A Whistler Winter

So it’s almost the end of April and it seems like we’re counting down the days to the end of the season. It feels like yesterday we were buying our snow gear, training for our new jobs and remembering how to snowboard! It’s all gone so quickly. 

We haven’t posted as much as we would have liked to over the season as we have been super busy working, riding and celebrating life so I thought I would take the time to recap on the things we haven’t posted about while we've been living the dream in Whistler! 

 We’ve been lucky enough to have friends visit from home while we’ve been in town. I’m sure they came to visit the mountain and it was just a co-incidence that we had made Whistler our home but it was nice to see some familiar faces and show them around town!

Adam Ward was the first to visit and although his visit was cut short by our trip to Seattle we had a few good days on the mountain, one where we hiked to the top of Flute Bowl and rode the knee deep powder all the way to the bottom; and in particular; one memorable meal at Mongolie Grill. Adam also visited during Gay Pride Week so he and Rhys got a few interesting stares when the two of them shared a few après beers at the pub!! 

Hiking to the top of Flute Bowl

Ryan Buckley was the next to grace us with his presence. Rhys took the week of work to hang out with Ryan and make sure he had a full tour of Whistler; from waffles at the Crystal Hut, Fresh Tacks breakfast, a visit to Creekbread and our first Cross country skiing adventure (more on that later). We were also lucky enough to take part in the Grocery Store’s rendition of the harlem shake where we all got dressed up in costume and headed into the store at about 1130pm after it had closed and filmed ‘the shake’ on the security camera! Check out the conclusion of our shenanigans.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEhHYU0BAdM

 

Ryan spent a few days in Vancouver before heading back to reality so we to made the trip out of the Whistler bubble down to Van for the night. We’d timed it perfectly too to see the Canucks play the Predators! After decking ourselves out in Canucks merchandise it was off to the game.

We were sitting in about the third tier but it was perfect viewing location as we could see all the action on the ice! The Canucks took out the game in style, winning 7-4 and even included a few fights and a penalty shot! The atmosphere at the game was like nothing we’d ever experienced at a game before; the stadium was full and at least 70% of the crowd was wearing jerseys, there was entertainment between each period and during the game and I got a visit from the Canucks mascot Fin!

 

While we were in Van we also did a bit of exploring and headed over to Granville Island to show Ryan around. We ended up at the Granville markets and after a hearty hangover breakfast we made our way out side to watch the street performer. Somehow Rhys became part of the show and the next thing we knew he was throwing knives, being called "Australia" and helping the guy up onto a 6 foot unicycle! Ryan was the DJ for the show and half way through the show answered a phone call from the performers father.. funny stuff in the end and a great way to spend a miserable day in Van! 

Just before Ryan left for Vancouver the sun came out for the day so we decided to trade our snow boards for skinny skis and take a chance at Cross Country Skiing..None of us had any idea what we were getting ourselves into but the shoes were surprisingly comfy and we were ready for the challenge. 

We managed to stay on our feet for the most of the time and luckily had the go pro on for one of our major stacks! Its hard to avoid collision when the person in front of you is following in the same tracks as you and travelling at a different pace! The boys thought it was a lot of hard work for not getting to go very fast, but I loved it. It was almost like going for a run in that you were getting a good all round cardio workout but it wasn’t as hard on your joints or anything so it was enjoyable and totally different! I can definitely see how it’s considered the toughest sport around though! We were even lucky enough to have our maiden voyage caught on film as they were shooting an advertisement while we were there and Rhys knew the guy filming it! Check it out ! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAeKUbE9hjY

All in all it was fun spending time and sharing Whistler with a few friends from back home.. I wonder who will be next?! 

The end of February came around (in between Ryan and Adam's visits) and I celebrated my quarter century in style.

While I spent my actual birthday working from 815am to 730pm, I made sure to drag out the celebrations! A few days before the big day a few friends took me up for fresh tracks breakfast on a SUPER busy powder day and a few days later Rhys and I had a day on the big kid skis (ie. not the beginner ones) which ended with me falling in the powder and hurting my knee on the last run – typical! We had a delicious dinner (and ended up eating a little too much cake!) and had a few celebration drinks with friends at Merlins.

But the celebrations didn’t end there as Rhys treated us to a day at the Scandinave spa where we had very relaxing Swedish massages followed by relaxing in the hot / cold baths, sauna, steam and relaxation room for a few hours! Perfect way to spend the day and celebrate old age! 

In late March Whistler was host to the Nordic Ski Festival, where a bunch of guys from around the world all came to battle it out on the skinny ski's and the ski jumping! We went down one beautiful sunny day to watch the ski jumping and were in awe of the size of the jump and what the guys were able to do! The skis seemed to be almost twice their size and the jump looked daunting from the bottom.. I don't know where they get the courage to jump but I certainly wouldn't be doing it any time soon!

We also ventured to the 'train wreck' down at Function Junction where..as the name says it.. a train had de-railed a fair few years ago and the abandoned carriages have been graffitied and turned into a bike / skate park. It was kind of cool to see but apparently we narrowly missed a fine from the cops for walking along the train line!

Then came the time for shopping and getting prepped for our ‘dead season’ road trip! Our first major purchase was ‘Jimmy’, a gold GMC SUV with (hopefully) plenty of room in the back and more than ready to take us where we want to go! And where is that you ask? Well.. we’re a little ambitious and want to see everything while we’re over here (kind of so we don’t have to come back!) so we really want to see as much as possible. We’ve done a bit of research and have come up with a basic plan of heading down the west coast of the USA, then coming up through Las Vegas and up through to Calgary and Banff, the back to the west coast of Canada to take us to the Alaska Marine Highway and the ferry that will take us up to Alaska and the Yukon.. and then back to Whistler for the best part of summer! 

We even started prepping for the warmer weather by buying some new summer clothes at various closing down sales in the village and I even turned a few pairs of long pants into shorts! 

There are a few more purchases we need to make before its time to head off, but with the bulk of it already paid for, we’re almost ready to pack our bags and our lives into the back of the car and hit the road!! It will be sad to leave Whistler winter as we’ve thoroughly enjoyed the winter and all that the snow brought with it but we’ve both definitely realized that our bodies (and minds) are tuned to the summer and all that it brings with it! It’s not so much the warmth but the summer activities like hiking, biking and swimming that we are missing the most!  While there will definitely be more snow adventures in the future we can’t wait for the warmer weather or for our new adventure to begin on the road!