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.

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?

P-P-P-P-POWDER

Over 1m of snow in the last 7 days has transformed the mountain. We still haven't had a full blue sky day yet so I haven't been able to take a full mountain photo, but I did get a brief glimpse of Whistler peak the other day. To say the last 6 days of skiing have been great would be a serious understatement. Take a look at the following video for a quick edit of the first 2 days only.

Whistler Opening Weekend from Aaron Tasker on Vimeo.

Enjoying an apres beer as the snow falls outside

Since that day the snowfall totals have kept climbing. Sunday was a 30cm day, Tuesday and Wednesday each had well over 15 and more and more of the mountain is becoming accessible. My legs finally decided to fail me yesterday for a while, but after a good nights sleep and some stretching I was back at the Blackcomb gondola for opening day today

In the queue at 7:30am, 1 hour until opening and 2nd Gondola up for me!

If you haven't have figured it out by now, 6 days straight skiing means that I haven't had any work yet. Tomorrow will be my first official day working in a proper store (not setting up or training). I'm working the morning shift Friday/Saturday/Sunday, and with American thanksgiving today I'm told it's going to be busy.

The village has been decked out in Christmas lights. To some peoples' disappointment there aren't any Christmas shops like home, it does look rather impressive with some fresh snow falling. I snapped these on the way home tonight. Hopefully I can get some better ones closer to the proper date!

I've also finally found the first new food (well kind of) here that I have fallen in love with. I am certainly missing meat pies, good cookies and proper chocolate muffins, but this does make up for some of the loss.

I think 'The Oatmeal' sums up the taste of it best... http://theoatmeal.com/comics/sriracha

The family are happy to know that I am looking after myself and cooking properly. Having to get inventive with some of the utensils (a fork makes a great potato masher), but so far I'm not starving, or lacking in vegetables. Leela has thankfully sent me some of my favourite recipes from home.. pastry pie here I come.

I leave you tonight with the highlight of my day. Taylor and I managed to get the first tracks of the season through 2 gladed tree runs. Unfortunately the camera fogged slightly (and my quick upload washed the whites slightly), but you should get the picture! I have a feeling this is going to become one of my favourite pow spots.

Yard Sale - First tracks of the 2012/2013 Winter from Aaron Tasker on Vimeo.

Opening Day

Well the day is finally here, opening day. Whistler opened 5 days early today, even though the cover is particularly thin, the snow-making crews have made good progress with some low temperatures. The lead up to opening day hasn't been particularly eventful, but there were a few points of note.

Work has been particularly quiet, we only spent 4 days in training before about a weeks break, and then yesterday we set up a majority of the shop. With Blackcomb mountain not opening until the 22nd, there isn't much more work until then. Thankfully the mountain is open to keep me entertained!

During the time off I've been doing a lot of hiking about the area. You can really see how this place could be an adventure sports playground, with heaps of mountain bike tracks and some wicked rivers.

There are heaps of falls like this around the area

This train wreck has been turned into a mountain bike playground

The Lost Lake

A great way to spend a day is also at a place a quick drive from town called 'Bounce'. It's a trampoline center that includes a number of large tramps and a foam pit. My back wasn't particularly hapy the next day, but it certainly was a lot of fun. Didn't manage to land any of my numereous back and front flip attempts, but got really close.

Lincoln Loop attempt

To say that it's wet at the moment is an understatement, but at least it means that it is snowing good and heavy in the alpine. It's set to last throughout the week as well, hopefully getting a bit lower as it does. Given the wind and snow I was hesitant about heading up, however I'm very glad I did. The conditions are best described as wet snow on a hard crust, and we were not allowed off-trail due to the limited cover, but I still managed to find the odd stash. Really looking forward to Monday when the crowds leave and we get some more fresh overnight.

The queue the night before for opening day

I leave you with the only quick video I took today. I was more focusing on getting my bearings on the first day, and testing out gear. Learned that I certainly need some good glove liners (fingers are finally warm again!), and my skis could do with a wax. Hope everyone back home is enjoying the sunshine!

In Between (But Snow!)

Apologies for the lack of updates, but I have found myself once again 'off-grid'. I should have an internet connection on the 15th.. but until then here are some snow shots from yesterday.