Currently, only one mountain at Whistler is open — Blackcomb — but it still has nearly 4,000 acres, which is more than enough for skiing. The snow conditions are still pretty decent, with a base of 187 centimeters. Morning temperatures at the summit range from -5 to -10°C, warming up to around 4°C at noon, while the base area is in the teens. But don’t head up too early — the snow is rock hard. By midday, it softens into thick corn snow, which is actually a lot of fun. It’s the perfect time for moguls and park riding. As they say in Whistler: Spring Moguls Are Amazing. In late March, friends like Thunderbird, Lao Han, and Li Dongfeng skied Revelstoke before coming to Whistler for a day. It was great catching up with old friends, and things got lively.

By the end of March, most of the regular mainland Chinese skiers had already gone back. Though we did see some Asian faces on the mountain afterward, I didn’t dare ask. Only Norman, a snowboarder, came to Whistler and skied for five days.
From April 12th to 21st is the Whistler Ski Festival, which is especially lively. Two mushroom slopestyle champions, Teacher Marina and Sayanara, happened to be there during that time (only Marina stayed to watch and took a photo with her idol, Tom). These two girls really can ski — their championships are well deserved. Unfortunately, there was fog on the mountain those days, but one day brought about 10 centimeters of fresh snow, and the line for the Peak Chair immediately got long again.
On April 22nd, two skiers from Toronto arrived, planning to ski until May 27th when Whistler closes for the season. Among them, Xiao P is a Level 3 instructor, and Lily just got her Level 1 certification in Banff on the 20th. You’ve got to admire how hard the people from the East train (it’s said there are sixty or seventy Chinese coaches in Toronto), unlike us lazy folks in the West who just mess around all day without even getting to Level 2 (the only Level 2, Lupo, is also from the East). How embarrassing.

In the past, it was just the two of us, wandering around the mountain like lost souls. Now we have company every day. A few weekends ago, three people came from Vancouver, making eight of us skiing together. Today, I also ran into Sun Lei and three others from China who came for the May Day holiday. We ended up with seven people on the mountain again — still pretty lively.



This post has been synced to Old Chen from Whistler’s Weibo.