More News from Somewhere So long, and thanks for all the fish.

So after almost 5 months in Whistler, we have less than 3 weeks to go here. To look back at our time here, we'll be preparing three posts reviewing different aspects of our time here - the mountains, the village and the lifestyle.

So with no further rambling, we bring you:

Whistler in Review: Part 1 - The Mountains

Whistler Blackcomb are undeniably excellent ski mountains. There is so much terrain, it's almost taking the piss. Over 8000 acres of terrain, 3 terrain parks plus the half pipe, two freaking mountains connected by a giant gondola that has broken more records than Suresh Joachim, over 200 runs on the official trail list (we've managed to accumulate a list of 206 runs based upon the official trail map), around 1500m of vertical runs and some of the longest runs in the world. Most people would have seen some of the mountain last year during the Olympics.

But enough of restating Whistler Blackcomb's marketing departments stats. What are the mountain's actually like? To caviate our comments, we've only skiied in Australia and New Zealand before, so its hard to compare against mountains in Europe, Japan or the like.

Pros

The mountains are damn incredible. Pretty much whatever you want to do, you can. Pistes? Plenty. Trees? Hundreds of fun lines to be had across the mountains, full of powder, kickers and creeks. Steeps? There are 5 lifts accessing 12 different bowls,loads of chutes. Drops? There are nice cornices and cliffs everywhere. Back-Country? Accessible and expansive, with camping huts set up around the place. One of the coolest things about WB is the choice that you have, no matter what you feel like doing, chances are on any given day, you can do it. Whistler is about 40% larger than Vail, the second biggest resort acreage-wise within North America, and around 20 times the size of Mount Buller.

More than anything else, the things that really stand out for me at Whistler are the trees and the alpine steeps. WB has done a really nice job thinning some of the runs to open them up whilst keeping enough trees in there to get used to riding through the before hitting the unthinned wooded areas. The trees give a really nice sense of seclusion, blocking out wind and noise, and clearing the air when the visibility is down. They give a rush as you duck under or fend off branches, swerve around hidden obstacles, jump off mounds or berms or cut a fresh path through powder. They can be dangerous, and probably account for the most deaths on the mountains, but with a little care and planning, this risk can be managed, and does add to the thrill.

^{Alpine Steeps}

The alpine area (especially at Whistler, and Spanky's Ladder and Couloir Extreme on Blackcomb) are incredible, especially with fresh snow. They develop some nice cornices to drop off, have a healthy smattering of big, small and huge cliffs, and loads of bowls to collect powder waiting to be cut up, lots of fun chutes to test your nerve. Once all of the powder is hit up, a 30 minute hike will get you up to Flute Bowl, which has even more fun to be hit.

Whistler averages 10m of snow a year - this is a lot (Buller averages 1.5m). So far this season we have hit 1254cm, and are on about record snowfall pace. This has meant a lot of pretty epic powder days, and a really decent snow base.

The runs throughout the mountain are really well thought out, with a nice balance of beginner and more advanced slopes pretty much everywhere. There are some really fun pisted and cut runs - my favourites are Dave Murray Downhill, Seppos and Raven around the Garbanzo Chair, and the blues through Seventh Heaven and Crystal Chair on Blackcomb. Most of the runs have good slope changes and kickers on the side of the runs for jumping, and there are enough runs left to mogul to keep people into that side of things happy.

The views on a clear day from the alpine are incredible. We're both a bit sad we won't be here to check it out in the summer time - some of the hiking looks second to none. Mountain sunrises and sunsets are a sight to behold too!

Cons

Nowhere is perfect, and WB is no exception. Despite the high snowfall, WB is not as cold as the interior mountain, and high temperatures can be a problem, especially in the bottom half of the mountain, resulting in snow melt, and ultimately hard ice once it freezes up again. The snow melt from warm weather tends to get you wet, meaning you can be colder on a -2 day than a -26C. Once the snow thaws and refreezes, it needs a good 20 - 30cm of snow to be fun to ride again.

The other issue we've had with WB weather-wise has been the wind. The alpine winds can get really strong on a pretty regular basis, causing the alpine to be shut for days on end, and often removing large chunks of the snow before it can be ridden (or depositing it in strange patterns). The strong winds mean that visibility in the alpine is restricted by wind-blown snow.

^{Of course, once the alpine opens again, it has its benefits}

Whistler is pretty damn popular, and can get over 25,000 people up on the mountains on a day. When this happens, everywhere is busy, especially if the alpine is delayed or doesn't open. On weekends, lift queues on some of the more popular lifts can be 15 - 20 minute waits. Not so much fun.

Whistler is also really close to the US and gets loads of Americans. Some are great, some are rude, opinionated and American.

Whistler is expensive, with lift tickets costing in the order of $100/day.

Finally, after riding in Whistler, it's going to be hard to find ski resorts to match up with the variety of terrain and the quantity of snow.

Summary

Whistler was incredible skiing. Elis' favourite 10 runs were (from favourite down):

1. McConkey's - A nice chute with a big cornice drop in, super on powder days
2. Flute Bowl - A bit of a hike, but lots of powder, nice and steep, nice cornices
3. Spanky's Bowls - Actually four bowls all sort of linked up, super deep powder, cliffs, choose your own adventure sort of terrain
4. Blowhole - A short little run on the Blackcomb Glacier, always has great snow, not hit up very often
5. Couloir Extreme - Second steepest run in North America, nice chute, great fun
6. Symphony Glades - Incredible when the sun comes out, gorgeous trees, great fun
7. VD Trees - Great little powder stashes, tight trees
8. Dave Murray Downhill - The mens Olympic downhill and Slalom course, fun rollers, great snow, fantastic piste
9. Cirque - A chute of Whistler peak, you enter in under a huge cornice, an adventure in itself.
10. West Cirque - Also off Whistler peak, a more out of the way chute, opens into a good powder field.

Bron's favourite 10 runs were:

1. Symphony Glades (Adagio and Staccato) - Once tree runs are your thing, these are heaven! Loads of powder, not so many people and so much fun!  Plus they always seem to be playing Bob Marley at the Symphony chair lift.
2. Rhapsody Bowl (also in Symphony) - Nice wide bowl and not too steep to be stupidly scary at the top
3. Dave Murray Downhill - Awesome for carving all the time with great rollers
4. Cloud 9 - Fantastic rolling  piste at 7th Heaven on Blackcomb
5. Rock'n'Roll - Another gorgeous rolling piste along Crystal Ridge
6. Bear paw - Fun run on powder days, moguls nicely, and the only run I've beaten Elis for speed!
7. Ptarmigan - Nice sub-apline blue run, good on powder days when the alpine isn't open
8. Harmony Ridge - run with the best views of the back country, Blackcomb and the valley.  Kinda distracting on sunny days.
9. Harmony Camelbacks and Low Roll bowls - one bowl leads to another, good fun
10. Davies Dervish - fun tree run underneath the Peak to Peak gondola

Overall: 9/10 - if you ski or board, you definitely should do those things at Whistler Blackcomb at least once.