Wednesday the 10th of March; today I had a bit of a lazy day. I went to a restaurant downtown for lunch called Fogg'n'Sudds, which is giving free burgers to volunteers. So I had a Canuck burger (with back bacon and cheese) with a chicken gumbo soup, and I treated myself to an amazing strawberry milkshake! Then I wandered around a bit feeling completely stuffed.
Thursday the 11th ; I got up super early to catch the 6:30 am bus up to Whistler. I bought a return ticket that also included a day's lift ticket and rentals. As I got to the bus/train station it was porring rain, but as we started pulling out of Vancouver I did see a few wet flakes and some slush collecting (temporarily) on the cars and houses.. The bus was not completely full which was nice. Lots of other touristy types and people trying to take advantage of the powder. The previous night it had snowed about 15cm. The drive along the Sea to Sky high way is beautiful, big rocky cliffs, tall trees, some creeks and waterfalls. It was poring rain and cloudy the whole way but it was still really nice. We passed through Squamish and around there the rain turned into snow, yeah! I kinda dozed a bit near the end of the trip, blame it on the lack of sleep the night before because of so much anticipated excitement!
After a drive past Function Junction and the paralympic athletes village as well as a stop at Whistler Creekside to drop off some passengers, we arrived at Whistler village. We got there around 8:30, I was chatting to another women from around Philadelphia (in Vancouver for a conference) who was also up to Whistler to ski for the day. Together we set out to find the ski rental office, after some complicated directions from a visitors info person; ''just follow the crowd'', we found the rental place. I got some boots, then some skis, poles and a helmet. I found out also that you could ''borrow'' goggles from the lost and found (if you left a piece of ID there till when you return the goggles), so I got myself a pair, which was great! When there is snow its always better to get goggles! Then I went to go pick up my lift ticket, they are fairly pricey here, 93$ for the day!
I decided to spend my morning on Blackcomb, I headed up the gondola and then a lift and did a few runs. The conditions were so good, lots of powder, not huge crowds. Though I could tell my legs weren't used to skiing in powder, I was using muscles I haven't used recently! You just have to watch out to not end up in huge piles of powder which are hard to turn in! At first the runs at the top of the mountain were closed because it was so windy and the visibility was so low. But once the glacier express opened up I headed up. For some reason, it has always been a dream of mine to ski above the tree line, like all those shots you see of people skiing in the Alps! Well when I got up there it was still really windy (apparently earlier the winds were close to 100km/hr) and the snow was blowing so much it was hard to see the hill at your feet. It was actually kind of scary cause you couldn't tell where you were going. You had to watch for the orange signs on your left and the blue ones on your right, so you don't fall off a cliff or anything!
So I headed a bit lower and did a few more runs. Then I headed over to 7th Heaven express and did another crazy windy/snowy run, which was again a bit scary. Then, since it was around noon, I decided to take the Peak 2 Peak gondola, it travels between Whistler and Blackcomb and takes about 11min to cover the 4.4km distance. Just the right amount of time to eat my bagel and cookie. I am pretty sure its the gondola with the longest unsupported span (3.024km) in the world (between its 2 towers). The gondola reaches its highest point at 436m above the ground, but it was so cloudy that I could barely see the gondola passing us in the other direction, or the ones in front or behind us, let alone the most likely amazing view, I guess its an excuse to go back another time!
Once on Whistler, I headed all the way down and back up on the Whistler Gondola. Then it started to clean up a bit and the snow quieted down near the top of the mountain, so I decided to mostly ski around there. Some beautiful runs! Then they opened one of the lifts near the top of Whistler (though not the one at the top top!) so I went up the T-bar. I shared my t-bar with a dutch guy. He and friends were on a road trip through Alberta & BC and hitting different ski centres. The run I did (T-bar run) was amazing. Because it was a recently opened area, there was tons of fresh unmarked powder. As I went down the run, I sometimes had snow past my knees, pretty hard to ski in, but amazing all the same!
Then I did some runs on the eastern part of the mountain. At one point I had a skier wiz past me and then noticed it was a guy with a mono-ski. Then just down the slope I found the Paralympic Alpine downhill start point and tons of teams and skiers practising and getting ready for their events. So I stopped and watched a bit. There was also a cool other place where you ski under a run in a tunnel! Neato!
I skied till the last minute, taking the lift up at 3:58 when the lifts closed at 4 and then returned my rental equipment. I then wanted to walk around in the village a bit, but my legs were pretty sore, so I sat down with something warm to drink to rest my legs a bit. Then I walked around to a few of the shops, most selling ski equipment, outdoor apparel and Olympic gear. I stopped by the Whistler medal plaza and they were practising for the paralympics. I then wandered over to the upper village (closer to Blackcomb) and walked past the park (neat, they had mountain bike park with jumps and obstacles and stuff for people to practice with), just to let you know, it was still snowing at this point. Huge gorgeous snow flakes, boy have I missed snow, it was good to see it again. So far this winter, the only place I have seen snow in person is behind the arenas I skate at!
Then I headed over to the Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner, it was very busy and I had to wait a while before getting a table. After the meal that included salad, bread, baked tortellini (stuffed with cheese) and some ice cream, I walked around a bit before heading to the bus stop at a quarter to 9. The bus was about 1/3 full, like this morning. I chatted a bit with the American lady from this morning, since we ended up on the same bus again. She had also had a great day of skiing. When I booked my ticket (quite far ahead of time), I wasn't sure how the weather would be, but I guess I lucked out. Apparently between the 8th and 12th of March, Whistler got 88cm of snow! I also chatted with a Paralympic volunteer on the bus, but she is not part of the Sea to Sky team of volunteers that commute on a daily basis to Whistler from the Vancouver area for their volunteer shifts, a very big time commitment considering it takes about 2hrs to commute from one to the other.
This bus trip wasn't express, so we had a few stops in Squamish and Park Royal (in North Van) as we headed into Vancouver. We pulled into the Central station around 11:15 (it was raining here, I guess it didn't stay cold enough for the snow to stick around). I rushed to public transport and managed to get back to my place and collapsed into bed.
In sum, an amazing day! I would definitely want to come back on a clear day, do see the beautiful views from the top of the mountains. It would also be neat to do some hiking around here in the summer.
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