With the recent change in weather, not to mention the Peak of Whistler receiving snow! This usually means that it is getting close to the annual Turkey Sale up at Whistler.  What does this mean to you? From October 9th to October 12th, awesome deals on gear for the pre-season will be had! If I remember correctly Robyn picked up a pair of wicked brand new Solomon skis for less than half the retail price!

I personally would love to go and pick up some new snowboard boots, but it doesn’t look like this year I’ll be able to financially do it. Last year we would have gone except we were in Minneapolis for a wedding.

Are you heading to the Turkey Sale up at Whistler this year? What will you be looking for?

After a quick look over on Twitter this morning, it seems that Burton will randomly draw someone’s name to win $250 gift card for their online store once a month from now until December 2009. How can you get entered to win this $250 Burton Gift Card? Write a review on one of their new products listed on their online store! It’s that easy! I’d love to write a review, but I don’t have any new Burton gear for this year.

Check out the full scoop!

It’s been a while since we last posted here on West Coast Alpine but we have not forgotten about the site. In fact with the upcoming winter season and the Farmer’s Almanac saying we supposed to expect more snow this year and we’re looking forward to writing more about the the ski and snowboarding conditions, events and other aspects of the industry throughout the season.

It will also be interesting to see what sort of impact the 2010 Winter Olympics will have on the nearby winter activities during the month of February. Here in Vancouver things will be changing before February such as road closures and mountain closures and more.

Wishlist for this Winter Season

As I get more into Snowboarding I will be looking into upgrading my gear, though I do probably have to learn more about the gear one uses as well. Recently while we were in Whistler I picked up some Dragon DX goggles as the ones I previously were using were old, borrowed, too small and just not much use anymore. I also cracked the lens last season too.

Not bad looking eh? Not sure how they rate against other goggles out there, but for me they fit well. They are comfortable and should do a better job of blocking out harsh sun on those sunny days on the snow. They also came with interchangeable lenses which will be a good thing due to the varied conditions we tend to ski/ride in. I can’t wait to try them out, but I guess I still have a couple months to wait until we start getting our snowfall.

Other equipment I need to upgrade would be for sure a new pair of snowboard boots. One day I’ll look at picking up a new jacket so I’m not entirely dressed in black. My jacket, pants, gloves, board, boots and bindings are all currently black. My helmet is white, and now my goggles are black though with white bits. It’s not all about skill right?

Are you looking forward to this winter season? Let’s hope we get a good snow dump!

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.