The weather in Whistler has continued to warm up over the last few days and the runs back to the resort are now almost completely mud or grass. The higher temperatures are beginning to affect the upper slopes too, even up to Peak and the West Bowl. Life on the slopes, though, is still good fun - as with last week we've concentrating on jumping.
I woke up early on Friday 18th, having planned to go riding for a couple of hours before accompanying Ingrid on a trip to Pemberton, where she was due to sing the Canadian National Anthem live on TV at the World Freestyle Snowmobile Association Championships. Lying in bed at 07:00, however, I decided that I could happily live with a day off and went straight back to sleep.
Ingrid and I set off at about 11:30, to get her to the event for her performance at 13:00. When we reached Pemberton she realised she'd left the instructions for finding the competition at home, so we made a few frantic phone calls and eventually discovered we had to head back towards Whistler.
We arrived at the competition with about 45 minutes to spare, announced our arrival to the organisers and had a look round. At that stage we noticed two slightly odd things: the jump ramp was still being built and there was no outside-broadcast vehicle.
Time passed and eventually snowmobiles began hitting the ramp, but only on practise runs, as the announcers kept reminding us. Ingrid and I were amazed that the snowmobiles didn't seem to need any snow - they were being driven around on rocky ground and landing on a very muddy down-ramp.
When everyone had practised enough they moved the jump-ramp out of the way and prepared the course for trail bikes instead. This took ages, as the bikes couldn't cope with the rocks on the run-up and needed a different shaped ramp. Finally the bikes began flying, doing some very impressive tricks, in what turned out just to be a demonstration.
They then began preparing the jump for the snowmobiles again, this time for the competition. Snow was spread out along the approach and on the down-ramp. The other people involved in the opening ceremony began getting ready. As it was about 15:30 we were hoping the time to sing would be soon.
Three hours later than planned, Ingrid finally took to the stage at 16:00. As she walked across the track to the stage area there were favourable comments from the crowd of mainly men, then she was made to stand and wait while some First Nations people sang a song blessing the mountains or something.
Her performance was outstanding. The crowd cheered loudly as she finished, then as we walked through the crowd various people commented on how well she'd done. I felt very proud!
We didn't hang around long afterwards. Ingrid was frozen, so we warmed up in the car, then when we went back to watch the competition we discovered that the ramp had broken for the second time. We asked what had happened to the TV people and were told that it was not live, but a highlights programme, hopefully being aired on the 26th.
Ing left with Bob, Patrick and Shannon soon after we got back to Whistler, leaving Dawson, Mark and me, who spent a relaxed evening playing Scrabble.
While Dawson took a day off on Saturday 19th, Mark and I caught the 08:15 bus into the village, hoping to beat the Easter-weekend crowds. As it turned out, the crowds had all stayed in bed, and there were no queues at all. We took the Whistler Village Gondola up, to spend Mark's last day doing a farewell tour of his favourite places on the mountain.
We began with a warm-up run down Upper Whiskey Jack, Orange Peel and Bear Cub. The visibility at the Roundhouse was OK but there was a huge layer of cloud slightly below, and as we rode down Whiskey Jack we went straight into it. We took Red then Peak up, hoping to get above the cloud, but found there was another layer hovering around the top of the mountain.
Peak had only just opened so Saddle was looking well groomed and very inviting. The road to it was very slow, but saddle itself was great. We took Peak up again and set off to introduce Mark to the Justice Drop-in. Unfortunately the visibility there was terrible and the new snow wasn't deep enough to risk dropping in.
After a quick look down Cockalorum, Mark decided to ride down Frontier Pass. I couldn't be bothered climbing back up to the piste, so decided to try Stefan's Chute, which I'd never done before. The top of the gully was at least as steep as the Justice Drop-in, but it opened out and became slightly less steep lower down. The snow wasn't great, but the run would be amazing in fresh snow.
We paused at the Roundhouse for a hot chocolate and bumped into Mike in Pika's. While we were there the weather cleared slightly and we decided to head over to Harmony. We had a quick ride through the terrain park, where I fell embarrassingly off the curved box-rail, then took Emerald up and rode down G.S. to Harmony chair.
We did a couple of runs down Harmony Piste, passing into cloud at the top of the chair then dropping out as we rode down. We rode down the steep face of the bowl rather than take Pika's Traverse, then blasted down the main run back to the chair. After our second run we took Pika's Traverse back to Emerald then rode down to Chic Pea for a late lunch break.
The afternoon began with Banana Peel and Pony Trail down to Red, then the usual "hit-run" down Orange Peel and Dave Murray. We then switched our attention to the terrain park.
Having despatched the rainbow rail and park-bench, I sat staring at the curved box-rail for about 5 minutes, watching other people, who mostly fell off. Finally I plucked up the courage for another attempt. Unlike the first attempt, I didn't bottle it. Unlike the second, I didn't fall. Instead, I managed a nice rail-slide then, because of the curve, came off naturally pointing forwards and rode away with my arms up in celebration. Very satisfactory.
Pride, they say, comes before a fall. Judging by my efforts on the spine and the normal box-rail, they are right.
Mark and I rode down to Olympic Station then downloaded from there. Alice came round to see us in the evening, then we went to watch (and film) the skiing version of the Big Air competition. It was quite dramatic as it was floodlit, but it wasn't as impressive as the snowboarding version, as the tricks all seemed to be the same.
When the competition finished we went for another great meal at Hy's Steakhouse, then spent the rest of the evening in the Crystal Lounge.
Sunday 20th was Easter Sunday, so we began the day by making various phone calls to our families back in the UK. Having said goodbye to Mark I caught the 11:00 bus in on my own, as Dawson's board was still in for repairs.
I had a fairly short day on the mountain - I did four or five laps of the hit-run down Dave Murray and Expressway then went up Peak for a bit of a change. I rode down Frontier Pass, but the snow was heavy and slow the whole of the way down to Red and by the time I got there I had had enough. I downloaded from Olympic Station and caught the 13:30 bus home.
Dawson convinced me to go the gym in the afternoon, for the first time in ages. With all the guests we'd had during March, the gym became a less regular feature than earlier in our trip, and by the end of the month I was knackered from riding every day.
After the gym we popped into the village to get Dawson's board and do some shopping then headed home for dinner. We went out to Garfinkel's in the evening to see a Kiss FM DJ who Crystal had organised, but the whole village was dead. We had a few drinks with Crystal and Mike, then dropped into the Pita Pit on the way home.
Quite predictably, Monday 21st was another slow start. I was up before Dawson and spent a while chatting to people on MSN, then we caught the 10:30 bus in. We warmed up with the now-familiar run down Upper Whiskey Jack/Orange Peel/Dave Murray, with a few hits thrown in for good measure. The snow was slow and very slushy, so we set off up Peak, hoping to find something a little better.
We rode round Frontier Pass to the Justice Drop-in but Dawson wasn't convinced and slid down to the more conventional Cockalorum entrance. I took my usual route and traversed out into the bowl, where I found loads of avalanche debris and very little decent snow.
As I sat in the middle of the West Bowl, I looked back to see Dawson balanced precariously above Cockalorum, waiting for inspiration. Two skiers rode straight past him, into the bowl, which seemed to give him the confidence he needed. He rode over the edge of the drop, turning into the face of the cliff as I'd recommended. He then promptly sat down, releasing the pressure on his heel edge, and slid down the gully on his arse. This, I had not recommended.
Dawson eventually recovered his composure and we both rode out of the bowl, joining Highway 86 back to Red. The snow on the road and even in the bowl was very heavy, so we gave up on the idea of normal riding and moved on to the terrain park.
We did a couple of runs through the park before lunch, with Dawson attacking various park-benches and the basic box-rail, while I concentrated on the curved box-rail. Both times I fell, and had to console myself with other easier tricks.
We met up with Mike during lunch at the Roundhouse and he joined us for the afternoon. We tried Upper Whiskey Jack/Orange Peel/Dave Murray but it was even worse than our first run there, so we returned to the park. On the second run through I hit the curved box-rail perfectly, rail-sliding round it then dismounting to switch and riding away very pleased with myself.
Mike left us after a couple of laps of the park, so Dawson and I did two more on our own. Dawson's efforts on the park-benches and box-rail were gradually improving, though he did seem to have a habit of landing at 90ยบ to his direction of travel.
We rode down to Olympic Station with Dawson practising landing jumps off moguls while I tried to learn how to butter, then downloaded in the gondola. | 
