Whistler Blackcomb

I took my old camera up the hill with me because my new one is still so new and I was afraid I would ruin it. Anyways, here are the photos I took while at Whistler and Blackcomb. A lot of them are of the new Peak2Peak gondola because it was the first time we had been on it. I must say it is a little strange to be hanging off wires in the middle of the air over a huge valley. At one point you can barely make out any towers and you seriously wonder what is keeping you from plunging down to the rocks below. :)

A map of the world that hangs at the Whistler wax and tune-up shack where you can add a pin to show where you are visiting from. Whistler has had visitors from all over the world, it is amazing. The pins here are also only the visitors that happened to visit the tune-up shack and even then there weren't very many pieces of land on the map without a pin.

The Roundhouse Lodge at Whistler. Look at all that fresh snow coming down, yay!

The Peak2Peak station at Whistler.

A Peak2Peak car.

It's neat to see the ski runs from above. This was in the middle of the week, so it wasn't crowded at all, which was SO nice! I don't think I ever truly waited in line the whole day.

Here's all the info about this gondola. It stretches 2.73 miles across and 1.88 miles of that is an unsupported span that stretches across a huge valley between the two mountains. You are suspended 1427 feet above Fitzsimmons creek at the center point of the gondola. Each car can hold approximately 22 people. Two of the cars hold less because they have clear bottoms, so that area is roped off.

This is so high that some people base jumped off of it. Check out the video here.

I only got a few photos of snowboarding because the snow was too good to waste time sitting and digging out the camera! We had such a good day.

Blackcomb

Glass bottomed Peak2Peak car.

Whistler, British Columbia

A few weeks ago The Mr. decided it was time for a trip to Whistler, so last minute a hotel was booked, our bags were packed and we were off. It was time to make good use of our Whistler Edge cards and get out on the slopes. Things looked promising as we drove through the mountains with blue skies and lots of white on the peaks. I don't have very many photos of the drive even though it is spectacular because the entire highway is under construction in preparation for the 2010 Olympics. Most of my photos either had power lines with ribbons hanging off of them or muddy machinery somewhere in the photo.

Shannon Falls

I always find bridges interesting, especially when they add a burst of color to the scenery.

When we arrived in Whistler, it wasn't raining. I know that sentence sounds silly, but it is often raining when we visit Whistler in the spring. We were very happy to see that the streets were dry. Another thing that often happens, is that we take a couple of wrong turns trying to find our hotel, which I have to say repeated itself once again this time. There are a lot of little winding streets in Whistler village and Google maps led us astray. Once we took a couple of random turns, we found where we were staying- Adara Hotel.


The front doors.

Check out the modern decor in the lobby! I must say the round metal chair was fun to look at but pretty uncomfortable to sit in. :) This was the kind of hotel where everyone wanted to do everything for you, but I think we got away with only needing to tip once.



This was our room. Those blankets across the ends of the bed were faux fur, the pillows were feather and everything was perfectly staged. The decor was very modern and Swedish. There was a huge floating desk/TV stand/fireplace unit on the wall across from the beds, complete with a white molded plastic chair covered with a sheep skin. You can see the wall unit and chair in this online photo. It was fun to pretend I liked that kind of decor, but I was glad it was only for a few days!

The view from our window, you could see some Whistler ski runs and we were only a few minutes walking distance from the Whistler and Blackcomb gondolas!

Me. :) You can see the glass wall behind me that hid the shower. The water in the shower fell straight from the ceiling, which was cool, but it's hard to rinse soap off the bottom of your chin without getting water up your nose lol.

After getting settled in our room and taking a tour of the hotel to see if there was a hot tub (there was, and it was outside on the roof with a view of the ski hill which is a bonus) we headed out for supper. There are lots of yummy choices on the Whistler Village Green, which is a meandering brick area that most of the store fronts, some hotels and a lot of restaurants face. We ended up eating at Earls and The Keg during this visit and I was able to order gluten free at each of those places.

These lights were wrapped around several of the trees along the Village Green and I thought the photos turned out kind of neat.

Here is our hotel at night, looks cozy doesn't it?

When we got back to our room, the shades were drawn and just as I wondered about them, The Mr. said "Did you do that?" but then we noticed that there were other things about the room that had changed as well. Things were straightened and tidied a bit, the fireplace was burning and there were bottles and water and chocolates for both of us. There was also a little card that said "Just so you know, the weather forecast for tomorrow is as follows:" and then the little box with a cloud was checked, how cool is that? One other night when we came back, there was soft music playing over the satellite TV as well. They really go through a lot of work to make you feel comfortable!

This was the early morning view from our window the day we went snowboarding. Fresh snow! The forecast didn't even call for it, but we were so happy and couldn't wait to get up on the hill and make good use of it.

Stevens Pass with the Family

This was another fun day of snowboarding but this time it was at Stevens Pass. Stevens is about three hours from our house and is definitely worth the drive if you can go during the week and avoid the long lift line-ups on the weekend. Since it's around 80 miles from Seattle, I've heard it can get pretty busy on Saturdays. I have less photos of this day even though the sky was blue and the views were beautiful. We all had so much fun that I didn't stop to take as many photos as I did at Baker the day before. We stayed for night skiing too, which is so much fun. They are actually open until 10 pm, but we left exhausted around 7pm!

Part of the ski hill as seen from the parking lot.

I'm in the helmet, Kim is in the cream jacket. :) The run behind us is called Big Chief and it is so much fun! At this photo angle it looks harmless, but from the road or the parking lot it looks treacherous.

Here's dad on his skis and Kim in the background with her arms up.

Check out this 2-seater chair lift. Kind of scary if you ask me. It reminds me of a coffee ad I saw on the back of an ancient National Geographic magazine. In bad weather, this would be a very scary chair to ride in my opinion. I was just browsing some ski hills in Switzerland and one of them boasts heated chair lifts that seat six or even EIGHT. The seat padding is heated and when you bring the bar down in front of you, you also pull down a protective plastic dome that keeps you nice and sheltered. It must be pretty cold there if they invest in chair lifts like those!

We were feeling silly and weren't actually quite this scared. At least it was a two seater. Check out this one seater from the cover of a 1937 Life magazine. Here's a neat summer photo of a one seater chair lift in Banff, AB. Here's another angle. That just looks really freaky.

This is what you see when you look down. It's very far to the ground in some areas and very very far in others.



If you would like to see some more photos from the trip, my sister has now posted. You can read her posts here, here, here and here. There are a lot of fun photos. :)

Mt. Baker with the Family

When my family was here to visit, it was in lieu of the trip to Banff that we usually try and take every couple of years for a snowboard and ski trip. It is always a fun time, sort of like a family reunion, shopping trip and ski trip all rolled into one. This year everyone decided to come to our house instead of all meeting in Banff. It was fun getting to show my family some of the local ski hills. There are several within a short driving distance of our house (anywhere from an hour and a half, to four hours) but we chose Mt. Baker and Stevens Pass. Here are the Mt. Baker photos and the Steven's photos should show up on Wednesday.

Dad and Kim (Social Sister) on one of the lifts.

Definitely enough snow!

Kim

Me

Kim and I taking a break.

During lunch break Kitten played with some of our gear. It was so cute to see her wear the boots! In this photo, she was actually sitting on the backs of them.

One of her favorite toys is buckles.

The weather was nice, but we were disappointed that it was overcast. The views at Baker are amazing. Even with the fog covering up a lot of the most beautiful parts of the mountains, our guests loved the views. I can't wait to take them there on a clear day some time in the future so they can see what they were missing!

Hosh and The Mr. There was some deep snow and steep terrain in the bowl.

I love snow covered trees.

At the end of the day, Kitten was still happy. Jolly and Mom had stayed in the lodge to play with her all day - what a patient little girl!

Mmm, Pepsi.

"Whoa, fizzy!"

There were some breathtaking views on the way home that were very hard to capture. I think my sister got some amazing ones, so when her internet is back up and she can post, be sure to check out her trip photos!

This is a fence in a little town on the way back down the mountain. This photo probably shows less than a fourth of the length of the fence and the entire thing is made up of old skis.

Here's one for all of you that like puns. An old Airstream trailer made up as a hair salon. The inside of it was so cute! All 50's styled chairs and accessories.

A beautiful sky on the way home. Taken from the back seat of the car as you can see!