Up for a Maple Syrup Shotgun, Eh?

Whistler Day 3&4

Day 3 and 4 were our final two full days here in Whistler and we had lift tickets for both. Saturday we woke up and headed out quickly as it was not snowing and was pretty clear. We decided to check out a few green trails that looked easy on Blackcomb. We rode the Excalibur Gondola to it's first stop and took a quick trail down a few times before continuing up to try the Green Line trail down. It was nice a winding for the first half and then merged with a more difficult trail and got steeper, upon which I mostly slid down the mountain. Once we made it back to Whistler village we took the Whistler Gondola all the way to the top for lunch. Mark wanted to try his go-pro on the Burnt Stew trail so he headed out to do that while I hung out at the top for a bit. We met up at the bottom later and went to Brewhouse to relax for a bit. By this time it was snowing pretty hard so we headed home. Back at the hotel we headed to the hot tub and met some cool people from Australia there.They are both here working and enjoying Canada for a year and had some neat stories about their experience here. We made a stop at the grocery store before grabbing dinner and heading home to hang out in front of the fire and watch the Olympics.

This morning we woke up to snow still coming down steady so we lounged around and made breakfast in the room for a bit. The sun looked like it was coming out and we headed into the village to grab our skis. The lines were crazy at the base of the mountain! I guess with all the snow people really took advantage of today. It seemed pretty clear up on the mountain so we decided to ride the peak to peak again. This time we managed to get a silver gondola with a glass bottom! The ride across was even cooler with a view looking 1430ft down into a gorge. Mark skied down Blackcomb from here and then we met up and went back to the easy trail on Whistler. At the end of the day I rode the gondola back down and Mark skied down. It's still snowing like crazy outside so for now we're in the room relaxing and will brave the weather a little later.

 This is old, but it's the only picture I took at dinner on Valentines Day. Yum!

 Let's go! Day 3

 Amazing view back into the village!

 Fitsimmons Creek

 So pretty today!

 Hello down there!

Mark coming down in the blizzard

Doon't You Know Aboot Canadian Denny's?

Whistler Day 2

Well I survived skiing day one, and I only slid down half the mountain! Haha, kidding, kinda. I do have a massive welt and bruise on my leg from falling, sliding backwards and landing on the camera in my pocket. Our day started with falling snow. I woke up around 7 to a steady snowfall outside, it was so peaceful and beautiful. I watched it snow for awhile and when Mark got up we tested out the in-room hot tub, watched the snow fall and Canada dominate at hockey. Mark made breakfast of bacon and eggs in our kitchen and we geared up for skiing. After picking up our skis we jumped on the Whistler Gondola and rode it to the first stop. This area was marked on the trail map as a good place for beginners to start. After I literally slid down the first part of the trail Mark gave on on teaching me on the "easy" way down and I decided I'd rather walk back up to where the gondola dropped us off. He skied down and talked to the snow school guys about finiding a good place to teach me to ski. Upon telling them he left me to hike back up the mountain the guy congratulated him on a "great Valentines Day move" - hah! They did tell him where the "learning area" was and after a short walk we found it. SO MUCH BETTER! It was flat enough that I could practice slowing down, turning, etc and not fall every 5 seconds. This area totally turned the day around, I was so frustrated with the entire idea of skiing before we did this. We rode the little snow escalator up a few times and practiced skiing back down before trying a real trail. After watching a guy wipe out in the learning area and get carted away by a medic during a lesson I felt much better about my abilities! We found an easy looking trail and took that before riding a chair lift up for a longer trail. I actually got on and off the chair lift without falling so that was pretty cool. I fell twice on the way down the trail but made it back to the gondola area! We did the first trail again before hoping on the gondola and riding alllll the waaayyy up to the top. Whistler is insanely huge. At the top we had a pretty cool view above the clouds, took some photos and jumped on the peak to peak gondola and rode to Blackcomb Mtn. This gondola is pretty badass, it takes you over the gorge between the mountains and has some pretty amazing views. We rode the gondola round trip and by that time everything was closing. Mark wanted to ski down the mountain so I rode the gondola down (so I wouldn't slow him down haha, or get stuck in a tree). We met up at the bottom and grabbed a snack and some coffee before heading back to the hotel. When we got back we changed out of our ski gear and went to the outdoor hot tub. We met some other people from the US and a couple girls from here and Finland. After a nice soak we headed up to change and get ready for our dinner reservation. For Christmas I gave Mark and gift certificate to Quattro, an Italian restaurant under our hotel and he made us a dinner reservation there. The food was AMAZING! They had a huge wine selection and a great local Pinot Noir. It was cozy and intimate with some really neat art on the walls. I ordered the lamb, which was fantastic. It was tender and so so good. It came with spinach and sweet and garlic potatoes. Mark had an Italian Flag of pasta with different sauces. We had tiramisu for desert and it was great too. All in all a pretty good day! We have two more days of skiing ahead and the mountain is supposed to get 20'' of snow this weekend!

 First drop off

Visibility was pretty spotty today 

The moving walkway 

 At the very top! Other than that rocky area in the distance this is as high as you go.

 Gold medal contenders

 Peak-to-Peak ride

 Going back down

Thursd-Ehh!

Whistler Day 1

Today we got up at 5am, packed up our stuff and caught the bus up to Whistler. The drive up was really pretty. It follows Hwy 99 along the coast and up into the mountains. We saw the islands surrounding Vancouver, some small mountain towns and ended in Whistler right in the center of the village. A short walk later and some good luck led us to the hotel and our room! Room is perfect, fireplace in room, great view of the mountains and a hot tub! We spent the rest of the day getting acquainted with the village. From the hotel we walked up to Olympic Plaza where we built a snow man. After that we wandered the village stroll and shopped for a few hours before grabbing lunch, mini sliders (taseted like meatballs on buns!) and chipotle chicken sandwich (so good!). After lunch we stopped at the grocery store to get some breakfast and snack essentials and headed back to the hotel. We relaxed there for a bit before heading back to Olympic Plaza for some ice skating. By that time it had finally stopped snowing/raining and was getting sunny out. We walked around the village some more and then went to get fitted for our skis, which we can store for free right at the base of the mountain. By that time the trails had closed so we walked to the restaurant above one of the whistler lifts to watch what we thought was just snow cats packing down the snow. Turns out there was a Fire and Ice show going on so we got to see that too! Pretty cool stuff, snowboarders and skiers doing slopestyle tricks off a ramp through a flaming hoop! After the show we hung out for awhile longer and then headed back through the village to the hotel.

 Our Hotel!

 Snow pile climb

Olympic Plaza 

No idea what these are... 

 Ready for the Olympics!

 Walking back home in the village

Mark found a small camp fire... In case of homelessness?