Whistler Wonderland

We were picked up this morning at 6am by Lindsey and Camilo for a day of skiing at Whistler. By just after 8 we were parking the car and getting suited up. We met Nicole and Mike and also Lisa and headed up the mountain.

In the past 3 days it has snowed something like 4 feet so there was a ton of fresh powder. By about our 3rd run we had made it to the lift to take us to the Peak, which had just opened. For about the next hour and a half we all struggled to make it through the powder that, if you fell and got stuck, was up to your waist. The skiers (Nicole, Mike and Lindsey) had the best luck, but still struggled, us short-skiers had a pretty tough time - short skis basically turn into long, sinking snowshoes in deep powder, but by far the snowboarder was worse off. She couldn't get going fast enough and then just had to hop or walk (sinking in to her hips each step) every time she fell, and once she had managed to dig herself out. Needless to say she was exhausted - she made it to the end of the run and then called it a day.

By then it was time for lunch and we were all bagged. A quick squashed sandwich at the lodge and we tore ourselves away from the warm fire and were at it again. We got as high up the mountain as we could (avoiding the peak). We had a couple great runs before catching the last lift up before it closed.

We were at the top at 3:30 - all lifts shut down. We made it down to the lot at about 4:15. 45 minutes from top to bottom, and we are all pretty experienced, fast skiers. That's a huge mountain! Nicole (who is from Ontario) was saying that their "ski hills" have runs that only take max 10 minutes to get down. Haha! That is hilarious. Needless to say we were all relieved to make it to the bottom. I think my legs would have given out if we had needed to go further.

The weather was great too. We had a few foggy runs, and some freezing chair lift rides, but the sun came out around 11 and then was patchy till the end of the day. It was BEAUTIFUL!! A bit of new snow too - a real mix.

And that was today!