My ACL Tear and Recovery

Fistfights and Shredding: The Return to Whistler

I’m writing this from Vancouver airport’s Air Canada lounge courtesy of Elite Steve, who managed to get me in as a guest. I must say, these lounges are pretty sweet; free Internet, booze and cheese abound. I travel a fair bit, but not enough to make Elite. Dammit!

(Observational note: I appear to be the only person in here with six days worth of facial hair growth, a snowboarding t-shirt and a can of Canadian by my side. Everyone else appears to be well-dressed, shorn and drinking wine.)

I’m obviously en route home from my latest snowboarding adventure: Whistler. We arrived Thursday and left Monday night. We’re flying the red eye back because we wanted to get another day of riding in. Talk about Highly Obsessed!

Four days of shredding

We rode four days straight; 1.5 days on Blackcomb, and 2.5 days on Whistler. The only thing close to a pow day was about seven centimetres of fresh snow on Saturday, which was cool; it was some fresh snow to plow through, but not enough pow to make you sink.

Lack of snow aside, the weather was great. Most days were sunny and clear. Parts of the mountain were shut down early Sunday due to crazy winds,  but most eventually opened.

We hit all the popular areas of both; the glaciers, the glades, the groomers. I couldn’t help but notice how I’ve progressed as a snowboarder; whereas there used to be certain areas I always feared (icy places like The Saddle and Lower Franz), I now approach all runs with no fear, and almost never wipe out. I’m now focusing on the technical aspects of riding; going faster, getting air, perfecting short turns, things like that. When I get back, I want to spend a day or two in Ontario trying to ride switch.

Highlights of the riding experience:

Seventh Heaven with fresh snow: Panorama, which I’ve previously listed as one of my top five Whistler Blackcomb runs, was simply phenomenal on the day we hit it. The run was untouched, had a few centimetres of snow, and we were catching air as we flew off the lips of the up-and-down hills that make up the second half of the run.

Peak to Creek (not groomed): The first run of the first day. We thought it would be groomed — and it wasn’t. Several kilometres of difficult hell ensued. But it was still a fun, memorable experience.

Upper and Lower Franz: The future women’s downhill course in the 2010 Winter Olumpics did not disappoint when it was Whistler’s Run of the Day. Groomed, empty and fast, we felt like true Olympians as we blew down this run, which is almost top-to-bottom.

Upper and Lower Dave Murray: The men’s downhill course wasn’t too shabby, either. Constantly groomed and rarely crowded, we were really able to open ‘er up; especially on the second half.

Snowboarding with a new ACL: It will be ten months since my ACL replacement surgery in about a week. I had absolutely no problems. I was soo thankful to not have any problems, as snowboarding this winter was the number one reason I put off having the surgery for a few months.

A few other observations and notes from the trip, many of which will end up in the Unofficial Whistler Guide:

I am now a huge fan of taking the Perimeter bus directly from Vancouver airport to Whistler. I used to take the Greyhound, which meant a pain-in-the-ass cab ride (think snowboarding bag) to a gross bus depot. It’s more expensive, but the Perimeter bus is convenient and comfortable. Also, a super-friendly employee named Charlie got us on the early bus in the nick of time. Mental note: write Perimeter a thank-you letter commending Charlie. Thanks, Charlie!

Do not visit Whistler on an American long weekend. This is the second time I have done this, and I’ve paid for it both times. The Village turns into a drunken Stupid Zone complete with throwing up, yelling and even fistfights. And that’s just in the evenings; during the day, the lineups are long and the runs are crowded. Always ride Whistler Whistler Blackcomb on weekdays if you can help it. And if you can’t, stick to the Garbanzo and Symphony chairs on Whistler, and Seventh Heaven and the Glacier Express on Blackcomb.

(On the fistfight issue: I really can’t help but think part of it might be the lower drinking age in Canada. The legal drinking age in most provinces is 19; in Quebec, it’s 18. I know lots of American kids like to cross over into border towns to drink on weekends, and I can’t help but think this is part of Whistler’s ‘long weekend debauchery’ issue. Holy crap do I sound old and boring now.)

Paying for Village accomodations is overrated. Next time, we’re staying outside the Village. The Village is loud and the accomodations are small and expensive. I’ll get into the story of our place at a later date (short story: I may be on the hook for something I didn’t break).

Fresh Tracks breakfast kicks ass! From now on, I’m buying a Fresh Tracks ticket at least once every Whistler trip. For less than 20 bucks, you get up the mountain before everyone else, have a buffet breakfast, and then hit the slopes a good 30 minutes before everyone else (only 650 tickets can be sold for any given day, though, so get one the night before; not the day of). This lets you do two or three runs before anyone else touches the mountain. It was really cool to hit any spot we wanted, with no-one else around. Riding up the mountain in the gondola before the sun rose was also cool.

The Fresh Tracks breakfast would be particularly awesome on a powder day.All in all, a great five days. I love Whistler! Next up: Jay Peak, first weekend in February.

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