Perfect Timing

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Most people expect getting into the US to be the most harrowing immigration experience on the planet. It immediately conjures images of small rooms and cavity searches. Let me tell you, after only getting 2 questions from the officer at LAX I thought that the Canadian border crossing would be a breeze... comrades under the Queen and all that.

I have never been interrogated so much before entering a country in all my life!!

From where I've been, to where I'm going and for how long, to "I notice you were in Fiji... How long were you there?". Of all the countries like Egypt, Russia and China that are in my passport and she picks Fiji? A country that has no guns and very, very few drugs?

"Where are you flying out of?"

I have no idea... or when for that matter... too far in the future still.

"How can you afford to travel for that long?"

Save... prioritize... and have some good luck?

"So are you carrying more than $10,000 in cash?"

Who the hell carries that much cash?

Of course my responses were all in my head... In reality I was a pure gentleman and was soon let through to go on my way. Then it a matter of trying to find a place to pull over. Why? Suddenly everything on the GPS had to be changed back to the metric system.

Vancouver (the Canadian one, not the American one) is startlingly different from all the American cities I've seen so far. The suburbs seem cleaner and less run down and the city centre is like looking through a kaleidoscope... all glass as far as the eye can see. It also has a very multicultural feel to it with many North Americans seemingly thinking that this is the place to be as well as a multitude of travellers. It's also a great city to walk around as it's relatively flat... once again unlike all the other cities I've seen recently.

Stanley Park sits on the foreshore and provides a respite from the downtown madness with beautiful views back to the skyscrapers and over Lions Gate Bridge to North Vancouver. The only blight is the fact that like a lot of cities, they have put the freight port nearby so you also get to look out over container ships.

Because of the port access, Vancouver sprang to life with the forestry industry and became important during the gold rush as a place for the miners to spend their wealth. Gastown, a suburb on the waterfront and now surrounded by glass pillars, still holds some of that original charm... but don't be fooled. The whole area was redeveloped in the 50's to resemble it's heyday... but only in what they imagined it to be... right down to the cobblestone streets.

Finding a decent hostel is kind of like finding a $100 note in you jeans after a night out. I'm not talking about the facilities... I'm not even talking about the cleanliness... it's the people, both staff and fellow travellers, that will always make a good hostel great. The one I picked for Vancouver definitely had potential with events every night and free or cheap tours every day. The biggest benefit of this was the opportunity for solo travellers to mingle and make friends.

My last night in the city, I met Patrick and Thomas from Germany. Although they didn't know each other until meeting at the airport, and even though Patrick was staying at a different hostel, they had struck up a friendship with common working holiday plans. Over a few drinks it came up that I was moving on the next day to Whistler and, although Thomas couldn't come due to not being able to get his money back on his room, Patrick had better luck and jumped in the car the next morning.

The trip to Whistler from Vancouver is beautiful. For a stretch of road that's only just over 100km long, it crosses the Lions Gate Bridge, winds around an inlet up to the mouth of the Squamish River and then climbs up to Whistler Village at nearly 700m. Unfortunately, it's also a very dangerous stretch of highway... even after they fixed it up for the 2010 Winter Olympics.

20km north of Vancouver we ground to a standstill with traffic as far as the eye could see. Patrick and I started placing bets on whether it was an avalanche or an accident. The reality was provided when a road inspector drove past informing us that a truck carrying piping had rolled a couple of kilometers ahead of us and that it would be about 2.5 hours before it was cleared. With accommodation booked and paid for, we were going anywhere else so it actually gave us a chance to get out and take a few photos of the area (always difficult to do due to a lack of pull off points on these highways). Thankfully the rain that had persisted for the past 2 weeks eased up and we could make the most of it.

This season at Whistler has been very late and nearly everyone I've spoken to has mentioned it as one of the worst seasons they can remember. Their saving grace was the month of February which dumped the first good falls on the area... over 7 feet. Since then it's been a bit hit or miss... we arrived to threatening clouds but no actual snow falling... then within hours of getting there it began and continued to get heavier. In the 4 days we stayed, we got fresh snow on 3 of the mornings to a total of over a foot. Because of this, each morning we were woken by the sounds of explosives echoing off the peaks as the avalanche control took effect. A unique experience to hear when you first open your eyes.

Whistler Village is the main hub of the ski area with 2 main gondolas leaving from it's periphery. These head up Whistler Mountain and Blackcomb Mountain, of which the peaks are then joined by the Peak to Peak gondola. With only 4 towers holding the cabins up, and a peak height over the valley of over 1000m it's a feat of engineering in itself. As well as the 3 gondolas, there are a total of 37 chairlifts and travelators to get you all over the ski zones, creating a map that hurts your eyes to look at when all the runs are included. For an Aussie that's only seen snow a couple of times it was overwhelming. What surprised me further was that even Patrick was amazed at the amount of ski areas, runs and lifts, saying that even in 10 years of snowboarding in Europe he'd never seen a ski field like it.

Hiring equipment for 3 days, we set off... me to get a couple lessons so that I didn't ruin Patrick's first couple of days with him trying to teach me (even though he offered, I just couldn't imagine taking all that time from him on the slopes). The first half day lesson, as always, is the basics... Which wasn't too bad. By the end I was able to side slide on both toe and heel edges. The next day and another half day lesson and I was able to complete turns going from one edge to the other, so the final day I headed out with Patrick to some of the green runs to try and put it all together.

Hell does freeze over!!!

And it freezes other things with it!! Not only did I spend most of the day on my arse... slowly making everything, and I mean everything wet... I also managed to fall on my thumb and sprain the tendon. All in the name of fun!! Luckily, the fact that we'd had the good snowfall in the 4 days we were there cushioned things a little. By the bottom of the run I looked back up the trail and couldn't believe that I'd actually come down there with only 2 half day lessons. Personally I think someone messed up the sign and it wasn't a green run at all.

Quick trip to the docs and all is good... nothing broken... no blood... drank some concrete.

Initially I'd planned to continue on the highway past Whistler and onto Banff using some of the smaller highways. After the last 4 days of snow I decided it would probably be better to head back to Vancouver and take Highway 1 over the mountains just in case. Thankfully the skies had cleared on the last morning and provided us with our first good views of the mountains as well as actually being able to see what was around on the drive back down Which was a lot more uneventful then a few days earlier.

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Comments

[Suzanne]

Looks Fantastic
Just love your photos Mark, it looks and sounds like you are having a great time. Thank you for the contact . Take care and enjoy . Suz

[Elaine]

Winter wonderland
Fabulous photos Mark.

[taracloud]

Great adventure!
I love Vancouver and have always wanted to go to Whistler. Great photos and description, so I have an idea of what to expect. How wise of you to take those lessons, and hope you get to use them in Banff. Happy snow days!

[Desiree]

Too True
Haha! Nice blog. Been there with the border crossing experience and can totally relate. I had to have finger prints, eye scan, among the interrogation. What a nightmare! Getting the plane over is even worse.