Whistler 2011 Week 10
Wed 19 Jan
Après…just love a bit of Après…
Crystal Lounge was on the cards today, we all turned up and after a rather large amount of chicken wings were consumed and kokanee drunk no one seemed wanting to leave…we then decided that a change of venue was required…where better than Euro Après at The Village Bar….insane chaos is the only way to describe it…my favourite part I think must have been Mike Coat Checking all his grocery shopping bags, French stick hanging out and all… love, love, love Euro Après!
Euro Apres @ Village Bar…it get's crazy!
Fri 21 Jan
Avalanche Awareness Course
The campers went and collected their Avalanche Equipment this afternoon ready for tomorrow…all armed with Transceivers, Probes and Shovels they were nearly ready but had to do the theory part first… the theory part of the course was in the classroom tonight…everyone got their Avalanche Books and one of our Guides Ryan talked us through the basics and learn about some typical avalanche scenarios…everyone is keen to head out into the field tomorrow to learn more..
Sat 22 Jan
Avalanche Awareness Course
The campers met early ready to go, they were broken into 2 groups…both groups headed out separately and from everyone they had an amazing day and took away a lot of useful information…here are some stories of the day…
Ant’s Avi Awareness Story…
Saturday we meet at the lift around 8:30 and head up to the roundhouse where we meet our guides over a coffee. We meet Jeff who is our guide for the day who turns out to be the craziest guy i’ve met so far and starts out by telling us that were going to go find and set off some avalanches. Now this guy knows the terrain and knows where to take us so we head out to an off piste area where he climbs up on top of a cornice and starts jumping up and down on top of it trying to make it fall off and avalanche while everybody stands and gawps.
From there we head down some more amazing trails and through some trees where we test out the transceivers and search for stuff in the snow using the equipment. He then gets us to attach our skis to our bags and hike up to another off piste bit with a big cornice…he does the same as before, this time loads of snow falls and we each ski down and over it. Then we ski some off piste fresh power down to lunch. Difficult to describe how funny and amazing it was.
Back hiking again we go to the top of Flute Bowl where Jeff gives us a few pointers on off piste powder skiing and shows us a ridge with near 60 degree drops either side and gestures that we have to go along it politely saying that we shouldn’t fall off … he then points out other potential avalanche risks along the way.
From there amazing fresh tracks powder through fields of snow then into the trees following Jeff ‘Corrr Corr’ and ‘Woop woop’ calls, back to the lift and a beer back in the roundhouse.
Best day yet and a huge celebration afterwards with loads of giddy adults!
Mike’s Avi Awareness Story…..
After meeting up at the roundhouse at the start of the day, we were all split into 2 groups. The best group (Mike’s group) consisted of Mike, Ali, Sydney, Ant, Zak, Carey and Rich. Our instructor Jeff, was an absolute legend whose main loves in life consisted of backcountry skiing, heli skiing, and generally hunting out fresh pow! This obviously suited us all fine and with this in mind we set off up the peak.
We spent probably an hour or so playing with our transceivers at the base of flute bowl. The lesson was based around learning the functions of the transceiver. This was done by testing the search modes by first burying, then finding and digging up the transceiver units. However…this did not go so smoothly for one camper (Cough! Cough! Henry! Cough! Cough!), who buried the transceiver but forgot to turn it on first……a 30-minute hunt transudes. Mike and Ali helped out by building a slide in the snow. The most enjoyable part of the day for our group was hiking up Flute Bowl and skiing the fresh powder on the other side. Jeff gave out some handy tips to skiing deep powder – our favorite being him shouting “BOUNCY! BOUNCY! BOUNCY!” at us as we flew threw the tree’s. In summary, a thoroughly enjoyable day on the hill!
Mon 24 Jan
Week 3 today….
Skiers started the first day our of 4 of their Level 1 course today…they are all a little nervous but confident that they will pass…good luck guys!
Snowboarders are still in training and will be taking their Level 1’s next week.
Performance Campers are just continuing on this week improving and stretching their limits.
Tues 25 Jan
Basecampers Return!
Jo Bennett and Verity James have arrived back in Whistler for a few weeks holiday today! YAY! Looking forward to catching up girls!
Wed 26 Jan
Australia Day in Whistler…
Probably celebrated here more than in Australia!
Henry and Oliver were being patriotic turning up to their Level 1 course with flags wrapped around their necks…not sure if the examiners were that impressed though…
Henry & Ollie get ready for Australia Day!
The hill was alive with many Ozzie Flags and people in costumes…this soon translated to the Village…
Campers found themselves a comfy place in the GLC and stayed there for the whole afternoon and evening…Ali is the queen of drinking games and introduced just about all of them to the crew… M.I.N.E was the best of them though and a lot of push up’s were being done today by everyone. More filming was done of Zak (aka Terrets) back at Snowgoose…too funny!
