Last day on snow at Big White...

28th Feb, 2008

Last day on snow turned out to be disappointing, especially for the girls. 12cm of snow fell overnight according to the resort, I suspect more actually fell.

Clive and I headed out early, straight up the Bullet Express. Like yesterday, visibility was poor but we decided to head up the T-Bar to see if we could get above the clouds. The run down to the T-Bar was less than enjoyable. Heavy snow on an ungroomed run. It was apparent very early that the snow that had fallen was not the famous 'Okanagan Champagne Powder' but heavy snow, similar to what falls in Oz. We headed to the top of the T-Bar where our problems became worse. It was blowing hard, in essence the first breath of wind we had encountered our whole stay (Clive's wind notwithstanding) and the snow was in deep wind drifts across the runs, plus it was a complete whiteout!!!

We skied/slid/snowploughed 50 metres down a run looking for the trail to take us back down to the village and some visibility. We found a yellow pole which denotes the easiest way down the mountain should visibility be bad. We headed along the trail, but deep wind drifts covered the track. It was slide 5 metres, walk 5 metres, curse 5 seconds etc. It was so bad we couldn't tell if we were actually on the run or was the run on the other side of the yellow poles? The skiers reading this will probably know the conditions we were faced with and can empathise. It's no fun at all.

We made our way down to better visibility and did a run down Serwa's, knowing that if it was not very good the girls would not be coming out for the day. It was very, very choppy and cruddy even at this early hour. My legs were struggling for the first time this week and even Clive said his legs were complaining. It was hard work.

We headed back to the unit, yelling at the girls from the edge of the run, telling them not to worry about coming out. We had a coffee at Beano's and headed back out to see if we could salvage anything from the day.

Fortunately the weather turned for the better, but the runs were a disaster area of chopped up, heavy crud. It soon became apparent that the blue runs were easier to ski because you needed speed to blast thru the snow.

We headed to Gem lake via Blue Sapphire....



....and found some real nice snow ghosts at the top of the Gem Lake lift....




We headed up the Falcon Chair where I took a video as promised earlier in the week....



From half way up the mountain I took this picture of the village....



....before hearing a huge blast from the cliff area. It was obvious they were doing avalanche control, so our final run for the day was done from the top of the Bullet where this shot of the Ski Patrol and avalanche control guys was taken....



We came in at 4pm for our final jacuzzi and beers at Big White. All in all, our final days skiing made us challenge ourselves and it is very likely that it will be the type of snow that we will encounter often in Whistler, especially on the bottom 2/3rds of the mountain. If it wasn't our last day, I'd have probably have been back in before lunch, but in the end I'm glad I stayed out. Multiple laps of the Powder Chair coming down both the steep Powder Gulch and Powder Keg in difficult conditions , with no falls for the day, will keep me in good stead for next week.

I know it's a cliche, but I seriously cannot believe how fast this 10 nights has gone. Clive, Lorraine and Diane are thinking the same.

We headed off for our final night meal at Snowshoe Sam's....



Clive didn't have the Peanut Butter Ice Cream this time but Diane decided she wanted it!!!! Well, if I'm sleeping in the same bed, I'm having it too!! As at time of typing, it hasn't had the same effect as it had on Clive.

We finished off with the famous 'Gunbarrel Coffee'. The first shot is taken with flash, so the flame won't show, but you can see what the waiter is doing, pouring flaming Grand Marnier down the heated shotgun barrel. The second shot is with flash off, shows the flame....




Walking back thru the village for the final time I took some pictures of where Tayla, Riley, Jack and Kody will call school for 10 days in 2011.




Well, the fat lady is singing at Big White, but the forecast for Whistler is over 2 feet of snow on the weekend, starting to clear on Monday, our first day skiing. Here's hoping they have the forecast correct.

Later, from Vancouver....