Chasing snowfields and the aurora

□ Day 3 (14 Feb) Squamish ⇔ Whistler (2)

Pizza from the morning today. On a pizza base from the supermarket topped only with cheese and sliced salami, we piled lots of corn and mushrooms and put it in the oven. Baked slowly until browned: a feast of a pizza is ready.

We drove to Whistler. Clear skies again today! At the gondola station it was obvious there were more people than yesterday. Probably because it was Saturday. Today we skied Blackcomb Mountain all day. First we took the Blackcomb Excalibur Gondola. Compared with Whistler, Blackcomb has more steep slopes and more mogul runs. Halfway up there are a great many intermediate and advanced runs, each with its own character, from steep runs where you pick up speed to mogul courses covered in bumps, and it's fun. There are several park courses of different difficulty with jumps and a huge halfpipe. Taking the Glacier Express quad lift brings you straight out above the tree line into a silver-white world. The ski area really is vast. There are so many people that the lift queues stretch out, but skiing the runs there's no cramped feeling of nearly colliding with others, and the freedom to ski wherever you like feels great.

You can't reach the summit of Blackcomb at 2,440 m, but you can reach the highest point of the ski area at 2,240 m on a lift called the "Showcase T-Bar". It's an unusual lift: a bar shaped like an upside-down T hangs from the cable, and two people sit against the bar and hold on, sliding up the slope. Your skis or board stay on the snow. For first-timers this is quite tricky. Shinoda and Horibe fell off the lift twice.

Getting off the Showcase T-Bar, a glacier slope called the Horstman Glacier spreads out on the right, but for some reason many other people didn't go that way; they took off their skis and climbed the slope in front. Curious, we climbed the slope for a while too, and an enormous, breathtaking glacier slope appeared on the left. This is the Blackcomb Glacier, which is also designated a provincial park. It's rated intermediate, and there is a groomed run between flags, but for this huge glacier that's no more than a single thin line. In fact few people were skiing the groomed part; everyone was skiing wherever they liked. The snow quality was of course the best. But in places rocks were exposed, so you have to be careful. After enjoying a long run on the glacier, the run leads straight into a forest run. This run was long and fun too.

Next we went to a silver-white area called "7th Heaven", which spreads out from the top of a lift called the "Horstman T-Bar". This is a vast area too, but the groomed runs are clearly marked, and there are gentle beginner runs as well. Of course there are plenty of intermediate and advanced runs: the intermediate "Hugh's Heaven" and "Panorama" let you fly over the best snow at top speed, while the advanced "Sunburn" and "Angel Dust" are covered in moguls. Riding the 7th Heaven Express lets you enjoy them again and again efficiently.

We decided to have lunch at the "Horstman Hut" restaurant at the top of 7th Heaven. You can eat on the outdoor terrace, and the view from here is very good. The location is the best; the drawback is that it's a bit pricey. A normal meal easily goes over $15.

After lunch, while skiing in 7th Heaven, there was an accident! Naoto hit his lower back on a rock and was injured. At this point Naoto had to leave the slopes. While the remaining three were skiing, this time Horibe took a big fall on a steep mogul slope! The impact twisted a part of his binding 90 degrees, and it wouldn't go back no matter how hard he tried. But when he took the ski to the hut at the top of the lift and explained in broken English, a staff member fixed it by banging on it with a hammer.

After this we took on the mogul slope halfway up and then came down. Back in Squamish we went to a big supermarket called "Save-On-Foods". It was fun, with a wide range of products like pasta and sweets sold by weight. There was a wide variety of fresh food like vegetables and meat too. For dinner we made and ate beef stew.