Canada 08/09 – Whistler – Day 6

Day 6 at Whistler started with yet more rain. While the weather certainly looked to be an improvement on yesterday, it was still somewhat bleak and covered in a thin layer of mist. We had woken up at a similar time to yesterday (and the day before, and so on), but Ed ad Kerrie were already awake by the time we emerged.

Breakfast was relatively quick, and Ed, Pip and I were ready to hit the slopes by 9:30am. We caught the hotel shuttle around to the transport hub, and made the quick walk to the bottom of the slopes. Unfortunately the town wasn’t looking any better than it did yesterday, with any traces of white completely removed from the trees. While there was the occasional rain drop still falling, we were confident that the weather wasn’t going to get much worse and so decided to catch the Fitzsimmons Chair up Whistler instead of the gondola.

While Ed attempted to convince the liftie that he was German, he was beaten by her ability to speak better German than he could have ever imagined. We reached the top of the chair a number of minutes later – fairly happy with how dry we had remained. While the weather was relatively nice down low, and the crowds non-existent at this time, we decided to ski a run back to the very bottom – something we rarely did except for at the very end of a long day.

The run was a nice one, and at the bottom Ed was back trying to convince the liftie that he was Italian. Again, she managed to outwit him with a more complex sentence in Italian, to which he had no logical reply. We caught this lift up again, and from here took one more lift to ‘take it to the next level’ – weather level that was. The top of the Garbanzo Express took us back where the trees were still covered in snow, and the weather was surprisingly much nicer than lower down. It was snowing a little now, but at least it wasn’t raining.

Our first run took us down a run we had skied many times before over the past few days, but today we couldn’t get anywhere near it – it was set up for a giant slalom race, which unfortunately appeared to not be happening at the moment we arrived. Although we stood around and waited for a minute or two, we couldn’t see anything more than a few flags and so decided to cycle around and check it out next time. Unfortunately, there was a bit of a crowd building at the base of the Emerald chair, and so getting back to the top took a little longer than expected.

Once we skied back down to the racecourse, things were well and truly in swing. We stayed around for about 10 minutes, observing the racers and questioning why they weren’t going as fast as we wanted to, and then decided to again move on to the base of the Emerald chair. By the time 11:30am came around, we decided to make tracks for an early lunch, and stopped once again at the Roundhouse Lodge.

Lunch today was hot dogs for Pip and I, and some special beef combo for Ed – way too much food for any single person for lunch, but he did a fine job of finishing most of it off. We didn’t take too much time inside, and were back on the slopes soon after.

We decided to explore the opposite side of the mountain and headed for Franz’s run instead of the usual Emerald loop. Although Franz’s was icy, and there were plenty of people about, it was nice to see some different scenery. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t quite so nice over this side, and we soon skied into a layer of cloud – sitting around the midstation area. We quickly jumped on the Big Red Express and rode it to the top of the mountain – at least as high as what was open currently.

[singlepic id=475 w=320 h=240 mode=web20 float=center]

We had noticed on this morning’s grooming report that the GS run, over towards the Harmony Express lift, had been groomed last night. While the Harmony Express wasn’t running, this run was accessible, open and now groomed. We decided to take a look, and went this way from the top of the Red chair. Although the trails both in and out of the GS run were nothing to be jealous of, the skiing was great over here. The snow was excellent, weather nice, and the views just awesome. Pip was concerned about the time it would take for someone to come and rescue her ‘way out here’, but we assured her that we were still in bounds, that the run was open, and that nothing was going to happen.

We enjoyed this run, and skied a few more before tiredness began to set in. We skied to the very bottom of the mountain, and called it a day at just after 2:15pm. While it was certainly an early finish for us, both Pip and I were ready for a break – although Ed could have probably done a few more runs. We caught the hotel shuttle back to the room, and met up with Kerrie who had spent the day relaxing – and doing a few small tasks she needed to around the village.

After a short relax in the room, and after meeting up with Ben, we decided to head for the pool for a relaxing swim. Once we had been in the spa for about 10 minutes, a siren started wailing. It sounded like a fire alarm, but there were no strobe lights flashing as was common in North America. A few minutes later, and an announcement stating that an alarm had been triggered but they were still investigating the cause came over the loud speaker. As we had decided to have a spa inside today, the alarm was echoing and much louder than it needed to be, but the announcements were nearly impossible to understand. None of us wanted to be evacuated, as we would have been wearing our bathers and a thin robe – plus some rubber thongs. 10 minutes or so later, the emergency was finally over – and we moved from the pool where we had remained back to the room, where we were ready to blame Kerrie and Ben for the emergency.

Although it was a serious alarm, as we saw by the fire truck at the front door to the hotel as we returned to our room, we never did find out what caused it. We relaxed a little longer before getting ready and making the short walk from the hotel to the Mongolie Grill. We had no troubles securing a table for 9 people, and enjoyed some Mongolie-sized beverages while we waited for the rest of the guests. Belinda, Andrew, Jasmine and April arrived soon after, and we all enjoyed another great meal at the Mongolie.

[singlepic id=481 w=320 h=240 mode=web20 float=center]

After dinner we paid a visit to Cow’s for some dessert, and spent 10 minutes or so inside the shop while we ate our icecreams. From here, Ben made the trip back to the staff housing, while the other crew headed back for Whistler Creek. We made the short dash back to the hotel where we spent some time on Skype.

No one could believe how quickly the day had come and gone, as it appeared every day seemed to around here, but we all liked the sound of a good night’s sleep to be ready for another day on the slopes.

The rain is forecast to stop today, and so hopefully tomorrow will bring snow if there is precipitation, but a nice sunny day would be nice too. With any luck, we’ll have some nice photos to share, and hopefully some new terrain to explore. No doubt, will have plenty of stories to tell once they happen tomorrow!

About the Author