The phrase “76 centimetres in 48 hours” has a certain ring to it, doesn’t it? Not because this number of centimetres of snow in this amount of time has any special meaning. It’s really just about the first number being significantly higher than the second number. Ergo, that big-ass snowstorm that hit us hard and fast last weekend.
It began on Friday afternoon, Dec. 13, and the snow that fell on Saturday was one of those daytime storms when the skiing just got better and better and better. Early risers got the first tracks, but the deepest turns weren’t found until the early afternoon. Returning to your vehicle after skiing and finding the better part of 20 centimetres caked to your windshield… If that doesn’t motivate you to come back and ski the next day, nothing will.
And many did. With a break in the weather forecasted for late Sunday morning and a high chance of the alpine lifts opening, skiers and riders poured up the freshly cleared highway. Another 30 centimetres fell overnight, setting up the dream double Whistler Blackcomb whammy of deep mid-mountain pow and even deeper alpine, which had been hammered by the storm for the last 48 hours.
But it’s not always a home run for everyone involved. When it comes to playing your hand for the alpine, you either have to go all-in or know when to fold ‘em. This small-yet-critical decision can drastically change the course of your day.
I’m normally a diehard Blackcomb skier, but when the weather breaks, there’s nothing quite like a couple backside Peak laps to fill the tank. Spotting an opportunity last weekend to do exactly that, I took a punt on Whistler Mountain and lined up for the Peak Chair just before 11 a.m. I was by no means the first to the party. Some had been there since 9:30 a.m. and knew full well they were in for a wait. But how long until it opened?
The first hour blew by relatively quickly. Standing in the singles line, I struck up a conversation with Phil, a ski dad who lives in Kitsilano and has been coming up to Whistler to ski most of his life. Like me, Phil is a patient man and didn’t mind slogging it out in the cold if it meant putting his skis down an alpine slope with more than 50 centimetres caked to it. We chatted about everything from ideal slackcountry setups to the current state of local news media.
The second hour of waiting was when folks started to grow restless. The alpine bombs from the first hour were now quiet, and all attention was on the ski patrollers who would come by every 30 minutes or so. Around the 90-minute mark of total wait time, a false positive ripped through the crowd with hoots, hollers and screams incorrectly signalling it was finally time. Once reality set in, the hoots and hollers were replaced by grumbles and complaints. Some folks gave up in frustration and walked away. But not me and Phil. We were in it for the long haul. Besides, how much longer could it be?
At the two-hour mark I started to get uncomfortable. Conversations were starting to turn from happy-go-lucky waiting game to what-the-hell-are-we-doing-here? Everyone was cold and many were hungry, thinking it couldn’t be more than another 20 minutes an hour ago. The nervous stamping of ski boots, lunging of legs and swinging of arms in an attempt to stay warm were losing their appeal. The most frustrated people started venting at passing patrollers and lift operators. Things were getting tense.
And then, at 1:22 p.m.—two hours and 24 minutes after I lined up—Peak Chair finally opened. People were almost in disbelief thinking it was yet another red herring, but the rope came down and slowly but surely we all loaded up and got our best run of the 2024-25 season (so far).
Few skiers and riders would sign up for a saga this long. But once you get past the first 45 minutes or so of waiting, the FOMO takes over and you begin to double down. It has worked for me many, many times in the past, nailing the timing just so, or putting in more than an hour of patience for the reward of the best skiing. But this one didn’t quite balance out. The run I skied was amazing, but it was all over in minutes and I didn’t have time in my day for another run. The time I put into waiting was simply too long to feel like I made the most of my Sunday. But that’s part of the game sometimes.
I’ll bookend this account by stating I do not put any fault on Whistler Mountain Ski Patrol or their operations staff for making us wait. It was a fierce storm with fiercer wind in the alpine, and rumour had it pocket avalanche slabs were releasing all over the Peak Chair terrain while the patrollers were trying to make it safe. On this day, the snow was not behaving the way it normally does. As a result, a few hundred people had a frustratingly long wait, one we all chose to put ourselves through in the name of pow.
Vince Shuley hopes Phil’s lap down West Cirque was just as good as his own. For questions, comments or suggestions for The Outsider, email [email protected] or Instagram @whis_vince.
