Yesterday we all went up the hill to do some runs. The weather was perfect and turned out to be one of our best days yet. Check out the pictures of some of the views we are luckily enough to encounter everyday

This needs to stop.

Sam and James took part in a 3day Avalanche Skills Training course. The first day was first aid and they both passed after an 8 hour lecture (finishing at 4:30pm). They then had to attend a 3hour lecture in the evening to prepare them for the course the next day. He they were shown examples of avalanches and learnt about the different causes, sizes and essential equipment when traveling in the back country.

Day two consisted of an awesome tree run in the back country (which lasted about 2minutes), and then a 3hour hike back to the boundary limits. They were using snow shoes which allowed them to climb up the mountain in waist deep powder. They also dug a snow profile (which can be seen below) to view the different layers in the snow and how this compared to the Canadian Avalanche Association’s report.

Snow Profile

To begin day 3 they practiced using their transceivers using the techniques they had spoken about in the classroom the night before. Ryan, the instructor, set up a scenario where 3people had been trapped in an avalanche two with transceivers and one without. The group managed to rescue the 3members in 20minutes – you have a 91% chance of surviving an avalanche when buried if rescued in the first 15mins.

After this Sam went out in the backcountry for the afternoon and did 4hours worth of hiking up to flute and oval basin for around 3minutes of fresh powder – totally not worth it in his opinion!

Guy has his last day of his level one today so good luck to him for that!

The song is All of This by the Naked and Famous incase you wanted to know. First time filming with the new mounts so its a little bit shakey but hopefully we will have some new footage next week now we are used to how the cameras work.

This weekend Sam went to Vancouver with a group of people from Base Camp to watch an Ice Hockey game between the Vancouver Giants and Portland….

Vancouver Giants

Giants lost 5-0 but it was still an incredible experience! We were sat right up against the glass and the atmosphere was unbelievable. Within the first 20seconds of the game our best player had been hospitalised – it really is so brutal!

Gallagh

After the game we took a taxi to a bar in town where everyone got pretty drunk (one of the reps was throwing up the whole of the next day!) and when this closed we went to grab some food. Sam and Hollie meet these two local guys who had a sick condo on the 22nd floor which a fantastic view of vancouver (which was captured poorly below). We got back to the hostel about 6am and slept for a few hours before getting back on the bus and returning to Whistler.

View from Condo

On the way back we stopped off to see a few of the local sights including Cyprus Mountain and some totem poles. All in all was one of the best weekends yet!

Solar Coaster Lift

Laurie reckons it was one of the best days of the season as the mountain was pretty empty meaning we had free reign and short queues. It was also fairly warm and was one of the first times we haven’t been battered by freezing temperatures, wind or snow.

For the past few days we have been battling temperatures of – 20 to 30 °C – its been super cold and resulted in a few half days on the slopes.On a plus side we’ve had a few bluebird days so the visibility has been great. The snowboarders have now finished learning all the teaching objectives for level one and will be working on their riding and practice lessons for their level 1 in just over a weeks time! The skiers will be taking their level one much later on in the season close to their level 2 exam.

In other news, James bought an awesome jacket, our friend Chris had an expensive night after he got drunk and woke up in the Hilton Resort Spa Hotel in a double deluxe room with no idea how he got there – just under $500, not bad when you consider a taxi back to the chalet would have cost him $8!

After the initial embarrassment, a few drinks and some poor banter from the locals the cow costume began to pay off and we were all given a few free drinks. The night got even better when Sam won $50 behind the bar for his effort.

There are a tonne of photos to come but I cant remember whose camera we used last night. Toga night next week!

Firstly we’d like to apologise again for being a bit lapse with the website – we only have one laptop between us now and we have been super busy this week settling in to our classes. I promise we will update this more often from now.

So this week we had an unbelievable amount of snow – around 2meters – and of course the slopes were packed! We have been completely spoilt with some of the best conditions we’ve ever ski/boarded in.

We’ve started to add photos to the facebook page and these can be viewed by clicking on the image below – we hope you can see how amazing it is here but know the photos don’t really do Whistler much justice!

Picture taken from symphony of the Black Tusk

Sam made two trips to Vancouver this week (a total of over 1o hours on the Greyhound – not fun) in attempt to get his mac fixed. Unfortunately nothing is simple in this country and it looks like he will have to wait until he gets back to guernsey.

First of all we want to apologise for not updating this sooner – sam totalled his mac on the first night here and we’ve been struggling to get on the internet for a reasonable amount of time!

This week has been crazy but we have all settled into our chalet and various ski/snowboarding groups.

On the first day we all meet on the hill and rode together for a few hours so the instructors could assess our ability. We were then split up into smaller groups (around 4-7 people) with people who were doing similar courses and spent the rest of the afternoon exploring whistler. The day was alot of fun and lured us into a false sense of security…

The next day we began our classes. We used video analysis to examine our technique and see what we needed to work on. This was really useful but totally soul destroying as we have all picked up bad habits due to our lack of prior instruction! Luckily our instructors are really chilled and told us not to worry (except guy’s who was a complete bitch and the least patient person i’ve ever met!)

Wednesday was our day off, and was fairly unproductive. We went up on the mountain for a few hours (spent most of the day in the Roundhouse – the mountain restaurant) and then went down to whistler to try and sort out phones. This is not an easy task over here and its as if the canadian don’t actually want you to have a phone – like most things in this country there are soooo many stupid rules and regulations.

Thursday and friday was back to the instruction and we had a lovely instructor called Jenna. We ended the week with an apres at white spot where they showed a video of us from the week and had a few free beers.

Pictures to follow as soon as sam get his mac back!