Friday Skiing

Here's some pictures from a nice, sunny day skiing last week. We went up first thing in the morning and the light on the Tantalus Mountains was beautiful. The day was clear and we skied packed powder on all the runs. As you can see, the terrain on Blackcomb can still use more snow - it's pretty rocky in the bowls. Elise enjoyed going through the Blackcomb terrain park and going off the jumps (small mounds) with me spotting her. Around us were young skiers doing flips, spins, etc. Impressive...

Riding the Catskinner chair.


Secret Bowl and Cougar Chutes on Blackcomb.


Cougar Milk, a blue run on Blackcomb. This is a favourite because the bottom of the run has a forest with skiable lines that she likes to explore.



Morning light on the Tantalus Mountains between Squamish and Whistler.

Winter is Here!

Winter arrived with a vengeance in Squamish last night. When we went to bed we could see stars, and when we woke up, there was at least 20 cm of new snow outside. It was beautiful, but the shovelling was not! The forecast is for heavy precipitation all week, but most of it will come in the form of rain at out elevation. Therefore, this winter wonderland will not last, but Whistler Blackcomb will be getting major snow in the alpine as the temperatures are supposed to hold at just above freezing on the valley floor. I'm not sure what happened in Vancouver overnight, but it's a mess up here. Luckily, we'll be getting our new snow tires installed tomorrow...

Opening Day!!!

Whistler Blackcomb opened on Friday, and I did what any responsible parent would do - I pulled my daughter out of school to go skiing! We teamed up with Patrick Franz and his son Everest and hit the road at 7:30 am.

The day began cloudy, but slowly cleared and we ended with gorgeous weather. I could tell Elise was a little pensive in the morning. I think she was worried about how it would feel after a summer off. She did well on her first run and, partway down, said to me, "I remember how to do it!". She did very well, but her stamina was poor compared to the end of last season. It will come back fast, I'm sure.

It was a cold day, and we only did five runs. It was also very crowded because everyone was skiing just three lifts on Whistler due to the limited early-season terrain. Pam plans to go up today with Elise for a few runs, and then we hope to go to the climbing gym in Vancouver tomorrow.

Winter is officially here and Elise starts her ski lessons after New Years. She's excited!

View looking west from the mountain.

Riding in the sun. Snacking on gumdrops. Life is good...

Back From Kentucky

After a 5:30 am start in Kentucky, I made it to Bellingham around 7:00 pm, Pacific time. Pam and Elise were waiting for me at the airport, and it was great to see them. We had dinner in Bellingham and then drove straight into a one-hour border line-up to get back into Canada - ugh! I think we got back to Squamish around 10:30 pm - it was a long day...

We went to the climbing gym on Sunday and Elise did a lot of climbing, both on a rope and bouldering. It was the most she's ever done, and she was exhausted. I had to force her to rest. She wants to go back next weekend.

Now it's back to the work-school grind until Christmas. Whistler is set to open on Friday! Stay tuned.

Here's a final picture from Kentucky. It's one of my travel partners, Pete Lindgren, on a route called Kaleidoscope.

Halloween

Here are a number of pictures of Elise on Halloween. She dressed up as Rapunzel and my mother made a fantastic costume for her. Look at that hair! "Tangled" is one of her favourite movies, so Rapunzel was an obvious choice...

I've got just over one week left in Kentucky and then I'll be heading home to the family. I'm really looking forward to seeing them again...