Whistler Blackcomb

Last Monday we went to Whistler with some friends we work with. It was super fun. Our mountain has had pretty much no snow apart from a few cm's the snow machines have made, so is pretty rocky grassy and icey. Whistler on the other hand, which is where most of the outdoor events of the Olympics will be, has had lots of snow. It was so soft, it was like falling in feathers. It is apparently the best mountain in the world for skiing and snowboarding and we definitely agreed. It's also really massive. It takes about 20-30 mins to get to the top of the gondola and green runs which is about 2/3 of the way up and about an hour to get down from there. And there are TWO mountains, Whistler and Blackcomb. They're joint together by the peak to peak gondola which is pretty high up and has really good views. Also, you can spend the whole day on the mountain without going on a chair lift which is good because I'm rubbish at getting off at the top. You can snowboard right into the village below where there are a bunch of bars and places to eat and plenty of places to buy souvieners. Intrawest, who owns the resort missed a payment and now its up for sale, so if anyone has a few dollars you should keep this in mind.

This is as we arrived in the village.

Getting ready to head up.

The view from the learners area (1/3 of the way up) up to the top of Whistler.

In the learners area: Glenn, Caroline, Me, Kinta, Sam (Dean, Kintas boyfriend was too skilled for the learners area so isn't in the photo).

On the chair lift in the learners area. I got off without falling down! Yay!

Sniffle station.

Dean navagating the trees. Sam did this run too, but didn't look as professional so there aren't any photos of him.

On the peak to peak gondola.

The view from the peak to peak. You can probably see the curvature of the earth because it's so high up.

The top of Blackcomb, after exiting the peak to peak gondola.

We'd like to be able to spend a bit more time at Whistler, but it's pretty pricey, and we'll have to wait until the Olympics are over, so I guess we'll wait and see whether or not we make it up there again.