Whistler Whiteout

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.

Filed Under: Mountain Talk
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