Whistler, Canada 2020

May 6, 2020
4 min read

If you have never been to Whistler and are an avid snowboarder or skier I suggest you go next season. This has to be one my most favorite snowboard trips in my entire life. It started with some guys I served in the Marine Corps with and some other friends all flying into Vancouver from all over the United States. We all got in and a couple different times but all ended up at the Airbnb the first night. This first night everyone had drinks and caught up. It is always great to see people after not seeing them for almost a year or so. Anyhow the first day on the slopes we spent entirely on the Blackcomb side. it was a great day to warm up to the mountain and see what it had to offer. We were able to strap in at the door of our Airbnb and push off onto the slopes for a true ski in and out. After a full day of exploring we decided to head out in the Village for a night of drinking. We could hear the music from down the block and could see fire and sparks and all sorts of stuff. We walked into the village and there was some kind of display of snowboarders and skiers hucking flips through a ring of fire with fire spinners in the foreground, a scene that brought me back to the Playa at Burning Man. We went to the local pub after the show and ended up watching some live music as some sort of mosh pit opened up. It was a great night.

We woke up early every morning trying to get first tracks, and we did a couple times. The second day on the slope we headed straight for the top of the mountain. We rode one of the upper bowls a couple times before taking a T-bar to an up and over hike to the Blackcomb Glacier area. This was what we came to Canada for. Literally smooth steep faced slopes with fresh powder and perfect conditions. The views from the top of Showcase T-bar were epic. We hiked the short up and over and dropped into the Glacier carving our way down for what felt like forever. At the bottom of the run you come to an ice cave. We stopped here to check it out and share a flask. We resumed the long runout trying to carry speed to send up back into the in bounds area. This was a epic way to wrap up the second day on the slope. The second night we went for dinner but came back and all just hung out in the hot tub and socialized at the Airbnb.

The third day on the mountain we headed up to the Peak to Peak gondola. The ride in the gondola was absolutely epic, it runs over a canyon roughly a couple thousand feet off the ground. We got to the other side and started our day. We stayed as a huge group turning laps the first part of the day. We ran into some whiteout conditions and heavy wind early in the day but as the sun came out it seemed to help with weather conditions. We ran some awesome tree lines, park runs, jumps and had a great time. This afternoon we headed to the tallest peak in the resort and rode some higher bowls and rode some big drops into fluffy white powder and headed down to the creek. Here we stopped and grabbed some food and beverages to hydrate back up and then worked our way back to Blackcomb. This was a full day of runs putting in over 25,000 vertical feet. This night we went out as a group and did some bar hopping through the village. Another live band and some good dinner was perfect.

The last day on the mountain we headed straight for an area called Symphony and Flutes Bowl. We had to link a bunch of lifts to get up to this area. We got to the Harmony 6 and they were blasting for avalanches, so we decided to turn some laps as we waited for the amphitheater to open. We waited at the peak and were there as soon as they lifted the closure and had first tracks in knee deep powder as we made our way to the symphony lift. We took this lift up and began almost two hour hike to the very limit of in bounds fresh powder bowls. We stopped to have a beer and just look out and over Garibaldi Provincial Park. The view was absolutely stunning. We continued our hike up to the drop in point. These back country alpine bowls where like nothing I ever snowboarded before. As we strapped in and rode into the lip without about a 10 ft drop into the bowl I couldn't help but smile and hoot. This was some of the greatest snow. We carved back and forth while our boards disappeared under the snow and came back above the powder. This run is hands down the best snowboard run I have ever had in my entire life. We worked our way back to our homestead and rolled, rested and got ready for our last night. The last night was very relaxing. We went for a sushi dinner, strolled around the village doing some last minute shopping and headed back to our place. We spent the night finishing our beer and playing board games.

We got just a couple hours of sleep before we headed to the airport. After security and Tim Horton we boarded our respective planes and left the amazing snowboard country. Overall it was a wonderful trip with great everything. I got to spend the week with some of my best friends and enjoy our company. I look forward to returning to Whistler and Canada again in the future.