Posted: Mon Feb 11, 2013 8:40 pm
This was easily the best trip out west in a long time. The size and scale of this place is amazing. We were there for a week and still couldn't hit everything.
We landed in Vancouver on Monday the 28th and hit the sea to sky highway. It is a slightly shorter drive than the Denver to Vail route and the views are mind blowing. Think of it has a meeting of the ocean and huge vertical mountain cliffs.
About half way up the hill is started snowing. It made for a sketchy drive in the weak suv they gave us, but we were more than happy to have a powder day the next morning.
The conditions are hard to explain. The size basically gives you a chance to feel it all. It could be 30, cloudy in the valley. Which will give really flat light and some snowfall. But a short gondola ride to mid mountain will have you breaking through the clouds and into endless sunshine. The snow up top was powdery with a thin frozen crust over the top.
The top section of each mountain where I found the best runs, less crowds, and the snow that wasn't so tracked out.
Here are some views from the top:
This is Raptor, one of the gladed black runs. And a board that is not sitting:
They have a nice grouping of these runs on blackcomb. Here is the base of one called yardsale:
The terrain could def get as serious as you wanted. Right before we dropped in, the ski patrol told us there was a fatality near this run.
This is from the peak to peak gondola, looking at the 7th heaven area of blackcomb.
Obligatory group shot
And a quickly thrown together video
We landed in Vancouver on Monday the 28th and hit the sea to sky highway. It is a slightly shorter drive than the Denver to Vail route and the views are mind blowing. Think of it has a meeting of the ocean and huge vertical mountain cliffs.
About half way up the hill is started snowing. It made for a sketchy drive in the weak suv they gave us, but we were more than happy to have a powder day the next morning.
The conditions are hard to explain. The size basically gives you a chance to feel it all. It could be 30, cloudy in the valley. Which will give really flat light and some snowfall. But a short gondola ride to mid mountain will have you breaking through the clouds and into endless sunshine. The snow up top was powdery with a thin frozen crust over the top.
The top section of each mountain where I found the best runs, less crowds, and the snow that wasn't so tracked out.
Here are some views from the top:
This is Raptor, one of the gladed black runs. And a board that is not sitting:
They have a nice grouping of these runs on blackcomb. Here is the base of one called yardsale:
The terrain could def get as serious as you wanted. Right before we dropped in, the ski patrol told us there was a fatality near this run.
This is from the peak to peak gondola, looking at the 7th heaven area of blackcomb.
Obligatory group shot
And a quickly thrown together video