The mountains have been very quiet the last two days. After the awesome conditions on Wednesday the temperature rose on Thursday which may have kept some people away, but the snow high up was still in great condition. Another 10cm of snow on Thursday night helped make Friday one of the most memorable days I've ever had on a snowboard.

As always happens after a really great day, I had trouble motivating myself to get up early on Thursday 10th. I spent a while sorting out the helmet-cam then eventually Royce, Dawson and I caught the 10:00 bus.

I left the boys and went up Glacier Express to do Spanky's Ladder. I was planning to film some of the best descents and hoped that the snow on Spanky's would still be in good condition from the previous day. At the top I paused and took a few still shots then dropped down through Diamond Bowl, a much better route than Stan and I had found the previous time we did Spanky's Ladder, when we'd ended up in Sapphire Bowl. The snow was in outstanding condition even in the steep sections - it wasn't too tracked and there was still light, deep powder everywhere.

Horstman T-Bar was closed for some reason, so to get to my next target I had to take Jersey Cream and 7th Heaven. From the Horstman Hut I took the road down intending to tackle Secret Bowl, but was distracted by Couloir Extreme.

The couloir is one of the steepest and most famous runs in the resort and is normally covered with horrible icy moguls. Having just discovered the great snow in Diamond Bowl I thought the couloir might be worth a look.

I passed through the gate and dropped into the couloir then switched the helmet-cam on and began riding. Immediately below my starting point the snow was hardly touched. I put in a few turns then noticed I was directly above a cliff so cut left out into the middle of the couloir then on towards the other side where the snow was less tracked. The conditions from top to bottom were brilliant - saying they were the best I've seen there wouldn't mean much, as I'd only been down the couloir once before, but the snow was outstanding. Near the top it was slightly packed, but still soft enough to get an edge, then lower down it was soft and deep.

Unfortunately the helmet-cam suffered technical problems on the way down the couloir, so I paused at Glacier Creek to sort it out. I met Bob and Matt there and convinced them to join me for another attempt at the couloir. My second run wasn't quite as smooth as the first as I was trying to film Bob most of the way, but the snow was still great.

We paused for lunch at the Rendezvous and met Royce, Dawson and Alice, a friend of Dawson's. After lunch we took Glacier Express up and rode down to the Crystal Hut, then took the usual route down Ridge Runner and Rock'n'Roll, filming all the way.

Back at Excelerator Matt, Bob, Royce and Dawson decided to head down to Merlin's, while Alice and I opted for a quick trip to Secret Bowl. The snow there was as good as ever and I filmed a nice run through the bowl. We chose the original descent from the bowl, towards Jersey Cream chair, but things went wrong half-way down and I ended up sliding down most of it on my front. I had hoped it would all be recorded on film, but unfortunately the camera was obscured by snow.

Alice and I rode down and joined the others in Merlin's, where we attacked a huge plate of nachos and played some table football. Back home I began feeling the effects of two long powder days, and even a power-nap didn't help. The others went out to Moe Joes for some cheesy music but I felt destroyed and after adjusting my bindings I had an early night.

When I checked the snow report on Friday 11th it claimed that 10cm of fresh snow had arrived. Bearing in mind the warmer weather, 10cm wasn't enough to warrant an early start - I thought the snow on the lower lifts would be heavy, while the higher lifts wouldn't open until later.

I caught the 09:15 bus, leaving Royce, Dawson and Bob in their respective beds, and was outside the Roundhouse by about 10:00. I overheard someone outside the ski-patrollers' hut saying Harmony was due to open in 5 minutes and Peak in 45, so calculated that I could get at least one run down Harmony without affecting my chances of a good place in the Peak queue. I set off through the trees to Harmony chair and watched it open just as I arrived at the back of the tiny queue. I was on about the 20th chair.

From the chair it looked as though the snow hadn't completely covered the previous tracks on the runs under the chair, so I decided to head down the ridge and drop down Kaleidescope then through Boomer Bowl. The snow there was soft and dry, but not quite deep enough to prevent contact with the occasional bump underneath.

Back at the chair I re-adjusted my bindings to their fully-back, powder position, then joined the still tiny queue at about 10:30. I decided that if Peak was going to open in the next 15 minutes I ought to head straight there, so rode down the ridge towards the T-Bars then cut off left and had a fantastic run through completely untracked snow down T-Bar bowl to the Peak chair, arriving at about 10:40 and joining the singles queue.

The queue was pretty small when I arrived but grew gradually until 11:20 when the lift finally opened. The singles queue poured out, ignoring the protests of the main queue, and I made it onto the 10th chair.

At the top I headed straight for the West Bowl. I'd discussed Shale Slope with one of the guys on my chair but rather than getting almost fresh snow on that and the bowl, I wanted to be first into West Bowl again.

Although there was some drifting on Frontier Pass, it had been groomed after most of the snow had fallen, and was much faster than it would have been if it had been covered with powder. The visibility was good and I shot down the run, desperate to get ahead of everyone else. I saw someone loitering by the beginning of the little path to the Justice Drop-in, but they carried on down and I made the first track down the path.

I passed the signs warning of the impending cliff, which were almost covered with drifted snow, then dropped over into the gully. For the second time in my life I was the first person into the bowl.

I slid past the top of the little rock and looked down into the bowl. To the right there were two enormous avalanches, which had covered almost the entire face of the bowl with debris. Below me and to the right there was another smaller avalanche, so there was only one area of untracked powder left and one possible route - straight down.

I wondered about taking a photo but was panicking about someone else arriving and getting the first track, so I set off down. Although it wasn't completely clear, it was bright enough to see everything I needed to see and I began accelerating down into the bowl. The snow was as soft and light as the powder over on Harmony earlier but much deeper, so my board didn't touch the hard-packed snow at all. Instead the route was completely smooth.

Confident that I could control the speed if I needed to, I raced down, occasionally wobbling and once flying off a roller, but making it down to the flatter run-out from the bowl without crashing. As I approached the exit ramp I pulled to a halt and looked back up the bowl.

The sun came out for a minute or two and lit everything up. The entire bowl was full of smooth, fresh snow, apart from the avalanche debris and one track, carving down from the Justice Drop-in to where I had stopped. With a rush of excitement, a huge grin appeared on my face and I pulled out my camera. I took 9 stills and a short movie to record one of the best moments of my snowboarding career.

For years I've looked at the tracks left behind by riders who've got the first line down a descent and thought how amazing it must be to look back up a slope and see nothing but your own track. Today the line was mine and I could hardly believe it!

I was reluctant to leave the scene, but eventually I rode down the ramp and back along Highway 86 to Big Red, on a huge high. Sitting on the lift, I had a look at the pictures I'd just taken and couldn't help but grinning to myself again.

I did another lap of Peak and the drop-in and although the snow was OK high up in the bowl, it was a bit too tracked lower down. I noticed that there was a less-tracked area beyond the massive avalanche in the centre of the bowl and decided to go to the Christmas Trees on my next lap to try and get to the other side of the bowl.

The snow in Whistler Bowl was already getting cut into moguls, but was soft and easy to ride. I cut off to the left and traversed across West Cirque, eventually reaching the saddle above the Christmas Trees. From there I turned left around the top of the bowl and reached the centre of the smooth snow, halfway between the avalanche debris and the trees.

Although there were a few tracks, I had another great run down. After the excitement of the first run though, nothing could compare.

Happy that I'd got the best from the West Bowl, I joined Dawson on Ego Bowl then took him up Peak. We rode down Saddle and then on down Pony Trail to Big Red, with Dawson getting increasingly frustrated by his riding.

We were both glad to stop for lunch at the Roundhouse, as it had reached 14:20 by then. I bolted down a chicken burrito, hoping to get over to Harmony and then up Piccolo but, by the time I reached the top of the chair, the cloud had closed in and I decided that a solo attempt of Piccolo would be madness.

Instead I took Pika's Traverse back to the Roundhouse and downloaded the gondola.