 Poster: A snowHead
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The previous day saw 43cm of fresh, with an extra 10cm or so overnight. The upper mountain had been closed the day before. This all after a few weeks when the snow machine had apparently been turned down low.
Therefore we were first in line for the Blackcomb gondola at about twenty past six, in the cold and dark.
The Blackcomb Gondola early morning
We'd been queuing for about an hour already when a skier came up and asked us if we were "standing in line for Fresh Tracks". We pointed him to Whistler, where First Tracks™ is an add on to the lift ticket. You pay a bit extra to be allowed on an early gondola up to the mid station restaurant. There you get a basic breakfast before the slopes open. At that point you're one lift ride ahead of the masses from the village, who are heading in your direction to steal your powder. So you, and six hundred others, get some "first tracks". But we hadn't started the line at 06:15 for that. We had other plans: first tracks, not First Tracks™.
The maze was nearly full when they opened the gates at 08:20. We made the first cabin alongside the "founder pass" folk.
Seventh Heaven
From the top a traverse across to the Seventh Heaven quad chair would take us to the top. That lift had been closed the previous day with engine trouble, but we expected it to open in due course. Good wax and a competitive attitude put us first in line again. This is the lift with the birds, and they turned up once the sun came up. It was around minus 10, but we were dressed for that. The continual sound of bombs reminded us what we were waiting for, and we watched waves of patrollers sessioned the lift.
The lift provides access to a lot of terrain, all of which is "patrolled and controlled". You can't "control" just a small part of it: it's all or nothing. Hence it takes a while, and no one minds. It's a polite Canadian queue. Even Internet Influencers love queues, although not for the same reasons we do.
Looking over to Whistler mountain from Seventh Heaven
We were heading for a lot of powder. Once it was made safe. The liftie finally opened the gate and we were off. The chair had a new engine, fired up for the first time that day, and worryingly it stopped a couple of times on the way up. The pristine slopes below looked inviting though.
Within minutes those would have thousands of tracks. But that's not where we were headed.
That lift has the easiest chair exit ever, a flat platform you hit very slowly.
Never Summer, Burton, Koura, Winterstick
Saudan Couloir
We turned left, and competed in a brief race up the cat track for the high point. The Youth was quickest out of the blocks and crested the ridge first. I'd not ridden Saudan before, so needed to follow the leftwards traverse down slope anyway. The entrance is a couple of meters wide, and I watched The Youth steal the first line, airing off the entrance and dropping out of sight. Whistler's First snowboarder dropped in next, and I looked back to see how much distance I could give them. Two skiers immediately slipped past me, showing how rusty my resort skills are. Fortunately they were weak skiers, so I could drop straight in to rudely recover the position I'd rudely lost.
Note the overtaken back seat skiers above, Youth below. Julbo Shadow photochromics/ Death Grip mitts.
The couloir is steepish at the top and the entrance is narrow, but it opens out quickly. It's probably tough steep bumps without fresh snow, but with 50cm or more fresh on it, it's just an inviting powder slope with low consequence. You could poly bag it. The rocks on each side provide reference, as did the tracks down the centre line. There were were bomb debris centre and left. I went skier's right, where there was inviting untracked. I put a few easy turns in, having to slow down to maintain vision. I wanted to keep ahead of my slough, and I needed to go left sooner or later for the exit anyway. I shoulder checked and saw that the back seat skiers were nowhere, so I cut out across to the other flank.
The run quickly widens out, running down to in a big white bowl with just enough reference. As the concave bottom of the slope became clear, I realized I'd need to hit it fast to avoid a long walk. I tucked for my mates' exit track as soon as I could see it. That got me back onto the piste, and most of the way up to the lift. A few meters of on-piste boot pack caught me up with my mates by the top of the Jersey Cream lift.
Clipping in again, we traversed back around to Seventh Heaven for a different run...
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