Murphy got tired of causing trouble

In continuation of my last blog...

Friday night we went to IGA (a grocery store with aisles going in about 5 different directions) and then my mom and I wanted to take the bus back to our hotel, so we went to the bus stop, and got on the first bus that came along. It turns out that that bus was not the bus we wanted. We ended up going 7 miles outside of Whistler and it was a nice enough drive, but we would have preferred getting to our hotel an hour before we did.

Saturday we took the Peak to Peak gondola from Blackcomb mountain to Whistler Mountain.

The Gondola can fit 28 people per cabin for the 11 minute ride across the valley.

Of the 2.73 mile ride, there are 4 towers (2 on each mountain) and 1.88 miles of rope stretched between two towers (while you are 1,427 feet over Fitzsimmons Creek).

The Gondola rides on two track ropes and a haul rope. The track ropes are each 4,600 meters long and 56mm in diameter. The haul rope is 46mm in diameter and 8,850m long.

2,050 people can ride each way in one hour.

My mom and I were delighted to find more trail signs on Whistler mountain, however there also seemed to be way more people. During one of our quests to avoid the crowd at the bottom of the Big Red Express, we ended up in the Kid's Tree Fort. The little kids, who were probably 5 or 6, did a great job of making it through, but my mom and I seemed to lack the necessary skills to go around the trees the way we would have liked to. Then we went up to Sun Bowl, and discovered that it was white-out condition up top, so we followed fog markers down to the Peak to Peak, took it across to Blackcomb (since we had a better idea of where we were going on Blackcomb) and went back to our hotel.

On Sunday we took a day off. Once I finally woke up at 11 (Hey, with Daylight Savings Time it was only 10), we walked around the village at the bottom of Whistler mountain to find souveneir T-shirts for ourselves and my dad and brother. That night I decided I was going to broil chicken, but I didn't feel like cleaning the broiler pan first (we'd used it to broil chicken Friday night) so I managed to set the smoke alarm off twice before my mom decided she'd finish cooking the chicken in the microwave. Later on that evening, we went to the 7-Eleven Fire and Ice Show and watched some of Whistler Blackcomb's ski and snowboard instructors jump and flip through a ring of fire.

We were back on the slopes on Monday morning. I had talked my mom into eating waffles for breakfast at the Crystal Hut. Unfortunately, Crystal Hut was at the top of a closed lift, so in order to get there, we had to ride up a different chairlift and then take a long traverse across to the Crystal Hut. Then we had our waffles and continued our day. At the end of the day, we took the T-bar up in order to try out a double black diamond run, but my mom managed to miss the path going in that direction (I think she was bound and determined to not go on a double black).

Tuesday the receptionist at the front desk allowed us to lock our luggage up in the conference room so that we could ski all day before getting on a bus to Vancouver that evening. We headed over to Whistler mountain to start our day. We were going to start our day off on a double black, but my mom missed the sign for that too, so I went on the double black without her and by some miracle we ended up in the same location. Later on, I made another attempt at getting her to go on a double black, but she did not like the "Extremely rock trail" sign. We came to the next double black and she said that a guy had told her "Extremely rocky" sounded better than what he saw when he looked down the trail, so we didn't go on that trail either. Then we went in Symphony Ampitheatre (basically a bowl that they didn't call a bowl) where my mom got to experience some wonderful moguls (she HATES moguls), I got to listen to a guy going past screaming about "What have I gotten myself into!?!" while going through rollers (little hills and valleys of snow... I thought they were one of those features that were on the extremely manageable end of the spectrum, but apparently not according to this guy), and then I was going up a hill and ran into powder and that didn't work out so well for me. Then I got to the next hill which looked nice and crusted over but turned out to be powdery too. By the time I was moving along again, I figured that my mom had probably found more moguls and managed to get through them again. Sure enough, she had found moguls, but she was still at the top of them, probably cursing me for taking her on such a horrible trail. Then we ended up at the bottom of Harmony Chairlift when we had meant to be at the bottom of Symphony Chairlift, but it all worked out because it turns out that the Symphony chair was already closed for the day. On the last run of our vacation we took an intermediate trail (intermediate = I [on a snowboard] could move along without my mom's ski pole and my mom could move along without complaining that her legs were burning or cursing me for putting her in yet another mogul field). Then we found the "Gun Barrels" and we just had to go down them so that we could tell my dad that we went down a gun barrel. The top of it was really nice, but then our nice open trail turned into a forest with paths that were approximately 5 feet wide. I side slipped down, convinced that sooner or later I found fall face first and probably hit a rock or a tree. By some miracle I didn't fall down. Then I waited at the bottom for 15 minutes because my mom decided that the best way to go down the skinny little trail was by taking her skis off and walking down, grabbing onto trees as she went to avoid sliding down the entire trail. Then we ended up on another beginner trail (my mom seemed to have a magnetic attraction to beginner trails which were incredibly flat and involved me having to either steal her pole or take my board off and walk... but this green trail actually appeared to be the only way down from where we were). Then we returned my snowboard and her skis to the rental shop, collected our luggage from our hotel's conference room, and got on a bus down to Vancouver. The Sea to Sky highway is a very nice drive at sunset, aside from the trees that interfere with taking pictures of the sun setting behind the mountains.

Wednesday morning we woke up bright and early to fly back to the US. Luck was beginning to work in our favor- someone had left their luggage cart (the ones that you get inside the airport that cost a ridiculous amount to rent) outside on the sidewalk, so I no longer had to drag my one-wheeled suitcase around. Then, since we were checking in on Air Canada, rather than United, we did not have to pay the $15 per suitcase fee. Then we stood in a rather long line to get through security but at least it was moving at a reasonably steady pace. Once I had safely arrived in Denver, I collected my one-wheeled suitcase and went out to get on the bus to the Pikes Peak shuttle lot where I discovered that I was supposed to know if I needed the "A" route or the "B" route. Apparently there was a sign in the parking lot that told me what bus route I should take to get back to my car, but I did not see that sign, and I figured I was doing good when I remembered that I parked in the JJ1 row. Then I found my way onto I-70 where I got to sit in stand-still traffic for awhile. Being from rural South Dakota, this concept of being on the interstate and not moving was a foreign idea. Then they had traffic slowed down in Georgetown because they were blasting rock on the side of the road. Finally, 3 1/2 hours later, I had made it to Leadville (in good conditions, Denver to Leadville is about a 2 hr drive).

Yesterday (Thursday), I enjoyed sleeping in and cleaning my room (it was a mess... actually, it still is a mess, but it's an organized mess right now at least). Homework was also on my agenda, but that didn't quite happen.

This coming week:

Ropeway Operations- We will be studying "Drive Control Systems and Safety Circuits".

Events Management- Our topic of discussion is "Sanctioning Grganizations and FIS". I'm sure we will also be wrapping up last minute details for the rail jam on Saturday.

Public Speaking- We have gone a bit astray from our syllabus, so I'm not completely sure what we are doing, but I believe we are going to be receiving instructions on how to do our Informative Speech which I think also involves the use of PowerPoint.

Trail Grooming- We will be learning about "Grooming Steep Terrain/Winch Catting" and "Grooming Man-made Snow"

Ski Patrol- We will be studying "Lift Evacuation"

Food and Beverage- We are to complete Chapter 9 which is titled "Production" and includes the topics of Production Planning, Food Production, the Preparation of Food (fresh fruits and vegetables, meat and pultry, fish, eggs and dairy products, baked products, and coffee and tea), and Control During Food and Beverage Production.

Events this week include:

Friday, March 13th and Saturday, March 14th-The Cripple of Inishmaan is a play that is being put on at 7pm at the Spring Valley campus in Glenwood Springs.

Sunday, March 15th- The Cripple of Inishmaan is being performed at 2pm in Glenwood Springs.

Saturday, March 21st- 4th Annual CMC Rail Jam

901 S. Hwy 24, Dutch Henri - CMC Timberline Campus, Leadville, CO

9AM- Registration

11AM- Practice

1PM- Competition starts

$15 registration fee at the competition

Competition is open to the first 50 competitors

6:30PM After Party and SWAG Giveaways at Doc Hollidays with live music from GrooveSpeek.

Must be 18 years or older to participate.

Mustaches and helmets strongly recommended.

Saturday, March 21st- En Fuego at Copper

Until next week, have fun! :)