Canada - Whistler, Mar 06

Since my last diary email I left Victoria on Vancouver Island and headed back to the mainland. I met up with Andy in Vancouver and we had a few days to do the touristy things and suss out an itinerary for the trip, plus the logistics that go with it.


We were both keen to hit the resort of Whistler as we had heard great things about it from both people we knew and also reviews read. Whistler / Blackcomb mountains combined are the largest ski resort in America, its size rivaled only by the cost of accommodation.


We tried to book accommodation at the backpackers but we were blown away when they said it was going to cost $65 Canadian a night (we were paying $23 in Vancouver). Luckily for us a couple of mates, Kirsten and Tim who were working at Whistler for the season managed hook us up with their lounge floor to sleep on. It was raining and all together pretty miserable when we got off the greyhound from Vancouver, but we were stoked when the rain turned to snow that afternoon and it dumped down 10cm.



The next day dawned clear blue and we knew we were in for a good time. We were determined to be one of the first people up the mountain, unfortunately so were thousands of other people. We got fresh tracks down the main runs for the first hour or so, after that we had to go into the trees or hiking for it. The snow was the light dry powder we have been searching for and it was knee deep in places near the top of the mountain. We skied with Kirsten, Tim and their mate Mark for most of the day which was really good as they gave us the tiki tour and showed us all the best runs. They also knew where the best place was for the after ski beer, we went to a pub where they had a deal ‘Pound of wings and a pint’ for $5 – Awesome, we had to have a second helping.



We skied the second day at Blackcomb, which was the also good. The runs dropping down into the Blackcomb Glacier was particularly awesome, the only bugger was the long traverse out.



We had two awesome days at Whistler but our wallets were telling us it was time to go somewhere cheaper. We jumped back on the Greyhound bus and headed east to our next destination, Apex Mountain.