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Holiday with the boys
By ruth | February 15, 2008
Quick update: yesterday Dave and I went back to work after a lovely holiday in Whistler and Vancouver.
Stuart and Andrew arrived on 29th January, and Dave took three days off work while I toiled for a wage. They were very jet-lagged and had some moochy days in Vancouver shopping and eating, plus a cloudy no-vis day snowboarding/ skiing on Grouse Mountain.
On the Friday we all piled into the car, which was extremely overloaded even before Andrew bought a guitar; and off we went to Whistler. There were no good views on the way up, and we hit bad traffic - there’d clearly been a bad accident because we were stationary for 45 minutes while fire trucks and ambulances drove the other way.
We got to Creekside much later than planned but happily settled in to our lovely townhouse in Lake Placid Lodge. Anke and Michael arrived later that evening to stay for the weekend (their first time in Whistler). Simon arrived much later that night, and Rob arrived on Saturday evening.
Saturday and Sunday were sunny and the views were wonderful. Dave and Stuart demoed some snowboards, and Andrew demoed skis; Stuart was strong but Andrew and Dave both went shopping afterwards. Dave got a new Custom, and Andrew got some, um, skis. Fatter ones. I got bindings. I needed them.
The rest of the week was very snowy indeed, and everybody learned the true meaning of the ‘Don’t follow Dave’ rule. We persuaded everyone to hike up Pika’s Traverse in a raging blizzard - twice. The powder was probably worth it though, especially the fresh on the last steep pitch of GS. We also found lots of nice trees to ride through, and some alarmingly sketchy terrain off Harmony Ridge.
On the Tuesday, with some misgivings, we went on a mountain tour with a Whistler Mountain Host. All the mountain hosts looked to be about retirement age, and so did most of the ‘guests’, except us. But we joined an ‘advanced’ group (meaning comfortable on blacks - they’re not allowed to take you off the groomed runs); and our host, Moe, was a really awesome skier. None of us could keep up with her, and she showed us some fabulous quiet runs. Even though she wasn’t allowed to take us off piste, she was excellent at pointing out the access points and good spots. It was a couple of hours extremely well spent, and it’s free, so I can’t think why we’d never done it before.
On Wednesday and Thursday, Dave, Stuart, Simon and I went on a backcountry guided splitboard adventure. I shall write about that in more detail later, but suffice it to say that it was wonderful and exhausting in equal measures.
We definitely got the best of the weather because by Saturday there were high winds and freezing rain, and we barely stayed out on the mountain for an hour. Rob left on Saturday (good timing); and the rest of us hung around until Sunday, when Simon got the bus back to the airport and Dave and I and the Brown Brothers filled the car up to the gunwales again. This time, though, the weather cleared as we got closer to Vancouver and we did get some Howe Sound views.
On Sunday evening we went to see the Vancouver Canucks versus the Chicago Blackhawks (ice hockey), and again, I’ll write about that more later.
Monday was moochy - breakfast at the Naam; shopping on W 4th; and the obligatory trip to Mountain Equipment Co-op. On Tuesday we spent most of the day at Granville Island. On Wednesday the weather cleared up beautifully and we went up to Cypress Mountain, where I at last achieved my aim of getting photos of those stunning views from the top. Sadly the pistes were icy and hard - not what we’d become accustomed to - and everyone was feeling a bit tired and broken from Whistler, so the snowboarding wasn’t great, but the views really were.
On Thursday Dave and I went reluctantly back to work, and Stuart and Andrew flew reluctantly back to the UK.
Tags: whistler, vancouver, stuart, andrew, holiday, snowboarding
Topics: /snow, /upto |