I feel like the skier I should be finally. Today really helped my confidence in my ability which sometimes waver. Eric couldn’t join me on the slopes today so I thought I would be alone, but Mo saved the day. Mo is an incredible skier and saying those words doesn’t do the man justice. It’s disgusting how good he is. He also has his level 2 teaching so I wanted to make sure that I used his time and advice wisely.

After he saw me do a couple runs, he looked and me and said “You’re a good skier, what the hell am I suppose to teach you.” I breathed a sigh of relief, I’m doing it right. I should let people know that I first started skiing in Grade 4 and that’s over 20 years ago. I also had a lot of instruction during my younger years. That is growing up in Richmond Hill for you 🙂

So, Mo knew I wanted to hit up blowhole today. He decided that I should be trying some other harder runs too. So we went to one of his favourite runs the double black diamond, Coulier Extreme off of Chainsaw Ridge. The Ski and Snowboard Guide to Whistler Blackcomb describes Coulier like this:

An ultra-popular mega-couloir. The line is right down the center of the bowl. Formally known as the Saudan Coulior, this has been the staging place for the thigh-burning horror show know as the Coulior Extreme Race.

I took a look and it was hairy, really hairy. I passed and said let’s try something else first. So we went through Secret Bowl to Pakalolo which is also another black diamond run. it didn’t look as hairy and I took it with little complaints.

We hit up the Blackcomb Glacier and I went on blowhole which was a cakewalk compared to Pakalolo. The pic above is me standing at the opening of blowhole. Once warmed up, it was back to Coulior Extreme. I didn’t pass this time, but I did have a tiny freakout once I got past the point of no return. It is so damn steep, I wasn’t sure if I could get down this thing. Since there was no way out, I got my composure back and said let’s do this shit. The top picture is me begining my descent. You can get a bit of the feel of how steep it was. It’s even steeper in real life.

I don’t ever use the term “Giv’er” seriously ever; it’s always been in a mocking tone. After coming out of Coulior I truly felt like I had “Gived Her”. I had a huge giddy grin on my face the whole day which consisted of two more times on the Glacier, some 7th Heaven and Horstman Glacier.

Today was really beautiful up top, not a cloud in the sky. The clouds were all mid-mountain and it was a beautiful view. I’m getting a goggle tan, I forgot to wear my moisturizer with sunscreen today