The last few days have been some of the best yet. The weather's been clear and sunny, and the heavy snow last week has made a huge difference - most of the higher runs are now open and there's been serious powder off-piste.

Having only spent one day on Whistler, we decided to head there on Wednesday to see what the new snow was like. Simon and Kay joined The Three, and we began with a few runs on the Emerald Express, our old favourite warm-up.

When Harmony opened we headed over there, and found some great snow cutting off right from the saddle between Harmony and Peak chairs. We went back to Harmony for a second run, then noticed Peak was running, so we said goodbye to Si and Kay, cut straight down the T-bars to the chair, and waited while they performed the last safety checks (Peak had not yet opened this season).

We took the singles queue to save time so were split up, and each went our separate ways at the top. Whistler Bowl was closed, but Andy and Bob hiked up to West Cirque and dropped into the bowl that way. Andy then headed down the front face back to the chair while Bob took Doom & Gloom down to the Big Red chair.

One of my favourite runs on Peak last season was Cockalorum: a steep drop into the West Bowl, leading to some awesome powder. When I saw the size of the crowd hiking up to West Cirque I headed down the road a bit further then took Cocalorum, and had a brilliant run through the bowl and on down to Big Red.

On the way back up I called Bob on the radio, and we met up for another go on the Peak chair. This time we both hiked up to West Cirque, though not before a large pile of rocks took out my board and right thumb. The Cirque was incredibly steep, but provided a route to another of the best bits of Peak - the Christmas Trees. We dished out some Justice there, then returned for a couple more runs down Cockalorum.

When we got down it was snowing hard, so we bought Fresh Tracks tickets for the following morning.

In the evening we were all a bit too tired to go out, so Bob cooked us a chilli, and we watched Fellowship of the Ring yet again.

We were up ridiculously early for Fresh Tracks, which starts with the Whistler Gondola at 07:30. We ate far too much breakfast at the Roundhouse, met up with Stan, then headed out the slopes around 08:15.

Unfortunately the previous night's snow had stopped, so there wasn't more than a few cm of powder, but it was nice to be up before the crowds. We began with Emerald Express as most other lifts weren't open, then when Peak opened we headed up there, and spent most of the rest of the day riding through the West Bowl, finshing off with a run up Harmony and another descent of the T-bars.

By the time we got down, my thumb, injured the previous day, had swollen to the size of a small otter and turned a worrying shade of brown/yellow/purple, so I went along to the medical centre to get it checked out. For the bargain price of $413 the doctor took three x-rays, told me it was just badly bruised, and also explained that the clicking in my ribs when I breathe is due to the cartilage being broken. Which is nice.

Ingrid and Dave came up in the evening, as they were singing and DJ-ing respectively at a big party in the village. We headed out for a meal, then went along to the party, where Ingrid advised all present to check out www.ridersofjustice.com!

The party was a big success - great music from Dave and Ingrid and some crazy costumes, including Bob and the prize-winning effort of Andy. The gallery will soon show the full details...

After the party we headed home for bed, but discovered that Andy had invited everyone back to the Palace for the after-party! We began feeling part of the Whistler crowd as the singer, both DJs and both organisers turned up, along with many other locals who we'd met along the way. The party rolled on until about 07:00, so we were very glad that Dawn has headed off to Hawaii away for Christmas!

Despite the lack of sleep, I managed to get up at about 08:00 to take Si and Kay to their lesson, then crashed back into bed and slept till 11:00.

Bob and I were up and on the slopes by 11:00, returning to Blackcomb for the first time since the new snow. We began with a run on the Crystal chair, as Mike had been raving about that earlier in the week, but the runs were hard-packed and we didn't know the off-piste in the area, so we headed up Glacier and did a few good runs on the Showcase T-bar.

On our third run up the T-bar we noticed some people hiking up to the entrance into Glacier Bowl. After several minutes debate we decided to follow them, and hiked right across the bowl to the far side of the windlip which had featured so heavily in the previous season's video. We dropped down the far side of the bowl, crossing some avalanche debris before getting into a huge expanse of almost untouched powder. Although the powder was a few days old, the run through it was wide enough and long enough to deliver some serious Justice - definitely my best moment so far.

Unfortunately it was too late to do the Glacier again by the time we'd reached Excelerator, so we had a quick run up Jersey Cream then raced down Wishbone to Excalibur to download.

Today began resonably early, partly to beat the Chrismas holiday crowds and partly because Si and Kay had another lesson. We met Stan at the bottom of the gondolas at 08:50, then Si and Kay went up Whistler for their lesson, and Stan and I set off up Blackcomb to visit Glacier Bowl (Bob was watching Chelsea play Aston Villa, and Andy was still in bed).

On the initial traverse across the bowl we saw some other riders hiking slightly further down, so we followed them and found a nice little gully leading into the great powder that Bob and I had discovered the previous afternoon. We also saw a huge hike up to the skyline, which I later discussed with a patroller: apparently it goes up onto the ridge, allowing access to various gullies lower down, but must not be used without avalanche rescue equipment (shovel, probe & tranciever).

Stan and I had a good run through the powder, then got back down to Excelerator as quickly as possible and did the whole thing again. This time we stayed high and right on the run-out from the bowl in an attempt to avoid the flat section of the road. Although we reduced our walk, the new route resulted in the loss of a large chunk of my board on a rock. It got me through the rest of the day, but is now getting some TLC from the local experts.

We were pretty knackered after our two runs through Glacier Bowl - the initial hike and the flat section at the top of the road had taken their toll, so we decided against further Glacier runs, and spent the rest of the day on the Showcase T-bar and on 7th Heaven, both of which still had some decent powder.