View from my weather window on Friday morning…
… then 3 hours later!
Woohoo! All 8 were here again today. I got off pretty lightly with only a Batman tutu to put on… no coconut bras like I’ve had in previous years. It was another chilly morning… but we had blue skies again. The team was out the door before our 9:00am alarm. On the trip to Peak to Peak, Finley. Olivia and I reviewed each of the 10 Alpine Responsibility Codes posted on towers up Big Red. There will be a test.
Huh… the glass bottom Peak-to-Peak gondola has been repainted blue with native art to look like my skis! Boards on at the Blackcomb station, I told the kids to stay close as were were on new terrain. Finley knew a lot about the Family Zone, so we skied through the area. I knew the Terrain Garden was there but missed the entrance. Next time! It was fairly quiet at the Catskinner chair and took longer than usual to get everyone up.
Regrouping at the top, we navigated people and ski racks around Rendezvous onto Jersey Cream. I was going to do Buzzcut but Brooklyn was about 50 yards down Honeycomb before she heard us calling… so Honeycomb it was. Lots of squeals and laughter behind me. Nice! We ended up at mid station of the new gondola. Boys came up with me and the girls with “responsible adults”. Axel and Beckett were a bit stressed about the cold so we went into Rendezvous for a warmup.
Too early for lunch so back out for another run. This time we stayed in the centre of Jersey Cream all the way to the Jersey Cream chair. Axel was pretty grumpy about standing out in the bone chilling cold waiting for our Creekside team photo of all the dressed up instructors and kids at Peak-to-Peak.
In for our 12:00 lunch at the aptly named “Zoo”, we wrestled for a table and bin to store helmets, balaclavas and gloves. I was lucky enough to locate a laundry bag for jackets. Bowls of chicken noodle soup warmed up cold hands. Chocolate pudding for dessert was a bit messy to serve but a delight.
Kitted up and out the door at 12:45 we tagged up with Amanda, her 5 charges and Scotty for a trip to Buzzcut. Scotty led all of us through jumps and drops all the way to the mid station gondola. No splats for the kids and Amanda and I were a bit relieved that neither of us had a tumble. All of my eight rode up with a Mountain Safety team member and he chatted about his responsibility on the mountain.
Before heading back to Whistler, we had another photo session with Scotty modelling his giant panda head. Amanda’s and our group entertained some New York tourists on our ride across and I shared the remaining gummies with everyone. Skis on at the welcome pole, 13 children snaked their way down Upper Whiskey Jack to Orange Peel. Good turns and nice tucks across the flats to Dave Murray. (They are all getting quite confident at higher speeds!) Ho hum… Toilet bowl and Dave Murray to Creekside gondola.
We were a little bit too late to ski out and it looked crowded… so making the call, downloaded we did for our 2:45 meet up with parents.
Our theme next week is “Race Training”… remember: “ice is your friend”.