It was hard to roll out of bed at 6:30, but I somehow managed.  The ride to Whistler was pretty good although there were no less than 3 speed traps on the way.  Whistler itself had received a ton of snow early in the week, but unfortunately was dry both Friday and Saturday.  I imagine that was the reason the hill was fairly empty and the lift lines were relatively short.

Jen, Ryan, Cheryl and I cruised the blues on Blackcomb before meeting up with Jen and Glade (yes, another Jen).  At that point we decided to head up Whistler and hang out in the Flute/Oboe/Piccolo areas of the Whistler backcountry since there lay some steep North facing slopes.  While up there we saw the remnants of a pretty big slide.  Glade had skied under that slide area Saturday morning (we later found out it fell Saturday afternoon and took a skier with it who was standing 15ft from the cornice - that skier had to be dug up and heli-evacuated).  Anyhow, we continued past that area and got in some very respectable turns.  Enough to merit the 30 min walk.

At the base we were discussing our turns when I found out that one of Jen's friends was killed in an avalanche last year.  Later on in the conversation I found out that she was killed in the same slide as Craig Kelly (who was my snowboarding idol as a kid).  Apparently she got to go heli skiing on a day's notice for free because someone had to cancel.  Very sad.  The freakiest part of this was that just this Friday I had just posted a Craig Kelly memorial in my office...  What a co-incidence...

At the end of the day we met back up with Ryan/Jen and Cheryl and they made a mean pasta dish which was oh so good.  It was really good to see them.  We don't see enough Wawa folk around here.  Hopefully Ryan can send me his pics.