Whistler Carving on Weekends!!

[sheffy]

Hey guys i was wondering if any of you have carved at Whistler on a weekend.............ive heard horror stories about how busy it always is??..........Ive never boarded at Whistler...i have just hit the BIke Park alot and those long blue runs look like they would be a dream on a hard boot setup.......Is it a deathtrap with the amount of people or not too bad... or maybe im better off to just ride the softies???

[crucible]

Your best bet for clear carving on Whistler weekends is to buy a fresh tracks ticket- for an extra $15.00 over the normal day pass, you get to ride up one hour ahead of the opening time of 8:30 - lay beautiful trenches on fresh groomers, then have a breakfast.

[C5 Golfer]

Hey guys i was wondering if any of you have carved at Whistler on a weekend.............ive heard horror stories about how busy it always is??..........Ive never boarded at Whistler...i have just hit the BIke Park alot and those long blue runs look like they would be a dream on a hard boot setup.......Is it a deathtrap with the amount of people or not too bad... or maybe im better off to just ride the softies???

I agree with the Fresh Tracks Ticket on Whistler. I am up there at least once a month on weekends and there are places that you can go without too many in your way. Also.. it opens 8:30 or 9:00 AM and the place is pretty empty till about 10:30 or so. Go to Blackcomb and have a good ride and leave the softies at home. take up a couple of boards with you -- storage at top of mountain both Whistler and Blackcomb. Whistler easier for multiple boards due to Gondola to the top where storage is located

[Dave*]

Here is my two cents on the topic of whistler/Blackcomb on weekends, (remember all bets are off on a powder day, it will be a gong show, every local and french canadian dishwasher and his dog will be frothing at the mouth and on the hill)

So here is The Dave* top ten List

1) load early, either with the afore mentioned fresh tracks breakfast or load at 0815 hrs ( they advertise 0830) that extra 15 minutes makes a huge difference in actual expended time.

2) Go in for lunch early ( I like 1100 hrs) beat the cafeteria line ups and get back out when the spodes/spores are going in, it does reduce the congestion a bit on the hill.

3) 'Swing at the low hanging fruit first" ie you will get about 3 warm up laps on green chair before its a zoo, nail the saddle as soon as it opens tag three or four then on to step 4)

4) Work the mountain to avoid the crowds, an art unto itself, it can be done, garbanzo the secret weapon.

5) Have the legs to last until 1530 hrs, peak season most of the tourists cant handle riding past 1400hrs the long runs kick the crap out of them.

6) Ride Blackcomb side, the parking, ease of getting on hill via creekside has made whistler about 15-20 percent busier on any given day ( I verified my guess with Suzanne of guest relations com room last year) secondary to the Vancouver/Squamish day trippers of which I sadly will be this year. The new lift back of Harmony will probably make the whistler side even busier compared to blackcomb this year.

7) Ride a board that can go off piste, ATV/4x4 imediately come to mind, then only hit the crowds at the chair lift. or take two boards ( I find that a PITA however)

8) Avoid holiday weekends, ( including other countries holidays) they are even busier, ie american presidents day.

9) Most Important a) take a board lock, even with the video cams board/ ski theft up there is rampant, b) boot/binding spare parts- good luck finding that stuff on hill or for that matter in the village ie M8s for bombers, burton toe/heel bails, Scotty G keeps a small stash at Fanatyko but his parts bin has been dwindling over the years, I therefore keep a spare set of raceplates in my car and a good selection of bolts in pocket, nothing worse than a mechanical to bring your day to a halt (I added a tee nut/bolt sized for raichle buckles n ankle pivot last year).

10) Go mid week if you can , mondays n fridays are busier than a tuesday/weds/thurs secondary to people taking extended weekends,

[C5 Golfer]

Dave*

You still wearing the orange helmet? We'll be up as soon as the snow flies and it is open. Good info you wrote above. Dunno if I can get my GF on a board again.. she loves the new skis she got last year.

CYA

AL

[Dave*]

Hey Al,

I will continue to pimp the orange helmet, I wont be at W/B as much this year my accomodations up there fell thru last minute, ( I have some back ups couch surfing) so will be " slumming it" primarily at Cypress this season , no offense cypress people, and a few road trips to the interior , big white, silver star, and kicking horse come to mind first.

My whistler stints this season will be kept to weekdays most likely to avoid the crowds.

Almost forgot

11) Take a lesson- one of the twinkies I know up there had a group of 6 americans early thirties book a private lesson for two days, and this part Scot R swears is true they told him not to fall more than ten seconds behind or they were getting a new instructor that could keep up, the only reason they had him was for lift line priority as their heliski was mis booked, Scot( a level 3 twink) said he had to kick it into his "A" game but had a great two days apparently these guys were animals, that would be the money no object way of dealing with lift lines.

[C5 Golfer]

11) Take a lesson- one of the twinkies I know up there had a group of 6 americans early thirties book a private lesson for two days, and this part Scot R swears is true they told him not to fall more than ten seconds behind or they were getting a new instructor that could keep up, the only reason they had him was for lift line priority as their heliski was mis booked, Scot( a level 3 twink) said he had to kick it into his "A" game but had a great two days apparently these guys were animals, that would be the money no object way of dealing with lift lines.

I wonder if it would be cheaper to offer $XXX.xx or XX cases of beer to an Instuctor for an Instructors jacket and then bomb the lines without the instructor. :lol:

[Neil Gendzwill]

11) Take a lesson-

Pretty much have to make it a private (as they did) to make that work. Group "advanced" lessons are pretty slow frustrating affairs.

[Rob Stevens]

Dave's suggestion above, about the lesson, is the call, for sure.

For 6 people, an all day semi-private is pretty inexpensive. You also have someone who can take you through the other steps that Dave described.

If you've never been there, it can be pretty overwhelming. Some people stay on the Green chair, just because they're not sure what the rest of the terrain is like.

So Whistler is the busy one now, huh? When I lived there (88-95) Blackcomb was the Spore Expo and Whistler was "fairly" low key. I can see how access from the Creekside would pull people off the road. The traffic increases over the last few years have been incredible. Driving from Van on a weekend would be a non-starter for me.

I'd be taking my sled to the Coquihalla Lakes Lodge. Hwy 99... Whistler's toughest run.

[crucible]

Dave *'s pointers are nuggets of gold that have obviously been earned through many trips to Whistler-Blackcomb....

I've been riding up there for 20 years and I learned a lot from his post.

When it comes to the X-mas season, I stay far away from W/B, and go to Mt. Baker instead.

My preferred MO is to ride my Oxygen Proton on the fresh tracks ticket in the AM, then go in for an early lunch at 1100, switch the Proton in the Roundhouse board storage for my Winterstick Cirque (like a Prior ATV, but stiffer), then do tree runs off of Bagel Bowl for the afternoon until 1530.

I give it 10-15 minutes after the lifts close down before I start to head back down to the base. The reason for that is that most of the tourists that are descending at this time of day are bagged and have minimum control of their edges and speed, it's like watching a bunch of drunk drivers at rush hour coming down the hill.

Very entertaining if your legs are in shape,(As you descend, you see some SPECTACULAR wipeouts and crashes) but also quite potentially quite hazardous.

[C5 Golfer]

A good LAST Run of the day at Whistler - time it just right so you take the Peak Chair at close... run down the Peak to Creek run - 5300 feet of vertical drop and when you finally finally get to the bottom your are right there at the Pub for a much needed beer.