Colorado Cruiser: Whistler British Columbia Day 4

Yesterday I posted about a video I made while crossing Capilano bridge but I never added the link.
So here it is: Crossing Capilano Bridge - http://youtu.be/43YiQ45bLQM

Whistler Ski Resort

It's our first move day. We've spent nearly 3 days in Vancouver and seen allot of things. It's been great and we could stay to see more, but we've got other places to go and other things to see.

We were on the road heading North by 9:00. The traffic wasn't bad crossing Lions Gate Bridge, and after only 10 miles, we seemed to leave the city and the highway turned into a coastal road, hugging the edge of the mountains that surged straight up out of the water.

The road twisted right along the waters edge much of the time and only occasionally swerved inland for a while before returning to the coast. After 40 minutes of driving I sighed and said "This would be a great road on a motorcycle."

Mike jumped nearly out of the driver's seat and said "I knew you were going to say that!!". He'd been waiting and waiting for me push the motorcycle button since we got here and I finally did. But it would be a great motorcycle road which only served to confuse me. Because we saw absolutely no motorcycles on the road except for an occasional commuter on a small bike and only about 4 of those the whole drive.

I guess people just avoid BC on motorcycles because they're worried about temperatures and rain. We've had great weather this entire trip so all I see is wide open, nearly empty, and fun riding roads with no one taking advantage of it.

We got to Whistler by 10:30 and checked into the hotel, then headed for the mountain. We bought tickets and hopped onto the small gondolas to ride to the top with an oriental lady and her mother. When I asked where they were from I thought she said the Philippines but it turned out she had said Winnipeg. I stared for a couple seconds then let it go.

It was a long ride to the top of the mountain and we spent the time looking for bears and chatting about the weather. Half way up, she spotted a mother bear and her cub crossing a ski trail. We watched them till they vanished behind some trees.

At the top of the mountain we got a little lunch and went onto their lookout deck to eat. The temperature was in the low 60s and a light breeze was blowing. It felt wonderful to me. The forecast all week has predicted heavy rain for today but were being treated to scattered clouds, sunshine, and light breezes. It couldn't have been a much better day to spend on a mountain top.

The lunch wasn't too bad, but I'm struggling with costs. Canadian money has traditionally been worth about half of American money. But right now it's more like 90%. So something in Canada costing $17 used to be only 9 dollars american, but now it's a 16 dollar burrito. SIXTEEN DOLLAR BURRITO!!!

I'm dealing with it, but I'm also trying hard to avoid spending much if I can help it. I'm saying this here so my kids (as much as I love them) can get used to the fact that I'm not bringing them $30 t-shirts or anything like that. Its just too much.

So I ate my gold plated and personalized burrito that was rolled on the thighs or a young..... well you get the point. I ate my food and stared at the views around us. We were surrounded on all sides by mountains with snow capped peaks. You can see it here:

360 Panorama of the View from Whistler

We wandered around the Whistler Mountain top taking pictures and wondering about just how high we were. It turned out we were roughly 6,000 feet high which was lower than we thought.

Eventually we ran out of things to see, so we headed for the Peak to Peak tramway. This gondola was built for the 2010 Olympics. It connects 2 mountain tops with the longest unsupported span in the world at 1.88 miles. It has the highest point above the ground at roughly 1,500 feet from the ground at its lowest point.

When we entered the building, there were 2 lines. The empty line was for just any old gondola, but the long line was for the glass bottom gondola. We thought we'd go for the good one and waited 15 minutes for the special silver gondola to come. We crammed in with 24 other people and started the ride. The Gondola wasn't worth it. We'd have been much better off taking one of the completely empty gondolas and having the whole space to ourselves.

The ride across was very cool. The views were just stunning down toward the base of the mountain and back toward Whistler Mountain. There were fast running creeks and small waterfalls all over the mountain. I stood up and just stared out the windows the whole time across.

Once we reached Blackcomb mountain we wandered along the ridge taking pictures down another face of the mountain. More beautiful views and stunning vistas, yadda yadda yadda. We're on scenery overload.

We walked over to a courtesy bus which took us over to a nearby chairlift called 7th heaven express that we rode to a higher shoulder on the mountain. On the way up the snow got thicker and thicker, then we climbed out of the shadows and the snow blazed to super white and blinded us. Mike had a pair of sunglasses but all I could do was squint or shut my eyes. It was blazing white and hurt to try to see anything.

We arrived at the Hortsman Hut and 7,000 foot elevation. There was allot of snow all around us and people were skiing. There were several T-bars towing people up the hill to ski down again and there was a longer run going all the way down to Blackcomb. It was odd seeing the people in full ski gear while I stood around in shirt sleeves enjoying the cool wind.

There really wasn't much to wander around see up there, so after just a few minutes we hopped back on the 7th heaven and started down. When we came up, we must have been riding with the wind, but now we were riding into the wind and it was cold. I'd put on my fleece jacket before starting down and I was very glad I had. The wind was cold and biting. At least we were now looking across the valley at the far mountain which was shadowed and dark so we weren't blinded by light.

We had decided to take the Peak to Peak gondola back from Blackcomb to Whistler. So we walked into the empty building and right onto an empty gondola. This time we were able to wander around inside and admire all of the views. We could also talk and laugh without people staring at us. It was allot better than the crowded glass bottom thing we did first time.

We did some more looking on Whistler then hopped on another empty gondola to go back. We thought about telling all the people standing in line that it was a waste of their time, but they probably wouldn't believe us so we didn't bother.

More beautiful views, more thrilling panoramas.

This time on Blackcomb we took a chairlift down toward the bottom of the mountain. We were done for the day. We'd had enough views, enough wind, enough scenery, and probably way too much sun. We were both pretty red from all the sun.

We spotted a few bears on the way down. One looked like it was cropping grass out in the middle of one of the ski runs. Mike whistled a few times trying to get it's attention, but it paid us no heed and just kept munching.

Tonight's dinner wasn't very memorable. Mike says he's not letting me pick the restaurants anymore because I tend to choose cheap (read that as tasteless) food.

I spent about 40 minutes uploading photos, and about 90 minutes writing this blog entry. That's pretty typical for blogging a days events unless it's a really boring day with few pictures. Now I'm watching the Red Sox get shellacked by the Mariners. Once the photos are added I'l go to sleep. Tomorrow is going to be a long travel day with a ferry crossing.

The 2010 Olympic mascot - Inuksuk