mountain biking in whistler >>>>>>>>>>> snowboarding in whistler. its not even close.

flying to japan today.
100cm 7 day forecast
-15c

coming from 35c heat its gonna be wild.

whistler has more snow than that in the forecast :P

I'm surprised to hear you say Whistler sucks. From some avid snowboarders I've heard nothing but great things. It usually goes Whistler, Big White, and Sunshine. I still plan on hitting there this year, but def not gonna go there on a Saturday.

nah it doesnt suck but what i want from my snowboarding has drastically changed.
i want to ride fresh powder all day everyday without EVER waiting for lifts and i dont party anymore.
it was fun when i was early 20s and my party to shred ratio was 50/50 and i still rode park.
nowhere beats whistler in summer for mountain biking though. easily the best bike park in the world with tons of sunshine and outdoor activities.

id rate kicking horse and revelstoke as my top canadian places to shred.



meanwhile in niseko...16th powder day in a row and its been a below average season.

That's what I'm talking about. I never really think of Japan as having ski resorts, but that sure changes things. I've heard kicking horse gets the most snow, and revelstoke is the steepest. I'm hoping to hit all of those throughout the winter

Must get to Japan. Must work harder to afford it.

this place does kinda suck. First year I was here it was awesome...now its infuriating fighting turds for a spot on the "harmony 6".

People would wait in that line?

I was in that line, and when u dont have snow for 2 months then 20cm falls you might too.

Whistler is hugely over rated, unless u want to ride park and party. 1st season in Canada and im very disappointed i chose Whistler.

i finally made it to japan.
im writing this as i sit in my cardanchi in -5c.
snowed pretty heavily on the drive up here.
first powder day tomorrow.

So jealous buddy, have an awesome trip!

Just got back from Sunshine Village in Banff yesterday, and I gotta say: midweek snowboarding is 1000 times better! No lines all day, no having to wait as noob after noob falls on the chair and it has to stop 5x on your way up. No inexperienced donk tourists that prefer to learn on a blue run while all 4 of them plug up the spots that are best to rip on.

Only bad thing about yesterday visibility was bad at the peak of Continental Divide Express because it snowed from 10am-2pm. It cleared up for about an hour, so I was able to crack 100km/h a couple times.

Next trip I'm thinking of Kicking Horse or Big White. Anyone been to either this year who has any reviews?

Wayne I agree with you. I came as close to moving to Van in the last few weeks without actually putting down a deposit on a place. While the consensus is that Whistler is the best we have, somewhere like Calgary puts you within a few hours of way more mountains.

Highly recommend Sunshine Village and Lake Louise to anyone who hasn't been. And especially recommend going during the week if you can. On a Saturday or Sunday there is way <1000 people (Lake Louise claims they can get 3500 when busiest, although 500+ are drinking beers/eating at any given time) I would bet that there was less than 200 people on the mountain through the whole day, and less than 50 people after 3:30.

first decent day of untouched bottomless powder today.

Soll tomorrow. Apparently pistes are in great conditions! Looks like going to Italy afterwards.

woke up to this.

to do this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_VSw...re=c4-overview

close to one of the best days ive ever had.
got first lifts and rode nonstop solo all day.
i probably did about 15 lines of bottomless untouched like in video.
its a saturday and i was 3rd in line at 830 with lifts opening at 9.
didnt wait once for any lifts.
it hasnt stopped snowing so tomorrow will be more of the same.

That is absolutely nuts. I have never seen anything close to that in Canada. Of course, if you have the dough you can heli ski which certainly does have that, but not on the mountain.

How expensive is it in Japan? I am definitely interested in going there for sure now.

Thats awesome, should have done Japan this season instead.

Here was my day in Whistler after we got 50cm overnight. Dont have a video editor so took some screenshots of the lines.

Got to the lifts at 8:20 (10mins before they open), waited 1hr for the 1st lift, 45mins for the next directly after with no run in between as u had to go higher. The a short cat track and another 1.5hr wait. After all that i got 1 pretty epic run through the coastal concrete. The 1st pic there is what i was greeted by after this run. Called it a day haha




Lineup for the Blackcomb Gondola, only shows half of it.

That's absurdly depressing. Worst part is that you actually pay insane prices for that ****. I don't get it, is there no way they can expand there? Surely there are mountains suitable in the region that are undeveloped?

When did Whistler get like this? Was it like this pre-olympics or has it just been getting worse and worse the last few years? Sad, because it does have some nice terrain but a traffic jam and no ability for fresh tracks can put a damper on that.

Prices in Japan are probably like 50%+ cheaper overall from googling around. The flight out there will run you more, but cost of living and lift prices will feel like a handout compared to Whistler. Not to mention you'll be in Japan which is pretty awesome. The only thing you won't get is quite the size and terrain but that's a bit overrated when compared to great conditions and few people.

How is Whistler on weekdays? I'd guess it has to be way better than that. Considering how many people live in the lower mainland and its proximity, I can see how the weekends would be packed. Sunshine and Lake Louise have Calgary which is about 1 mil metro, whereas Van is 2.3 mil.

How many runs can you get in a day at Whistler? Even getting at LL by noon I've gotten 15 runs in. In a full day I get close to 25. But I will basically board for 4 hours eat something really fast like a protein bar and a juice and then board till the last run.

the problem with whistler is that its a upside down pyramid in its lift system. tons of lifts up top, but only a few at the bottom.
that line is disgusting. it seems to have gotten worse since my last season there 4 years ago but waiting an hour for a lift was certainly standard on busy days.

so i had an even deeper day today. there was 50cm of new snow outside my car this morning so id guess up to 80cm on the mountain. it was actually really busy today. i had to wait 5 minutes for my first lift.

a day ticket for rusutsu is $46US which is one of the most expensive resorts in japan. a lot are in the $20-30 range and some are even free with coupons you can print out.
its true that the mountains on hokkaido are small and terrain is mostly mellow but if you're after super gnarly lines, then hakuba has more than anyone can handle (ask jeremy jones)

ok I googled it, 600m (2/5 of Whistler height) and longest run 3.5km about 1/3 of the distance of whistlers longest.

Are the mountains steep? Personally I like to blast down the mountain, will I be able to hit 100+ km/h in Japan?

There are 1100m mountains in Japan. That said, I wouldn't necessarily recommend going all the way there if simply blasting down the mountain is what you prefer.

Typically its ok on non-powder weekdays. But even powder weekdays get busy and most of the liftable terrain is tracked out by midday. That said, its normal busy these days with 10-15min lines.

Never really thought about it tbh, but id say i typically get alot less than this cos i dont often just smash down the mountain but rather look for side hits and mess about.

U could def hit 100km/h speeds in Japan imo, well i can only speak for Niseko. Whistler may be 1900m of vertical but only half of it has the snow quality to be good most of the time. Even now in the middle of winter it rains 1/3 of the way up the mountain most storms.

if you're into ski racing down perfect velvet groomers then stick to europe and buy some lycra.

most mountains are around 1000m on hokkaido. up to 1700m on honshu. i dont know why the height of a mountain really matters but whatever.

all i care about is how many faceshots im getting.

a few runs of today.
probably gonna stop carrying the gopro around, i think everyone gets the idea, its pow all day everyday, same same.
ill take more vids when i go to other areas or if people really want to see more.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tumuq...ature=youtu.be
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRqF0...ature=youtu.be