Thursday 23rd was a fantastic day. Wednesday's snow had continued into the night, and we'd decided to get up early and take Jules for a Fresh Tracks breakfast up the mountain. When we woke up it was actually raining, but the various weather reports we checked said that there had been seven inches of snow, and that it was still snowing, so we set off at about 07:00.

After a minor panic when we realised Andy had forgotten his boots(!) we managed to get the whole party into a gondola, and had a quick breakfast in the Roundhouse on Whistler mountain. We hit the slopes at about 08:15, beginning with the usual runs down the Emerald Express chair. The snow there was OK, but a bit wet and heavy, so after an hour or so the party decided to have a quick break.

I was mad for it, so carried on, and was standing by the lightboard when Harmony chair changed from red to green, indicating that it was open. I radioed the others to let them know, then headed straight there. After a large queue, I managed a great run down the Harmony Ridge, finding some huge fields of untouched powder. At the bottom I met Stan, and we headed up to do it again.

By the time we got back down, Andy, Bob and Jules had arrived, so we all caught the chair together. This time Stan and I peeled off to skiers' right of the ridge, flying through some trees and descending a very steep slope to the cat-track back to Harmony. We discovered the massive queue had vanished, and soon realised that this was because Peak had opened. We took Harmony up one last time, then dropped down the T-bars to Peak, and dropped into Whistler bowl before attacking the Shale Slope. The snow there was a bit cut-up, so we decided to go down the back to Cockalorum on our second lift. As we headed up, Andy and Bob radioed to say that they'd arrived, so we paused at the top then all headed into the West Bowl, which was brilliant.

Bob, Stan and I headed straight back up for another variation, riding some superb snow in Bagel Bowl, then Stan departed and Bob and I went up for one more go, choosing a route down the ridge to skiers' right of Whistler Bowl. The route has no name on the map, and seems to go straight through a closed "Cliff Area", but we found some of the best snow of the day near the top, before getting stranded above the cliffs. After a couple of hairy moments we got down, then took Big Red up for a fast run back to the village.

The snow was not the best we've seen, but it was probably the best day I've had on the slopes - certainly the longest. I rode from 08:15 until the lifts closed at 15:30, and completely forgot to stop for lunch. By the end I was knackered, but it was definitely worth it.

Friday 24th began later than planned, due to a large quantity of our latest creation, toffee vodka, on Thursday night. Stan and his mates had some round so we could compare the Justice version with Stan's toffee vodka. We ended up playing Jenga for vodka shots, which got a bit messy.

There were only been a couple of inches of fresh snow overnight, so we didn't feel too compelled to get up the hill, but Bob and I finally managed it at about 09:30. We met up with Matt at the top of Excelerator, then took the Glacier chair and Showcase T-Bar to the top of the Blackcomb Glacier. The powder on the T-bar run was better than we'd expected, so we took the Horstman T-bar up to attack the same snow from a different angle. From there we headed down Ridge-Runner to the Crystal Hut, and down to the Crystal chair via Riders' Revenge. At the top of the chair we paused for a drink, as none of us had much energy, and the snow was generally a bit heavy.

We took Rock'n'roll down to Excelerator, then caught that back up, and stopped for lunch at Glacier Creek, where we met Stan. The afternoon was very short, as we all felt a bit jaded - a quick ride up Jersey Cream, then down through the Terrain Garden (a beginners' terrain park) and back down to the Crystal Lounge to recover.

In the evening Andy, Bob, Jules and I played poker back at the Palace. I was learning, so didn't play very well at all. Luckily Bob was even worse.

I was keen to get going on Saturday 25th as I was planning to test a few boards out and decide which one to buy. While the others slept in until 11:00 or so, I caught a bus at around 09:00 and headed up the Whistler Gondola, which eventually climbed out of the rain, into snow.

The first board I took out was a locally built Prior AMF, made in Whistler and highly recommended by the locals. I set off down to the Emerald Express chair and was quite enjoying the feel of the board, until I dropped below the rain/snow line, started getting wet, and forgot to concentrate on testing the board. I hoped the Harmony chair, slightly higher up the mountain, might have better conditions, but discovered it was raining there as well. I took Ridge-Runner once, then dropped over the other side, down the T-Bars and back via Big Red to return the board, feeling not much further forward in the decision-making process.

Unfortunately the guys running the demo-day had decided to cancel it due to the wind and the rain, so they gave me back Andy's board and I set off up Peak, to see if Whistler's highest lift could offer any better conditions. It was raining even there, so I headed down through Bagel Bowl and was back in the village by 12:30.

Bob and I went to the gym in the afternoon to and work off the weather-induced depression, then headed out to Gaitors with Matt for some food. While we were there, Ingrid phoned to let us know that her, Nasya and Meg had already arrived at our house, but we managed to convince them to come and collect us. Back at the house we once more found ourselves playing Jenga, this time for Jagermeister.

We went out to Blacks for an hour or so later in the evening to see Mike D, then he came back to the Palace with us for some continued madness. By 03:00 things were a bit out of control, and we'd once again woken Dawn. We moved down to the bunk room to avoid disturbing her anymore, but everyone passed out soon after that, so noise wasn't so much of an issue.

We didn't feel particularly like getting up on Sunday 26th, but eventually moved upstairs and curled up on the sofas in front of Spiderman. When that finished Meg and Nas went shopping for breakfast, then Bob cooked us all omelettes and we remained on the sofas for our second film, Barbershop.

In the evening Andy returned and we popped round to Mike D's briefly, before Andy, Ingrid, Meg and I went for a curry, while Matt and Bob played football.

We were woken early on Monday 27th, as we'd convinced Meg and Ingrid to stay another night, and they had to leave early to get Ingrid back to Vancouver in time for work. The three of us left in the house spent the morning sorting it out, then Andy and I went up Whistler at about 12:30. The demo day which had been cancelled on Saturday had been extended, so I tried out a Supercharger for an hour or so on Harmony, then back on Andy's Canyon we headed up Peak chair a couple of times, dealing with Bagel Bowl and Doom & Gloom. The snow was very strange - in places the powder was very good, but between these patches there was a sheet of ice on top of the snow. Lower down, on the runs back to the village, the snow was very slushy, and riding became more like surfing. Down at village level the runs were looking very depressing, with loads of grass showing through.

In the afternoon Bob headed down to Vancouver for a few days, to catch up with some friends and do some shopping.

Andy and I went up Blackcomb on Tuesday 28th, hoping the snow might be better than Whistler. We weren't disappointed, and found some reasonable powder up on the glacier. We spent most of the day practising 180s, with a couple of very fast runs down Rock'n'roll, which had surprisingly good conditions.

Mike came round in the evening for some food, and brought with him a copy of the Two Towers. We managed to drag ourselves away from that to go to Garfinkels to see Brad and Shandy, but didn't stay out too late, as we'd booked a lesson for Wednesday and wanted some rest.

We woke on Wednesday 29th to discover that it was snowing. The forecast hadn’t predicted it and the snow report said there was no overnight snow, but it was definitely snowing quite hard, and continued all day. Up on the mountain there were between 4-6 inches, while down in the village there were nearer 2.

Before we set out I had a call from CMG to say that I hadn't been accepted for Voluntary Redundancy, which was a bit disappointing. I'd been dreaming of taking the cash and staying in Whistler for another season, but it seems I may have to head back to the UK after all...

Andy and I spent the day on Whistler, enjoying our first lesson. We met our instructor, Chris, near the Roundhouse and set off down towards Emerald Express. On the way down we were assessed, and the group was split by ability. Andy and I were put in the top group with a Japanese girl called Komiko.

At the bottom of Emerald Express we sorted our boards out, changing every possible setting on the bindings. We discussed with Chris what we wanted to do, and agreed on a bit of carving and general technique, then some work in the terrain park (Andy's idea!).

We began with the carving, but after a bit of practise we got bored of that, and headed for the park, jumping park benches, spines and box-rails. We practised one of the rails over and over again, first attempting it 50:50 (snowboard parallel to rail) then railsliding (snowboard perpendicular to rail). All three of us fell on the first attempt at railsliding (and many of the later ones) - I had one particularly painful crash on my ribs, which was a bit worrying, but they seem to be OK.

By the end of our morning session we'd all managed to jump on, railslide, then dismount to switch (riding backwards), and Andy and I felt very pleased with our progress. Bob's trick riding has always been a bit ahead of the two of us, even more so after the various injuries Andy and I have had. With him down in Vancouver we took the chance to improve a bit, and were pretty satisfied with our morning's efforts.

We dropped down to Emerald Express again, going via a couple of big jumps on the side of the runs, then headed up to the Roundhouse for a very quick lunch. For the afternoon we were joined by an Aussie called Sarah, and headed back down to the park, for more of the same. Unfortunately Komiko fell on the spine, cutting her lip quite badly, so we took her back to the ski-school hut.

We soon returned to the park, where I cleared the park bench for the first time, then practised on the box-rail a few more times. On the final run I managed to combine the railslide to switch with a 180 back to regular off a roller, which rounded off the day very nicely. We then tore down the slopes back to the village, ignoring the speed patrols as far as possible.

Back at the Palace we're both feeling a bit bruised - Andy seems to have concussion after yet another failed 360, and my ribs and bum are both feeling a little sore. Still, no pain, no gain.