Although there hasn't been any new snow to speak of since last Thursday, we've been making the most of the well-groomed runs and have found some great powder in the less accessible parts of the mountains. We've been hiking to some of these places, with varying degrees of success, but have spent most of our time blasting down the groomed runs at ridiculous speeds.

We went up Blackcomb on Friday 21st. The previous day's powder had mostly gone but the groomed runs were in very good condition, so we spent the morning flying down 7th Heaven. After lunch at Rendezvous I came back down with Matt, as I had to do some cooking for the evening meal.

I had been put in charge of desert for the welcome banquet we were throwing for Andy's parents and my brother, Al, so knocked up another chocolate whisky gateaux. When it was safely in the fridge I went to the gym, then straight into town to meet Al.

The evening meal was one of our best so far - we began with Bob's French Onion soup, moved on to a chicken casserole Andy and Emily had made, then finished up with the chocolate mouse. We did offer port and cheese, but only Andy had space.

Al, Bob and I caught the 08:00 bus into the village on Saturday 22nd, and took the Blackcomb Gondola. It broke down just as we arrived at the mid-station, so we rode down to Wizard and took that and Solar Coaster instead. Glacier Express wasn't open, so we took Jersey Cream then followed the cat-track down to the 7th Heaven lift, and spent the first few hours of the day on our usual runs - Cloud Nine and Panorama.

We paused for a break at the Horstman Hut and met up with Andy's parents, then rode down Ridge-Runner to the Crystal Hut and on down Rock'n'Roll to Excelerator. After lunch at Glacier Creek we took Glacier and Horstman up, then dropped into Couloir Extreme, the location of one of Whistler's most famous races. The couloir was pretty icy at the top but as we descended we found some reasonable snow to the right of the bowl. We finished off the day with a run down Glacier Bowl, which had some pretty good snow at the top, then went out to Uli's Flipside in the evening.

Al and I began Sunday 23rd by buying him a helmet, then set off up Whistler. After an introduction to Emerald Express we took the T-Bars up and rode down Harmony Piste to the chairlift. A high-speed run down saddle almost ended in disaster when Andy collided with a skier, but luckily both were unscathed.

From the top of Peak we dropped into Bagel Bowl, but the snow there was mostly tracked out and hard-packed. We carried on down past Big Red and took the Dave Murray Downhill all the way down to Creekside. It was my first time down the run, which is used for loads of different races. Although the base was pretty icy, the snow machines were working flat-out and the conditions were actually rather good.

We stopped at the top of Creekside Gondola for a quick lunch at the Raven's Nest, shot down Dave Murray again, then headed back over to Harmony. Since it was such an amazingly clear day, Al and I decided to hike up Piccolo. This is the first of three peaks within hiking distance of Harmony chair. The hike is only 15-20 minutes and gives access to an area of powder with an easy route down back onto Burnt Stew Trail. From the top of Piccolo the other two peaks (Flute and Oboe) looked pretty inviting but we decided it might be better to wait until someone with experience of the hike could lead us.

After much debate over the route down, we finally set off and found some fresh powder. At the top it was a bit wind-blown but lower down it was great. We cut into Symphony Bowl through more untouched powder then reached the cat-track back to Harmony then took the chair and Pika's Traverse over to Emerald Express. We spent the rest of the afternoon there, with a couple of runs through the terrain park and some fast runs down Green Acres.

We were back on Blackcomb for Monday 24th, starting with Cloud Nine on 7th Heaven. It was much colder than we've been used to recently, so we paused at the Horstman Hut for a hot chocolate, then decided to try hiking over the far side of Glacier Bowl to drop into Lakeside Bowl.

From the top of Showcase T-Bar we climbed up to the wind-lip, then walked along to the far end. We rode down to the higher of the two gates, then stuck our boards on our backs and hiked up out of the bowl, then down slightly towards the lake. Stan and I had done the run before and almost missed the chair at the bottom, so I told everyone to stay right, especially if they saw the signs saying "Last chance".

We set off down into the bowl through some great powder, past some huge jumps people had built, then down into the trees. Andy and I found a fantastic route through the trees, like a natural boarder-cross trail. We followed this round banked corners and down little valleys, but gradually lost faith in it as it carried on down. Way too late we realised that we'd missed the chairlift.

We took off our boards and began hiking up the hill but the powder was several feet deep, so the going was extremely slow. We kept swapping the lead, as the person following had a much easier time walking in the leader's footsteps, but we soon began tiring and paused every now and again to consider where we might sleep and how we'd avoid the bears. After sharing Andy's emergency Snickers bar our spirits improved, then when we found some other footsteps we sped up and found the chairlift after an hour or so of hiking.

At the top of the chairlift we stopped to recover at the Horstman Hut. In the afternoon we did a few runs on Ridge-Runner and Rock'n'Roll, then Matt, Andy, Stan, Al and I rode down to Merlin's to sample their famous nachos. We had a few beers there, then returned to our respective homes to shower, agreeing to meet up again later in the Amsterdam Pub.

After a few problems getting into the pub, we settled down for an evening's drinking, and by the time Andy joined us things were getting a bit messy. We wandered over to Buffalo Bills where some friends were organising a party, but after about 5 minutes Stan and I were thrown out when he mysteriously fell into a hot-tub. We went straight back to the front door, but the doormen looked at us incredulously and pointed out that we'd only just been chucked out and were not welcome, so we moved on to Moe Joe's, leaving the others partying in Buffalo Bills.

We all got home at about the same time and I was about to go to bed when Andy announced that a few (i.e. about 25) people might be coming back to the house. We unplugged the phone as a precaution in case Dawn called, but within 5 minutes of the guests showing up Dawn was on the front doorstep threatening to call the police. Andy and I pointed out that there was no music, the only sound was people talking and no laws were being broken. Dawn was adamant that she was going to call the police, so Andy and I told her to go ahead. I went to bed at that point, but it was no surprise to discover that the police never showed up.

Tuesday 25th started later than usual, but Al and I managed to get the 11:00 bus. We met up with Stan at the base of the Whistler Village Gondola, took that up to the Roundhouse, then stopped for a large hangover-curing lunch.

When we started feeling a little better we headed up Peak and had a great run down Highway 86. I'd always dropped into one bowl or another from the Highway, so it was the first time I'd done the whole run and I was amazed by how good the snow was. We got down to Big Red then carried on down to Creekside via the Dave Murray Downhill.

We took the gondola and Big Red back up, then rode down into the Whistler terrain park where we jumped the park bench then played on the rails. I hiked the box-rail a few times, trying to perfect my rail-slide and also had a couple of goes on the rainbow rail.

After the park the three of us had a final go down the Green Acres rollers, then Andy joined us and Stan went home. Andy, Al and I headed over to Harmony and rode down the ridge, then took the chair back up and went home via Pika's traverse and Ptarmigan.

The three of us enjoyed a lovely meal round at Andy's parents apartment in the evening, then returned to the palace to catch up on some much needed sleep (and a little PS2 golf).