Hitting the Slopes…

January 29, 2009 - 18.26

Throughout the years, I’ve gone to Whistler several times. However, those trips were all in the summertime. As a snowboarder, I’ve always wanted to board at Whistler. But since my family doesn’t do winter sports and my boarding buddies had move out of the province, the opportunity never came up. The past Christmas, my friends, Zuka and KK, from Toronto came over to visit. One of them is a skier. Therefore, the chance to head to Whistler during winter time had finally arrived.

The weather this year had been a little crazy. There was an overwhelming amount of snowfall in Vancouver. Good thing my friends rented a truck. Or else the drive to Whistler would be very ‘fun’. We departed around 6:30 in the morning. It was still pitch black outside and all my pictures turns out to be nothing but darkness. We arrived at the village around 8:30. After parking our car, we changed at one of the hotels and headed to rental shop where my friends got their boarding equipments. Then the long wait in the line for the Whistler Gondola followed. It was a beautiful day though.

Our first stop was the bunny hill runs. It took me awhile to get used boarding again. Since it’s my friends first time boarding, we stayed at this run for a bit while they try to get a hang of the sport. Good thing the weather was great. The sky was clear and sunny. It was cold, at around -15C, but at least visibility was great.

Although Vancouver got a lot of snow, there was actually less snow than normal on the slopes. Since it didn’t snow on the days before, parts of the run are very icy, making it slightly dangerous.

After a few tries down the bunny hill, we took the Whistler Gondola to the peak for lunch. Since this was a midway stop for the Gondola, we had to wait for people to get off in order to board.

As expected, the cafeteria at the peak was incredibly crowded. It took sometime to find a spot. I had soup and sandwich. The soup was a bit salty but the sandwich was good. The three of them each had a poutine and I snatched some fries off of them.

We walked outside to check out the view afterward. It was gorgeous. That’s the Whistler Gondola to the left.

To the right is the new Peak 2 Peak Gondola. There’s mainly two sides to the Whistler runs, the Whistler side and the Blackcomb side. We started out at the Whistler side.

Next we took the Peak 2 Peak to the Blackcomb side. The gondola is pretty big and can fit up to 28 people. There are seats but not enough for everyone. There are also 1 or 2 of them which has a glass bottom, where you can see down under. We didn’t get on one this time but one of my friend did on the next day.

Since we were the last group of people to board, I didn’t get a seat and stood by the door. It was a bit hard to take pictures. The door windows were all fogged up. I managed to take a video with my hands stretched up.

The whole ride was about 20minutes. As the sign indicated, the ride had only been opened for less than 2 weeks when we went on it.

At various location on the mountain, there are these ‘Sniffle Stations’, which provided kleenex for visitors. Bupo was a fan of them.

It was around 2:30 when we got to the Blackcomb side. At first, we plan to head down altogether on the green runs but Zuka was already exhausted so she headed back to the Whistler side with KK. After figuring out a route down to the bottom on our trail map, Bupo and I headed down. Since Bupo’s also a beginner, I had a lot of opportunities to take pictures while I wait for her.

Since I started snowboarding around 10 years ago, I’ve mostly boarding at my local mountain. I’ve also gone to some mountains in Ontario when I studied there. One of the major difference between those mountain and Whistler is the length of the runs. It’s a much longer ride going from the top of the hill to the bottom. The feeling of a long uninterrupted ride is rather satisfying, if not tiring.

On the nice day, the view is also great. With clear visibility, I didn’t have to focus on the snow all the time and can steal a glance at the surrounding scenery from time to time.

There were many other beginners trying out the slopes at Whistler as well. It reminded me of my first attempt at snowboarding. I can’t quite imagine how overwhelmingly exhausting it would be to head down from the top all the way to the bottom while falling every few seconds. But I guess it might not be as bad as going down a black run, which I did without even knowing what black diamond means.

Due to poor snow condition, part of our planned route was closed down. The other opened runs were blue ones which would not suit Bupo. So the staff recommend that we take the chairlift back up to the peak and take a different chairlift down to a lower section and bypass the closed section.

On the chairlift, we noticed a group of people with a film crew. Not sure what they are filming. Movie? Or maybe just some skiing video?

It was my first time heading down the mountain on a chairlift. It’s different. The wind blows into your face much harder than the upward lift. But then, you also get to see more.

The sun is beginning to set. But regardless, it was pretty cold. While my body was kept warm by my jacket and snow pants, my fingers and toes were freezing. I wore an extra pair of socks on the next day.

A clear view of the Whistler village. After getting off this chairlift, we headed for the bottom but Bupo got tired so she took the chairlift down to the bottom instead. Without Bupo, I boarded non-stop which explains the lack of photos. Towards the bottom, there were a lot of snow machines blowing snow onto the run which create a lovely powdered section. I enjoyed riding down that section a lot!

The next day’s weather was a lot worse compared to the first day’s. Since KK went skiing at the more difficult runs and Zuka and Bupo were too exhausted to do anything, I went boarding solo on the second day. The cloud level was low so visibility wasn’t as good. I ended up heading into a few wrong runs and had to walk back up to get to the right ones.

In the middle of one of the runs, there’s this ‘Tree Fort’ thing. I wasn’t sure what it was. Since there were a ton of kids there, I didn’t check it out either.

It’s my last run down at 3:00pm, which is when the chairlifts close as indicated by the sign (red lights). I think the condition got more foggy.

During the last run, I got really tired midway down the run and had to take several breaks. This never happen at my local mountain where the runs are much shorter. Overall, I really enjoyed my two days of snowboarding at Whistler. I would definitely return if the opportunity arise.

Posted in Real Life
Tagged as snowboarding, whistler