Robyn and I hit up Whistler on Saturday for a day of ski and snowboarding action. My brother and his girlfriend were up at Whistler for the weekend so we thought we would hit Whistler on the Saturday and not the Sunday as originally planned so we could meet up with them for lunch at the Longhorn or something. When we got to Creekside we geared up and headed up the mountain in the gondola only to noticed that because it was snowing, visibility was a bit limited.

Once we got off the Creekside Gondola, visibility was pretty poor. Robyn was a bit disgruntled as Sunday was supposed to be clear and sunny. We’ve had a pretty poor experience this winter season on Whistler/Blackcomb in regards to the mountain conditions, but we mounted up and went up the chairlift to the Roundhouse. We eventually got out of the clouds and the sun shone down on us, it was a bit chilly on the chairlift but not as bad as the -22 degree temperature we had last time we came up to Whistler.

As a warm up run we took the green run Ego Bowl which is in the Family zone. The snow was great and I just ripped down (avoiding the newer snowboarder and skiers) the runs with ease. Saturday was the first time this winter season where I actually got to ride on snow and not ice at Whistler/Blackcomb.

When we got back up to Rendezvous, Robyn wanted to take me over to Symphony Bowl as it was finally open. We first had to go through Harmony Bowl which was alright, a bit of a track run (G.S.) to get to it but it was cool to try out terrain which was new to me.

Visibility at the bottom of Harmony Bowl was great and we hoped that Symphony would be the same.

We headed up the Harmony Express Chair and when we got to the top it was crazy white out conditions. People were complaining how you could not see more than 10 feet in front. After a quick bathroom break we headed towards the entrance to Symphony where Robyn informed me to stay in between the run’s markers.

Which was good because you couldn’t see anything on the other side of them!

With the poor visibility (white out) it was quite nerve racking for myself (and I am sure Robyn too) to head down the run into Symphony Bowl. We saw many skiers and snowboards fall along the way. You just can’t see the snow so you can become a bit disoriented and unbalanced.

The further down we went the better visibility became. It was awesome, though Robyn says it looks even more spectacular when there are no clouds and the sun is shining. I’ll have to take her word for it. We headed back up the Symphony Express Chair to take another run. Robyn told me to follow the Blue trail markers and so I did, though I also followed another group of skiers in front of me that were headed to a Black run. Robyn stopped me as I did not know they were headed towards a Black run and we continued our way down some new Blue terrain in Symphony instead; Adagio Run. The snow was great and we were the only ones going down it.

Robyn thought it would be a good place to try out some riding in the trees, gladed runs. We did, but I manged to get stuck in a flat spot and had to unmount my board. The snow went up to my knees which made it a really hard and tiring exercise to try and get back onto my board so that we could get back onto the run. But we did hit some untouched powder which made the little experience a bit more fun.

We headed back up Symphony Express Chair at which time my Brother texted me saying they were headed back to the city as his girlfriend was sick. We headed down Jeff’s Ode to Joy which had horrible visibility and was pretty much a complete white out. About 400 feet from the top of the chairlift Robyn took a nasty fall on her head. We’re both happy she was hearing a helmet as she said she would have most likely cracked her head open if she was not wearing one with the impact she received. We stayed there a while to make sure she was alright to continue. With her having dizzy spells and nausea, we decided to take it easy and head to the Roundhouse for some lunch and see if she would feel better too.

After lunch we decided to head back down to the Creekside Gondola and call it a day. It was about 1:30pm and we had some great runs during the day and were ok with leaving a bit earlier than normal. Overall we had an awesome day (minus Robyn’s fall) and I am glad Robyn was able to show me Harmony and Symphony bowls. Perhaps next time Whistler/Blackcomb will be good to us and we’ll be able to ski/ride when the sun is shining and the snow is great!

We’re looking forward to our little weekend up at Whistler in April for the Telus World Ski and Snowboard Festival. The TWSS Festival is the ending event for Whistler’s winter season. Blackcomb stays open until May though so we’re not done quite yet.

This February my close girlfriend, Kathleen, was visiting Tyler and I from Ontario so we decided to take a day trip to Mt. Baker in Washington State.  We had been getting lot’s of sunny weather here in Vancouver so we thought taking a  Friday off work would make a great ski day.

Kathleen, Me, and Tyler at Mt. Baker

To get to Mt. Baker we woke up early at 5am and headed east to Abbotsford through the Sumas Boarder Crossing in to the Untied States.  After a quick intermission at the boarder and exaggerating the truth to the boarder guard about having fruit in our car we headed off the windy back roads to Mt. Baker.  I have never skied Mt. Baker and was surprised that the roads to get there were so narrow through farm land and forests.

View of Mount Shuksan – one of the two mountains in Mt. Baker’s ski fields

I must say, Mt. Baker is so beautiful!  The terrain is very picturesque and with their alpine base at over 200cm (111 inches) that day there was lot’s of snow.  Initially, I was under the impression that Mt. Baker was as big as Whistler and Blackcomb Mountains but I found the terrain there to be a similar size to Grouse Mountain.

Mt. Baker

One thing I noticed immediately was the boring names they use for their chairlifts…ie. C-5, C-8, C-7.  Speaking of Mt. Baker’s chairlifts, I was NOT happy!  They feel very unsafe!  They do not have a restraining bar and you have to be ready for them to ’scoop’ you up or get hit by them when you get on.  They are older quad chairs but I was shocked that they didn’t have a restraining device to keep you in your chair.  It was especially scary when the chair stopped and swung in mid-air…

Tyler with the Mt. Baker trail map contemplating our next move after lunch

However, despite being a smaller mountain the terrain was awesome!  Very fun and lot’s of snow.  Our favorite run of the day was a black diamond called Canyon which we went down three times despite the sketchy chairlift C-6 to get up to it =)  We also enjoyed the other terrain the mountain had to offer and it did have lot’s of wide runs and extensive blue terrain.  We discovered the snow was less tracked out on the right side (Mt. Baker side) of the mountain and much less busy.

View down our favorite run of the day Canyon

Overall, it was a very long but great day to Mt. Baker.  I would love to go again sometime soon.  I just have to work up enough courage to get back on their chairlifts.

Now I know that this post is a bit late (about a week) but I’ve been busy with other items and have not had time. Though for those who are interested I had the opportunity to be an accredited photographer not only at the LG FIS WorldCup 2009 Boardercross but I also was able to attend the Half-Pipe event which was held on the following Saturday (February 14th). A snowboard Half-Pipe event is usually the most exciting and most popular out of all the snowboarding events, or at least in my opinion.

What Is A Half-Pipe?

A Snowboard Half-Pipe is a pretty large structure and in the case of the LG FIS WorldCup 2009 event it was a monster 170 metres in length with a crazy height of 22 feet. Not to mention it has the incline of an 18 degree angle. I definitely wouldn’t want to accidentally slip off the deck to drop down 22 feet on solid ice.

Snowboarders (or riders) perform aerobatic jumps, twist, and tricks on this massive half-cylinder structure as they make their way from the top to the bottom. Did I mention is is usually hard packed (like ice) type snow? Something I wouldn’t really want to fall onto after clearing the deck by like 15 feet!

Inverted Shaun White

The tricks that the riders perform can be pretty insane to watch as well. There is the straight-air, grabs, rotations (which can go up to 1080 or even higher!), switches, frontsides, backsides and even inverted. The riders have to put together a routine while traversing down the length of the Half-Pipe in order to score high with the judges. If the rider falls in the Half-Pipe during their run their points stop so any trick performed (if possible) is just mainly for fun.

LG FIS WorldCup 2009 Half-Pipe Finals

The way scoring works for the Men and Woman’s Half-Pipe Finals is the better of the two scores the riders could earn out of their two runs. A maximum score a rider could make on a single run would be 50 points. The best score of these two 50 point scores would determine where the rider was placed.

Gretchen Bleiler & Hannah Teter USA

Sitting, standing, kneeling on the deck was a pretty cool experience for me. Being so close to the riders pull off their tricks in front of me was pretty crazy. The photographers around me (not too many mind you) had some pretty awesome gear, and some spectators had better glass than I did. Though that didn’t really bother me, I was closer to the action with a great vantage point for taking photos of these amazing riders. Though we only had about 2 to 3 feet of room we could maneuver in and after a while the snow under our feet would harden to ice.

Iouri ‘iPod’ Podladtchikov

Ryoh Aono

There were so many good riders out that day entertaining the crowd with their gravity defying feats that I didn’t notice that the whole day went by so quickly. Sure trudging up the ski runs with just my snowboard boots and camera gear was really exhausting and then having to climb up the deck of the half-pipe too was as equally tiring but the end result was a great day of shooting these riders strut their stuff.

Standings

Woman

• 1: Kelly Clark USA
• 2: Jiayu Liu CHN
• 3: Hannah Teter USA
• 4: Gretchen Bleiler USA

Mens

• 1: Shaun White USA
• 2: Ryoh Aono JPN
• 3: Iouri ‘iPod’ Podladtchikov SUI
• 4: Kazuumi Fujita JPN

Overall for my first experience seeing professional riders hit the Half-Pipe during the LG FIS WorldCup 2009 I walked away with over 2000 photos and a great first experience as a media accredited photographer. The LG FIS WorldCup 2009 PGS event was unfortunatly cancel due to poor (soft) snow conditions. Though the whole weekend event was great and look forward to seeing how Cypress and the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics pan out when these riders come back next year.

You can check our some of the other photos I have uploaded from the LG FIS WorldCup 2009 event over on Flickr.

This past Tuesday (Feb. 11, 2009) was a great evening to be up on any of Vancouver’s local mountains. It was actively snowing and throughout the evening there was about 15cm of new sticky snow! Tyler and I were excited to hit the slopes and we had a great night riding all the powder! The atmosphere on Cypress was contagious and everyone was so excited to be enjoying the fresh snow our local mountains so desperately need.

In addition, one of the local TV stations, City TV, was holding a contest that is now closed called ‘Duck Out’ to take a picture of a rubber duck in an unusual location. The TV station randomly selects 5 winners over 5 weeks so Tyler and I thought we would enter. The prize is pretty nice: $4500 value of a trip for two to Acapulco Fairmont Hotel!
We thought we would bring our devil duck up to the slopes on Cypress Mountain to enjoy all of the fresh snow! Here are the two pics Tyler and I submitted:

Robyn:

Devil Duck getting ready to hit the slopes on Cypress Mountain

Tyler:

Devil Duck ready to board down Cypress

Also, here is another Devil Duck picture that we didn’t submit that Tyler took that I enjoy.

Anyways, we and the devil duck had a great evening on Cypress Mountain……can’t wait until we get some fresh snow soon.

Snowboard Cross or boardercross as most people like to referrer to it as, is an event that challenges a rider’s abilities to maintain control throughout a down hill course. These courses contain turns, gaps, berms, drops, steep sections as well as flat areas which all ensure that the riders do not have the easiest of times speeding down the course. The riders also have to make sure they do no collide with each other as they traverse down the course to the finish line as fast as possible.

Cypress Mountain was host to the LG FIS WorldCup 2009 event which consists of 3 snowboarding events; Boardercross (SBX), Half-Pipe and PGS (Parallel Giant Slalom).

LG FIS WorldCup 2009 – Boardercross (SBX)

Friday (February 13th 2009) was the Boardercross Finals for both Men and Woman.

The action was pretty intense as the athletes maneuvered down the course at high speeds in groups of 4 riders per heat. There were a few collisions, but that is not unexpected in a Boardercross race. The groups usually stay closely packed together as they ride over jumps and berms. One wrong edge and you would easily drop to last place in your heat. The fastest 2 riders would continue on to the next race.

All of the riders were highly entertaining throughout the course, especially the last largest jump at the finish line. As the day progressed, the crowd got more and more into the action as the riders would entertain them just before the finish line.

When Robyn and I first talked about Boardercross and the 2010 Winter Olympics we were a bit hesitant on putting our names in for it as we did not think it would be much of a spectator event. Even though we did not win tickets for the boardercross, after watching the LG FIS WorldCup 2009 Boardercross event it would be something we would definitely recommend people trying to get out and seeing if they have an opportunity.

LG FIS WorldCup 2009 Final Standings

Womens

• 1: Lindsey Jacobellis USA
• 2: Olivia Nobs SUI
• 3: Helene Olafsen NOR
• 4: Maelle Ricker CAD

Mens

• 1: Markus Schairer AUT
• 2: Mike Robertson CAD
• 3: Seth Wescott USA
• 4: Francois Boivin CAD

A lot of the athletes who participated in this event will be competing during the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics as well. It was a great opportunity to see the best at Bordercross compete on one of our local mountains. The spectators who will be attending the 2010 Winter Olympic Boardercross at Cypress Mountain will definitely love watching these riders race down the course for their chance at the Gold.

All Photos by: Tyler Ingram