As those who have frequented the slopes of France and Austria with our snowboards we had heard much about Whistler and its many slopes and pristine snow. But it’s July guys, the sun is shining, we passed a forest fire on the road from Vancouver and everyone’s boards and skis are stored away with the dreams of winter.
C/ We’ll have it all to ourselves. That will be so cool.
Or so we thought.
Whistler is a purpose built vacation town. No doubt there is an original centre but if there is it has been swallowed by the tourist town. We have to say, it has been planned and built with thought. It looks like Disney has built a Swiss town and made it very welcoming. Shops, restaurants and lots of hire shops.
P/ Yes, Whistler doesn’t west in the summer. The boarders may have gone but the mountain bikers have taken over.
The first morning out we were amazed by the masses of bikers making their way to the ski (bike?) lifts and gondolas.
C/ It was like a scene from Star Wars! All these people in helmets and body armour. Good job I carry a light sabre at all times, eh Polie.
P/ Yes, we feel so much safer when you are with us Chwis.
W/ Did I detect a note of sarcasm there Polie? Not like you.
The gods continued to smile on our trip and our AirBnB was 2 minutes from another excellent coffee shop, the Mount Currie Coffee Co.
We woke and after a shower we crossed the road and partook of the local roast…a couple of times.
We had decided that we would take a gondola to the summit of one of the mountains for the view but history was to repeat itself. As Crowded House sang: “Everywhere you go, always take the weather with you”. If you’ve read our blogs on Rainbow Mountain and the summit of Kilimanjaro you’ll know that we don’t do company with stunning views.
The sun was shinning at the bottom as we boarded the gondola.
C/ Yes, Wic was wearing shorts. I’m still smiling thinking about it.
W/ Thanks Chris.
C/ At the half way point we had to change gondolas and now Wic was looking up at the descending clouds and the all to visible snow. He stopped a guy coming down in shorts and asked how cold it was up top. “Just keep moving, you’ll be OK”, was the advice.
C/ Big mistake I thought. You just asked an Australian about possible extreme weather. The worst it was ever going to be was OK. I nudge Polie and smiled discreetly.
P/ Chwis you do discreet like Wocket Wacoon does winking!
C/ Rocket as in Guardians of the Galaxy? Well he’s cool isn’t he.
So we got to the summit and there was snow and cloud.
C/ Keep moving I advised Wic. Heehe.
At the top is a long bridge spanning a ravine. It looked so fragile shrouded by cloud and moving in the wind. Crossing this was certainly an experience as the floor was a grid through which the ravine below could be seen.
P/ Chwis fired by his Capilano expewience charged headlong across the bridge. Other people crossing clung to the side as Chwis bawelled by, eyes fixed on the end. Then Wic and I crossed at a more sedate pace. Well Wic was moving quite quick now I think about it.
W/ Polie, it was cold although you probably didn’t notice.
If the bridge wasn’t enough of a challenge to everyone’s dormant acrophobia there is a skywalk at the end of the bridge which will allow you to walk out over a drop of some hundreds of feet. As the experience is all about standing out over a drop that would mean certain death we manage to persuade Chris that another head long charge would completely defeat the purpose of the skyway.
With the bridge crossed and the skywalk conquered we took the gondola back to the half way point where there are some shops and a restaurant. Here we met the Australian who had assured us we’d be ok, if we kept moving.
C/ Yeah, Wic manned up and said he’d been fine although I knew otherwise.
Then we set out to walk down the rest of the mountain. As we descended the sun reappeared. Every so often a mountain bike would hurtle by like a modern day kamikaze pilot plunging headlong towards the next ridge.
P/ Then we came to the next widge. To our surpwise there some 30 metres below us was a large black bear eating its way acwoss the slope.
C/ I bet you didn’t know you came in that colour Polie.
P/ Thank you Chwis!
We sat and watched for some time not wanting to disturb it. Eventually, when it was safe we carried on down the trail, a little more wary in case she had company we hadn’t seen. We were not sure we’d want to get any closer.
The day had allowed us to continue adding to our new experiences and was well finished with a plate of Canadian salmon in the Keg.
C/ And a local brew.
P/ Always a brew if your involved Chwis.
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