and if you watch the Winter Olympics (or the video below) you will see what i mean! I wasn't allowed to take the video camera with me, but I think the others reactions sum it up nicely.

Whistler Sliding Center - Skeleton for hunger from Aaron Tasker on Vimeo.

Some of you may have noticed that I track my days on the mountain using an application called 'Alpine Replay'. I've hit a number of milestones over the last couple of weeks. Over 1000km total distance travelled this season, a new top speed of 95.4km/h, and the top of the leaderboard worldwide for vertical drop for the season thus far!

Last night I got to see all the extended family on Mum's side for a while as it's her birthday today (Happy Canadian birthday mum!), and also opened my care package from home. Thankfully I am now well stocked with many Kiwi chocolates, cookies, candy, spices and Maggi cook in the pot! I'm trying my hardest to ration them all.. but it will be difficult.

The snow is falling thick again outside, and this storm could well bring us another 70cm+ over the next 5 days or so, and as the peak didn't open today it could mean a big pow day is set for tomorrow! I have the next 2 days off.. so here's hoping they will deliver. Until then, I hope you are all enjoying your Christmas build up, and are being good to each other!

Does it get much better than this?

Not much to write home about

The last 5 days has seen over 1m of snowfall on Whistler, and the word around town is that it was the best weekend of the season so far. Unfortunately for me I was once again working the weekend, so while I did miss the crowds, I also missed the snow. Sunday was of particular note, with 44cm in 24 hours.. I did managed to get on the slopes at 2pm for a few runs, however instead of finding fresh snow I could only find moguls, and got a pole to the face for my troubles. Oh well.. there's plenty left of the season yet!

I did have yesterday and today off work, and while there has been some good snowfall the freezing level has been quite high. This makes for some very wet and heavy work, and today my legs decided to give out. Hopefully some anti-inflammatory gel and a hot bath later will mean I can still ride later this week.

Unfortunately there hasn't been a lot else happening that is worthy of writing. As I am still only getting 20 hours of work a week, I am running on a very tight budget and curtailing any apres ski activities so that I can still afford to eat well enough. I did however splurge on Sunday to buy some Hokey Pokey ice-cream, to brighten up my mood. As expected, it's not as good as home (we truly are spoiled with meat and dairy), but it still tasted great after not having any for at least 5 weeks.

This week also marks the milestone of my first month in Canada. I certainly do feel settled in now, and am starting to build some routines. Waking up early still occurs, but as it gets dark here very early (4:15pm sunset), I have found myself eating and going to bed earlier. That may change as summer rolls around.

I hope to get out into town soon and get some photos for everyone of the Christmas lights that have been put up. It really does look fantastic. Keep an eye out for these soon! It was also great to Skype everyone back home as they helped Leela, Chris and John move 8 trailer loads of dirt in one day! What an awesome job. Thanks to Chelles from Photoworks photography for the images, and everyone for their hard work! For those of you who don't know, the plan is to eventually build a deck out front.

 

Well, that's it for another few days. Apologies there aren't many pictures in this update.. I haven't been too snap happy lately due to the poor weather. Talk to you all soon!

Some blue sky

As I was writing my blog post last week, little did I know that the evening would be quite so eventful. With work in the morning I turned in early, only to be awoken by the fire alarm around 11pm. Getting enough clothes on not to freeze, the whole building huddled outside, where it just happened to be snowing the heaviest I've seen in the valley so far. Walking to work the next day was not only difficult with the broken sleep, but also the snow up above your ankles!

Outside the front door

Snow likes to hug the trees sometimes

Even to the point they fall over

Unfortunately work has been very quiet. And with quiet work, it means that there aren't very many hours to go around. Therefore I am living on a tight budget at the moment, but the plus side is that I get to go skiing a lot more. I did miss out on the big powder day of the morning above, but I've had a fair share of it and no doubt there is more to come.

We did get paid last Friday, and I celebrated by taking my large tramping pack to the supermarket and stocking up. I did get a few strange looks from the checkout, I guess people don't typically buy much in bulk here. My first attempt at a pastry pie was fantastic, except for a minor detail. 'Phyllo' pastry is not a brand.. and particularly difficult to work with. (For those of you confused, it's spelt 'Filo' at home). Now I still have half a roll in the freezer to get through with another pie before I can get back to the puff-pastry goodness!

For a change in scenery this week the sun decided to come out, and while there wasn't a lot of fresh snow to ride we still had a really good time. Who couldn't when you get views like this.

My first ride on the 'Peak to Peak' gondola

Sun setting behind Whistler mountain

What a view

It's looking better from the 'office' now

One of my favourite shots so far

Most evenings I have been catching up with people back home. Watching the red carpet of 'The Hobbit' the other night certainly made me feel like I was back in Wellington for a while. If anyone wants to talk, the best time is in your early evenings as I am 21 hours behind NZ. Just drop me a message and I will let you know my Skype details. Also, I am using Viber for calls and messaging when I can (for those smartphone users out there).

Yesterday I also managed to get my first backcountry time in off Blackcomb mountain. Just an easy one to start off with a quick hike to some fresh snow. While I was waiting for the others I did my first compression test (A form of avalanche assessment) and even though it was a bit rough, I was happy with how it turned out. Next on the list is to do some beacon search drills. The weather once again turned it on for the hike, and I'm told you don't get to see this far that often.

Whistler mountain and beyond

My trusty hiking setup (hopefully upgraded to a touring setup soon)

All smiles

 (NOTE: You can click on all photos to view them larger)

With heaps of snow in the forecast, hopefully the crowds will start to appear during working time, and powder turns come during the week when I can get into it. Today was a very wet day as the beginning of the storm arrived, but it could last all week with as much as 70cm falling over the next 5 days or so. Perhaps tomorrow morning will also be another slog through the white and fluffy?