A Very Special Guest

It was some very special skiing last week for Cory at Whistler.  His cousin, Bryony, whom he hadn't seen for about 20 years, flew over from England to ski with us for a few days.  While we didn't get much sunshine, we got some terrific skiing in, including a day of light, fluffy powder - a rarity in Whistler which normally gets a fair amount of moisture in its snowfalls, but especially rare in mid-April when rain would be far more likely.

In fact, it was winter-like conditions for all 3 days, with a light snowfall on the first day.
Here they are - with Bryony's friend Stephen (since it's such a special visit, we'll forgive him for his dark-side snowboard) - on Ptarmigan.

Now Ptarmigan is a run that Cory is very familiar with, as it is where the National Training Centre is located so Cory has trained and raced on this run numerous times.  It is often closed to the public, but not on this day so we were excited to have them ski this run with us.




It's a terrific run for racers....long and wide, with lots of terrain changes.  Lots of opportunity for speed when conditions are good.  And the snow was perfect, very firm below some soft new snow.  Now when Cory trains on Ptarmigan, it's pretty much the only run he skis on all day, and Whistler Blackcomb has over 200 runs.  So I figured he would want a change and head over to some of the other good runs.  But on this day, it was so good, he said he wanted to do another run on Ptarmigan, so around we went to the Garbanzo chair to go back up.

And a good thing too, as we met Manny Osborne-Paradis, back at the top of Ptarmigan,  He was there doing a promotional photo shoot but kindly took a moment to come over and chat with us.

Manny has been on the Canadian Alpine Ski team for several years and just finished an excellent comeback season, after several difficult years, putting him a terrific position for the 2018 Olympics in Korea.  He wished Cory well, told him to not give up and to keep working on his racing, just like he has.  And Cory was invited to train with Whistler Mountain Ski Club this summer - Manny said he could very well be there too so the Olympians may meet again soon.

And of course we took Bryony and Stephen onto the Dave Murray Downhill run, the site of the Men's Downhill for the 2010 Olympics.  Here's Cory & Bryony in the old start gate, ready to go head-to-head on the Olympic run.

And after a great day on the hill, gotta have some hot-tubbin' time...and a beer or two...

The next morning, plenty of spring rain as we board the Blackcomb Gondola...

But in the alpine, in front of Blackcomb's Glacier Creek Lodge, it's full-blown winter:

And at the very top, outside Horstmann Hut, there's a blizzard raging!

And so with very limited visibility, might as well take a hot chocolate break...

It's been a snowy winter!  Over 13 metres of snow fell on Whistler Blackcomb this winter...42 feet of the white stuff!

After our break, it's back out into the blizzard, and being above the treeline, there's not much to see but white in every direction....

and it feels like we are the only 4 skiers on the mountain...then the visibility improves...

and Cory gets to enjoy that terrific sensation of powder snow around his shins and knees...not the usual stuff for a racer, where hard pack ice-like snow is the norm...

Bryony makes it obvious she's enjoying the "incredible" snow too...

And Stephen loves his pow!

Bryony showing her good form on the slopes...

Cory again in knee-deep powder (those markers are not boundary markers, Cory would never ski out of bounds...they are just visual references to mark the Blue Line run...handy in white-out conditions)

Even deeper snow further on Blue Line

(This video contains coarse language, viewer discretion is advised)

And a "toe-st" in the hot tub to end a terrific day with Bryony and Stephen in Whistler powder!

The next morning is race day, and OMG, Cory doesn't win, how can that be???  Good God, even the dark-side boarder beat him...better forget about this powder skiing Cory and get back to work!!!

It's still snowing hard on Whistler, but it's time to head home, or at least to the airport to say goodbye to our very special guest skiers.

But first a stop at one of our favourite Vancouver eateries, and our Montreal friends and family will definitely recognize the name and know right away what we all had for lunch!

And the goodbye...and come back soon okay (though we can't promise knee-deep powder every time!)

a last tearful hug with Bryony's aunt, Cory's mum...it was all so so good.

So what a terrific end to a terrific season.  Cory wanted to spend more time on his powder skis just having fun, with less gate training and Mother Nature cooperated with so much snow that every time on skis was just better than the last.  He wasn't on snow as often as he normally is when he trains, but certainly this year, and especially with Bryony in Whistler, it was quality over quantity.

Cory will decide later if he trains with Whistler Mountain Ski Club this summer.  If he does, that would likely be late June or early July.  For now it's back to his 2 Special Olympics summer sports:  soccer & softball.

We enjoy reading comments about our blog - no account necessary.  See you again soon.