All Quiet on the Whistler Front

Friday was day one of competition and the opening ceremonies were playing on screens throughout the village for gazillions of people. The scene on the mountain this Friday, however, was a very different picture from the hustle and bustle of an Olympics-ready village.

Where is everyone? It's a pow day on Whistler.

It was a 20cm powder day, and frankly, I avoid Whistler mountain on powder days because of the sometimes massive lift lines. Miraculously, there was nary a soul in line to ride up the Whistler gondola. Normally the line on a powder day stretches out far past the gates and I make a beeline for Blackcomb. Next, Peak Chair opened and the lift line was miniscule and took about 5 minutes to load onto the chair. As we waited in line we watched SuperDave Treadway drop Air Jordan and narrowly escape being dragged off of the lowest cliff by a slab that released after he landed. Dave mentions his thoughts as everything started to slide, “crap, I have to get out of here, I don’t want to have to ski all the way down to Red chair!”

Dave Treadway and his tracks... and avy debris left behind after a sweet line down Air Jordan.

Our first lap was a great one down West Cirque to Frog’s Hollow. It was worth the trip down to Red and once again there was no lineup. On a powder day. Seriously, it was eerie how quiet things were on the mountain.

The clouds started to roll in after our first lap and we spent the rest of the day enjoying the powder while we couldn’t see anything. It didn’t matter though, because the turns were soft and landings so cushy.

Ryan McRae, pretty stoked to be virtually alone on Whistler mountain.

Speaking of cushy, these friendly police dudes (three of only 80 lucky enough to ski for work throughout the Games,) have maybe the cushiest Olympic job, and they allowed us to snap a photo. Constable Jeff Levine was keen to take a powder lap with us up Peak Chair, but unfortunately the rest of his shred posse had some things to attend to. I’ll assume they were attending to shredding pow elsewhere on the mountain. There was a plenty of it to go around.

Best job ever? What happens if you bail while there's a gun in your holster? Gnarly. Ryan and Tessa fraternize with the frienemy.

Even though we were stoked to be shredding, we were filled with sadness for people, like this guy, who were stuck on the racecourse sideslipping it in preparation for the upcoming races.

Powder powder everywhere and not a patch to ski. Very sad worker fenced in (or out, depends how you look at it) while we skied freshies all day.

Some lucky volunteers were able to sneak away from responsibility to shred some powder laps in the late afternoon, like Mr. Bryan Donnelly, the tallest telemarker I know. He’s 6’9” and an ex-olympian from the Canadian men’s 8 rowing team. He was filled with the Olympic spirit the entire time he was shredding down through the trees into Sun Bowl. His heart was glowing I think, especially as we hiked up from the bottom of Symphony chair after missing the last ride up. Fortunately for us, Rupert, the ever-excited liftie, picked us up on his snowmobile and saved us a portion of the hike.

Working hard? Or hardly working?

Bryan Donnelly "volunteering" to make sure the snow is still in Whistler for the Olympics. It takes guys like Bryan to make sure the Olympics run smoothly. Thanks, Bry.

The vibe in the village is positively electric, and the men’s downhill race is going to be pretty rad to watch provided it happens as scheduled. Don’t forget your cowbells, people, those dh racers have a fever… and the only prescription is more cowbell.