FIRST DAY OF THE SEASON (AND ENCOUNTERS WITH ROCKS)
It felt good to get up bright and early, before the rest of the world really started moving around… driving up the Sea-to-Sky highway towards Whistler Blackcomb with an orange glow in the morning sky.
It felt good to get changed in the parking lot, ride the gondola and chairs up, and strap in my boots, and lay board to snow for the first time in a long time.
It also felt good to find some small powder stashes, get my blood pumping again and get the ol’ muscles moving again!
However, It felt really, really bad to put a huge dent in my rail near the end of the day. Darn! 
Let’s go over this in photos.
Whistler is still pretty green as you can tell. The snowbase was at 55 cm today. It was pretty rocky but there was still some soft stuff to be found.
I brought along my backpack and all my camera gear. Trying out the GoPro Camera here again, but this time for snowboarding.
Allan fiddles with the camera.
Lots of icicles forming on the chairlift. They started looking really beautiful.
Here’s a series of shots where I find some powder:
SWOOOOOSH powder turn.
This really caught my eye in the morning. I loved how the morning sun was coming up, just touching the faces of a couple rocks on the side of the mountain… everything was blue and cold, except for the warm yellow on just a few rocks… they looked like they were waking up.
Jersey Cream was as high as we made it, we decided not to hike today. It was pretty busy, but not as busy as it could have been on Opening Day. We rode the singles line and only waited a couple minutes in line each time. Not too shabby!
Yeah, let’s not talk about this too much. So I completely dinged in my rail on a rock… my beloved board is now in the Board Room board shop getting its rail completely replaced by the awesome and ever-caring hands of Anthony, board medic. I suppose it’s a good excuse to get a new board… but I wanted to have a powder board + a groomer board. Now I just might have to go for All Mountain. Ah well, such is life! It’s a bit dumb riding around on rocks but it was so, so worth it just to ride the snow again.
On our way back, we stopped at Granville Island like we do every week and picked up some groceries. Since we were completely ravenous after a full day, I picked out some free-range beef tenderloin medallions. Marinated it in some sauce, garlic, Habaneros peppers, and Jalapeno peppers. Then seared it on all sides, and baked it in the oven. Topped it with a nice peppercorn Brandy sauce and freshly picked wild BC chanterelle mushrooms. Side dishes are fresh organic veggies and butternut squash pesto pasta.
All in all, not too bad a day! Eating steak while watching Canucks is awesome. Watching the Canucks lose to Calgary after a well-played game was pretty tough. We also got some good footage for the in-progress snowboard movie project, so I’m stoked about that. I am looking forward to getting my board back from repairs this weekend, and maybe I’ll get another chance to get up to the mountain this weekend.
Word to the Wise… if you go to Whistler this weekend… watch out for rocks. 
Tags: beef tenderloin, dings, Granville Island, Jersey Cream, mountains, Opening Day, powder, rocks, Snowboarding, Vancouver Canucks, Whistler Blackcomb
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November 28th, 2008 at 12:59 am
Busted rail picture is extra painful looking now that I have my own precious board to baby… Hope it comes back from the shop soon! On the subject of “dangerously low snow base” – what’s the recommended “no risk of rocks” snow base? 80cm? 110cm?
Is it me or the snow taking a lot longer to build up this year, or is it because I’m now a board-head that it’s taking an interminably LONG TIME?
November 28th, 2008 at 1:26 am
Awesome photos! Can’t wait to hit the slopes this year.
November 28th, 2008 at 11:51 am
I scrapped my skis a few times last weekend too. Hopefully we’ll get more snow soon.
Question for you, how did you mount your camera on your board? Are you mounting your DSLR? Or some other system?
November 28th, 2008 at 7:32 pm
You cook too?! What the…
PS. Love the goggle pic
November 29th, 2008 at 11:14 am
Sweet photos Allie! Yeah I was up at Whistler and just came back this morning. Lots of rocks
November 29th, 2008 at 11:30 am
More very pr0 pictures! Looks like it was worth the trade up!
November 29th, 2008 at 9:11 pm
Hey Mike, yep you’re going to have to be careful with your new board!
There’s no real safe point. I mean realistically I could’ve avoided all rocks at Whistler on Thursday if I had just stayed to the groomers… but no.. I had to go off trails… I would say at least a 100cm snow base is a good bet. But either way as long as you stay on the trail you’ll be fine 
Thanks Raj! Where are you going to be heading up this year?
Tawcan, yep all we can do is pray for snow
So the camera mounted on the board is my GoPro camera (just search my blog for “GoPro” and you can see it)… it’s got a nice suction cup mount. Also has helmet straps if I want to use it like that. I thought about mounting my DSLR but after seeing how much snow gets on the little waterproof camera, I don’t think I want to do that to my DSLR 
Michelle.. I’m not that great a cook, it’s all a farce!
Yep who can resist the self-indulgent goggle pictures! Hehe.
Urban Dweller.. I heard Whistler got 10 cm more snow or so overnight on Friday so you must’ve had a nice dusting. Glad to hear you got up there though… did you have a good time?
Kevin, thank ya very much. So far, so good. Having the video is nice but I think the image quality is almost the same. Although my new lenses really make a HUGE difference compared to my old VERY soft lenses.
November 30th, 2008 at 2:39 am
Ugh, your photos are so lovely. It’s settled – I’m going boarding.
November 30th, 2008 at 12:57 pm
Ah so it’s generally safer on the trails; which is just as well, as I’m still a n00b by my standards, and going off trail would just mean me becoming intimate with the aboreal locals.
Hope the board repairs turned out well so you got to go again on Sunday!
December 1st, 2008 at 1:08 pm
Nice pics and all! Can the SnowBroader boyz come visit you in Whistler this winter
Take care
December 1st, 2008 at 1:16 pm
Haha, of course you guys can
December 1st, 2008 at 2:36 pm
I’m sorry to hear about the board, but it looks like you had a great first day. Love the pics (as usual). I had no idea you were such a great chef!
I’m hoping that this weekend could be the first one out… I strapped on my new board and bindings last weekend and it felt so nice.
December 1st, 2008 at 4:46 pm
Yeah snowboarding! Doesn’t it feel amazing to finally get back on the snow!? Rad photos too. Bummer about the board! The edge on the nose of my Skate Banana split last year and I felt like a part of me died… But I got it fixed! Haha
So yeah I think a meet up is definitely in order… I’m going home to Reno for a week or two ish so I’ll be getting my shred on in Tahoe around Christmas time. Any plans to head down that way at all? Or to Colorado?
December 12th, 2008 at 4:32 am
First day of the Season in November. You have no idea how lucky you are. I live in the Uk and I have to wait until March to go ride.
September 26th, 2009 at 2:49 am
Wow, those are crystal clear photos. What camera did you use?