Canada 08/09 – The Journey Home

Our last morning at Whistler started late – with a well deserved sleep-in. We woke to see the sun beaming down once again on the two peaks that were Whistler Blackcomb. It was only the 4th day of sun we had seen for 2009, and so it was very much welcomed. It also meant that the temperature was bound to be much warmer – about 7C as it turned out.

Once we had finally packed up the rooms, and weighed each bag with Ed’s now broken travel scales, checking that they were underweight – albeit just in some cases – we moved towards the lobby, just after 11am.

We checked out, and paid the $6 hotel bill – most of that being free calls to the hotel tech support to fix our Internet connection – then hit the village for one last look around. From the hotel, we walked to the base of the slopes to look up the mountains one last time for this visit, then headed back into the heart of the village to continue looking around – not that we hadn’t seen everything before, a few times in some cases. We ended up back at Esquires Coffee House – the same venue that we had dined at when we first arrived at Whistler, many days ago now. While the food choices were very similar to that occasion, in fact, precisely the same – sausage rolls and a breakfast bagel – everyone enjoyed the meal as a change from the usual hot dogs/pizza/etc and fries.

Before too long, we decided to double-check the departure time – just to make sure we weren’t 30 minutes or even an hour off what we thought we were – but luckily, all was fine and we had just enough time to get back to the hotel and organise the bags for the pick-up. We did this, but not before Pip won an Olympic Gold medal, and Ed the Silver – unfortunately the Bronze medal contestant was snapped (up) by the paparazzi. Upon arriving back at the hotel, I remembered that I may have left a power-plug converter in the room, as the final pieces of my luggage were packed in somewhat of a rush. Just to be sure, we went back up to check, but had no luck finding it. It turned out soon after that this was already packed in Ed’s bag.

The Vancouver Airport shuttle picked us up right on time – and this time the bus was even smaller than the last! Only 10 passengers (max) in this one – and in reality, only one passenger other than us. The driver was a local Whistler guy, who had an incredible knowledge of the area and lots of great stories to boot. As we left the village, we gazed back at the picturesque day that had unfolded over the mountains and said our final goodbyes. The journey was relatively painless, with everything being customised to our liking – stops, commentary, the works. As an interesting side note, while most people mountain bike at Whistler in summer, he chooses a cheaper activity to keep himself busy – Disc Golf. This game works on similar rules to ordinary golf, but takes place in the middle of the forest, with players throwing different sized Frisbees towards a post/basket situated some distance away through the trees. Sounds like fun, and is something a little different to just dodging the bears while walking.

As we passed through Squamish the driver explained to us how while it was perfectly sunny here at a slightly higher altitude, Vancouver was deep in fog – and had been all day. He told us the precise point at which this fog would start, and he was pretty good on the mark in reality. Before the fog set in, however, and once we had approached the sea on the Sea-to-Sky highway, we stopped at a small lookout known as Porteau Cove. The driver refused to let us miss out on these views – and it didn’t take us long to work out why. The photos probably don’t do justice to this sight, but at this point, where the highway edged right on the sea, the fog was just rolling in over the water – really, really picturesque.

After enjoying the view for a few minutes, we jumped back on to the bus and headed further into the fog – the weather which would stay with us for the remainder of the journey, and which the driver had perfectly predicted. Unfortunately, as we got closer and closer to Vancouver, the traffic got worse and worse. As we approached the Lions’ Gate Bridge, reports and signs suggested that 15 minute delays could be expected via this route, so the driver opted for a slightly more indirect one, one that would take us around the city rather than through it.

This slight detour didn’t matter much to us, as we arrived at the airport with plenty of time to spare. It was unfortunate that our last views of Vancouver had been typical of the region – grey, wet and cool, but not cold – but we had seen it all before on the way in anyhow. At this point in the journey, Pip had still not found the major shopping item she had been looking for – a squirrel puppet – but hope was not lost, and we searched through every open shop at both the international and domestic terminals. We had no success, however, and had exhausted all available options at this point in time. While we were looking around, we did learn that recently a flight had made an emergency landing in the Hudson River – something that was very soothing and calming to see on all the TVs around the airport…

While we were slightly early at this point, we decided to leave Canada and checked through US customs and immigration – but not before checking with a check-in assistant whether there was food and other services open and available through the security point. Although she was reluctant to help, and even more so once she discovered we weren’t flying her airline, we had the information we needed and decided to proceed through.

Security and immigration was no problems – except for the ski bag which was selected for a ‘random’ inspection. The security officer asked Ed whether this bag contained any batteries, and of course, being a ski bag, it didn’t. Unfortunately, when she started rifling through it, she discovered a whole bag of batteries – along with all of our radios and transmitting equipment. While this was not a problem, it would have made life easier if this had been remembered before the check was conducted. This didn’t hold us back too long, and we were soon officially in the USA – although we technically hadn’t gone anywhere.

We checked the few remaining stores inside the US territory, but still had no luck finding Pip’s purchase. Looking at the stores, we soon discovered that there was more variety inside this area – both in terms of food and shopping – contrary to what we were told by the check-in assistant moments before entering. Once we had seen all there was to see, we settled down with some asian food for dinner. We hadn’t really eaten any asian food the entire time we’d been away, and while this wasn’t the pinnacle of asian dining, it was a nice change.

After dinner we found a spot to sit – by a power point for the laptop users – and made a quick Skype call back home before we boarded the aircraft. The flight left Vancouver slightly early, and similarly arrived in San Fransisco just before schedule – which was lucky, as our connecting flight left less than 30 minutes later. While we didn’t have a chance to stop and take a photo, a sign at the counter of Burger King highlighted all the legal issues that were running hot in the State of California. This sign read:

Food and beverages served at this restaurant contain chemicals, known to the State of California, to cause cancer and/or birth defects.

Mmm… yum! We had eaten here on our way to Canada, and decided that if there was anything harmful, we’d already done many years of damage prior. Signs like this, however, were not uncommon in San Francisco airport – similar signs could be seen when boarding planes, for example… I guess it comes with the territory. We kept moving and walked to our next departure gate – and luckily didn’t have to recheck through security at any stage here.

We stopped for a quick break and refresh, and then boarded this next flight – a flight that was completely full. Luckily we had scored similar seats to the flight on the way over, and so had no reason to contemplate changing. We boarded the flight on time, and were pleased to be informed that the predicted flight time was significantly less than what it was scheduled to be – a lucky thing, as the flight in this direction is generally always longer than the one going the other way.

We left US soil soon after, and enjoyed a relatively uneventful flight. Pip managed to sleep a grand total of about 10 hours – taking the prize for ability to sleep on flights hands down. Ed had previously warned us that he struggled to sleep on long flights, and so of course it was just our luck that the one occasion we saw him sleep was also the occasion that both Pip and I had to get up, past him, to use the bathroom. Although we had missed out on the ‘Direct from the Flight Deck’ service that United generally offers on the way over – a channel on the audio system that lets you listen in to communications between the pilots and air traffic controllers – in this direction we were more fortunate, and enjoyed struggling to keep up with the fast-paced action that is air traffic control.

We arrived in Sydney 13.5 hours later, still significantly early at just before 8am. After the bags took a little while to come, we cleared customs and immigration with no problems and headed from the arrivals hall, upstairs, to the departures hall. While we were flying domestically to Adelaide soon after, the flight was a scheduled international flight, and so we had to go through the procedures that other international passengers did. We had had a generally peaceful journey, right from the word go up until now, but this is where the peace ended. When trying to check in for our flight with Qantas, we were informed that we were some large manner of kgs over the weight limit – although we had managed to get all of our bags from Vancouver without any problems.

While the Qantas lady had troubles understanding that we were flying to Adelaide, and this was the end of our trip, and that we had come from Vancouver – 12,500km or thereabouts – a rage began from Ed regarding the terms and conditions we had printed that allowed us to have these bags. It later turned out that all she needed was more explanation about where we had come from and where we were going, but the rage continued even when the problem was fixed. After threats of leaving Ed there with 6 bags to deal with on his own, tempers soon simmered down a little, but this gave the end of the journey a slightly negative flair.

Soon after we checked through immigration as a domestic passenger, and left Australia for one last time. We spent a short amount of time in what can only be described as ‘no man’s land’ in this case, almost the very place we had spent a number of hours waiting a few weeks prior on our way out. While it was tempting to jump onto the return flight, heading back to San Fransisco, home was feeling rather close at this point, and so we continued forward. We had a small amount of trouble trying to get food and drinks within this area, with nearly every food operator owned by the Santos food group, but we eventually found something and waiting for the final leg of the journey.

The Sydney-Adelaide leg was uneventful, and we arrived slightly early – back to a warm, but not scorchingly hot Adelaide summer’s day. It was a stark contrast from the near-zero temperatures we had experienced only a day (or two, as it was because of the time difference) earlier, and it was sad not to see everything covered in a thick layer of white, fluffy powder. We checked back into Australia, and cleared customs, immigration, and all the other rubbish associated with domestic-international travel to find our chauffeur party awaiting our arrival. Although we had spoken to everyone on Skype on many occasions, it was great to be home after completing another OnSno.com ski adventure – but this time around leaving some of our members at home.

We had had many great experiences, plenty of good laughs, amazing sights and a little fun at times, and while we hadn’t had much of a holday - as such – it had been good to get away from the rush and bustle of the real world back here in Australia. It’s a scary thought to think that the next time we’ll see snow is a good 6 months away, while all those people in Canada continue to be surrounded by the stuff – but that’s the way life is! No doubt if we had it everywhere, all the time, we’d probably get sick of it… well, maybe not!

Canada 08/09 – Whistler – Day 12

Day 12 started at a similar time to the day before – we were all up and moving by 8:30am, which was a little later than ‘normal’, but not too bad for anyone. The weather looked perfect from our room window, as we stared out while eating breakfast – very few clouds about, and those that were about moved quickly. We were completely ready to hit the slopes at around 10am, and caught the hotel shuttle to the base of the lifts once again. We decided to start up Blackcomb, so that we would have an excuse to use the Peak 2 Peak with such nice weather, and so that we could end up on Whistler at the end of the day.

Straight up the Excalibur Gondola firstly, where we noticed that the current village temperature was 0C, mid-mountain was +2C, and at the peak a balmy +6C! We had luckily taken off a layer of clothing after yesterday’s fun in the sun, and it was certainly good that we had. We joked with another passenger on the gondola that we should have been skiing in shorts, and she suggested that they were predicting Spring Skiing conditions and so this wouldn’t be so silly. Once we reached the top, we continued upwards on the Excelerator lift. On the way up, we had seen some nice runs, and so decided to ski back down before venturing higher.

These runs were excellent – both in snow condition, and the lack of crowds using them – but we soon decided to catch the Jersey Cream Express further up the mountain, just to see what the conditions were like. The sun was shining on this side of the mountain, and so we decided to explore some runs around the Cat Skinner and Solar Coaster area. We skied a number of nice runs here, and enjoyed the perfect weather and perfect views that came with it. The skiing was great, and it was surprisingly quiet considering the nice conditions.

At 12pm, we decided to grab some lunch – so that we could be on our way to Whistler by 1pm and therefore ski the same number of hours on both mountains. Lunch was again at the Rendezvous Restuarant, and much the same as yesterday’s helpings. Although there were plenty of skis at the front of the lodge, the tables were mostly empty. This was largely because many of the skiers and boarders had decided to make full use of the nice conditions and eat their lunch outside, on the deck of the lodge. While the weather was nice, it wasn’t that warm.

We finished lunch right on schedule at 1pm, and hopped straight on to the Peak 2 Peak Gondola. The 11 minute ride disappeared quickly with most of the time spent looking out the windows in awe of the amazing views around, and down, the mountains and valleys. We arrived at Whistler soon after and headed down to the Emerald Express chair, where we had spent much of our time over the past few days.

In the number of runs we skied here, most of them were in the ‘Family Zone’ – which was much quieter than other areas, and surprisingly showcased much better snow conditions than other runs. We spent some time taking photos of the views, and Pip spent some time trying to capture an action jump photo. We span around this loop a few times as the sun got lower and lower on the horizon until it was too dark to effectively take a fast-moving action photo.

Before it got too late, however, we skied down from the top of the mountain to the Garbanzo Express, which allowed us to access Raven – a run we had found a few days before and thoroughly enjoyed. While it was a little icy today, it was still a great run and enjoyed again by all. We had time to finish this and return quickly to the Emerald chair for one last ride up at 2:55pm. By the time we were at the top, it was after 3pm and the majority of lifts were now closed.

We skied to the very bottom of the mountain, doing some video filming on the way. I taped a few runs through the trees on the way down, which hopefully should make for some good viewing. They were the summer mountain bike trails that made for good tree runs – unfortunately today they were a little icy, so it was hard work on the legs trying to stay upright. By the time we reached the very bottom of the hill, it was coming up on 3:45pm.

The hotel shuttle was at the base of the mountain waiting for us, so we jumped aboard and took it back to the room. Upon returning to the room, we relaxed for a while in front of the TV before heading to the spa for more relaxation time. We didn’t stay in the spa for long, and we were soon back in the room preparing for dinner. After putting on a few more layers of clothes, we headed out into the village to grab yet another meal out-and-about.

Tonight we dined again at the Mongolie Grill – arguably our favourite place to eat in Whistler Village. Dinner was enjoyed by all, and Pip certainly won the competition for having the biggest meal. After dinner, we headed back to some shops and made a few more purchases, before heading to Cow’s for yet another serve of icecream. Once we were finished outside, we headed back to the hotel to begin organising ourselves in preparation for tomorrow.

We’ve now spent 12 full days here at Whistler, and while everyone is more exhausted than when we left home, it had been an enjoyable time for all. Luckily the weather cleared up for us today, and hopefully it will remain as such tomorrow so as not to cause and chaos with transport arrangements. Other parts of Canada haven’t been quite so lucky with the weather, with today being -50C in Winnipeg.

We will try and keep you updated as we move around, but you may not see another post until we get back into a location with readily available access to the internet. Looking forward to seeing you all soon – all the very best until we do!

Canada 08/09 – Whistler – Day 11

Day 11 started even later than yesterday – we pressed sleep on the alarm a few times, and didn’t get out of bed until close to 8:30am (lazy in Ed’s book). Ed was up and showering already, and so Pip and I started on breakfast. We took a little while to be completely ready to go, but finally left the room at just after 10am. The hotel shuttle was too hard to resist, again, and so we took the easy way out to the base of the lifts.

It was as cloudy as yesterday, but it looked a little more bleak – there was some light rainfall and so we tried to move as quickly as we could and get on a lift. Today’s lift of choice was the Excalibur Gondola, to the top this time, however. The top of the lift was still covered in thick cloud, and so we decided to continue uphill using the Excelerator which took us another level higher up the mountain. Unfortunately, it was still cloudy here, and so rather than just seeing the same foggy conditions, we decided to take yet another lift up and jumped on the Jersey Cream (after a short ski down).

The Jersey Cream did pop out of the cloud, finally, but only at the very top. This left us with about 100m (vertical) of skiing before we were in the cloud again – much less than yesterday had provided. We decided to try a run down to the Cat Skinner chair, but through the course of the day didn’t actually take this chair at all. In all cases, we took the Solar Coaster instead – it was a much longer run, but by all measures, much, much faster to get back to the top. It was a strange weather, as it was perfectly clear at the top, cloudy immediately after this, clear again somewhere in the middle, but cloudy again below this. Of course, it cleared again at the village level, but this didn’t concern us much now from up here.

We did a few of these runs, back to the top, and down to the Solar Coaster, trying a few new runs on the way, until we got too hungry to go on. Not before we tried the Sea to Sky Railway, however. This was a run through the trees, created for the Ski School kids (Whistler Kids around here), but had been closed yesterday. It was open today, but possibly lacking some snow in parts. It was a bit of fun, and led us back to the Solar Coaster in a similar time as other ways down.

Once we returned to the top this time we decided to stop for lunch. We had a quick check for UFOs, but saw nothing and continued inside to find a table. It was a little hectic, but we soon found a place to crash and had a fairly usual lunch. I had a sandwich, however – shock horror I know – and generally our meal was much healthier than normal. It was just as expensive though – around $20 for the two of us.

After a slowish return to the slopes, at close to 2pm, we decided to head back towards the Jersey Cream, and possibly try the Glacier chair which we hadn’t done this trip. Pip decided, however, that she had done her quota of skiing for the day, and so instead we skied down to the base of the Excelerator chair where she could download back to the village. This was the easiest way to get back to ‘known’ territory – without risking getting lost anywhere along the way. After Pip was happy knowing the way back to the hotel, Ed and I continued skiing and headed to the 7th Heaven Express – where we had been yesterday and enjoyed the brilliant views all around.

Unlike yesterday, however, we took a slightly different run to get to the lift and ended up on the opposite side of the queue. Unfortunately for us, however, there was a considerable line of people waiting to catch this lift back to the top of the slope. Luckily, I spotted that this queue was only long on one side of the lift, and so we quickly skated around the back and rejoined it on the opposite side. We were on the lift in a matter of seconds, rather than the 15 or so minutes it would have taken on the first attempt. We got to the top a few minutes later and skied down a new run for us – Cloud 9. This run was the furthest run away from the lift, but still ended up at the base of the 7th Heaven Express.

7th Heaven, due to its distance from the rest of the lifts on the mountain, closed earlier than most – at 2:30pm – and because we stopped, a number of times, to take photos, we were highly sceptical that we would get another ride up. We certainly had taken a fair while to get down, and it was 2:40pm before we reached the bottom of the lift – but it was our lucky day, and they were still loading people on to the lift. We jumped on the now non-existent line and got the nearly very-last ride up. Following our lucky break, we enjoyed our last last run down and the views which had multiplied in magnitude now that the sun was a few degrees lower on the horizon of peaks across the valley. It took us some time to get down because of this, and the lift was well and truly closed by the time we were done.

We followed the home trail, Sunset Boulevard, to the base of the Solar Coaster, and then the aptly-named ‘Gear Jammer’ to the base of the mountain. Ed got a little hot half-way down, and had to stop to unzip many parts of his jacket to ensure he didn’t overheat in the process. We reached the village transport loop at about 3:30pm, and were on the hotel shuttle just before 3:45 – nearly an hour after our last ride up at the top of the hill.

Soon after we were back at the room, where Pip had prepared a dish of nachos – and in the process of, had to find her way to, and back from, the supermarket. Although Pip’s sense of direction doesn’t always do her favours, this time it had paid off. We enjoyed the snack immensely, and soon after headed to the pool area for some time in the hot tub. We didn’t spend too long floating about, and returned to the room to get ready for dinner. With only a few days remaining us here in Canada, we weren’t going to buck the trend and actually cook dinner again, now were we, and so we headed into the village to find something different to previous nights.

We ended up at La Bocca, a restaurant we had considered on previous occasions, but had not actually experienced in the time we had been here, or on any visits to Whistler in the past. Dinner was both nice and enjoyable, and we spent a bit of time here before heading to Cow’s – or Moo’s as it had become known since Kerrie had visited – for some dessert. We returned to the room soon after, and Skyped those back home before heading to bed. Everyone was considerably tired and in need of a good night’s sleep, so this is what we attempted to do.

As fast as time seems to have flown here, we can’t believe that it’s nearly coming to an end for us in Whistler. We’re trying to not let this get to us, however, and so are looking forward to tomorrow’s skiing as any other day, and are hoping that the weather will continue to improve (although today was not technically an improvement over yesterday).

Stay tuned for the latest news, adventures, and fun and games, and be sure to check out the latest photos in the gallery - while there aren’t quite as many as yesterday, and the views aren’t quite as nice in most cases, there are some brilliant panoramas to check out so make sure you do!

Looking forward to catching up with everyone soon – enjoy yourselves, but not too much!