One of my first thoughts on Whistler Village was that it was one of the prettiest villages I have ever seen! Everything covered in snow and decorated for Christmas, was just magical. Appart from the one afternoon/night at Grouse Mountain this was our opportunity to see snow and this time we were staying in it.
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| Whistler Village |
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| Whistler Village |
The hotel, we were staying at, was called the Pinacle just off the main mall. Our room, for the first time in our travels, had its own kitchen. This was fantastic! It meant home cooked meals and steamed vegetables (something we had been lacking on our travels so far). We also had our hot tub in the room (bedroom to be exact), an essential for skiers sore muscles.
After arriving late into Whistler following delays leaving Vancouver we attempted to visit the rental shop to enquire about our prearrange rentals and lessons. However, when we got there it was already closed for the night, we would have to visit the next morning. We had dinner at the Mongolian Grill. Definitely an interesting experience. For those of you who have never been to the Mongolian Grill, dinner involves filling a bowl with your choice of vegetables, meats, noodles, sauces and spices, that are collected from a buffet. The bowl is then weighed and billed by weight. Then you take the bowl to chef in the open kitchen where your dinner is dramatically and spectacularly cooked infront of you. Overall a great experience, a great dinner and a great start to our Whistler experience.
The next morning, once again we slept in... we need to work on that one. We made our way back to the rental shop at the Carlton Lodge, to the news we were meant to start lessons that morning... whoops! On our defence, we were never told and it wasn't in the paper work that we were due to start the first day. After a little confusion we were easily able to push back everything one day. We were measured up for our skis, boots and poles. This left us with the responsibility of getting our own ski pants, ski jacket, gloves and goggles. We spent the afternoon going up and down the village going into every store selling ski gear. After a good 5 hours and our pockets ALOT lighter, we finally had all of our gear for the next 3 days of ski school!
So, ski school... definitely an adventure. The boots are very big, heavy, uncomfortable and extremely hard to walk without skis. Definitely something you need to get used to. The slopes are just magnificent. Snow covered mountains and the snow covering the branches of the trees, the fresh crisp air and little chipmunks running around the woods. We spent the first two days entirely on what they call the magic carpet, as it turns out a VERY slight decline, learning the different techniques. The final day of lessons was our most adventurous. After a few runs on the magic carpet for practice we went up on the chair lift to complete lower Olympic and the Village run to name a few. We then made our way back on the gondola to the top where we ate lunch. A large lodge where we ate lunch two days running with cafeteria style service with international cuisine to cater to all guests. We then took the peak to peak gondola over to Blackcomb Mountain (including a 3km ride over the valley between two pilons). We managed to score a ride on one of two sliver gondolas that have a glass bottom. The view was spectacular and the clear day made the ride over incredible. We then took our first green slope on Blackcombe. This is where I really understood the VERY slight slope of the Magic Carpet. The run was called Easy Out. NOT so easy I must say. I took my first of several tumbles this day on one of the steepest slopes! Now attempting to get up, on skis, on a slope was difficult. However something I did learn to recover from quickly that day. After our attempt of the green slope we headed back across the peak to peak back to Whistler and completed the Olympic run on a high. By this time the cloud had really dropped and visibility was bad, however a great run to finish our ski school classes. Sore muscles and a great experience later we are now level 3 skiers.
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| Day one of Ski School |
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| Whistler Mountain |
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| Snowboarders on the Magic Carpet |
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| On the Peak to Peak |
The low cloud also lead to snow that night. Which meant fresh snow to build our man 'Whistle' on our balcony at the hotel.
We spent a relaxing Wednesday and enjoyed a dinner at Sushi Village. On Thursday we decided to brave the mountains by ourselves to have one last ski. Deciding not to be too outrageous and do anything stupid, we completed a couple of runs on the magic carpet and then lower Olympic once again. Great end to our skiing from a great week. We returned our ski gear to the rental store and went to the Old Spagetti Factory at the Crystal Lodge for lunch. This was a place many people had recommend to us. We could see why, a 4 course meal for about $12 each. We rolled out of there by the end of the meal! We spent a quiet night packing and an early night for our 6:45 am bus back to Vancouver for the flight to Calgary the next morning.
Adventures in Alberta next.
Luv always
Heather
Things to note about Whistler-
Even in Whistler they require snow machines to supplement the snow.
Its not just Whistler that is pretty, the drive to and from Vancouver is just stunning.
PS Sorry for the delay on this one. I typically have been blogging following each location and at the next two locations after Whistler we had no internet access at the hotel.
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