Yes we are still alive..and a little recap of the last month

Okay, so it has been a long time since our last post and we apologise sincerely, so we will attempt to catch you up on the fun and games over the last few weeks in as much detail as we can remember and without making the post too long! We are now up to day 95 of our trip and day 80 in Whistler! We are definitely still loving life here, our extended vacation and are still making the most of what the town has to offer.


  
       

First event to recap on was my birthday which rolled around in the middle of December like it does each year! This year it fell on a Friday; one of my days off and a Giants hockey game! We had a pretty big night the night before so the day started off a little rusty. Turns out the crisp mountain air, fresh powder and being strapped to my snowboard is the best hangover cure yet! 



After an epic day on the mountain Em and I headed down to Vancouver for the Giants game.. Just so happened that night at the hockey was ‘Teddy Bear Toss’, which was a charity event for kids where everyone in the stadium bought a teddy bear and tossed it onto the ice after the Giants had scored their first goal. It was kind of annoying that the Giants scored after the first 2 minutes of play as it meant the game was paused for a while to clean up the bears of the ice. The Giants are in the WHL league so the fights during the game weren’t as impressive or as eventful as I would expect in an NHL game, it was still a pretty good introduction to hockey and a good night out for my birthday! 

Rhys

If this guys last name was any longer i don't think it would fit on his jersey! 

Dinner, provided by Whistler Blackcomb ($20 ticket for game, dinner and transport to and from the game!)

                                        

Rhys's birthday celebrations were not long followed by the arrival of my long lost family! The boys arrived first and we had a ball showing them around the mountain, through the village,  hosting them in our massive unit and of course sharing their hot tub ;) ! 

The first day on the mountain with my little brothers!! 

A few days before Christmas mum and dad arrived and everything started to feel real! our first white christmas!  It was so nice to spend Christmas with some familiar faces as Christmas doesn’t feel the same without family around! 

At the 'fire and ice' show

I had a more than memorable Christmas Eve with mum and dad as I took them both on a 'site seeing' tour of Whistler and we went up on the Whistler Gondola and across the peak to peak. We had picked an incredible day as the weather was perfect. There wasnt a cloud in the sky, it was beautiful, perfect photography day for dad and I! Even had to pull out the sunglasses! ! 

Ice skating 

Unfortunately, work decided the arrival of family to be honoured by finally giving me 40 hours of work in a week so family events had to be scheduled around work; but we had such a ball, thoroughly enjoyed our Christmas (or Boxing day) dinner with Turkey from Vancouver, salmon from Whistler and the gluten free Christmas ‘pud’ imported all the way from Australia! 

In action

Dad of course, enjoyed taking photos of the different landscape and we marked the occasion with a father daughter excursion where I got some much needed tips and tricks off him! Taking photos in sub zero temperatures is tough though; one has to take gloves off to set camera and take photo resulting in not being able to use your fingers! I don't think I lasted very long..

Photos from our 'evening lights' excursion

My hero! 

We managed to convince mum that she had to go skiing at least once while in Whistler, so we all decided it would be fun to ditch the boards and try skiing for a day. It turned out to be probably one of the most fun (and funniest) days on the mountain! There were many falls and spills and I think we are still trying to work out how to get out of the inevitable ‘death position’, when you are flat on your back but still clipped into the skis! Rhys also had a bit of a run in with a tree after getting a little too much speed … but by the end of the day, those left standing (that’s right; you know who you are!) made it down blue runs and moguls and came off the mountain for a well-deserved hot tub with the biggest smiles on our faces! I think there is also some video footage of the day, so it may be aired at a later date after editing!  

We had ordered ‘ugly Christmas sweaters’ for Christmas, but due to the incompetence of the staff at the post office, our sweaters didn’t arrive in time for our boxing day dinner! Luckily they arrived before everyone left though so we were able to show off our attire at our farewell dinner!

It was so nice to spend some quality time with the family over the break. Mum and I rekindled our love for shopping (of course), I enjoyed my photo excursions with dad and we had a great time on the mountain with the boys! I also survived the whole 2 weeks riding with them without joey knocking me off the chair lift too so I spose I could say it was all a success! It was sad to see everyone leave, especially not knowing when we were all going to be together again, but at least we parted knowing we’d had an awesome time together and there is still skype time!

The bestest parents a girl could ask for.. xxx

(photography effects courtesy of Dr. (tba) A.J.M Douglas)

After Christmas came New Years;  the boys were still around as they’d decided to postpone their arrival in Vancouver. We were pretty stumped for things to do that night and Rhys had to work at 6am on New Years day so we didn’t really have a massive night, but it was nice to welcome the new year in with some familiar faces and a glass of Bailieys! 

On top of the world..

All in all the family visit was a blast. It was exhausting to squeeze in work and making sure everyone saw as much of Whistler as possible but in the end I think we exceeded expectations and I could've asked for a better week (or 2 ) with my family. I discovered a new way to spend time with my brothers (one which i do hope rolls around at least every couple of years now that we all have the gear there are minimal excuses!) and I was reminded how amazing my parents are and all the little things that I miss about them every day (from the 'arguments' and shopping with mum, to the photos with dad and the general 'silly buggers' with the boys!) ! 

Emma x

Then life went back to normal; the holidays ended, people disappeared from the village and all the Aussie tourists arrived! The holiday period was not as busy on the mountain as predicted, but at the peak period the mountain held 26,000 people per day and people were EVERYWHERE! I managed to pick up a few extra shifts and was ready for some time off by the time the majority of the crowds had left. We still manage to have fun at work and have time to build inukshuks, make time lapse videos of the lifts and sunrises and kidnap dinosaurs from the childrens learning centre!

A few of the other lifties and I have start doing some hiking as part of our days off in search of some nice snow and we managed to build a little jump into the powder recently which was a bunch of fun! Definitely need to work on the moves…

Hiking flute bowl and our awesome home made jump! 

Em's riding days

As the village got quieter, Emma’s work dropped off again as quickly as it had become busy for the holidays which meant she was back to only getting a few shifts a week. Being the nut that she is and that she goes crazy when she’s not busy, she started the search for a second job. On Monday evening, she sent her CV to the local grocery store; Tuesday at 10am she had an interview and on Wednesday at 1130am she started her first shift as their newest check out chick!  Pretty good effort really, especially when everyone complains about how hard it is to find work in Whistler! And working at the grocery has its perks too, with decent hours, steady work and of course; discounted groceries!

As we said, life has pretty much gone back to normal.. or as normal as it is in Whistler! With Em’s new job just starting our hours have sort of clashed but they’ll settled down next week so we’ll get to spend a bit more time together.. Hopefully that means more time to sit down and write posts!! x

Happy Holidays.. to be politically correct

Wishing all our friends and family all over the world a very Merry Christmas all the way from Whistler. We will be thinking of you as we both work hard on Christmas day and then celebrate with the Douglas clan (+ Bill, who used a white Christmas as an excuse to come celebrate with us) on Boxing day!


In other news we are still having an absolute ball and loving every day over here in Canada. Life has become very busy as we spend our time off from work losing ourselves in inches of snow and shredding up the mountains, so we apologise for our lack of posts! We hope in the new year things will slow down a bit and we will have more time to keep you up to date on the lives and travels of Emma and Rhys!! (no longer living out of a back pack :) )

Until then, have a drink for us, enjoy the well deserved time of work / school / uni / reality and we will be back in touch again soon!

Lots of love and holiday wishes
Emma & Rhys

Day in the life of a lifty

Hey,

Its been a while since my last post, but there seems to be no better time than now to fill you in on what I have been up to at work! This is a day in the life of a lifty-

The morning starts bright and early at 4:30 in the morning for breakfast and a coffee in an attempt to wake up prior to starting work at 6! After swiping in the shift starts with a sketchy snowmobile ride halfway up to the mountain to the lift. It is then a hectic rush to dig out and remove any overnight snowfall from the ramp and begin to setup the “maze” which is where people get in line to ride the lift. This setup process takes anywhere between 1 and 2 hours depending on how much overnight snowfall there was!

Not long after finishing preparation works, guests begin to arrive, the mountain is open and it’s time for a ride break!

The remainder of the day consists of thousands of greetings as guests enjoy the mountain and assisting when required to get them safely to the top of the mountain. The idea is to move around, keep the ramp nice and tidy and do all you can to keep nice and warm!

Generally there is time throughout the day to get in a decent ride break and some time to sit in the warmth and have some lunch; it is essential to have lots of snacks =) then the rest of the afternoon flies by and it is time to pack everything up and head back down the mountain!

How about that view!

At the end of the day, the body is well aware it has done its fair share for the day and it is time for a nice hot shower and a beverage before an early night to bed!

The first day on the mountain

So Whistler mountain officially opened a week earlier than expected and lets just say there were lots of people excited about it all!











The line outside the guest services center at the base of the mountain started forming at least 24 hours before opening and there were people camped out in the wind rain and snow over night just to be the first up the mountain!

The line starting to form on opening morning, 2 hours before opening! 

We chose to skip the crowds and went up the following day!

Rhys headed up early in the morning to get a few runs in as I was babysitting.. if you could call it that! I went up and down in the gondola and played in the snow for a few hours.

I got all dressed up in my new gear and hiked up to the village to jump on the gondola (this time with my board and purpose) and put my boots in the snow for the first time! I was skeptical.. it had been a while since i'd last boarded, 4 years if my memory serves me correctly!

But i had a very patient instructor who helped me down the mountain and so what if it took us a few hours to go down 1 run and we were the last people on the chair that afternoon, I made it, didn't kill myself and even started to get into my turns!!

Needless to say, I'm now more excited about the rest of the season and am really looking forward to some more snow so we can start to really explore the rest of the mountain!  

Welcome to Whistler

We've been in Whistler for two weeks now and it already feels like home! What have we been doing for the last 2 weeks you ask? Good question..I'll try to remember!

Well there was the trip from Van which started very early and there were just over 40 of us from TWHC standing outside the Samesun in the dark trying to work out how we and all our luggage was going to fit on the bus!

There were a few people that made us feel not so bad about all our bags! At the end of the day though all the stuff was a necessity so thanks to the bus driver and his tetris skills (and potential breach of health and safety regulations by stacking gear on seats and piling it in the aisle of the bus)! Nether the less the bus ride up was amazing and if there hadn't been so many clouds around we would've got some sweet photos! Still..we were on our way to Whistler!

Then we checked into our house at Brio Staff Housing,  lugged our gear up the stairs and met our new housemates. We're sharing with 2 girls, one from NZ and one from London. So far so good, but I imagine things are going to get interesting when we all start work at the same time and want to use the bathroom at the same time! The apartment itself we are also pretty happy with; It was a lot bigger and much nicer than what we were expecting!

Brio house 

Our pad

Our room (2 x single beds = a GIANT bed! we don't know what to do with half of it!)

Our house decorations are minimal but we've got the essentials up there (incl park, bus and village maps!)

 

We've spent a few days wandering around the village getting ourselves orientated, taking lots of photos of the village pre snow, took a bus trip down to Squamish to stock up on necessities at Walmart, watched the snow fall (and then disappear), went ice skating, discovered a few cheap eats around town ($4.95 all day meals at El Furni's are pretty good), found out where I can do free yoga, joined the gym, and of course, met lots of new people!

Base 2 pre snow

View down to Blackcomb gondala pre snow (the big building is the Panpac hotel which is where my work is!)

We also started training at work which has been pretty good and broken up our days a bit. Everyone is just  hanging out until the snow falls, the mountain opens and we can all work and get into the swing of things! Whistler is opening this Saturday (17 Nov - 1 week earlier than expected) and Blackcomb will open the following weekend as scheduled (22 Nov)  Bring it on!

Rhys was lucky enough to get an early start at work, he was originally scheduled to start on the 22nd Nov with the second wave of lifties but there were a few guys who didn't show up to the first day so he got in early and is ready to start! Their training has been pretty intensive and after the first few days we were in the village buying more thermals for him as it was a little chillier than expected up there!! Temps arent even close to how low they will be during the season so might be interesting for him!!

I've learned what a rental tech does! Essentially I'm working in the rental division at the back of Salomon store at the base of the blackcomb mountain, right next to the gondala and in the centre of the village. THe store itself is pretty cool and we were shocked by the price of everything when we walked in the first time! even more shocked to find that people wont hesitate to walk in and drop $2000+ on a second set of gear just to use on their week holiday at Whistler.. oh it would be nice to have that kind of money!

So i've learned a lot about all the different kinds of skis, how to set up bindings on skis and boards, how to fit boots, how to 'upsale' and how to calculate DIN settings. It was all a bit overwhelming but I had my first practice customer (Rhys) the other day and I'm more than excited to get started!

 
I get to fit boots and use a skrew driver to set the settings on the skis and set bindings on boards! pretty cool


I also had an interview with Whistler Babysitting and am hoping to pick up a few babysitting shifts here and there. The money is much better than what i'm getting at the store and the work will be very different to what i'm used to so i guess we'll see how that goes!

Snow making

Aside from that, we've spent far too much money and need to start work so we don't draw into our savings too much! we've met a lot of people, learned the cheapest alcohol at the liquor store (you can buy 1.5L of red wine for $14.99 and 2L of 7% cider for $8.99!) , taken plenty of photos and are now just sitting on our hands waiting for the snow so we can start work and official kickstart our lives as Ski Bums :)

And just for the record.. it's so nice not living out a backpack any more!

E x