Blackcomb - Sat, April 11

[Photos above: Amy + Shane - should we or shouldn't we?; Peak 2 Peak from Blackcomb]

After beautiful weather Friday, I was determined to dress in less layers today. The sun shining in the village bore out my decision. So light and free we ascended Blackcomb from the gondola to Excelerator to Glacier Express. As we rose higher it got colder and stormier and I was reminded that the big mountain experience is a little different than the east where what you see at the bottom is what you get on top. From the top of Glacier Express we took the Crystal Traverse, which was wind-swept with really poor visibility, over to Ridge Runner. At Ridge Runner everything changed. There was about an inch of fresh snow on this beautiful run that winds its way up and down rollers. No one else was around. It was perfect. We made our way down from it to Blackcomb Glacier Road and back to the top of the gondola. By this time I was quite warm but given the variable conditions decided to download to pick up some diffferent layers I had left at the base. It worked out perfectly as Shane called when we were in the gondola so Michelle and I made plans to grab a hot chocolate at Second Cup and then meet up with him and Amy in the village and go back up together. Shane is one of my old Voyageurs ski buddies. He and his girlfriend Amy now live in Coquitlam so it was great to reconnect and share some turns together.

We spent the day on Blackcomb starting with Trapline by the Crystal Chair. The visibility kept changing making it a challenge to try to find areas of the mountain where we could see better. A highlight for me was when we raced each other down the dual slalom at the Pontiac Race Centre. Shane gave me great competition. I only beat him by 2/10 of a second.

We then hiked into Blackcomb Glacier. The entrance is much wider than it used to be. A guide told us they had blasted it out the previous year at a cost of $100,000. It definitely made for a more pleasant entrance than the ridge I remembered. There was a lot of fresh snow in the bowl. That, the poor visibility, and my wobbly legs from the day before, made it a lot of work but well worthwhile. We had lunch at Glacier Creek Lodge before heading over to 7th Heaven to do Cloud Nine. By this point Michelle's and my legs were calling stop so the two of us did the ski out as Shane and Amy went up for more.

Back in the village at 3:00 we did our part by holding a table on the patio at GLC. We were to meet Shane and Amy as well as Gord, another former Voyageur who know works at Whister, at 4:00. Unfortunately Gord was not well and had to cancel. The rest of us had a great time there before separating to go back to our condo and grab our stuff for evening. Michelle and I then joined Shane at the hot tub at the Westin where he and Amy were staying. Very nice. We didn't leave their hotel for dinner until 9:30 pm. We ended up on the second floor in a pub-ish place in the village. We didn't get home until 11:30 pm so it will be interesting to see if we are as bright eyed and bushy tailed tomorrow as we have been so far this weekend.