Everyone we talked to had been telling us not to bother with Whistler, "it was a bad year", there was "no snow" they said. But the more we thought about it the more we knew we couldn't miss at least seeing the famous destination; besides we had a few people we knew living there. We contacted an old work mate of mine who said we were welcome to stay. Then luck struck again when Erica an old flatmate from NZ but working winters at Whistler said she had two free day passes for us! We were stoked not only were we going to be going to Whistler but now we could justify skiing! All we needed was some fresh snow...
The rain we experienced driving out of Vancouver soon answered our prayers by turing into heavy snow as we approached Whistler, things were looking good! Due to the weather we were stopped at a police check and had our tires inspected; we didn't have full winter tyres but our all terrains have an M and S on them for mud and snow and we had chains so they let us through. The thing was, the 4x4 still hadn't been fixed and without it our grip was marginal. We had to learn to keep up the momentum on the up hills and then put it in a low gear on the down hills. We made it to Whistler without incident and felt relieved when we saw a few other vehicles sliding to a stop at intersections.
The rain we experienced driving out of Vancouver soon answered our prayers by turing into heavy snow as we approached Whistler, things were looking good! Due to the weather we were stopped at a police check and had our tires inspected; we didn't have full winter tyres but our all terrains have an M and S on them for mud and snow and we had chains so they let us through. The thing was, the 4x4 still hadn't been fixed and without it our grip was marginal. We had to learn to keep up the momentum on the up hills and then put it in a low gear on the down hills. We made it to Whistler without incident and felt relieved when we saw a few other vehicles sliding to a stop at intersections.
We felt bad for not taking Scout for a proper walk in Vancouver, so I had looked up a walk to do when we arrived. I found one where you can follow a trail to an old 1957 train car derailment wreckage that had since been turned into a mountain bike park and the cars covered in street art. Given the snow storm that was blowing we didn't take the camera so don't have any photos but it was a pretty cool place. We did however wish we had taken our crampons; just underneath the snow was a thick layer of solid ice and we both had a few butt and or wrist crunching slips. Not really what we needed for skiing the next day.
That evening we picked up our hire skis and after paying for them we immediately started wondering if it would be cheaper to buy our own given that we would be going to a few other ski fields. This one hire was $90 alone. Afterwards we made our way over to my old work mates house. We just made it to the house Lana shared with her fiancé Lance after the second attempt to get up the hill to their road. The snow was still coming down thick when we went to bed and we felt like kids on Christmas Eve.
That evening we picked up our hire skis and after paying for them we immediately started wondering if it would be cheaper to buy our own given that we would be going to a few other ski fields. This one hire was $90 alone. Afterwards we made our way over to my old work mates house. We just made it to the house Lana shared with her fiancé Lance after the second attempt to get up the hill to their road. The snow was still coming down thick when we went to bed and we felt like kids on Christmas Eve.
We wanted first lift in the morning so we got up early and left Scout behind with Lance who had kindly offered to look after him for the day. Lance even took "him Nordic skiing with him. Over 20cm of powder had fallen overnight!Needless to say we had a ripper day skiing all over Whistler before taking the epic cable car over to Blackcomb for a few more afternoon runs. The fresh powder was tracked out pretty quickly by the inevitable crowds but we still loved every minute of it.
Erica is a busy chick with her high level ski instructing by day and baby sitting in the evening but we managed to meet up with her and her boyfriend Richard for a few drinks that evening. Just as we were about to meet them Will received an email from his parents saying that an old school friend of his was also in Whistler with his family. Will quickly messaged him on Facebook and it worked out perfectly as Ty came down to the bar too. The bar was called El Furniture Warehouse and Erica had picked it perfectly as it was the cheapest eat in town at only $5 for everything on the menu. The food was tasty to boot as well and we had such a fun casual night it was almost like we were back home. Erica tried to tempt us into skiing one more day by offering us two half price ticket vouchers, Mother Nature was also tempting us as the snow continued to come down. But reminding ourselves of what the cost would be just for ski hire we resisted.
The next morning while every other person in Whistler was on the slopes Will and I worked out what all this ski hiring was going to cost vs buying our own second hand gear. Basically if we kept a cap on our spending it would work out about the same to buy our own gear and if we were tempted into to doing any more days skiing then planned it would soon end up cheaper. Straight way we were on Craig's List and kijiji (Canada's own version) looking for gear. Not surprisingly no one was available for us to look at their gear until the evening so we hung around and looked in a few shops that made us wish we had a few grand spare for brand new gear. Dreams a free. Evening came soon enough and after not quite making it in the Dodge up a steep snowy hill Will got out and walked up to check out some Atomic Pimp twin tip skis. They ended up being perfect for him and the guy accepted Will's low offer, so that was it we were now both buying a ski set up. Soon after I tried on some Solomon boots that seemed to fit ok and were only $35. After our gear bargaining we met up with Lana and Lance in town for dinner back at El Furniture. It was tasty yet again. A walk around the 2010 olympic displays succeeded dinner then we returned to Lana and Lances for our final night in Whistler.
The next morning while every other person in Whistler was on the slopes Will and I worked out what all this ski hiring was going to cost vs buying our own second hand gear. Basically if we kept a cap on our spending it would work out about the same to buy our own gear and if we were tempted into to doing any more days skiing then planned it would soon end up cheaper. Straight way we were on Craig's List and kijiji (Canada's own version) looking for gear. Not surprisingly no one was available for us to look at their gear until the evening so we hung around and looked in a few shops that made us wish we had a few grand spare for brand new gear. Dreams a free. Evening came soon enough and after not quite making it in the Dodge up a steep snowy hill Will got out and walked up to check out some Atomic Pimp twin tip skis. They ended up being perfect for him and the guy accepted Will's low offer, so that was it we were now both buying a ski set up. Soon after I tried on some Solomon boots that seemed to fit ok and were only $35. After our gear bargaining we met up with Lana and Lance in town for dinner back at El Furniture. It was tasty yet again. A walk around the 2010 olympic displays succeeded dinner then we returned to Lana and Lances for our final night in Whistler.
We said good bye in the morning and headed north out town via highway 99 in the snow on route to my uncles brothers place in Merritt. We were taking it slow due to the snow so when a big pick up came up behind us we pulled over to let it pass as we had done for other traffic. This time though the tyres just caught the edge of the bitumen and went off the shoulder into the soft deep snow. We went from doing 50mph to 0 in about two seconds but luckily no damage was done we were just a bit stuck half sideways in a ditch. Even with 4x4 which we didn’t have we couldn’t drive out, but a passing railway maintenance pick up stopped to pull us out. Our trusty green tow strop proved itself again and we were back on the road only moments later. Never a dull moment around here.
Rochelle & Will
Rochelle & Will