I managed to get the photos from the last two days up. There is a new link on the right called 'Ski Week Pictures' for this.
Off to hill with Woimmie for a day of skiing.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Day 22 - New respect and admiration for Blackcomb Mountain
When ever I've been here, I've mostly skied on Whistler. Most peope who ski here kinda have their 'favorite' hill. For me it's always been Whister. And once you are familiar with one hill, it can be hard to make the switch, Well, today I gave Blackcomb a full test (IMO). I loaded the gondola at 8:30am and after a cruiser under the Jersey Cream chair and one more on the (slow) Crystal chair, I headed up to find the Blackcomb Glacier.
This involves a small hike from the top of the Glacier t-bar, just off the Glacier chair. There were a bunch of people heading back there, so I wasn't worried that I was by myself and that this was my first time up there. Skiing the glacier itself offers you about 1200 vertical feet of great fall-line skiing, leading you down to the Garabaldi Watershed valley. On the 4 mile run out to the Excalibur chair, you can get a good view of the other Blackcomb 'bowls'. Back up the Glacier chair, I then headed to Spanky's Ladder. This is the access point to get into the bowls. The climb is easy, but once you reach the traverse, things can get a bit 'sketchy'. Being that it was my first time up there, and the access to Ruby Bowl is by no means obvious, and the fact that I was alone, I waited until others arrived. 3 young guys taking some ski photos lead me through the access. Once in, the skiing was awesome. Again, great fall-line skiing, down about 1000 vertical feet, on relativly soft snow (due to the elevation).
After the long ski out and a quick rip on the 'self' timed GS race course, it was off to lunch. From there, I proceded to the terrain park to take some videos for Justin (my son). The park is best viewed from the Catskinner chair that services the park, so I made a video of all the large jumps. Unfortunatly no one was riding at the time, but the jumps are very impressive. The other park features seemed few and far between as compared to other parks I know in the East.
For the remaining part of the afternoon, I skied all the lines possible from the Glacier chair (my favorite chair at Blackcomb) and the t-bars, right up to 3:30pm. A good bit of new snow had accumulated, so the skiing was excellent. I finished the day with a rip down the Couger Chutes. Tomorrow Jeff and I are off to ski together. This will be our last opportunity to ski together before I leave for Vancouver on Friday.
PS. I cannot get the pictures to upload due to some kind of technical error that I cannot fix right now. I will try again tomorrow.
This involves a small hike from the top of the Glacier t-bar, just off the Glacier chair. There were a bunch of people heading back there, so I wasn't worried that I was by myself and that this was my first time up there. Skiing the glacier itself offers you about 1200 vertical feet of great fall-line skiing, leading you down to the Garabaldi Watershed valley. On the 4 mile run out to the Excalibur chair, you can get a good view of the other Blackcomb 'bowls'. Back up the Glacier chair, I then headed to Spanky's Ladder. This is the access point to get into the bowls. The climb is easy, but once you reach the traverse, things can get a bit 'sketchy'. Being that it was my first time up there, and the access to Ruby Bowl is by no means obvious, and the fact that I was alone, I waited until others arrived. 3 young guys taking some ski photos lead me through the access. Once in, the skiing was awesome. Again, great fall-line skiing, down about 1000 vertical feet, on relativly soft snow (due to the elevation).
After the long ski out and a quick rip on the 'self' timed GS race course, it was off to lunch. From there, I proceded to the terrain park to take some videos for Justin (my son). The park is best viewed from the Catskinner chair that services the park, so I made a video of all the large jumps. Unfortunatly no one was riding at the time, but the jumps are very impressive. The other park features seemed few and far between as compared to other parks I know in the East.
For the remaining part of the afternoon, I skied all the lines possible from the Glacier chair (my favorite chair at Blackcomb) and the t-bars, right up to 3:30pm. A good bit of new snow had accumulated, so the skiing was excellent. I finished the day with a rip down the Couger Chutes. Tomorrow Jeff and I are off to ski together. This will be our last opportunity to ski together before I leave for Vancouver on Friday.
PS. I cannot get the pictures to upload due to some kind of technical error that I cannot fix right now. I will try again tomorrow.
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