Getting There

This time Sunday morning, I should hopefully be airborne, flying an Air Canada 777 en route to Hong Kong by way of Vancouver. (I chose that flight because as an Air Canada Elite member, I had a decent shot at upgrading to one of their Executive suites. Alas, I have been waitlisted.) In Vancouver, I’ll hook up with my brother, who is arriving an hour earlier via WestJet.

We’ll have a couple of hours to kill before the next Perimeter Bus to Whistler, so it’s likely we’ll have a beer or three. My cousin, who operates the best burger restaurant in Vancouver, is going to pop by to say hello.

Staying There

Despite now having visited 10 times, I’ve only stayed in a hotel twice: once at the Listel hotel and once at the Mountainside Lodge. The rest of the time I have rented condos or houses. This time, however, I’m staying at the Hilton Whistler, and I’m definitely excited to check it out. We’ve got a suite, so we should have plenty of room to spread out and relax.

Riding There

As I’ve mentioned, conditions look off the hook for early season! They’ve had more than eight feet of snow this season already, with more than 4,300 acres already opened. Most of my favourite non-bowl areas (Garbonzo area on Whistler, Crystal Chair on Blackcomb) are now open. Another 50-80 cm are expected tomorrow and Sunday. So this has the potential to turn into an epic couple of days of riding. (There’s also the risk that conditions will be crazy and zero visibility. I’m praying that’s not the case.)

You can be sure that once the trip has concluded, there will be a full report! I’ll also update my Guide to Whistler, which I’ve maintained since 2006.

It’s been more than a year since anything has been posted at Highly Obsessed. And even when we did post some stuff last year, it didn’t last long. It’s been a struggle the past couple of years.

So, what happened? It’s not like we enjoy snowboarding less than we used to. Personally, I found myself riding fewer total days; instead of heading to Blue Mountain or Mt. St. Louis Moonstone for a few day trips, I was saving it for trips to real mountains like Whistler or Jay Peak or Tremblant. So I was only riding maybe a dozen days a year. I guess this made me feel like I wasn’t much of an authority on snowboarding anymore.

And in a way, I don’t think it’s going to get any easier. We are going to have a baby just as snowboarding season gets into full swing. My job is never slow, and I do a fair bit of travel is involved. I also like to spend time working out, playing video games, and reading. I also play hockey and ultimate frisbee. So there never seems to be enough time in the day already.

But with all that said, a funny thing has been happening. This blog refuses to die, and I find it both interesting and inspiring. It gets all sorts of traffic, regardless of season. People still email me constantly with questions, contests and news. I still get the occasional ACL tear inquiry (and I’ve had laser eye surgery, another topic which seems to garner tons of questions, so I’m happy to answer those, too).

So I started to think: do I really need to be on the mountain 100 days a year to maintain an interesting snowboarding blog? I don’t think so. And do I still love to snowboard? Hell yes. So I’ve decided to fire up the blog again, and I’m really looking forward to it.

The timing is right, too. A week today, I will leave for a quick, four-day, pre-baby trip to Whistler. I didn’t want to miss out on Whistler this year, and they’re getting dumps of snow regularly right now. But all that is for my next post.

Adam

(Image courtesy of Tommy Ironic)

So says Holiday Valley’s Pat Morgan, who is organizing a new contest series known as the Eastern Snowboard League. It’s a three-event series that will take place at Holiday Valley in Western New York, Big Boulder Park in Pennsylvania and 7-Springs (also in Pennsylvania). ESPN’s interview with Morgan is here.

Personally I think it’s a great idea. It channels the ‘us vs. them’ mentality that I think exists a bit with riders repping small hills vs. west coast folks. I’d encourage them to have a look at expanding this north of the border if it takes off.

I find there’s a similar parallel with bikes; look back 10 years, and no-one wore helmets. Now it’s perfectly acceptable and normal.

But anyway. I just came across a really interesting report from the Canadian Ski Council. In it, the Council reports that helmet usage – especially among youth – is up significantly over the past four years.

According to the report:

“… usage has increased from 67% of all skiers and riders in 2006 to 71% in 2010. This is significantly higher than in the US, where reports found that 57% of skiers and riders wore helmets in 2010.”

The report has a couple of really interesting caveats, though. For example, usage in the 35-44 age bracket did not increase. Moreover, Ontario and British Columbia have the dubious honour of least usage, with 67% and 66% usage respectively. The keener province? New Brunswick, with 95% usage. Wow.

• Fernie
• Nakiska
• Kimberley
• Mont Tremblant
• Mont Sutton
• Whistler Blackcomb

You can read about recent sales here. Among the notable ones: Aspen.co for $22,500, and Breckenridge for $8,499.

Within the industry, we view domain names like real estate. If you get the good ones, they’ll only increase in value!

Available from iTunes for $2.99, the digital edition of the magazine features additional video, music and photos.

While I haven’t checked it out, I have purchased a couple of Wired Magazines formatted for the iPad, and the reading experience is great. The ability to add additional video, animation and sound really adds to the reading experience. If Transworld offers anything similar, the enhanced reading experience is totally worth it.

You can read more about Transworld’s new iPad edition here.

Every time I’ve had a few minutes to pick up the iPhone and play a quick game, I’ve chosen Solipskier. This intuitive little game, which cost me less than three bucks, is a whole lot of fun. And although it features a dude on skis rather than a shredder, I figured it was worth mentioning on this blog.

The concept is pretty simple: you control a little stick dude wearing headphones. When his headphones are on, badass rocking guitar tunes play. But that’s actually not the point. The goal is to continuously draw out the run ahead of the little skier dude. As long as you draw a safe path, the ski dude lives. Draw a wall in front of him, or a cliff, or run him into a gate… and he’s toast.

It’s super-simple to learn, a lot of fun to play and definitely worth the $2.99. I recommend checking it out.

You can find more information on Solipskier here.

The problem is, Vancouver winter weather fluctuates between “just cold enough to snow on the mountains nearby” and “warm”. And this year, the weather in Vancouver has been very warm. So warm, in fact, that Cypresss had to close early due to a lack of snow. And with the Olympics only weeks away, the world is watching as VANOC scrambles to put together courses for halfpipe, ski and snowboard cross and other competitions with a combination of snow they saved and… wood and straw. Seriously. There is such a lack of snow on Cypress that structures to support the courses now need to be built, and they are going to be partially composed of wood and straw.

This is extremely embarrassing, and news coverage of the problem grows daily. (Check out this update here, or simply use Google News to locate one of the hundreds of stories now detailing the problem).

It should be noted that Whistler currently has more snow than they know what to do with. As I left they were constructing the downhill courses and they looked great. But again, if VANOC had no choice but to use Cypress, I suppose it was an understandable calculated risk… which now appears to be working against them.