WHISTLER THANKSGIVING 2006

We're back! It was a weekend of extremes. The weekend was extremely...

WELL REPRESENTED: Over 30 friends converged on Whistler to celebrate the opening of Blackcomb and tons of fresh snow.
DEEP: Whistler had received 300cm of snow in the past week or two!
COLD: Temperatures were at -18 Celcius on the Peak chair Saturday and dipped low in the village every night.
FILLING: Fondue at Bavaria Saturday night was amazing as usual. We had a table of 20 and everyone ate WAY too much.
LONG: The commute from Whistler to Seattle took over 7 hours of driving as the roads were in whiteout condition and Thanksgiving traffic was terrible.
FUN!: No major injuries, tons of cliff drops, powder runs, good friends, and great food.

I've posted pics in the Gallery. Enjoy!

SNOW IN WHISTLER!

Right now it's seriously puking snow all over the beautiful hills of Whistler-Blackcomb. Zero visibility with 35cm accumulation today alone. Another 5cm tomorrow and 15cm Thursday. Friday will be epic. I'm definitely loading the chains and a shovel into the Scion because the freezing level is right down in the valley.

This is good news for the 25 of us headed to Whistler during the American version of Thanksgiving. Wednesday is my last day at work before heading up to Whistler for my first runs of 2006. No trip to Whistler is complete without a trip to Bavaria for a 3 course meal of cheese, oil and chocolate fondue.

Well... time to get back to work and stop day-dreaming... but in case you want to waste some time try this challenging and addictive 2-d game called Orbit. I made it to level 11.

Null season ends early!

The local hills are all getting dumped on and many mountains should be open this week! Crystal and Baker are shooting for Thursday as opening day and Stevens will announce their opening day this afternoon! Here are some pictures from Mt.Baker.

There are several online resources to find out the snow-conditions without having to go to each ski-hill individually:
- skitiger.com has a dedicated page for snowcams
- snowboardseattle.com has links to most local resorts as well as forums and other resources
- skiwashington.com has a great powder-alert newsletter which warns you ahead of time for any potential "sick-days"
- CascadeClimber also has a good page of web-cams

Everyone is pumped up for the Whistler trip over US Thanksgiving. So far we have 20+ Seattleites making the trip including Paul+7, Derek and crew, Chad/Kiara, Tom+2, and Amanda/Cam/Kojo/Ian and I in our very own suite. See you all there!

NHL over the web

Mottie's post about hockey lead me to post some Canadian content of my own. Recently the NHL has partnered with G**gle to present all NHL games 48 hours after they air on TV. Not only that but they also feature some classic games such as the 1989 final of Flames vs. Habs. Go to this page to select the games of your choice.

Another cool thing about Canada... our Prime Ministers allow Comedian Reporter Rick Mercer into their home and are cool enough to do interviews like these:
- Paul Martin
- Steven Harper

In streaming video news... Microsoft is starting it's own live video offering with Soapbox. It's in beta stage but will be fully operational soon enough!