Tuesday 22nd was the last day of the season on Blackcomb. Although the mountain is open until April 28th, the snow has already become slushy everywhere except on the glacier, where it's very hard and icy. The experts' terrain park is still a little too daunting and the intermediates' terrain park has vanished, so the only thing to do is ride the slush.

We met Matt on the bus and the three of us went up to the glacier to see whether the snow there was any better than the slush lower down. After much encouragement and advice on the way up Glacier Express, Dawson was finally convinced to try the Showcase T-Bar, and managed it without any problems.

The run down the glacier was groomed on the side near the tow but not on the other. I began by turning off into the un-groomed part, hoping it might still be soft, but it must have melted and then frozen as it was very hard. I turned back on the groomed part but, although it was smoother, it was just as hard as the un-groomed side.

We did the run again but carried on down to Horstman and took that up to 7th Heaven. Dawson managed the Horstman T-Bar with only a minor wobble and the three of us set off down Cloud Nine.

7th Heaven was slightly more enjoyable than the glacier as it was considerably longer and lower down it softened up considerably. Although the run was fun, none of us felt very inspired, so we stopped at the Horstman Hut for a hot chocolate and a cookie.

We took Green Line down and passed through the big terrain park, attempting a few tricks on the way, falling off most of them, but leaving without any new injuries. Matt went down at that point, while Dawson and I took Solar Coaster back up to try the baby terrain park. Unfortunately the tricks had all been removed, leaving a normal run, so we rode down to Solar Coaster again then took that up to Rendezvous for lunch.

Still lacking inspiration after lunch, we rode down Springboard back to Solar Coaster, then took Glacier Express up for a final run of the season down our old favourites, Ridge Runner and Rock'n'Roll. By the time we reached the gondola the slush was very slow and heavy. We were glad to download, and looked forward to spending the last few days in Whistler's terrain park.

We went to the gym in the afternoon then Dawson cooked his version of the Thai Green Curry and we entertained Alice and Claude.

Despite planning an early start, we didn't make it out of the house until after 09:30 on Wednesday 23rd. Alice and Claude had stayed over and drove Dawson and me in. The four of us went up Whistler, warming up with a run down Orange Peel and Dave Murray to Red.

The snow there was still very hard. It was much colder than recent days and the slush had frozen into a very uneven icy piste where it hadn't been groomed. The visibility was also terrible - I normally measure it by the number of chairs you can see in front of you when you're on a chairlift - as we took Red up we could only see one chair in front of us.

Back up at the Roundhouse the visibility was better, and we felt encouraged enough to try another run. We rode down Upper Franz back to Red, then moved over to Harmony and had a run down Harmony Piste. The snow there was worse than anything we'd been on earlier - it hadn't been groomed, so the surface was solid and bumpy.

After one run down Harmony we took the chair back up and rode Pika's Traverse back to the Roundhouse, where we stopped for lunch. After a bite to eat we took Peak up and gave Saddle a go. The run there was OK, as it had been groomed, but we didn't think it was worth doing again so we carried on down to Red and took that back up. At the top we met Mike, who joined us for a run through the terrain park.

We did a few tricks there - Dawson landed the double park-bench then fell over, I landed a rail-slide round the curved box-rail then fell over, and Mike crashed on his elbow landing a 360 on the spine. After that we decided not to do the park again.

Instead we took Emerald back up and had final run down the Orange Peel/Dave Murray hit-run, then downloaded to Creekside for some beer, nachos and ribs.

After a quick game of table football, Alice and Claude dropped Dawson and me off at the Palace. Curtis arrived during the evening and the three of us watched Black Hawk Down.

We had another relaxed start on Thursday 24th, with Curtis driving Dawson and me in at about 10:30. We went up Whistler again, planning a quick warm-up then a day in the park. The snow, however, was remarkably good. We rode down Orange Peel and Dave Murray to Red and were amazed to find some fresh snow. In places there were several cm, so we decided to head up Peak in search of more.

Curtis and I took the Justice Drop-in into the West Bowl, but the conditions were not great. There wasn't enough snow to cover the avalanche debris from the last few days, and where the was snow it avalanched as soon as you rode over it. We crossed the entire bowl to reach the Christmas Trees, where the snow was a little better, but not really deep enough.

In the run-out from the bowl things were a little better, but we decided against further trips up Peak. We met Mike and Bob at the top of Red and, after sending Dawson off down to Emerald, we took off down G.S. to Harmony, planning to hike Piccolo.

As we took Harmony up we heard horrible crunching noises from people turning in the powder and hitting the ice underneath, then as we neared the top the visibility closed right down and we ruled Piccolo out. Instead we rode down Pika's Traverse straight back to the Roundhouse for some lunch.

After lunch we hit the park. The group of us did a couple of laps, then Dawson and I stayed to film a few tricks and the others downloaded. We spent most of the time with Dawson on the park benches and me on the curved box-rail.

When we got home we discovered a note from a courier - my replacement boots had finally arrived from Burton. I went back into the village to pick those up, then Dawson and I went to the gym for a couple of hours.