Another great trip to Whistler. Here are the highlights:

Russell grabbed me at the downtown Renaissance Vancouver. I had to leave in the middle of Jared Spool's keynote at Web Directions North, which was a bummer, but they will eventually post the podcast. The ride up to Whistler, 2 hours north of the city, was easy. We had a little drama with getting to the condo, but it worked itself out without too much trouble. Russell and I were forced to have a few beers at Citta in Whistler village while we waited for my brother to arrive and pick up the key.

The condo this year was The Aspens. Also in Blackcomb, but up the mountain, ski-in, ski-out, which was fun, except when we wanted to go out at night which required a hike through the snow about 200 meters. It was a little on the small side. We originally planned for 5 people and with 5 it would have been fine, but we had 2 crashers on the floor and it was a bit hechtic, but fun. It was a good group. The condo had three outdoor hot tubs and a large pool. Perfect place to end the ski day with beer or glass of wine in hand.

It was me, Russell, my brother Brian, his friend Kim and a friend of hers from Seattle, Stacie, my coworker Mariah and our oldest friend Jon who grew up across the street from us and was born just 20 days after us. We were all skiers except Jon who is a boarder. Kim and Stacie went snowshoeing on Friday, but we shamed them into skiing on Satruday and they took off Sunday.

The first day kinda sucked. We were on Blackcomb. It wasn't cold, but the visibility was very poor, with whiteout conditions in places near the top. The fact that it hadn't snowed in weeks and it had rained on the mountain a few days earlier made for seriously icy conditions. It wasn't fun sliding all over the place. It was a serious bummer because we'd been hearing about the record snowfall Whistler had in December and January while we were suffering though the drought in the Bay Area, but we didn't get to experience any of it. We had lunch at the Roundhouse. We did make it to the Crystal Hut later in the weekend, but just to warm up and we missed out on their epic steak sandwiches. There's always next year.

Then it started snowing. Not a ton, but enough to change the conditions from downright miserable to absolutely fantastic.

We went for dinner on Friday at the 50 dollar stir fry. Mine was 34 bucks (Canadian) and I couldn't finish it.

Saturday we went to Whistler. It turned out to be the only day of the 4 we went to Whister, but we picked the right day. Perfect blue skies, puffy white clouds. Great conditions. And lots of people. We skied all day in Harmony Bowl and the newly opened Symphony Bowl. Other than the lift lines at Harmony, maybe about 20 minutes. It was just unbelivable. Even in the Harmony lift lines, there was something to take your mind off the wait. These little gray and white birds would come swooping in from the trees and take food right out of your hands. Here's a tip: they love Cliff Bars.

On Sunday we wanted to go back to Whistler, but because of the crowds, we decided to hit Blackcomb again. It was so much better than Friday. A little ice here and there, but lots of fresh tracks to be ound as it snowed 5-10 centimeters and was still snowing throughout the day. It was really cold and we stopped a few times, once at Crystal and again at Glacier just to keep from freezing. At the end the day, it was snowing so hard with these enormous snowflakes the size of silver dollars. I layed down in the snow at the entrance to the condo and just looked up in the sky watching these beautiful flakes float down to the ground. It was as close to a perfect moment as I had all weekend.

The 4 of us flying out Monday were all on the same flight at 6:30, but it was always going to be a half day. Jon and Mariah had to catch the shuttle at 2pm. it was fine. We were all beat after 3 hard days of slogging it out. Blackcomb was the obvious choice. It was again very cold, snowy and a little windy, but the snow couldn't have been much better after last night's snowfall. We took it very easy. Skied a few runs, took a break, another few runs, anther break and so on. Seems to be the basic MO for the last day.

All in all it was a great trip. Brian was completely recovered from his ACL tear he suffered on the last run of the last day last year at Whistler. He was skiing better than ever. Russell had broken his 5th metatarsal a few weeks back, had been cleared to ski, but was feeling the strain of getting in and out of the boots, but he soldiered through. Jon is a fucking trooper on the snowboard, falling a lot because he pushes himself to the limit and finishing every day battered and bruised but always bounced back eager for more. Mariah had a hard time keeping up with us, but the conditions did't help her confidence and she did a great job on lopes she'd probably not normally ski. Can't wait for next year.

Photoset on Flickr is here.