The snowboard tour is over. We’re leaving Whistler tomorrow, driving down to Vancouver to look for a house and job. Back to the real world.

I’ve had a mixed week here in Whistler. It’s been great to catch up with Bevin & Jonny again, but the snow has been a bit sketchy. It had rained heavily before I arrived, and all during my first day, which destroyed the snow quality on the mountain. The temperature then dropped rapidly, freezing the hill into an ice rink.

I wasn’t too fussed about going riding in crap snow, and didn’t hold much hope of getting too much boarding done during the week, but then, thankfully, it started snowing. I did a half day on Tuesday which was OK, but there wasn’t much cover over that ice layer, and with detuned edges on my board I was all over the place.

Wednesday was brilliant as we’d had 30cm of powder in the last 24 hours. We made a couple of loops through the Blackcomb Glacier bowl, finding fresh tracks in knee-deep light powder. I’d also got my board tuned, so my edges were holding on the groomers too. Thursday was awesome too, with myself and Bevin spending all day in the Symphony Bowl.

We awoke on Friday morning bright and early, to 10cm of fresh outside the window and it was still snowing. Myself and Bevin were raring to go and were on the Creekside Gondola by 8.30. Jonny was telling us that there was an inversion and it was raining up top, but we didn’t believe him, figuring he was just jealous because he had to work and couldn’t enjoy the powder. Unfortunately he was right, and while there was lots of new snow, it was really wet, heavy stuff which was really hard to ride in. Plus, it was still raining. We rode around for a couple of hours, but by 11.30 we were through, calling it a day and heading down to meet Tom for coffee.

Still, 53 days riding, usually in great snow, is a huge season for me. My days as a snow bum are over though, unless Project Lotto comes good. Meanwhile it’s back to sitting in front of a computer.