Whistler and Extremely Canadian

Well, first off, I'm headed out to Whistler from the 11-19 of March this year, will there be any maggots in the area to share some turns with. And second, I signed up with Extremely Canadian to do a 2-day clinic the 15th and 16th. Have any of you done one of their clinics or know someone who has/the guides. Is it really as good as I have heard? If any maggots will be there, are they interested in doing it those same days? I'm totally pumped for it, but some beta or what to expect would be great.

-Ben

expect to have "steep" redefined for ya :D Good times.

Bizzare. I just got back from Whistler and EC. Full report to come. Very fun.

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Originally posted by glademaster
Well, first off, I'm headed out to Whistler from the 11-19 of March this year, will there be any maggots in the area to share some turns with. And second, I signed up with Extremely Canadian to do a 2-day clinic the 15th and 16th. Have any of you done one of their clinics or know someone who has/the guides. Is it really as good as I have heard? If any maggots will be there, are they interested in doing it those same days? I'm totally pumped for it, but some beta or what to expect would be great.

-Ben

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i have never been in one of their clinics, but i have skied with joe lammers in LL 2002. an outstanding skier, and no attitude. if you take the clinic i hope you get him as the group leader.

Oh yeah, you'll have a good time w/ EC. If you don't, you're doing something wrong. Depending on your skill level and your guide (say, Felix), you may also soil your pants. Right, noodles?

Has anyone else seen the "video teaser" they have on the web site? http://www.extremelycanadian.com/camps/index.htm

I think they should ask jibij to do a new one for them :)

I'm going up to W/B from April 1st to the 3rd. I'll have to consider signing up for one of their clinics...it would definitely be on the lower end of the skill level, though.

I'll be interested to hear about Josh's experience.

So, I won a 2 day clinic and 2 night stay at the EC lodge for raising the most bread for the Zero Ceiling charity event at Red Mountain at the summit last season.

This past weekend, I collected.

The Lodge

Funny story, I had actually stayed in the house that has become the EC lodge before they bought it. It was sort of a dump then, but they've totally cleaned and fixed it up. Now, it has a chalet feel to it. All of the furniture is very comfy and the rooms are nicely appointed.

I found the nicest feature of the lodge to be the food, even though I was only able to eat their twice. They serve breakfast and dinner each day, and the food is equal to any resturant in Whistler. Chef Alf's salmon is excellent as is his deserts. Plus, they pretty much will let you drink as much beer or wine as you want.

Bottom line: not cheap, but toally worth it, probably even more so for couples. Bring your honey here and you're getting laid for sure.

Ski Clinics
So, on day 1, you get on the EC van in the morning and they drop you off right by the gondolas. You hoof over to Longhorn and meet your guides. It appears that they set up for 3-4 clients per guide. Our guides were Olivier and Victoria (she tied for 1rst at the IFSA comp at Red this year, for the curious.)

You head up the mountain, and take a warm up run. Then they head over to a bumpy patch skiers right of the green chair. They use this run to seperate the groups. After that, you only ski with your group.

My group consisted of a 60-something from Snowbird (if I can ski like he does at 66, I'll be _very_ happy,) an Aussie staying in Whistler for the season, and a ripping chick from Squaw. We comprised the more advanced of the groups. The clinics are totally aimed at advanced to expert skiers, but it does seem to bias a little towards advanced.

Anyhoo, after that, it's on to the steeps. On Whistler, we raided some steep short shots in Harmony Bowl, and off the peak chair, we hit up West Cirque repeatedly, and Bagel Bowl once. We also looked at a few little nasty chutes skier's right of the Harmony chair.

Day 2 saw us go up Blackcomb for lots of Ruby Bowl, as well as steep shots in various nooks and crannies on the Blackcomb Glacier. We also did Sudan, and another steep shot by Sundan whose name I missed.

So, even for someone who has skiied W/B alot, I was suprised at how many new things and variants of things they were able to show.

Also, you get to use the ski school line, which is great. No lift lines EVER.

Instruction

Olivier, our intreped guide, also offers little pointers over the course of the day. I think that's where EC really shines. It feels more like skiing with a kick-ass skier who pushes you and offers little pointers than a lesson.

The guides all seem super nice. These are people who love their job (and honestly, who wouldn't?) And they are there to help you ski better on the stuff you want to ski, not to rip your skiing apart.

Apres

They also have a little apres area upsatirs in Merlins to decompress after your second day skiing. Beer and apetizers on EC.

All in all, it rocked. Obviously, I didn't pay, so I don't really know how much all of that fun would normally have cost, but it's totally better than other similar programs I've done (the Crystal Steep Skiing Clinic, for example.)

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Originally posted by joshbu
All in all, it rocked. Obviously, I didn't pay, so I don't really know how much all of that fun would normally have cost, but it's totally better than other similar programs I've done (the Crystal Steep Skiing Clinic, for example.)

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$379+tax CDN for the two-day clinic. So, no, it isn't cheap. Sounds like you had four people in your group. How many total groups were there?

Since you got the lodging and the clinic that's a pretty nice little gift you won. I hope you can put what you learned to good use on your upcoming trip.

2 groups.

On the cost front, keep in mind that you still need to buy lift tickets too.

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Originally posted by Big E
Oh yeah, you'll have a good time w/ EC. If you don't, you're doing something wrong. Depending on your skill level and your guide (say, Felix), you may also soil your pants. Right, noodles?

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I think all groups normally ski the same terrain, the advanced group getting more vert and the slower group being, well, slower. Prior to this clinic I prolly never skied anything steeper than 40 degrees, and looking down the upper entrance to the West Cirque for the first time got the juices flowing fer sher, dude.

Nice report. The $279 for 2 days of school doesn't look bad compared to the $698 for two nights at the lodge :) Even in CND$.

Sounds like a cool thing to do though.

drC

I've also done the EC thing a bunch of times. Always fun, but the level really depends on the group.

Joe Lammers is great, knows the mountain inside out and is fun to ski with. I notice that he's been patrolling on Whistler this year, so I don't know it he's still guiding with EC or just trying to make ends meet.

Felix Tanguay (I think that's his last name) had to be the most 'extreme' of all the guides i've skied with. Last year we straightlined something called Finger Chute, definitely a rush. Most of our group crashed horribly at the chute exit, one guy snapping his Scratch's. I remember exiting the chute and just seeing him tumbling over to the right, way way over. The crowd loved it.

Felix seemed upset that he couldn't find any suitable drops for us to throw ourselves off of. 'Two hard, if you miss you''ll bounce all the way to the bottom"

I've also had the pleasure of skiing with Chris Winter (of zero ceiling fame), Chris Eby, Steve Mayer and some of the other EC crew. Whoever you get should be fun.

My dad just got back from a couple days at EC. His skiing has been totally transformed, it's great to see. He is REALLY ripping the shit out of stuff. Skied Pinball at Crystal with him on Sunday, snow conditions weren't fantastic, and he didn't even hesitate.

His guide was a woman named Christie, I believe, and he says she was a great guide. He skied plenty of places he'd never seen before.

I've skied with Chris Eby and Joe Lammers before. Both of them are great guys, and they are both SICK skiers. I'd love to have them show me around W/B.

Yeah- Joe is a great guy. Skied few runs with him in Lenas and run into him every so often in SA and Whistler. Great skier- better yet- knows more about snow/avie conditions than anyone.

(sorry- partial hijack)
Sam- I think I saw you and your dad on Pinball on Sunday. Did you drop into Brain Damage and your dad take on Pinball about 2pm or so? I was just getting up to the top of the King when a guy in green dropped in. I went into BD about five minutes later.

Joe is a jackass;) :D . He and all the Extremely Canadian crew are great skiers, and will show you some cool terrain and a couple of pointers if you want them.
He are a couple of shots of Extreme Joe Lammers.

http://www.biglines.com/photos/blpic14483.jpg

http://www.biglines.com/photos/blpic14617.jpg

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Originally posted by Squirrel99
Yeah- Joe is a great guy. Skied few runs with him in Lenas and run into him every so often in SA and Whistler. Great skier- better yet- knows more about snow/avie conditions than anyone.

(sorry- partial hijack)
Sam- I think I saw you and your dad on Pinball on Sunday. Did you drop into Brain Damage and your dad take on Pinball about 2pm or so? I was just getting up to the top of the King when a guy in green dropped in. I went into BD about five minutes later.

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well, actually, that was me that you saw. I dropped into Pinball proper, my dad took the face skiers left a little after me. The chute was icy, so I was going slow, as you probably saw... jump turns. Had i known the apron was soft, i would have pointed 'em, but i wasn't trying to hurt myself. My dad was the guy in the black soft shell that dropped in after me.

Mostly, i was scoping my line for the comp. It is shaping up pretty nicely this year, hopefully i can flash it pretty well. Oh, and i'm getting a film crew together, so if i pull it off, i'll try to get some footage up.

Bump for any more info.

-Ben

sounds like a great setup...and good investment... how far in advance do you have to book EC..

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Originally posted by Gregbo
sounds like a great setup...and good investment... how far in advance do you have to book EC..

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i think they are kind of hurting right now, so you might not have to book very far in advance at all.