Whistlering as we go

Wed 26 Jan

And so, onto Whistler. Took the SkyTrain (above ground, driverless train system) into Vancouver waterfront area to pick up our hire car. We had reserved something small (Focus) but due to availability, we were given a small 4x4 (Mitsubishi RVR). Very cool!

The drive to Whistler is totally simples, taking the Sea to Sky Highway all the way. Beautiful road with pine tree'd mountains on the one side and Horseshoe Bay on the other. At Squamish the road then winds inland and we started to gain some altitude. A very comfortable 2 hours from Vancouver, we were there!

We were a little too early to check into our accommodation in Whistler Creekside, so we took a drive to Whistler- and Blackcomb Villages. Legacy of the Winter Olympics 2010 were everywhere, the amount and variety of shops, restaurants and accommodation is quite impressive. Stocked up on grocery supplies and then back to Creekside, checked into our apartment and then still had time to get our lift passes and our skis and boots. Score!

Had some tea and croissants then cooked a simple supper - I was starving (4x4 vehicles make me hungry) - relaxed and then early night in preparation for the first day of skiing.

Morning, noon and night. Day 11.

Thu 27 Jan

The Creekside Gondola is across the road from our apartment. So, tumbled out of bed, breakfast and dressed for the snow, picked up skis and then (pow) we were at the gondola. Actually, before this we had dithered for a few moments (10 minutes!) deciding best place to store lift passes. Seriously.

The skiing here is sublime. Very long runs, mostly wide, tree-lined and not crowded. And everyone is so polite! Whole morning skiing then down to Whistler Village for lunch. Now is when we had equipment incident #1 (more details to follow). Lunch was soup and a deli sandwich at a coffee shop run by Australians - by this time I was ravenous (gondolas make me hungry). Delish. Actually, the whole resort is over-run with Australians and Brits and Saffas. Canadians are few and far between. Yesterday was even 'Australia Day' with a number of people skiing wrapped in flags (just the flags, no warm ski kit underneath. Go figure.).

Incident #1: as Laurel clicked off her skis before lunch, her snow brake broke off. This is a small piece of the boot restraint that also serves to prevent the ski sliding off by itself if it comes off during a fall. We managed to find the small screw that is part of the snow brake and luckily were right next to loads of ski rental places. Took her skis into a shop and they swapped them with a new set. Whew.

After lunch we took another Gondola up, this time to the Whistler side of the peak to peak Gondola. Some background - Whistler and Blackcomb are two mountains with associated skiing areas. Our ski passes cover both areas as they are pretty much two parts of a greater whole. In the run up to the 2010 Winter Olympics a gondola was built joining the peaks of both mountains. This is now, I think, the longest such gondola, 4.4km long including 3km of unsupported span. It takes 11 minutes to travel peak-to-peak. Sheesh. And some of the cabins have glass floors. Double sheesh. I'm not looking forward to going on it, but I guess it must be done. Today was not that day; we were going to ski back down to Creekside. Whew.

To recap, Laurel had incident #1, we'd just eaten lunch, taken the gondola up, and now putting skis on is when we had incident #2. This time my skis. Similar problem. Snow brake fell clean off, a different screw had come loose. Anyways, luckily there was a ski service building at the top of the mountain so I got mine fixed. But our confidence in our rentals was falling fast. This did not prevent us skiing down to Creekside, of course, which we did. Awesome!

At the bottom we went and had a bit of a shout at the ski rental place. Much apologies from them and offers of discounts etc. We just really wanted them to assure us this would not happen again, at least not to us on this trip. So they got one of their ski experts to double check both our skis. Mine were ok, but Laurel's (remember, these are the new ones she got before lunch!) needed some serious re-tightening. Anyways, we're all fine and so are our skis. We think. We know. (We hope.)

Headed back to the apartment for tea, chill, supper and another early night. Exhausted.

Breakfast, soup, supper. Day 12.