A little Aussie town called Whistler

Following on from the White Christmas post....

The next day and the six of us (Me, Bec, Lee, Sam, Chris and Alice) got up and going by eight in order to make the second bus to Whistler. Things didn't start too well for the old busie when he stalled it driving out of the terminal. Let me just say that this does not fill you with that much confidence given the slippery conditions we were about to face. Thankfully the journey went off without a hitch, and only one more stall. The only thing to note was how different everything looked from the last time we came through here in mid July. The lake we had lunch at in summer (Browning Lake) was almost frozen over. I tried to take a photo of the Squamish Inn (where we stayed in July) from the bus but it didn't turn out real flash. About 2 hours later and we arrived in Whistler. Everyone was excited to get there and see everything covered in white. This excitement waned a little during the 20 minute walk to our apartment, mainly due to the fact that we had to drag a suitcase through snowy foot paths while wearing a pack and carrying ski gear. Further waning was experienced when we got there to find that the apartment had only two bedrooms and one couple would have to sleep on a sofa bed in the lounge. Other than that the place was excellent. There was a main bed and ensuite, second bathroom, kitchen, flat screen tv and a hot tub outside on the deck. We spent the first day getting stocked up for the week ahead and went out for an early dinner in the Village.

Anyway, by now you are probably sick of the extended version of events, so I'll cut back a bit. We spent day 2 (first ski day) on Blackcomb where the snowboarders (the other four) left us so they could go and do crazy things. It was apparent that Rebecca was quickly leaving me behind and the skill department, and also that she thought it necessary to offer me advice every 5 seconds. We met the others for lunch and the common fight for a table. The lines for the lifts were fine but the number of people having food at the café halfway up the mountain was crazy. After throwing down some food we headed back out. We stayed the day (10am-4pm) and got home to find the boarders. Everyone was sore and so the hot tub got its first work out. At some point someone decided it was wise to jump out of the hot tub and sit in the snow and then get back in. So everyone took turns at this. The best would have to be Rebecca's who was eying off this mound of snow to dive into. As it turned out, the mound was more ground then snow and her dive made a nice splat sound that everyone enjoyed. After dinner, everyone was exhausted and we were all in bed by 9:30. Boy we know how to party!!!! Day 3 and we tackled Whistler. The boarders ran off again, and Rebecca continued with her advice, deciding to add “Why don't you get a lesson” to the mix. I thought that this was not a bad idea, as it might give me a break from her coaching but decided that since we planned to have a rest day the next day I would do it the first day back. After this we started to do separate runs as Rebecca tackled high end blues and I stuck to greens and low end blues. Thing progressed the same at the end of day 2 like day 1, meeting the guys for lunch, finishing at 4 before hot tub, dinner and 9:30 bed.

Day 4 and Rebecca and I decided to have a rest day. We spent the morning just relaxing and then went out on a guided snowshoeing tour in the afternoon. The snowshoeing was awesome, walking through the Whistler forest, stopping for a hot chocolate and sliding down snow slides! Day 5 I booked in for my lesson. What a dog's breakfast that was!!! We got up there early and there was an all-day group starting in about 10 minutes which was not that much more expensive then the 3 hour. I determined from their descriptions of ability that I was a level 3. They told me to go to the level 3 sign outside where I then described my level of experience again to another person. After this I was assigned to a group of eight and thought all was good. 30 minutes into the lesson and the instructor told me that I needed to work on my turns that this was the wrong group to do it in. For the next 30 minutes he was looking for another group to off-load me onto and I felt like a right tool with the other seven. Eventually he found a level 2 group and kicked me out. So I got bumped back to remedial. Now don't get me wrong, by the end of the day I was better but there were some people in this group who had never even been on a chair lift before so progression was slow!!!! Ah, never mind. I rejoined the rest of the gang at the end of the day for some night tubing. First run and we asked the guy if all six of us could go at once. After some discussion and unsure glances, they decided to just send us down. It was awesome!!! We spent an hour here and had a lot of fun.

Anyway, for those who haven't fallen asleep, I'm going to trim down the rest because I am sick of typing, and I did mention that I would cut back (too late). New Years (Day 6) was pretty uneventful. Everyone spent the day skiing (or snowboarding) on Whistler. Interesting moment of the day was when some random dude come flying round a corner and jumped a 4 foot fence off a green road run straight onto the slope of a black. Didn't see the landing but it scared the proverbial out of us when he flew past. We actually rode the last run down with Lee and Chris which was great. That night we stayed in watching Bee Movie (we know how to party hard!) and then decided to walk in to the village about 10 minutes before midnight. One of the main reasons for the stay home was the fact that they were charging to get into the village. We decided to wait next to the security and watch the fireworks from outside. We were kind of disappointed that there was no real countdown, and I think we actually ended up missing the exact time but we still experienced it. After midnight, they opened the gates but the band was kind of winding down. We decided to head back and finish Bee Movie before calling it a night. The next day (day 7 for those keeping count) on the slopes was DEAD. Obviously the revellers where nursing a few sore heads and so the lines for the lifts were pretty short. Rebecca and I spent the day on the various blue runs of Blackcomb while the others had the day off. Day 8 and we woke to a fresh wonderland of snow. They had 20cm over night and Lee, Sam and Chris needed couldn't pass up the last fix on the fresh stuff. Rebecca, Alice and I loaded up with gear and despite a completely unorganised Greyhound set-up, boarded the bus home at 10:30. That night we went out to dinner at Brown's on Lonsdale with the whistler crew for Lee and Sam's last night in Vancouver. We both went back to work the next day and then off to the airport to see Lee and Sam home. I must admit that I was not only sad to see them go, but a little teary knowing that they where going home. Guess being away is starting to take its toll.

So there you have our white Christmas vacation. Stay tuned for the second last report of the first leg of the US trip and the last report on Vancouver. Down to our last week here!!

Anyway, hope everyone is safe and we miss you all.

Love Mike and Bec.