Whistling down Whistler

For several years, my bf has gone off to Whistler near Vancouver for multi-day ski trips, but I've never gone. He was unemployed and didn't have to worry about vacation days, whereas I couldn't justify using my vacation days on just doing a ski trip, especially since he favored going midweek to avoid crowds.

This year, though, one of my friends organized a trip over the President's Day weekend that would only require two actual vacation days to be taken, plus I have accumulated enough vacation days that I don't think I have to scrimp and squeeze to get enough anymore. So, off I went to Whistler while my bf, who is now employed and has no vacation days, stayed home. One of these days we'll get in sync and we'll go at the same time.

I'm really glad I went. It was really fun, Whistler Village is a cute ski town, and the snow was so much better than we usually get at Tahoe. My friend rented us a condo on the outskirts of Whistler Village, which was nice - especially nice was that we had 3 full baths for 6 people. Made the whole showering after skiing, getting ready for bed, and getting up in the morning thing so much smoother. We also had a kitchen, and were located almost across the street from an IGA, so we ended up cooking for 3 out of 4 dinners. There were pluses and minuses to this - there are a lot of restaurants in Whistler Village and we probably missed out on some nice nights out, but we also could shower and change into comfy clothes, and then just stay in the warmth of our condo and relax after a long hard day of skiing.

I do have to say, the weather conditions varied widely over the weekend. We flew in Thursday night (that's right, not only did I go to Whistler without my bf, I ditched him on Valentine's Day) and stayed the night at the Days Inn by the airport (thanks, GPS, for only kicking in after I made the wrong turn away from the hotel - or maybe really, thanks GPS, since turning the wrong way, I discovered a Chinese plaza that later came in handy). The next morning, we were up bright and early and off to Whistler. Almost immediately, our two cars (they rented us Jeep Patriots b/c they had no cars with ski racks, which only worked b/c there were 6 of us - with 8 of us we'd never have fit the people and the gear in the Jeeps) got separated. So much for caravaning. Armed with a GPS per car, though, we managed to meet up at the Squamish 7-11 to pick up discount lift tickets ($69 CAD + tax, as opposed to $83 + tax at the window). The drive up 99 was pretty, going along the edge of the water with great views of the Vancouver Islands, but it was also heavy with construction and slow. I think they're widening/modernizing the road for the 2010 Olympics.

The whole drive up, it was raining intermittently. One of the guys in my car was concerned about the rain, but as we neared Whistler, it soon turned to snow. We went directly to the first parking lot we saw (turned out it was the furthest lot from the lifts - oops), and got all our ski/snowboard gear out to hit the slopes. We didn't end up really getting up onto the mountain until almost 11, but we still had quite a good first day. We started off on Blackcomb Mountain, and the lines were pretty short. Visibility wasn't great because of the constant snow, so we were advised to stay away from the higher areas like 7th Heaven and Blackcomb Glacier. The snow was almost a wet, sticky powder - on the border of too wet but mostly quite nice b/c of the freshness of it. We stayed on blue runs that first day, which was probably a good idea b/c it seemed like a lot of the blacks were covered in moguls. I'm a pretty limited skier - I do blacks fairly regularly, but I don't like moguls or trees. The kind of black run I like is probably considered an advanced blue at some resorts - long, wide, steep, and groomed. I did discover that I should have waxed my skis though - every time we hit a flat traverse, even if I started off passing all my friends, my skis rapidly slowed down and eventually I was barely moving while everyone else passed me. I kept saying I should wax my skis all weekend, but never actually did it. Ah well. At the end of the day, we made our way over to Lower Gear Jammer to do a long run all the way back to the base, but I missed the turnoff we were supposed to take to get there easily, and we ended up doing an annoying flat traverse on "Last Resort" to get back to it. Sigh. Map-reading.

Day 1 ended semi-late - one car had to figure out how to check in (the reservation didn't make it clear how to do this - turns out there was a property management company on Main St, a couple blocks from the condo complex, where you were to pick up the keys) while the other one went to fetch one person's shoes from the rental place (they'd done a 3-day rental and then unthinkingly left shoes behind, forgetting they wouldn't be back that night). Then, after 3 of the people had showered (including me), we headed over to the IGA to pick up supplies for the next few days. By the time we had the groceries bought and dinner (spaghetti) made, it was quite late. We basically ate and headed straight for bed where I, as usual for me in a strange bed, spent a very restless night.

Day 2 we were aiming to get out of the door and to the lifts by the time they opened at 8:30, but we ended up not really getting onto the slopes until 10, what with getting out late, rentals, figuring out where we were going, etc. C'est la vie. Day 2 was focused on Whistler Mountain and had its own set of weather conditions. The snow had stopped, but a big cloud bank hovered at mid-mountain, where it stayed for the rest of the day. As a result, the top of the mountain had beautiful clear skies and nice conditions, while the middle of the mountain was shrouded in fog, making it hard to see more than 10 feet in front of you. Trying to get away from that fog, four of us started trying to make our way to other regions of the mountain, and ended up spending the bulk of the morning just waiting in lift lines and going from lift to lift. Saturdays are just sucky ski days all around - long lines everywhere. We went to the Harmony lift area and discovered long lines, so we were aiming to try to get to Symphony Express. However, due to a misleading map, we kept missing the green trail that was supposed to take us into the area - the first time we found ourselves back in Harmony without any way to get to Symphony short of going over the side of a cliff. The second time, we missed the green trail again so we decided to take a single black - the Sun Bowl. Shouldn't have been so bad but it was mogully, fairly steep, started off a bit narrow, and my friend almost ended up going over the side of a cliff - it looked less steep down one side so we started going that way but then she discovered it was basically rock and a much steeper drop at the end of it, so she ended up taking her skis off and climbing out, while I, who was higher up, sidestepped my way back up to the beginning of the bowl. We eventually made our way down, only to discover that Symphony Express had been stopped for quite a while and a huge line had built up. After the line finally reopened and we got through it, we were already late meeting our other two friends for lunch, and didn't have time to ski Symphony at all. We had to make our way back to the lodge instead. Oh well. The afternoon went better, although we had hoped to aim for "Peak to Creek," a long run that went from the very top of the mountain to the very bottom, but discovered too late that the "Peak" lift closed at 3, not 3:30. We ended up having to go down from where we were, about 2/3 of the way up the mountain, though we discovered several runs we liked on the way down - the blue Crabapple, the black Dave Murray... We also got some nice photos up top, though I was really regretting having forgotten my camera that morning since the cloud bank made for some really funky looking vistas.

Day 2 ended with us making "soft tacos" (which were more like burritos/quesadillas, food falling out of a loose soft tortilla) and then playing games. I love Settlers, which one of my friends had brought, so we happily played that for most of the evening before heading off for an early night's sleep.

Two of our friends had to go back early, so they did their 3rd day of skiing on Sunday. The rest of us took the day off (turns out we should have done Fri/Sun/Mon b/c the lines would have been better, as well as the weather, but oh well). We got to a late start intentionally, and headed out to check out Whistler Village around 11am. We wandered down Main Street, going into candy shops, camera shops, and various souvenir shops, and then over to the Village Stroll, a winding path through the bulk of the shops and inns in Whistler Village. I was feeling fairly crappy that morning, but perked up when we hit Cows, an ice cream parlor where they made fresh waffle cones (smelled SO good), and sold all this super-cute cow-themed merchandise. Because my bf and I watch CSI and tend to go around singing "Whoooo..are you. Who who? who who?" (ie the theme song), I had to get him a T-shirt for "Cow Scene Investigation" with "Moo are you? Moo moo, moo moo" on it because it was just too funny. We each got an ice cream - I got two flavors in "one scoop" - a Peanut Butter Cup (I think it was like Peanut Budder Cup) and a super minty chocolate mint (forgot the name). Turns out the mint was so strong it overdominated the peanut butter, so I couldn't really taste the peanut butter. Oops. Still, very yummy. We *then* went to get lunch at a local restaurant (I forgot the name), which was pretty good. I just got a French Onion Soup (lots of effort to drink that, what with all the cheese). We then kept wandering and eventually ended up at the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory where they made the chocolate fresh in the store. Feeling greedy, I ended up getting several chocolate bombs - a "Tiger" bomb which was like peanut butter, caramel, and some other stuff, an Oreo bomb, a chocolate/hazelnut hedgehog, two maple cream chocolates (one milk, one dark), and one smooth mint dark chocolate (sooo good, should have gotten another one), as well as a box of 1/2 off Valentine's Day chocolate for my bf, and a hunk of maple walnut fudge. Happiness. It's all about food. We also stopped by a bookstore where my friend happily found some Canadian and British books to buy, while I spent most of the time looking at Argentina guidebooks for my next big trip. We ended up having to swing through the brand new, pretty library they had there twice - the first time out of curiousity, the second time b/c I suddenly remembered I wanted to find a back issue of Canadian Living magazine, which had bought one of my photos but never sent me a copy like they had promised. I ended up photocopying the page with my photo and credit to bring home, which was nice. Yay libraries!

Day 3 ended with dinner at Bavaria Restaurant on Northlands/Main St, our one dinner out. We ended up ordering 2 orders of cheese fondue (every fondue had to have a minimum of 2 orders), 2 orders of the "Chinoise" fondue (basically like Chinese hot pot - chicken broth in which you cooked chunks of pork tenderloin, beef filet, prawns, and veggies), one jaegerschnitzel, and one beef rouladen, all to split. It was really good - the cheese was yummy (with decent bread to dip), and the meats were tender and delicious. I only really got one bite of each of the other entrees, but they were tasty. We ended with 3 orders of chocolate fondue for dessert - should have gotten 4 - which was delicious. Yummy belgian chocolate, and great fruit - strawberries, bananas, pineapples, ladyfingers... sooo good. Not cheap, but definitely a satisfying meal. The night ended on a somewhat less satisfying note, though, when I slipped and fell into a deep puddle. Cold and wet. Yay!

Day 4 was our last full day at Whistler and we were determined to do the Peak to Creek. The four of us remaining on the trip decided to do the "Fresh Tracks" breakfast - $17 to have breakfast buffet at the restaurant/lodge at the top of the gondola, where you go up an hour before the lifts officially open so you're at the top of the mountain and ready to go when the resort opens. That was nice - the food was fine, nothing special, but the views were great, and it was a beautiful clear day. Turns out the "Peak" lift didn't open until 9, so we got an additional run in before taking it, but we were soon at the top, where we busied ourselves taking a bunch of photos of both the vistas and the Inuchuk at the top of the mountain. Finally, we embarked on the "Peak to Creek" run, which ended up being one of my favorites. It was a blue run, very very long, and just a lot of skiing to get in on one pass. I kept stopping to take photos on the way down. We eventually made our way to the bottom, and promptly got back on the gondola (at Creekside, which was sort of a satellite village) and went to try to get on the Dave Murray, which we'd only done part of the previous day. Turns out part of this was closed for the Telus World Cup, but we were able to do most of it. The snow got really odd at one part of the run - very large corn that made for a very bumpy ride - but for the most part it was a nice run. That early in the day, the snow was actually very packed and a bit icy, but not bad. Having finished with the long runs on Whistler side we wanted to do, we decided to go back over to Blackcomb, which we thought we liked more.

We had also decided to skip lunch that day, so at Blackcomb, we just stopped for a quick bathroom break before starting up skiing again. This time we were aiming for 7th Heaven. That seemed like a nice area when we got to it, but it had gotten so warm at that point that the snow was turning into sticky slush. We quickly decided to try out the glacier to see if it was cooler and therefore less slushy. However, we discovered when we got there that the primary way to get up the glacier was via T-bars, which our snowboarding friends did not want to do. So we ended up just skiing down the glacier once from the 7th Heaven side. This is where things became a bit problematic - half of us wanted to go down a black face with lots of moguls while the other half of us did not. We split up, and ended up getting confused and never rejoining. So each pair of us ended up just doing a bunch of runs for the rest of the day and we met up at the bottom. It was still a nice end of the day - my remaining friend and I did a bunch of blue runs, and then got back on the Lower Gear Jammer via the correct route this time, and ended the day with very very tired legs, but very satisfied. Day 4 ended with lasagna at the condo for dinner, followed by 3 games of Settlers. A nice day all around.

Day 5 was supposed to be our visit Vancouver day, but things did not work out in our favor. We got out of Whistler on time, met up at the Squamish 7-11 to get a bit of gas and sync up, and arranged to meet at the airport where we were going to park one car in long-term parking while driving the other around, so we wouldn't have to coordinate two cars and worry about our stuff getting stolen out of our cars. However, to our dismay, we discovered that the Lion's Gate Bridge, or whatever it's called, the one that connects to downtown Vancouver, was closed. Apparently there had been a 3-car crash that closed the entire bridge while they cleaned it up. After consulting a map, we decided to take the long way around to the next bridge, but traffic was super-slow and super-backed up. Turns out not only was it backed up b/c all the Lion's Gate traffic was going to the other bridge, but *that* bridge also had had an accident in the center lane that was only just getting cleaned up. We ended up not getting to the airport until around 2pm (our flight out required us to get back to the airport around 5pm). Starving, we decided to find a restaurant in that Chinese plaza in Richmond we'd stumbled upon Thursday night, since we knew where it was. Ironically, it turned out that a lot of the restaurants were either closed on Tuesdays or closed for lunch on Tuesdays..of all days of the week to be wandering around..or were cash only (we had almost no Canadian cash). We did find a restaurant with an interesting mix of food - Chinese, Portugese, other Western-ish dishes - though, and were all reasonably satisfied with our food, so that was good. We then killed another couple hours just wandering around, going into and out of bakeries and tapioca tea places, and marveling at the number of hair salons there were in that one small plaza. We finally got in the car to drive around Richmond some more, and ended up at a small coffee/tea shop (Berry Good) where we each got something to drink and killed some more time before it was time to go to the airport. So much for Vancouver. Of course, at the airport we discovered that the weather in SF was bad so all the flights were delayed, so we ended up playing several rounds of "My Word" until we finally split to get on our respective flights. And thus, after a fun-filled several days of skiing and hanging out in Whistler, followed by a somewhat disappointing day in Richmond, we wrapped up a great vacation. I'd definitely do Whistler again..maybe next time my bf will come too.