Frostbite and Bear Claws

Sun 30 Jan

As it was our last day we woke up earlyish and just as well. It was a gorgeous, clear day. Not a single cloud in the sky. This would mean excellent visibility and awesome skiing conditions. But also meant that the temperatures would be on the low side -> -3 Deg C at base and -13 Deg C at the peaks. Brr. But those pieces of information we only found out later, so did *not* dress accordingly.

Good weather and the weekend mean the queues were pretty impressive. But again moved smoothly with no pushing, shoving, biting or swearing. We went up and up and up to Whistler peak, somewhere above 2km. Took some great photos of the views and an iced-over Inukshuk. It was totally worth the frost bite.

Peak 2 Peak (P2P) Gondola was ridden again. As it was clear today I think this time it counted. Actually not that bad, very smooth ride. But still cold, I managed to de-frost my fingers during the 11 minute death ride, but couldn't feel anything from the ankles down. We skied down to Blackcomb base for lunch. I was starving (sub-zero digits make me hungry) and wolfed down a burger and fries and a coffee served by a fellow P-town traveller. Delish.

After lunch it was now time for our attempt at Blackcomb peak, about 200m higher than Whistler. Even more awesome. I had given up on my fingers and toes and was composing hate mail to the manufacturers of my gloves, socks and ski boots.

We did the P2P again to get back to Whistler side, then all the way down to Whistler Creekside for our last run of the day and our trip. The sweet mountain host lady informed us that actually the better route down was a black run (part of the famous Dave Murray downhill which was used for the Mens' Olympic Super-G race) rather than the narrow blue run we'd taken on other days. And you know what? She was right. There were some very steep parts, but wide enough to not be that bad (I imagine that the Olympians didn't traverse the pistes quite as frequently as I did, but still, we can both say we did it!). The only annoying thing was all the kiddy winkles scooting straight past us. Seriously, they have no fear.

After handing back our skis and boots, La relaxed a bit with some hot chocolate and I went for a jog. Found an awesome walking path along the valley, running between Whistler and Creekside, next to some frozen lakes. Beautiful.

Then after I'd showered, La and I went to our building's outdoor hot tub. May I remind you that the temperature was sub zero, but it was oh so nice and hot in the jacuzzi. It was still super clear so we had the bizarre but beautiful view of stars, heads freezing, rest of us toasty (well, soupy really). An awesome (almost) conclusion to our ski trip.

Soft-boiled, lunch and pasta. Day 15.

Mon 31 Jan

Today was the last morning in our place in Whistler and had to leave the fridge/cupboards empty. So chicken, pasta and salad for breakfast. Kidding. We finished packing then loaded the car and left town. Skiing part of our trip officially over. (sniff, sniff) The drive back is gorgeous and this time we were on the sea side of the road so stopped at pretty much every viewing point along the way for photos. Awesome.

We made good time back to Vancouver and the handy GPS (thanks Francis!) got us nicely back to the car rental place, although human error (mine) meant initially we parked under the wrong hotel (Alamo rental returns is in a Hotel parking lot). Took the Sky Train back to Burnaby, easy peasy, and then we were at La-Sis' place. She had cooked up a storm for us the night before so the fridge was well stocked. Just as well - by this time I was ravenous (returning to sea level makes me hungry) - so wolfed down pasta bake and mushroom tart. Delish.

Spent the rest of the day relaxing and doing laundry with only a minor incident involving a washing machine, a stuck door and a steel coat hanger. You can fill in the blanks. Much hilarity followed (La laughing at me should I say).

Joyful reunions later when Toots came back from work. We'll miss the the snow but nice to be back in Vancouver

Breakfast, Drive and Tacos. Day 16.

Tue 01 Feb

Right, properly back in Vancouver to do some shopping and sight-seeing. We took the Sky Train into town, check at us go, just like the locals! Got out in downtown area and went into The Bay in Pacific Centre looking for a jacket pour moi. I was wearing one of my new T-shirts bought last week. The 'door thing' beeped as I entered the shop, not a good sign. But a quick survey found no heavy set be-suited men with guns bearing down on us, so, all OK. (PS. No jacket found.)

Exiting the shop, the same thing. Beeeep. So, seems like one of those tag things was not deactivated when I bought my T last week. Humph. Then went for a wander down Robson, into and out of shops, looking for Levis, jackets and Bear Claw salad servers. Beeping away. Only in one shop (American Eagle) did anyone query this. Laurel gave me a quick pat down to try locate the security tag but no luck. I told her to look more thoroughly, but we were in a public place after all...

We then met Toots (La-Sis) for lunch near her work in a fabulous food hall-cum-deli-cum-restaurant called Urban Fare. By this time I was starving (security pat downs make me hungry) so I wolfed down a chicken pot pie and a house drip coffee. Delish.

After lunch I frogmarched myself to the washroom (Canadian for toilets) to try locate the offending tag. Success! The bugger was hiding behind the 'do not dry clean' thing. The bastards! Managed to tear it off with my teeth without too much damage to my new T. I showed it to La who threw it in the bin. Damn, think how much fun we could have had tossing that into some SATC-alike's handbag.

We then strolled down to the Waterfront area to check out the Olympic torch. Smoking! And from same spot a great view of North and West Vancouver across the Burrard Inlet. Wandered down to Gastown (the old part of Vancouver) popping into every tourist drek shop looking for bear claws and of course the steam powered clock. Found the claws, but no whistles when we were there.

Then went for a stroll along the Olympic Village side of False Creek, although actually we walked the wrong way so ended up closer to the hockey arena, but that was the sunny side and it was cold so that was alright then. Headed back to Toots' place with a detour up Hastings Road in Burnaby, looking at shops, getting an awesome coffee at Cafe Artigiano, buying some pastries and scouting out barbers as I'm looking a bit fuzzy.

Topped off the day with a visit to La-Sis' building's gym. But some other guy was on the treadmill so I braved the stationary bike (hill program, ouch) and the Inquisition inspired elliptical thing. I'm not sure if I did it right, I got my heart rate up but sure felt strange.

Morning, noon and night. Day 17