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Day 9 at Whistler was back to a relatively early start – although most of us were a little slow getting up and going this morning. We had a relatively normal breakfast as we looked out towards the mountains which, for once, were not covered in snow falling from clouds, or even rain, but just a layer of cloud hanging around the midstation level of the mountain.

We were a little slow getting out of the room, as time was spent trying to find exactly what time and channel Nicole’s basketball game was on this afternoon – but following this we moved quickly to the base of the mountain, using the hotel shuttle once again. Upon arriving we decided to start the day by heading up Whistler, so the Fitzsimmons chair was the transport method of choice.

At the top of the Fitzsimmons chair, we made the switch across to the Garbanzo Express where there was a considerable line to jump on board. Although there had been lines at higher mountain locations, we had rarely seen this many people here at this point on the mountain. Long queues generally seemed to flow smoothly here in Canada, as riders were fairly polite and queues alternated to ensure everyone had a fair chance of getting up quickly. It was a concept that was never seen in Australia, due largely to the setups of the lift lines, and the general impatience of the people in those queues back home.

Unfortunately, there were a few snowboarders in the line today who didn’t want to play by those rules, and caused a minor headache for us, and the rest of the line. They pushed in in front of us, and with only three of them they weren’t doing a great job of helping the line move quickly. They were so arrogant that they wouldn’t join up with the single rider that pulled in to join them later on, causing him to cut us off and nearly cause a total wipe-out mid-line.

These ‘wicked’ boarders rode the entire ride without putting the safety bar down – and we were quietly hoping the lift would stop suddenly – but once they got to the top, couldn’t find the skills to even descend from the lift in a straight line without falling over. Great job guys. We skied on from here to the bottom of the Emerald just to check the queues, and weren’t too impressed with what we found. Luckily this line moved quickly, and we weren’t too stuck for too long.

We got to the top of this lift soon after, and were surprised to find that there was next to no wind at the top of the mountain. This was a complete surprise to us, as everyday so far we had seen strong winds up here. Because of the queue at the bottom of the Emerald however, we decided to head to Franz’s lift – an older lift that covered much of the same terrain as the Big Red, but operated at less than a tenth of the speed. We hadn’t been on this lift yet, and did so because there was no line whatsoever, there was no wind at the top, and simply because we could.

It was certainly a slow ride up, but we did see some excitement on the way up. Near the top, where we had a view towards the Peak chair and the bowls that surrounded it, we saw a hovering helicopter. What we soon saw was that they were dropping explosives from the helicopter into the deep and steep snow that lay beneath. A few minutes after, the charges were detonated remotely and a small avalanche ensued. While an avalanche wasn’t guaranteed to occur, and certainly never big enough to cause major damage to the snow surface for too far down the hill, the plume of snow that flew up whenever the charge was detonated and the accompanying boom was well worth watching and experiencing. Unfortunately, because we were on the lift, we didn’t get any photos of this one – so you’ll just have to take our word for it.

At the top of the lift, we headed down back towards the place we had come from – not because we were suckers for punishment and wanted to ride Franz’s Chair again and again, but more so that we had seen a sign indicating that the Big Red had ‘heavy’ traffic, while the Emerald and Garbanzo had ‘light’ traffic, which we could hardly believe. We really wanted to know first-hand, and so the only way to do this was to ski down, past Franz’s, to the Big Red. We did this and found that, as we thought, there was no queue at all at the base of this lift, but also that there was a significant layer of cloud that surrounded this level of the mountain.

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After catching the Big Red Express back up, we went to the Roundhouse Lodge for lunch. We enjoyed the views while we snacked on a fairly regular lunch, as the only cloud at the top of the mountain was a significantly higher layer of cloud that was not obstructing anyone’s views. If only that cloud hadn’t been there, it would have been blue-skies as far as the eye could see. Nonetheless, it was still a great improvement over the weather of the previous days, and so nobody was complaining. We could see the 7th Heaven lift over on Blackcomb in the distance, and while it looked nice enough to consider making the trip across the Peak 2 Peak, we soon noticed the many people moving down from the top of this lift, indicating that there may well be big lines at the base. We decided it may be better to leave this one for a weekday.

Once lunch was done, we did a loop of the Emerald Chair, followed by one towards the Big Red, leading us to ‘Tokum’ – a run Jasmine had suggested a few days prior, but Ed and I had had trouble finding in our quick search of the area. This run ended up being fine, except for the moguls which covered the surface from top to bottom. If it had been groomed, it would have been brilliant. At the base of this run, we caught the Garbanzo Express back to the top, and gave ‘Raven’ a shot.

While Raven was a black run, and relatively steep, it had great views over the valley and towards Blackcomb, and was nicely groomed for most of the way down. By the time we got the the base of this, and Ptarmigan, everyone was well and truly exhausted, so we decided to ski to the very bottom of the mountain. I skied a number of great tree-runs on the way down, included a black-diamond mountain bike path, and will be sure to video some of these for you enjoyment over the next few days.

We reached the base of the mountain to the joys of light rainfall (yuk), but this stopped soon after. Once we returned to the room, we found Kerrie listening to a live internet radio broadcast of Nicole’s basketball game. Although it was being broadcast live on FSN, none of the sports bars/pubs/restaurants seemed to have coverage of this channel, so she had resulted to an audio feed (which set her back $9!). Pip and I soon hit the shops, and went to purchase a pair of shoes I had seen yesterday, but not taken the time to try on.

We returned soon after, and Ed, Pip and I had a relaxing spa for half an hour or so. Just after 6pm, we headed into the village for the weekly ‘fire and ice show’ that was presented every Sunday night. This showcased much of the best talent of the Ski and Snowboard Schools here at Whistler, and was enjoyed by all. While a few hundred people had gathered here for the show, just as many rushed to find a restaurant for tea afterwards, and so we had some troubles getting a table at Earl’s. An hour later, however, and we finally had one.

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Dinner was nice, except for the very end where the waitress - who had been the same waitress as we had had last time – gave us a spiel about their tipping policies, and suggested that we had not tipped last time. We were quite taken aback by this, as we had tipped significantly due to good service, and were planning on doing so again for similar reasons. We ignored her suggestions, tipped as we were going to, and moved back to the room.

By the time we returned to the room, it was well after 10pm. Kerrie organised her gear for tomorrow’s 5:30am departure, while the rest of us relaxed and then finally headed to bed.

The weather is supposed to fine up even more over the next few days, so we should hopefully have some even nicer photos to share with you. Stay tuned, keep playing along at home, and leave us some comments to read!