Whistler is Cool!

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On Friday we drove from Big White down to Vancouver then up to Whistler. We stayed in an awesome condo in the middle of the village, about a 3 minute walk from the gondolas that go up the mountain. We even managed to pickup free internet on Sean's laptop from one of the nearby hotels.

While we were there they had the Ski and Snowboard Festival in full swing, it was such a change from whole family focus they had a Big White. There was a huge stage set up where they had bands and music in the afternoons and at night. On Saturday night they had a heap of hip hop playing with really good MCs and DJs. There were a bunch of fire twirlers and break dancers on another stage as well.

Sunday was the last day of riding for Blackcomb so we headed straight up first thing in the morning. It was solid cloud and snowing for most of the day, sometimes I had to hold my hand up in front of me just to make sure that my goggles hadn't fogged over completely. The top of the mountain was a lot clearer so we tried to spend more time up there. At the end of the day we were coming down on the gondola with a guy who worked on the mountain. He told us that the days that we rode were the best of the entire season, so we were really lucky to be there when we were.

After an entire day riding in heavy powder we were far to exhausted to go out on Monday so we did a bit of sight seeing around the area. Tuesday we headed up Whistler. As cold and cloudy as it was on Sunday, that's how hot and clear it was on Tuesday. By the afternoon, it was 13 degrees at the top of the Terrain park but still really nice.

Wednesday we headed back down to Vancouver.

The last time I was in Whistler it was a pretty depressing time. I was holed up in a hostel for a week trying to find work, money continually flowing out and no real prospects of things picking up any time soon. Some people I met at Big White had been in Whistler for a month before heading inland in search of snow. It leaves you with a bit of a bad impression of a place when things don't work out the way you like. What makes it worth all the effort and insecurity is when things work out even better than you expect but not in the way you expected.

All in all they had a really bad season for snow at Whistler. The bottom half of the mountain spent the majority of the season bare. At Big White, we ended up having the best snow conditions in the Pacific Northwest. If I had things the way I wanted, it would not have been anywhere near as good a season as what I had.

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Photos

The Top of Whistler Mountain
Myself, Haylee, Sean, Tom and Ben at the top of Whistler Mountain. The relatively famous black tusk is in the background.

Leaving Big White
It was pretty miserable weather when we left Big White, cold and wet. Somehow we managed to get all our gear in the back of the van.

Bye Bye Big White
One final photo under the sign before we left.

Free Stuff
As a part of the festival there were a lot of stands throughout the village with free stuff on them.

Bobsled team
Trying out the bobsleds for the 2010 Olympics.

Saturday Night Concert
This is part of the stage setup they had.

Blackcomb Gondola
It takes a fair while to make sense of the Blackcomb trail map because it's so huge.

Top of the Glacier
When we were standing at the top of the Blackcomb Glacier I felt a bit nervous because of the massive bowl that was below. For a while there was a good section of it that we couldn't see because of the cloud and flat light.

Taking a break
It was a bit of a hike up to this section of the mountain. They were only able to open some sections for the last weekend because of the lack of snow all season.

Enjoying the views
We had really good views up at the 2 mountains from our balcony.

Whistler views
On Monday we were too tired to go riding so we went and did a bit of sightseeing. That's Whistler in the background. Everything that we rode all day on Tuesday was pretty much above the treeline, which was still a massive area.

Bush Walking
We went for a hike up a river to see some falls which were not as spectacular as they could have been. I think seeing the Iguazu Falls has ruined every other waterfall experience for me.

Pemberton Mountains
These are some of the mountains around Pemberton, the same range that makes Whistler/Blackcomb. This is a nice lake we had lunch by on Monday.

Bag Check
We Checked our lunch bags at the top of Whistlerbefore heading out on the mountain. You can sort of see how nice the sky was.

Whistler Village
This is the view from Whistler mountain looking down towards the village.

Kiteboarders
There were a whole heap of kiteboarders heading out off this spit. It was really windy as well, they did well to get ready without losing all their gear.

Strong Winds
They were pulling some big tricks in the strong winds. In total there were probably about 20-30 kites out there, but we didn't see anyone collide.