Impressions: Whistler- Blackcomb

We recently spent 5 ski days at BC's Whistler-Blackcomb ski area. It's perhaps the biggest ski area in North America, and the 2nd biggest that we've visited - Kitzbuehel being larger, but significantly less dramatic in its topography. These are my impressions.

It is a well managed area in general. The grooming is not as prompt and thorough as some tourists might like, but the more expert skiers prefer tardy grooming, if any. The hired help is professional and friendly. The patrol is focused on avalanche control, wreck handling, and hazard marking, but not on proactive crowd control. The latter is a management error, resulting in wannabe racers pushing their personal speed/control limits on beginner and intermediate runs. This is something a real racer would not do, out of embarrassment and professionalism. The situation is a disaster waiting to happen. The wannabes should imitate the more daring experts who can find many couloirs to choose from or tight trees to navigate, to test their skills and courage. These wannabes plague many ski areas and I realize a solution is not simple, but hill managers should try the obvious alternatives e.g. designating certain runs for the wannabes and labeling them as hazardous for others, pulling tickets of offenders. If it saves one collision victim from paraplegia, it's worth it.

The Whistler-Blackcomb terrain is wonderfully vast and varied. One 24 hour period brought 60 cm. of new snow. It was new powder, but not light; so one needed something consistently steep to make downhill progress. Not knowing the terrain that well, we would end on something steep enough, but not a sustained pitch. The day after the storm, the heretofore closed '7th Heaven' chair opened, giving us another day of powder. Our last day was sunny, revealing the scope of the mountain range. If ever I return I may hook up with a 'mountain host' to find the nooks and crannies hidden from the tourist.

We wandered around the Whistler Village one evening and the Blackcomb Village, the next. The prices in the shops were clearly for the rich, well out of our range. We ate most meals at the condo but also went out for two nights - after all this was our marriage anniversary celebration. We had a decent dinner at 'Caramba' the first night. The second night we discovered the soewhat bizarrely named "Ciao Thyme", a failed attempt at a cute name. However, the dinners we ordered were incredible - well worth the price tag. Nevertheless, the costs associated with ski trips like this will make them a rare occurrence for us. We have found ways to ski relatively cheaply (that includes gear) over the years, but these days are waning.

Richard
2006.12.19

The Semester Ends

Our first semester at Malaspina University-College in Nanaimo is well nigh over. Eli submits her final project in the intaglio course tomorrow. Also tomorrow, I give my final exam and will grade it Tuesday morning. Wednesday we'll try to catch the 6:30 AM ferry from Departure Bay to Vancouver's Horseshoe Bay and then drive up to Whistler where we'll stay 4 nights. Our ski holiday overlaps that of my once-upon-a-time boss, Ray, and his spouse, Patti. They know Whistler-Blackcomb and can show us around.

After the ski holiday, we'll stay a night in Bellingham, and then drive to Spokane to spend the holiday with 'the family', always fun. I'll take a side trip to Sandpoint (perhaps with Eli) to get some things done and, hopefully, get in some visiting. Our return to Nanaimo is tentatively scheduled for December 28.

The second semester begins on January 8, so I'll spend some time getting ready for the course I'll be teaching. It will be Linux-based, but will be at a sophomore rather than a senior level. The course is very hands-on, aimed at system administration for a small business computer network.

Yesterday we hiked up into the region west of Westwood Lake. Recent snows are nearly melted away, so we had lots of streams and mini ponds to ford. The waterfall sounds kept with us most of the way. Large stumps (~6 feet in diameter) from early logging have become planters for other vegetation. The second growth is large and well established, with a huge first growth orphan here or there. This will likely be an area we continue to explore over the winter. It's low enough to retain scarcely any snow and has good tread, with just an occasional tricky spot. The trailhead to the spiderweb of hikes is about 15 minutes from our Nanaimo home.

The prior weekend, we went on one of the college-sponsored outings. Instead of kayaking, it featured xcountry skiing and/or snowshoeing at Mount Washington, up island about an hour and a half drive. As on our other outings, it was fun to interact with the young folk. The downhill portion of the ski area is significantly smaller than Schweitzer, our home area, but gets much larger crowds, having no competition on the island. The xcountry trails, however, are reasonably extensive.

One of our newer purchases is a 'club' which is a steel bar that attaches to an auto's steering wheel to act as an an anti-theft device. It works best if the surrounding cars have no such device. We call it our 'Nanaimo Bar'. This neighborhood is sketchy and the parking is unsecured, so we thought this prudent, especially in the face of recent local car thefts.

Richard
2006.12.10