This week has seen Andy call an end to his injury-hit season while I've had another day on skis. There have been much smaller amounts of fresh snow, but the conditions on the groomed runs have been great and we've been flying along faster than ever.

Dom, Jim, Ian, Boo and I caught the 08:30 bus on Monday 24th then met Stan at the lifts. We took Fitzsimmons and Garbanzo up to avoid the gondola queue, then stood just above the Chic Pea restaurant looking up towards Peak. It was a beautifully clear day and the Saddle run looked very inviting - it was perfectly groomed and looked very fast. Stan and I went down to Emerald then straight over to the Peak chair and down to the top of Saddle.

Although it was still fairly early, there were slightly too many people on the run and it was already getting slightly bumpy. Stan and I decided we could find some pretty straight lines down it and set off pointing directly back to Peak chair. We had to slow slightly as we reached the top of the second pitch as there were groups of people waiting there, but below that we straight-lined back to the lift. As I pulled into the queue with a huge grin on my face I heard Stan arriving behind me, laughing manically.

We took Peak up again and tried Frontier Pass/Highway 86, both of which were much quieter than Saddle. This time we went even faster.

The runs were completely flat after their overnight grooming, so we were able to go pretty much straight down, confident that we'd be able to brake if the need arose. The run got steeper and steeper and we went faster and faster, until I eventually reached a totally new sensation of speed, way beyond anything I'd felt before. As I realised how fast I was going, I began panicking, tried braking and inevitably ended up losing control. I ended up on my toe edge, getting closer to the ground as I braked harder. Before long I was lying on the ground in a star shape, flying down board-first, desperately hoping I wasn't going to catch an edge and start tumbling.

Eventually Stan appeared out of the huge cloud of snow I'd thrown up and pulled up alongside me. This time we were both laughing manically.

In the afternoon Kinga and I joined Jim, Matt, Dom, Ian and Boo in the terrain park. I took some video of them jumping the spine and table-top then spent an hour or two hiking the table-top myself, finally pulling off my first decent grab.

Stan and I met up early again on Tuesday 25th and took Wizard and Solar Coaster up Blackcomb. Although the website had claimed that there had been 7cm of fresh snow, it wasn't very obvious on the mountain. The groomed runs were looking very good though and, when we discovered that the high lifts were yet to open, Stan and I decided to take a quick run down Springboard back to the base of Solar Coaster.

The run was probably the fastest I've ever done, eclipsing even the previous day's efforts on Peak. We quite literally went straight down, finally putting in our first turns after flying off a large roller just below the exit from the terrain park. We carried on down and met up at the chair, once more grinning like mischievous kids.

We had a reasonable run down Panorama on 7th Heaven then headed over to Crystal Ridge and did a couple of trips down Rock'n'roll. We lunched at the Crystal Hut, dropped down the trees to the right of Overbite then took Glacier Express up and hiked up to Spanky's Ladder.

Spanky's Ladder is one of the more famous off-piste routes, but until now we hadn't tried it. The hike up is very short (less than five minutes) but opens up the side of Blackcomb Glacier bowl, with a choice of four mini-bowls to drop through. Finding the top shrouded in cloud, we followed a group in front, who lead us down a horrible rocky entrance to Sapphire Bowl. After the initial descent the bowl was great though and we found some lovely powder as we dropped down towards the cat-track.

We took Glacier Express up again and did two trips down through Secret Bowl, where the conditions were yet again better than the surrounding areas. We finished off the day with a quick race through the snow-cross course then I booked a skiing lesson and headed home to spend the evening playing a very entertaining card game called Arsehole with Andy, Bob and his friends.

I was up early on Wednesday 26th, as Stan and I had agreed to get together before my lesson, to test my skis against his board. We met in Showcase, where Stan was buying a new Option Bella for Kinga, then climbed aboard the Village Gondola.

Although the forecast had predicted 1-3cm, there were 6cm reported on the website and more like 10cm on the pistes. As we set off from Roundhouse down to Emerald Express I was a bit daunted by the powder, as I'd never skied (successfully) in fresh snow. Ego Bowl wasn't too bad - in a complete reversal of the usual objectives, I actually searched out the groomed parts of the run, trying to avoid the powder. Although the groomed parts were lovely, the powder was scaring me, but after a couple of runs down to Big Red I was beginning to feel a bit more confident.

We never got round to racing but there was little doubt over who was faster - with the new snow on the pistes there was no way I could have kept up with Stan. As it was he spent most of the time laughing as he watched me struggling though the powder, sarcastically saying "Ah! Now I know why you want to ski..."

As I stood outside the Roundhouse waiting for the lesson to begin, I noticed Andy limping from the top of Emerald towards the gondola. I skated over to him to find out what was happening, but the news was not good. Having made it up the hill for the first time in over two weeks, he'd felt the ankle give way as he stood up after a fall. After waiting so long for it to recover, that was the final straw - it was the last snowboarding of the season for Andy.

My lesson set off and we spent the morning on Emerald and Big Red, taking apart the technique needed for skiing moguls. By lunchtime I was getting a bit bored of skiing, which wasn't helped when Stan told me that West Bowl was as good as ever.

The afternoon was much more fun and by the end I was enjoying the skiing again. We had a great run down through Symphony Bowl, finishing off with a fast descent of Crescendo, then I raced down to the village with John, the instructor, enjoying the fastest skiing of the day. I was glad to hand the skis in though, and looked forward to getting back on my board!

I got home to find Bob had returned from Vancouver, bringing with him our next guest, Colette. Andy was also home and revealed his plan to head back to the UK straight after our party.

Boo cooked us all a great veggie lasagne in the evening, then Colette, Mike and I went out for a few drinks in La Brasserie.

Thursday 27th was an introductory day on Blackcomb mountain for Colette and a friend of Stan's called Rich, who had also arrived the previous evening. We began with a few runs down Jersey Cream then met up with Kinga in Rendezvous. Stan and Kinga had arranged a baby-sitter for Josh, so were both able to join us as we headed over to 7th Heaven.

After a few runs there we took the Crystal Traverse over to the Crystal Hut for lunch, then tried a couple of variations of Ridge Runner and Rock'n'Roll. Stan took Kinga down then re-joined us for a high-speed descent of Zig-Zag, before a final trip through terrain garden.

I surfed down through the slush to the village after that, hoping to catch the Burton rep at Showcase Snowboards, as my boots were beginning to fall apart. He sounded fairly confident that they'd be replaced, so I left in good spirits, met up with another new arrival, Dawson, and walked along to Merlin's to meet everyone else.

We had the obligatory nachos in Merlin's, which were quite a struggle even though they were shared between Dawson, Colette, Rich, Stan, Kinga, Josh and me. Bob and his friends joined us and proposed a trip to Hy's, but after the nachos we didn't feel much like steak. Instead we met up again in the Amsterdam later on for a few drinks.

Having discarded my damaged boots, I spent Friday 28th in Andy's, using his super-lightweight C14 bindings. Although I was very glad to have a replacement, it took a while to get used to strap-on bindings again and I couldn't help wishing I had my step-ins back.

Mack and Amrit were up for the day and we began by meeting up with Stan, Rich, Bob and his mates, then taking a trip up the T-Bars and over to Harmony. After the initial blast down the piste we had a couple of trips down the ridge, searching for any remaining powder in the trees or in a secluded part of a bowl. There was still some snow about, but after the luxury of the past two weeks it was a bit disappointing.

We paused for coffee at the Roundhouse, then Mack, Am, Rich, Kinga and I set off to Peak, aiming to drop over to Burnt Stew Trail and then hike Piccolo. It was fairly clear below the summit and the path up Piccolo was well trodden, so the hike up was not a proble. From the top, we took a route further right of the path I'd taken on my previous visit, heading down the boundary fence.

The snow was pretty good - it was easy to get down without crossing any other tracks and was still fairly soft. For Kinga and Rich it was a new experience to be on anything other than groomed piste and both seemed to enjoy it - there were certainly no complaints when we went back up Harmony and did the same thing again.

After lunch back at the Roundhouse Kinga downloaded with Josh, and Stan joined Mack, Am, Rich and me for a couple of fast runs down Saddle and then Highway 86. We adjourned to the Crystal Lounge for a quick beer with Dawson and Colette, then sent Mack and Am on their way back to Vancouver and headed home. Later on we all met up again for a meal at Gaitors.