Jan 13 - status quo

Yesterday's skiing was much the same as the day before, with cloud in the valley reaching almost up to Pika's on Whistler making the skiing down to the Garbanzo chair so-so. We did a few runs and then went in and I had a cappuccino -- I have at least one per day while skiing -- and gave it some time to clear. Back out again, Sandy was finding that one contact was still bothering her so we made our next run to the bottom, going in so she could straighten that out. She wears contacts when skiing or scuba diving, rather than glasses under goggles and prescription lenses on her mask.

Since it was after 11am at this point, we ate our sandwiches before heading back up. It's a huge advantage having so-called ski-in / ski-out accommodations. Where we stay at Creekside we are literally only 100 yards from the lift so coming down to have lunch add to or subtract from clothing is just a part of a skiing day as opposed to ruining the day if we had to come down to the car and drive somewhere.

Back up the Creekside Gondola, then the Red Chair -- 7th Heaven is in the clear so we took the Peak-2-Peak Gondola again over to Blackcomb. Notice that this is Sandy's 3rd trip. She actually kept her eyes open for part of the trip ! Before we came out she was "never going to ride that thing" ... she's come a long way, no pun intended.

The snow at 7th Heaven was great but there were many more rocks showing, even on the groomed track. both of our pairs of skis are in dire need of tune-ups at this point with gouges from encounters with rocks but there is no point in doing anything since we have more days and more rocks ahead of us if we keep heading to 7th Heaven. After several runs in the sun, with the bottom of the run down to the chair in the cloud, we went over the backside, so-to-speak and took a run on the Showcase t-bar. We skied over to where the avalanche had happened yesterday -- a large chunk of the hillside snow had slid down -- and then headed down to the bottom of the Jersey Cream chair. After yesterday's snowslide they exploded some of their avalanche control munitions to ensure that there was no more to come down. I don't know whether it came down on its own or whether it was the product of avalanche control -- probably the latter.

It was a clear run, i.e. no cloud, down to the Jersey Cream with great snow conditions. We took that up and then took the Peak-2-Peak back -- note that this is the 4th trip ! Once back over to Whistler, Sandy headed down while I made a quick trip down Tokum to the Garbanzo chair. I was pushing my luck a little at this point since it was the only chair still open -- it stays open 15 minutes longer than the other chairs -- but got there a couple of minutes before closing. From the bottom of the Garbanzo you cannot get back to Creekside so if I'd missed it my only option would have been to ski down to the village and take the bus.

The last time that I squeezed in more run to the Garbanzo was many years ago. Actually then it was called the Black Chair, not having been updated to a high-speed quad. I broke my ankle, skiing off the side of the run and over a 15 foot drop. I stiff-legged the landing and broke the tibia in 6 places at the ankle. That was a long time ago -- Arlene was skiing with us at the time. It was the last day, last run. After I broke my ankle it was definitely the last run ! I was in denial, having figured that I'd just "hurt" my ankle a little, and took the Black Chair up, believe it or not, but by the time I got to the top I realized that I was not going to be able to ski the entire way down the mountain -- probably 4500 vertical feet -- on my ankle so I skied off, weight on one leg, and flagged down a ski patroller.

Anyway, I did not have to rush down this time. Conditions were great on Tokum until the last 1/4 when I hit dense fog. The entire trip up the Garbanzo was in that dense fog, but the trip down the Downhill to the bottom, being on the other side of the mountain, so-to-speak, was in the clear. We always refer to Creekside as the other side of the mountain, but it's more like 30 degrees, not 180 degrees. The key issue is that there is a ridge between the Village and Creekside so there are no runs across that ridge.

We had a wonderful dinner at the Tandoori Kitchen -- yes, Indian food. Sandy had Chicken Tika and I had Lamb Biryani (sp?). With something called a Samosa and Nan bread as accompaniments, we ate our fill. Alnasir & Nimet would have been proud of us. The last time we had great Indian food was in London. This is definitely a place to which we'll return.

Before dinner Sandy picked up another bottle of white wine and I did some grocery shopping. All the amenities are here at Creekside now ... I remember when the only thing here was the convenience store at the Husky gas station ! There's a Can-ski shop with ski rentals and repairs, a Starbucks, Subway, Marketplace grocery store, Liquor Store, and a few other shops right across from us in what used to be a huge parking lot. Now the shops are on top; the parking is underground.

So -- as I said, the skiing was status quo yesterday. There was spring skiing at the base, more-or-less good snow up top, fog in the valley, crusty snow part-way down -- same as the day before and it didn't change during the day. Right now, however, the temperature inversion has moved in. It's +5C at the top and -2C in the valley. Cold air is more dense and sits in the valley. It's supposed to get even warmer up top today and the valley air will warm up with the sun. That will be our experience for the next three day's skiing, according to the forecast.

It looks like they've groomed many of the same runs -- Raven, Ptarmigan, Tokum, Lower Dave Murray Downhill -- so time will tell whether we stick to Whistler today or Peak-2-Peak over to Blackcomb. I'll have to wear less clothing ... and finally will wear gloves vs mitts. It has to be above freezing for me to wear mitts.

Speaking of freezing -- it's -32C in Loring right now ... brrrr. It looks like we'll be heading back to much the same weather too, with -28C predicted for Saturday night. I talked to Bonnie Matthews last night and all's well up there. Sandy caught up with Marda Schropp who is in Philly at this point and will be heading back to the State College PA area in a few days for the memorial service for her Dad. We talked to Jeffrey ... it was catch-up day. Since we have cell-phone service we can actually both be on the phone at the same time. I had a momentary thought when Sandy was talking to Marda that I wanted to make a call but had to wait until she was finished and then thought -- duh -- she's on her phone, use yours -- duh.

That's it ...