 Poster: A snowHead
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Hi all
Just finished my second day of Extremely Canadian - yikes!!!
We started the first day by sliding into a lovely deep chute - exactly 1 ski width wide and with a 3' vertical entrance; oh, and cliff markers right in front of us!
That was The Cirque I think. Very scary but a controlled entrance.
Later down that run I managed to lose both skis and slide feet first for about 50'. I caught one ski as it slid past but the other just kept on going - right over a cliff!!! So I learned how to traverse on one ski halfway up thi's nice black.
We followed it with a trip down Whistler bowl and then moved over to Harmony to drop into Low Roll over a cornice. That was followed by some tree skiing and then back up to McConkeys.
The second day included a top to bottom jump and tree filled 'race' down Ridge Runner to 'warm up'. Then we went up and tackled a few trees and finally did 'Spankys Ladder' and then Diamond Bowl - wow that was scary!!
The afternoon was up Jersey Cream and then down it's face and through the trees between the mogul runs at Staircase etc.
Fantastic instruction and carefully judged runs meant we had a fantastic time.
Thoroughly recommended if you want to get seriously scared!!
OK - off to the hot tub now - more later 
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Nice!
I especially hate the narrow chute entrace into Diamond itself, with a cliff to the side!
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Veeeight, diamond by a chute entrace? since when?
sure you don't mean sapphire bowl?
lbt, Make sure you take in Purple Haze and Excitation/Exhileration before you finish. Gve me a yell if you want to meet up sometime this week, especially if you want some secret runs not in the book (although some are out of bounds).
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lbt, Aaaah, I wondered where you'd got to.
Sounds like a good trip.
Watch those gums 
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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We did Sapphire on the last day, jeez that was a scary entrance - even walking up the ladder was scary enough! Staircase was also quite eventful!
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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| Quote: |
Veeeight, diamond by a chute entrace? since when?
sure you don't mean sapphire bowl?
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You go as if you're going into the lower Sapphire entrance, keep going past it, and the chute into Diamond is skiers left. It's not for the fainthearted.
Excitation is particularly high consequence if you f**k it up - that massive Rock Pillar in the way to crash into!!
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veeeight, Yep - that sounds right. I have to admit to sideslipping it until the last moment as I didn't have the confidence not to carve a little when I turned. (I was on Atomic Metron's). Sure enough the first turn traversed more than I wanted so it was a good call.
Later that day I got myself far more upright and, together with some steep trees, that corrected the carving problem a fair amount (carving a turn in trees is a bad idea!)
nbt, the ladder - aaargh!!! - we were the *first* people to boot-hack(?) up it. And that was the first time I'd ever done that (kicking the sh*t out of ice to get a toehold whilst standing on a 1" ice ledge 1000' above some rocks - yeah - right - that's sensible!)
The guy behind me was incredibly kind (and probably fairly nervous) and helped me get my skis on my shoulder and toes into the cliff.
paulhothersall, sent you a PM - would love to meet up thu/fri.
marc gledhill, Hi - this is Martin's fault - he said EC was fun - he was right!!
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| veeeight wrote: |
Excitation is particularly high consequence if you f**k it up - that massive Rock Pillar in the way to crash into!! |
exactly what i was thinking dropping in off the virgin cornice the other week, and whislt in the air thinking " $^% I'm not wearing a helmet.................... "
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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lbt, good for you - glad to hear you're having fun and experiencing some exciting terrain. For "fall and you die" skiing for experts, Whistler is top in N America - followed closely by Jackson and Squaw. I have only been over Spanky's once, but I remember seeing some seriously scary stuff back there. I'm sure you have tackled Couloir Extreme this week as well?
But I still don't understand why so many intermediates go to Whistler. If all you want to do is cruise on groomed blues, why not do it in Colorado in the sun instead of Whistler in the rain?
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There are great instructors in Whistler
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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little tiger, I agree totally. I would particularly recommend Terry "Toulouse" Spence, who worked with the Canadian Ski Team in the 1980s and was one of the real characters of the WC circuit.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Toulouse was coaching on the Dave Murray camp I did, one of our group was finding it difficult to keep up and dropped down to Toulouse's group - my group was taken by Lia, the argentinian freeksiier (don;t know her surname and can't find it), but when she fell ill, she was replaced by Brett Eyben, teaching his first camp. I must get round to writing up a review...
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Martin - I like my two.... but then they know me so that helps a bit...... (skied with one for 5 Oz seasons so far plus a few whistler days)
So I'll skip the recommendation...
thanks anyway....
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You know it makes sense.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Poster: A snowHead
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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lbt, you're a star. I think you might be moving up a group or two if you do next year's ESA.
Really sorry to hear about the dental bills - health insurance companies are all just a bunch of tight-fisted b*st*ards.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Forecast for the rest of this week:
Tonight (Tues) <15cm
Weds <20cm
Thurs <30cm
Fri <20cm
Woo Hoo!!
Fortunately work is quiet at the moment so I'm skiing for myself a lot!
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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veeeight, looking promising isn't it!
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veeeight, paulhothersall, hmmmmm still feeling quite warm in the village and looking out the window right now it looks damp not snowy. Let's hope it gets a bit colder overnight!
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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geetee,
Don't worry about what it's doing at village level, it's in the Alpine where the skiing action takes place!
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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great to hear so much good stuff happening in Whistler at the moment, off their with the family on April 1st (seriously). Remember this time last year i was contemplating taking golf clubs rather than skis but turned out to be fantastic. Looks like its been best year on record.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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thedeepstuff, first up welcome to snowheads
next, you'll enjoy it, there's a great base and if more falls you;re in for a top time.
I;m not jealous, honest
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To make you even greener its a two week trip, all lessons booked to get rid of the kids (eldest doing Ski instructors level 1) so will book some lessons myself to improve the technique and reserve my table for a few "giant slaloms" and hot wings in Merlins. 
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You know it makes sense.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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thedeepstuff,
Self advert here: Go for the Supergroups lessons on Blackcomb 
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Poster: A snowHead
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Lol! I'm sure you'll all enjoy whichever you decide to do!
As for yesterdays skiing - I was up on the Glacier Chair the moment it opened, and over Spankys Ladder.
The snow was thigh deep in Diamond bowl, I had completely untracked snow all the way down.
It was so deep that I was struggling at times!
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FAQ
Oh, except for a super sweet fresh line off Flute the following day 
) Did you manage to avoid the rocks on the way round? - they got me! I agree that West Cirque is probably one of the hardest official on the map marked run, way harder (but better) than the couloir extreme.
but just start planning next year
Using womens logic that means I have $39 to spend on the wings. 
