Canada 08/09 – Whistler – Day 2
Canada 08/09 – Whistler – Day 2
Day 2 at Whistler started as early as yesterday – 7:30am was the alarm. We slept a little longer but were up soon after – as was Ed, who obviously didn’t want to be beaten again this morning as yesterday panned out.
We had breakfast in front of the TV, which was unusual for us, but didn’t slow us down a whole lot because the news wasn’t really thrilling.
With no complaints about anything room related this morning, we were moving much more quickly and were out of the room by 9:30am. Instead of walking as we had yesterday, we decided to try for the hotel’s small shuttle bus – which unfortunately only took 10 passengers. We walked out to the front of the hotel after grabbing our skis, and looked for where this shuttle might pick people up. We encountered a sign that suggested we had to ‘line up here’, which we did, where nobody else was. As soon as we did, the shuttle bus arrived.
We hopped on as soon as it stopped, but the crowd that had been sitting down (instead of standing at the sign) had now gathered around the van and was slowly filing in. Unfortunately, there were 12 passengers, and only 10 seats – and we had grabbed three of them. One young boy on the bus had a good whinge to his mum about our behaviour, but everyone else seemed to get on with life.
The bus ride was only a few minutes long, and it dropped us at the Village Transport Hub, next to the Excalibur Gondola. We walked down the stairs towards Whistler mountain and jumped on to the Fitzsimmons Chair instead of the Whistler Gondola. Although the queues on both lifts were fairly even at near zero, we felt that the chair would give us a better view of what was happening on the mountain, and what the conditions might feel like.
The ride up was pleasant, with light snowfall and barely any winds. After the Fitzsimmons, the Garbanzo Express was next and this took us to the next level of runs. Unfortunately, the winds significantly picked up at the top of this lift, and standing around was really unbearable. Luckily, it was only the very top that was getting blown away, and so once we moved off of the ridge the conditions settled down. We skied down to the Red Express, which took us as high as the top of the gondola would have – yes that’s right; three chairs to get to the place that one gondola ride would have taken us. The top of the Red, however, was absolutely awful. The winds were howling, the temperature cool at about -16C, and snow falling heavily. This was not enjoyable for anyone, and so we quickly tried to escape the conditions by heading downhill.
We skied towards the Emerald chair, which was in the other direction to the previous runs we had done, and we hoped was more protected than what we had found so far. While the bottom of the runs and lift were pleasant again, the top was near unbearable. We skied a run or two here before stopping in at the Rendezvous Cafeteria for a warm up/snack/hot chocolate. After 30 minutes (or so) we were ready to go again, as it was too early for lunch at only 11:30am.
We decided to head lower on the mountain to escape the conditions, and so took the runs down towards the mid-station (Olympic Station) of the Whistler Gondola. The ride up on this part of the gondola takes 15 minutes, so the runs down certainly aren’t short. We managed two loops of this part of the mountain before ending up back at the top at the Rendezvous Cafeteria for lunch – now it was 1:30pm. Both Pip and I picked up a large slice of pizza, while Ed went for a hamburger. For once, lunch wasn’t ordered with a serve of fries – but instead we had M&Ms…
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Today was a quick lunch – seeing as we had only stopped a few hours earlier – and we were back on the slopes by 2pm. Unfortunately, the weather had degraded and the snow was falling more heavily now than before. We decided to follow the same loop that we had skied a few times before lunch, ending up at the Olympic Station of the gondola. Pip decided to take the gondola down to the base of the mountain, while Ed and I had worn ourselves out, but decided to ski the rest of the journey to the bottom.
By the time we reached the bottom, it was snowing very heavily – making it look foggy in every direction. It had warmed up slightly, and was probably only -6C in the village. We walked back to the transport hub and were lucky enough to arrive as the shuttle pulled up. We jumped aboard, and luckily didn’t kick anyone off this time around. Soon after returning to the room, we headed for the pool/spa. The hotel boasted three spas and one pool, two of those spas outside along with the pool. We decided to go straight for one of these spas, and jumped in amongst the bucketing snow. As we enjoyed the warmth, the snow continued blanketing everything around with a thick white covering.
We stayed in the spa for around 45 minutes, and went back to the room to prepare for dinner soon after. We wanted to get out a little earlier tonight, at we were walking to dinner at 6pm – unlike our other nights which had been much closer to 7:30pm. The snow was still falling heavily, and had covered all of the paths with a thick layer of powder. We walked a few hundred metres to the Mongolie Grill – one of our favourite spots for dinner at Whistler.
Luckily there was no wait to get in, and we were seated immediately – by the window to observe the falling snow outside. The Mongolie Grill is a great experience, as you select the food you want, put it in a bowl, and have it cooked for you on a large hot plate by some very experienced and attention-loving chefs. Flipping spatulas and tossing smaller items of food while it cooks was all part of the act, and everything is cooked to perfection very quickly. We all enjoyed dinner, and moved to Cows for some dessert directly after.
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Following this we headed back to the hotel, stopping only at a pyjama store to look for things to purchase for Pip. We found nothing of particular interest, and so headed back to the room soon after. A bit of Skypeing later, and a few episodes of CSI:Miami down, everyone was very tired and ready for a good night’s sleep.
If the snow continues overnight like it has been all afternoon and evening, there will be a tonne of new powder for tomorrow’s skiing. Here’s to hoping!
Keep the comments coming in, and we’ll try to get back to you as soon as we can!
All the best.
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