The last month has been a blur. Jury duty, then holidays and the best stretch of skiing I've ever had. And then it rained. A lot. 10 inches or more in a day and half at Snoqualmie Pass. Since then there's been very little new snow. Mostly cold and somewhat sunny.
So we were very wary of the conditions we'd find in Whistler, where we were very generously invited by Jerill and Janet. Whistler-Blackcomb is about 4 1/2 hours north of home in British Columbia's Coast Range. The drive up was under blue skies and tremendous views. The sound north of Vancouver is spectacular, with huge mountains rising out of the sea.
Whistler itself is a gigantic resort set on two mountains connected only by an amazing new gondola, the Peak to Peak. Check out the maps found here. The number of actual trails doesn't mean as much in the West because so much of the terrain is wide open and varies depending on the line you decide to take.
We had sunny and cold weather with marginal snow (mostly stayed on groomers), but spectacular views. There are just so many options in-bounds and out up there. There was some awesome-looking hike-to terrain, but we played it conservative this time. We got to ski the downhill course the men will ski in the Olympics next year.
Had great trip with great people that we hope to do again...soon.
The first clip below was taken from the Roundhouse, which is something like 3/4 of the way up Whistler mountain. The second is from the Peak to Peak gondola. It was just too damn cold to take out the camera that much. Not charging the battery before I left didn't help either.
Helmet cam update: I think I finally have it figured out after taking three or four videos of either my feet or the snow 2 inches in front of my ski tips that induced immediate motion sickness. Testing will occur this weekend.
