Spring update from Whistler
Here is just a quick update from spring in Whistler. We woke up the first day of spring to snow covered roads and 14 days of non stop snowing. Now we have a little blue sky and the temperature is a bit higher so maybe spring is on its way. It is now possible to see the grass if you look carefully. It is strange to think about the fact, that the season is almost over.
We have become quite familiar with the people at Buffalo Bills. In the beginning of the season they would cool on Tuesdays, and let us know we had won dinner the next day. We would come for the dinner, some beers and the pool tourney. Now Billy is calling me every Tuesday night asking how it’s going, and if I will be there the next day.
I also took my level 2 snowboard instructor course Monday-Thursday. It was more advanced than level 1, but I am proud to say that I passed, and that I am now a certified level 2 CASI snowboard instructor. We had some time left Thursday afternoon, and our evaluator let is decided what to practice. I suggested eurocarves, so that was what we did – a few pointers was all it took, and within the hour, this was how it looked:
Also the inevitable happened after 84 days on the slopes. I’m fine, but I did take a massive crash late that day. In an attempt to eurocarve around a sign/banner (that ironically said “slow”) I got distracted, and timed the whole thing terribly. I started then turn and realized that I screwed up. I tried to correct, but the tip of the board got caught in the banner, and flinged me backwards into the snow.
I had spun 180 degrees and was flat on my back insuring the rest of the group that I was fine – I just needed a moment. I stayed down looking at the stars dancing around my head, confident that getting up would cause me to pass out. My right leg felt really strange, but it turned out that was because it somehow came out of the binding.
I visited the doctor later that day, just to make sure everything was fine. She told me what I already knew. Probably a mild concussion, but everything looked okay. I had already planned a rest day on Friday, so I was fit for fight again Saturday.
I have not been the only one getting hurt lately. One of the guys from the course lost a mate in an avalanche the day before we started. He was snowmobiling, and ended up burried heads down against a tree. The day after was another avalanche accident in the news, and on Wednesdays we heard about a fatal accident here in Whistler. A woman had fallen into a tree well, and suffocated within just 30 minutes before they found here. A bit scary as we have been riding those exact trees a lot. The story can be found here.
Whislter Blackcomb wrote the following about it:
“Whistler, BC, March 15, 2016 -On Tuesday, March 15 at approximately 11:12am, Whistler Blackcomb Ski Patrol was notified by a member of the public of a female skier found unconscious and unresponsive in a tree well near Expressway and Last Resort in the 7th Heaven zone on Blackcomb Mountain.
Here is a nice shot to finish of with. It is actually from January, but the sun makes it look like spring anyway.
