Ski and travel blog

Spring skiing rarely gets better than the first two days of this Memorial Weekend at Whistler. Perfect sunny skies, hardly any people and snow that skied liked soft icing sugar.

Laps of the Peak were the go. Whistler Bowl was soft by 11am, and well worth a couple of runs to warm the legs up on the bumps.

But with so many options down through West Bowl, this is where we spent most of the weekend. The skiing was superb. Grand Finale, Doom and Gloom and Cockalorum were incredibly good, as were many other lines whose names I have no clue about.

You just needed to pay attention to where the sun was hitting, and time descents during the 2-ish hour window when the snow was at its creamy best. Even the run out to the Big Red chair mostly avoided transitioning into a sticky nightmare, making laps back up to the top a painless affair.

By Sunday afternoon the temperatures finally got the better of the snow. It mattered little though, as this had been 3 wonderful days to bring the 2008/09 season to a close. I had more runs off the Peak and through West Bowl than I think I’ve had in my life, and even feel like I know something about the vast amount of terrain in there now. That’ll be useful knowledge on our next big powder day in Whistler.

3 days: 7400m, 7200m, 6800m vert

Season Totals: 61 days, 497,100 vertical metres, 13 powder days

Mid-May is a pretty civilized time for a mountain to close, I guess. It does seem a little incongruous when the snow base is about 120 inches, and there’s still more people on the slopes than roaming your average Walmart on a weekend afternoon.

It was a darn warm weekend at Mt Bachelor, especially Sunday when temperatures in the parking lot were well above 25C. The snow never really froze apart from in the shaded aspects up high. Some of the groomers in the trees remained pleasantly firm all weekend, giving surprisingly excellent skiing for this time of year. And with a generous application of warm weather wax each night, sliding through slushy glue like conditions was minimized to a very occasional experience. Jan is becoming the wax queen!

The really choice stuff though was off the Summit chair. The short hike to the crater rim opened up a swathe of deep, steep riches. The shaded chutes that drop into the crater bowl offered magnificent turns all weekend in crisp, forgiving snow. Even by noon on Sunday the chutes hadn’t seriously shushed up, and we only moved on because the handful of us skiing this area had tracked out all the best lines.

Once into the main bowl below the chutes, the trick was to immediately traverse skier’s left and pop out on the north facing aspects of the volcano. From here, numerous gelato-coated options down old lava flow gullies provided superb spring skiing. These led to the cat track from the Northwest chair, from where you traverse back to the Summit, and repeat. About 11 times on each day. It was a hoot.

Bachelor has been great value and incredibly enjoyable this spring. The $129 Spring Season Pass is an absolute bargain. It got us and a bunch of friends down there for 3 weekends that ordinarily we’d probably have gone to Hood, Silver or Crystal. Hopefully this is the start of an annual trend.

2 days: 8200m, 8100m

Season Totals: 58 days, 475,700 vertical metres, 13 powder days

I can’t help but think that spring skiing at Whistler-Blackcomb is one of the best deals in skidom. The snow up high is still winter-ish, there’s plenty of mid-mountain cruising and spring skiing conditions, and the runs are basically deserted. Throw in a C$79 spring season pass, excellent accommodation 100m from the lifts for sub-C$100 per night, and the choice of bars and restaurants all trying to get your business, and it’s almost a perfect storm.

On this visit, our 3rd consecutive year on the last weekend of April/early May, skiing all the way to the base of Blackcomb was still easily possible. Nearly all of Blackcomb was open, bar some of the lower runs which were somewhat grassy where the sun hit.

As always, the trick with spring skiing is to assess temperatures and conditions overnight, and head first to the aspect and elevation where soft snow or fine groomers can be found. From there, follow the sun and freezing level and time your descents to find the best snow. It takes a little thought. Not much though.

These tactics brought a sheer cornucopia of wonderful runs across the 4 days we were there. Perfect corn snow in Ruby Bowl, talcum-like grippiness in the steeps of Couloir Extreme and Cougar Chutes, 2 inches of untracked fresh creamy goop on Cloud Nine, and innumerable gelato-like bump runs that forgave both our dodgy techniques (pics here).

If you timed Rock and Roll and Ridge Runner perfectly, usually around late morning, some of the best long groomers on earth were all yours to enjoy. And like a steak restaurant on Good Friday, you didn’t have to fight for space, or fresh roid. Just roll over your edges and rip.

It was wonderful stuff, especially for late April. And just for the doom-sayers that plague Whistler, it didn’t rain either. Sorry about that, but make that 12 out of 12 rain-free days over the last 3 years of late April skiing. There’s a pattern here, methinks. I’ll let the reader discern that though.

We reluctantly left at 1pm on Sunday to take on the long drive home. The forecast for the next week was cold and snowy, so with luck we’ll be back in 3 weeks to play on Whistler and bring a reluctant end to a ski season that has blossomed since late February. Then it’ll be time to get the camping and hiking gear out. And start the 24 week countdown.

4 days – 8600m, 9200m, 10000m, 7000m vert

Season Totals: 56 days, 459,400 vertical metres, 13 powder days

This was our first day of the season at White Pass. It was also closing day – the last Sunday in April. As we’ve been White Pass season pass holders for 3 years, this may seem a little incongruous, especially as it’s a ski hill I rather like. When the snow is soft, the steeps open and the crowds small, there’s a lot of options to be had.

Unfortunately, at weekends it seems that the crowds are rarely small. And when the conditions are firm, the severe lack of intermediate runs really limits the variety of terrain available. This should be fixed when 2 news lifts are built out the back, and I can’t wait until this development rejuvenates the ski hill and gives it the capacity and variety to please the weekenders. But as that is unlikely to happen next year, we’d already decided to switch our season pass allegiance.

The beauty of a White Pass season pass is the 5 days it offers at each of Mission Ridge, Silver Mountain and Timberline. We’d exercised several of these days during the season, so value from the passes had been had (only just in my case – the fault of business travel!). Still it was a pleasure to drive up on a clear Sunday morning, be greeted by excellent snow and sunshine, and the promise held by an empty parking lot of few people on the hill.

18 laps of the quad chair later, the season at White Pass was coming to close. We’d skied groomers in the morning, and all afternoon soft slushy bumps that exploded as you jammed your edges in the deep ruts. The conditions on the steep bump runs were excellent, and the arrival of late afternoon cloud stopped the sun’s rays from turning the snow too sticky. A really fine day to close the season with.

Mission Ridge nearly got our money for next year’s season pass. At the last minute however, Silver Mountain’s $199 deal (including 5 days at both Mission and White) stole the show with an offer too good to refuse (along with about 20 others we know in the Tri-cities!). Silver is another place where new lifts would greatly enhance the ski experience. But with really fabulous terrain and crowds almost unheard of, I have no doubt we’ll more than get our value next year.

Sunday – 8300m vert

Season Totals: 52 days, 424,600 vertical metres, 13 powder days

Mt Bachelor is a really excellent ski hill, but strangely we only seem to go there in April. This is not a bad thing, as the spring skiing here is the best in the Pacific Northwest south of Whistler. The snowpack is always deep – a mere 150 inches this year – the weather generally better than mid-winter, and you have most runs to yourself, especially over in the vast Northwest Territories area.

Over 2 weekends and 5 ski days in mid April, we ran the full gamut of conditions, bar a blizzard. A cold, clear day with 5 inches of super-light, air-dried, wind blown pow. Dense fog, a little drizzle and a heavy wet snow storm. Wind and blowing cloud, giving variable visibility. And two days of primo sunny, spring skiing, where you move around this vast volcano, timing descents on runs after the sun has taken away the firmness wrought by the cold overnight air (pics here).

Ripping the groomers off the Northwest chair was superb fun (under 4 minutes for the 780m vertical descent is a fairly hair-raising experience!). Dropping off the back of the Summit, picking untracked lines down the creamy sun-blasted snow, is as good as spring skiing gets. Do it early though, as the (up to) 5km road back to the lift can get a bit gluey by lunchtime. And the short hike from the Summit chair takes you to the seriously steep drops into the crater that always seem to hold excellent snow.

With ‘lift lines’ not a term known to the locals here, it’s easy to rack up plenty of vert without really trying very hard. This is highly effective for working up a thirst and appetite that can sustain you through a night out in Bend’s excellent restaurants and watering holes.

It all makes a rather compelling combination. If the weather holds, we might just get a couple more days at Bachelor this season before it closes mid-May. That would make the $129 Spring Season Pass we bought even more of bargain than it is now!!

Saturday 9400m, Sunday 9200m

Friday 8700m Saturday  11700  Sunday 10500 vert

Season Totals: 51 days, 416,300 vertical metres, 13 powder days