Spring has definitely arrived in Whistler. The lower slopes are now more mud than snow and the temperature is noticeably warmer in the village. Up in the mountains the situation is very different: there is still some great snow on the higher runs but the emphasis has shifted from powder-hunting to playing around in the mid-mountain, jumping over or dropping off anything which remotely resembles a ramp.
Mark and Amrit both arrived during the evening of Friday 11th. We had pizza delivered to the Palace then went out to the GLC, where we met up with Gavin and the other Mark to honour their departure, Royce's departure, and the arrival of the new Mark.
It was business as usual on Saturday 12th, apart from the fact that we said goodbye to Royce and left him behind to catch his bus. Amrit drove Dawson, Mark and me in and, after a brief pause to get Mark a pass, we took the Whistler Village Gondola.
We allowed Mark one warm-up run on Ego Bowl then took him straight to Piccolo! I was still on a huge high from my experience in the West Bowl the previous day (did I mention that I got the first track?) and was eager for more powder.
The Piccolo climb was much harder than usual, as there were fewer footprints to follow and those that there were were very deep. We eventually arrived at the top and paused for a few pictures, including one of a wind-blown ski-pole I'd used to support my camera on a previous visit.
The descent was a bit disappointing as the snow was very heavy and not very deep. It wasn't obvious whether it was the wind or the temperature or a combination that had changed the snow, but it didn't really compare to the previous day.
The Piccolo trip took quite while and left me feeling slightly despondent - I'd been expecting to find more great powder - so we adjourned to the Roundhouse for lunch and bumped into Dawson's mates, Gavin and Mark.
We spent the afternoon filming with the helmet-cam, mainly in the West Bowl. We did two runs, one through Bagel Bowl and one down the Justice Drop-in, but the snow on both routes was very heavy and hard work. After reviewing the footage back at the Roundhouse, Amrit and I took one last run down over the Green Acres rollers then downloaded in the gondola.
There was huge crowd down in the village, waiting for the Big Air competition to begin. The competition was part of the Telus World Ski and Snowboard Festival - a week long party, with some snow-sports thrown in for good measure.
Amrit and I met up with Dawson and Mark, and also saw Mike in the crowd. Accompanied by Matt The Alien playing on the huge stage, we watched (and I filmed) some pretty impressive jumps over a specially constructed ramp on the slope beside the GLC.
When that was over we headed home, then Dawson, Mark and I went out to the Keg for a steak. We'd been planning to go on somewhere else, but by the end of the meal we were all practically asleep, so we gave up and went home.
Sunday 13th was a day off for Dawson, Mark and me. We got up late and spent most of the morning doing nothing at home. In the afternoon we caught the bus into the village and wandered round the shops for several hours, without actually buying much. In the evening I edged and waxed my board and cooked a chilli, then we settled down and watched Deuce Bigalow.
The three of us went up Blackcomb on Monday 14th. We went straight to 7th Heaven and spent most of the day there, with some runs down Cloud Nine and some through the trees to skiers' right of the lift. We lunched at the Horstman Hut, had a minor panic over a missing radio during the afternoon then, after recovering the radio from a kind rider who'd picked it up, we rode down through the Terrain Garden and downloaded Wizard to Merlin's.
We had some nachos and a few beers in Merlin's then took over the table-footie table and had a little competition. We had been planning to go out in the evening but none of us had the energy, so we watched The Cube instead.
Tuesday 15th was a very special occasion for me: it was TJD-Day. 151 days after arriving in Canada and 137 days after first hitting the slopes, I finally made it to 100 days on the snow. According to my pass I'd done 103 days, but one of those was Simon's birthday lunch on Christmas Eve and two had been babysitting days when I was recovering from the broken ribs. Of the 100, 98 were on a board and 2 were on skis.
We'd set the target fairly arbitrarily when we began our little trip. Following my injury at the end of last year, I'd almost written off my chances, as we were only riding about six days a week in those days. Since then I've got more and more used to being up the mountain, to the point where I managed 32 consecutive days and have slowly notched up the days.
There were huge queues when I arrived at the gondolas. It wasn't obvious why, but I guess it was Easter holiday time everywhere.
I was hoping to meet up with Mike, but he hadn't made it out of the house, so I went up Peak on my own. The situation there was the opposite of that in the valley - the sky had become overcast and there was no queue at all.
I began with the Justice Drop-in (obviously) and traversed across into the middle of the bowl. The drop-in had more snow than ever and the bowl itself had a good 10cm or so - much more than I'd been expecting and enough to cruise down without touching the hard-packed snowbase until near the bottom of the bowl. There weren't many tracks through the bowl and I managed to avoid crossing any until I reached the run-out area, which was a bit more bumpy.
I met up with Dawson and Mark at the Roundhouse and tried to convince them to come up Peak but they wanted a warm-up, so I agreed to meet them after another lap. I repeated the usual route, traversing slightly further into the bowl and getting fresh tracks again.
I collected the boys at the top of Emerald Express and we all set off up Peak. We took the track down from the summit and pulled off to the right, along the little path to the Justice Drop-in. We sat by the cliff sign while Dawson and Mark decided what to do then eventually I dropped in while they slid down towards Cockalorum and rejoined the piste. Dawson paused to film my descent into the bowl but unfortunately the batteries ran out!
We had lunch at the Roundhouse, where we were joined by Mike. The four of us did a run down Upper Whiskey Jack and Enchanted Forrest, then set off to Orange Peel. Mike and I left Dawson and Mark near the top of Dave Murray, and raced down to Big Red, hitting every little jump we could see on the way.
We planned to repeat the run but bumped into some of Mike's mates and ended up riding down Pony Trail and Expressway to Garbanzo. Although the runs were both green, Mike and his friends managed to find some enormous ramps along the sides of the runs and did some amazing jumps. I followed as fast as I could, wishing I'd got the helmet-cam with me! I followed them over some of the jumps, but never managed to look quite as impressive as they did...
From the top of Garbanzo we repeated the route and I got a bit more confident over the jumps, though the visibility was terrible as we were surrounded by cloud. We took Garbanzo back up and rode down to Big Red, then Mike downloaded to Creekside and I took Red back up, hoping to meet up with the boys. They didn't respond to my radio calls, so I finished the day with a run through the terrain park, where I did a very satisfactory rail-slide. I carried on down to Olympic Station, popping off all the little jumps down the side, then downloaded in the gondola, having thoroughly enjoyed the day.
I was home before the boys, who took a quick detour to the liquor store. When they arrived they presented me with two bottles of champagne to celebrate TJD! We duly cracked the first on open and celebrated. Later on Dawson, Mark and I ate out at Sushi Village, then moved on to Moe Joe's, where Mike D was hosting another pimps and whores party. Although the guests hadn't made as much effort as the previous one, there were still some interesting costumes...
With TJD done and dusted, and a fair amount of alcohol consumed, Wednesday 16th began very slowly indeed. Bob left to join Mack and some of his friends on the slopes, but Dawson, Mark and I didn't leave the house until 12:30. We paused for lunch as soon as we reached the Roundhouse then had a fairly relaxed afternoon playing around in the mid-mountain area - some of the same runs I'd done the previous day and a couple of runs through the park.
The three of us met up with Mack and his group in the Crystal Lounge, where told me that Bob had finally been to get his dodgy arm checked out, and had been told he'd fractured it three weeks ago!
In the evening we watched Requiem for a Dream, which depressed us so much that we had to watch Deuce Bigalow again to cheer ourselves up!
Thursday 17th was another special day, as the pro we'd ridden with on March 1st, Matt Domanski, had arranged to go riding with us again. Bob (complete with fractured elbow), Matt L and I met him and a couple of his friends at the Whistler lightboard at 11:00, and began with a trip down Orange Peel to Big Red to meet another of Matt's friends, Jamie.
We took the T-Bars over to Harmony, dropping in down the left side of the bowl, crossing Pika's traverse and flying off the edge into the soft snow. I raced down Die Hard to get a place to film the others, as they were planning to jump the cliffs to the right of Die Hard. Having seen videos of Matt and heard about the 80ft cliff now known as the Domanski Drop, I wanted to get as much as possible on film.
Matt and his friends didn’t disappoint, though none of them managed 80ft. Hopefully some of the footage will be available soon.
We carried on down Harmony Piste, flying off Millennium and regrouping at the chair. Our next lap began with the cliff on the front face of the bowl, underneath the chair then carried on down a similar route to the previous lap, via Die Hard and the cliffs there. I filmed them again, then we all flew down Sidewinder to Emerald, and on down Upper Olympic to the gondola.
From the Roundhouse we took Upper Whiskey Jack and Orange Peel to Dave Murray, then the rest of the group vanished down Goat's Gully, leaving Matt L and me wondering what was happening. Somehow Matt D had also become separated, and he guided us down a little shortcut between Dave and Bear Cub. As we approached a cliff he said "Ah - there's a small drop here." "How small? Domanski small?" "Oh, it's only about 6 feet."
It was more like 15 feet, so I let Matt go first and watched him bail when the landing was harder than he'd expected. I slid down the edge of the cliff on my heel edge then jumped a quick 180 and sped down on my toe edge, narrowly avoiding a tree. Matt called out his approval and we carried on down to Big Red. As we re-grouped there, he again commented on my line down the edge of the cliff, then as we took off on Garbanzo he told the others about it! I almost felt proud...
At the top of Garbanzo I left the group to go and meet Mike and they began the short hike to do the run under the chairlift. I took Dave then Pony Trail down to Big Red, practising the jumps down the edges. I met Mike and a friend of his at the top of Red and we all rode down past Chic Pea, meeting the Domanski group at the top of Dave.
They disappeared down Goat's Gully while I was stuck in some trees, so I took Bear Cub and caught up with them at Big Red. Matt D and his posse had gone, as had Matt L, leaving Bob, Mike, me, and Mike's mate, Rob. We rode down Expressway, hitting the usual jumps, then caught Garbanzo up again and rode down Dave Murray back to Red. We paused for a quick lunch at the Roundhouse, then Bob downloaded and Mike, Rob and I carried on.
We did a couple more laps of the Dave Murray/Pony Trail/Expressway loop, but after that I was exhausted and downloaded in the gondola. | 
