Canada 08/09 – Whistler – Day 5

Today it rained – from the time we woke up at 7:30am until we returned from dinner, it just rained. Day 5 at Whistler was not great from a weather front, but wasn’t a bad day overall.

We were up at the normal time and ready to head out by 9:30am – when we walked out the front door however, the weather problem became apparent. With heavy rain streaming off the buildings, and enough falling out in the open, we were worried that the snow might all disappear. The roads and walkways were already devoid of snow in the village, and we had just hoped that the freezing level was low enough to escape as we went up the mountains.

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We caught the shuttle to the village bus loop where it dropped us off, after which we made the short walk down the stairs to the base of the two mountain gondolas. Unlike the past few days, we decided to return to Blackcomb – which we hadn’t done since the first day we were here. Ed assured all of us that the rain which was still falling in the village would stop by the time we reached the top of the gondola. Unfortunately, as I predicted, this was not the case, and the rain went on.

We caught the next two chairs up the mountain, eventually reaching a level where the rain suddenly turned into snow. It was wet snow for sure, but it was better being white and solid rather than wet wet wet. Unfortunately, where it was snowing, it was also windy – very windy. We reached the top of the Jersey Cream Express – the highest lift that was currently open, due largely to the wind – and decided that we had had enough, already.

From the top of this lift, we quickly skied the 200 metres or so to the Peak 2 Peak Gondola station, and jumped aboard to make the 11 minute journey to Whistler Mountain. We arrived at Whistler in seemingly no time, and were surprised at the much nicer conditions that existed over this side of the valley. While it was slightly windy, the precipitation was definitely snow, and the wind was no where near as bad as it had been at Blackcomb.

We skied a couple of loops around the Emerald chair, still amazed at how different the weather was over this side, and impressed that it was snowing gently, with no wind at all once we were off the top of the plateau. As the time approached 12pm, we got more and more hungry before finally giving in and moving into the Roundhouse Lodge for lunch. This was not before Pip (and Ed and myself) had enjoyed another few runs, learning some new techniques for improving her skiing style.

Lunch was nice, again, but not the healthiest thing we’d had while being away. Burgers, hot dogs and other delights were on the menu today – which had become rather common for a lunchtime meal. We didn’t spend too long inside, but long enough to let all of our ski clothing dry out just a little bit. Today was the first day I had used my Camelback (thanks Shell!), and it had proved very handy after a long, hard run – but it took us until lunch to figure out where some of the bits and pieces were meant to go.

We headed back out into the wild at about 1pm, and skied down towards Mid Station – the top of the Creekside Gondola – where we bumped into Belinda and April. We made plans for dinner tomorrow night, but didn’t waste any time getting back to the skiing at hand. We took the Red Chair back to the top of the hill, only to discover that this chair wasn’t nicely protected from the wind like the Emerald was – and so quickly decided that this wasn’t the chair to be catching today.

From here, we decided to ski another run or two on the Emerald chair as we had done before lunch. We did this until we were sick of doing the same run over and over – as nice as it was, and probably our favourite one open on the mountain – and then decided to ski to the very bottom of Whistler. This took a good 30 minutes, but we did take a slight detour to take Pip on the ‘tree run’ that I had found a few days earlier, and taken Ed on just yesterday.

Pip enjoyed the run – as far as we can tell, although she was screaming most of the way down (jokingly, we hope) – but needed some reassurance that the ski patrol would in fact come and rescue her if she fell over and broke her leg (very specific, I know). Once we reached the very bottom – where it was still raining – Pip caught the shuttle back to the hotel while Ed and I skied a few more runs at the top of the mountain.

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Once Ed and I finally returned to the room, it was nearly 4pm – where we found Pip enjoying a nap on the couch. We relaxed for a while before heading to the grocery store to pick up more breakfast supplies – and to purchase a few items in preparation for Kerrie’s arrival from Seattle tonight. We got back to the room at about 4:30pm, where I wasted 30 minutes on the phone to technical support trying to get our internet working – again. Why it can work for 4 days straight, and then suddenly stop, is still a mystery to me – but anyway.

We decided to have a quick spa, and did so in the hour before Kerrie arrived. Unfortunately, it was still raining, and so tonight’s spa wasn’t quite as enjoyable as previous nights where we relaxed with snow falling overhead. By 7:30pm, Ed was waiting at the bus stop across the road where Kerrie was to arrive in the next few minutes.

Ed and Kerrie returned to the room just before 8pm, and we took a short period to let Kerrie settle in and work out where she was going to be living for the next few days. As it was getting late, we pulled the plug on our Skype session and headed out for dinner – Earl’s was the restaurant of choice. We hadn’t been to Earl’s since the first night in Vancouver, and so this seemed like a safe choice.

Unfortunately, it was raining – still – so we walked quickly to avoid getting drenched along the way. After a short wait for a table we were seated, ordered, and enjoyed many stories about clearing US customs and the like. We didn’t leave Earl’s until nearly 10pm, but dinner was well and truly enjoyed by all.

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After returning to the room, we watched some TV before everyone got too tired to sit up straight, and chose to get some ZZZs. We all continue to hope that this rain stops immediately, and that a nice big dump of snow comes back to return the village to its prior glory – as we saw it a few days ago. Although an off-duty ski patroller informed us that this rain was actually good for the snow base, it didn’t help appease fears that the snow cover was being ruined – along with all the nice white scenery.

We’re now practically half-way through our 2008/09 Canada adventure, and have had much fun along the way. With any luck, we’ll continue to do so, even though we’re only at half-strength. Hope the weather warms up back home, and that it cools down significantly here – speak to you all soon!

About the Author

Scott

Web designer, graphic designer, coder, scripter, photographer, musician, performer, entrepreneur (and the list goes on) based in Adelaide, South Australia. Scott loves to experiment with new ideas, and OnSno.com is his creative dumping ground.