Whistler Thanksgiving 2009

So since I'm Seattle and so far from everyone else, atleast too far for a quick weekend jaunt + high airline prices = ski weekend in Whistler, BC! I went up with a few of the other "orphans" from work that didn't have family close by.

The trip started pretty early Thursday morning with the drive from Seattle up north. I drove up with my friend Betsy. Since we are both really tall and need to have the seats all the way back in my car, we drove alone and carried a lot of the other people's ski gear. The first stop was trying to find a Starbucks to get some coffee and assorted breakfast pastries. Once we got our caffeine fix, it was back on the road for the pretty drive up I-5 to the Canadian border. It was my first time going through the border with my new passport.

Waiting at the Canadian Border, short wait.



After we crossed the border, we made our way to Vancouver to stop and meet one of the other cars for a little brunch. We found a nice little bistro place and enjoyed some coffee and food.

Then we set out onto the final leg of the journey from Vancouver to Whistler. The road that connects the two cities is known as the Sea-to-Sky Highway and let me tell you, it was an amazing drive. The name of the road couldn't be more appropriate. The ocean is on your left, and at times, sheer mountain cliffs on your right.


I was very grateful to have my GPS set in kph, because 100mph >>> 100 kph. The drive took about an hour and was beautifully twisty. My clutch and shift knob got a workout as I was constantly upshifting and downshifting to match the road.

We went and checked into our condo that we rented and brought all our stuff in and got to work on Thanksgiving dinner. The British couple I work with had volunteered to make a more traditional British dinner so I got to relax. We had a big turkey (illegally brought across the border) and brussel sprouts with bacon, mashed potatoes, sweet potato fries, stuffing, the works. Once the turkey was in the oven, we had some time to kill so we went to get our lift tickets so we wouldn't have to wait in line the next day. There wasn't a ton of snow at the bottom of the mountain and you can't really ski all the way down to the village. Usually in winter you can ski all the way down and the gondolas up the mountain load literally feet from the village stores.We went back for dinner and it was awesome. After dinner we relaxed and rested up for the big day of skiing on Friday.

Panorama view from the deck of the condo looking towards Whistler-Blackcomb

View from the base when we were getting our lift tickets

We woke up to a gorgeous, clear & cold morning.

We headed towards the mountain with our stuff. After getting all of our gear on and walking to the gondola in the village (walking in ski boots is hard). We rode up the gondola to Blackcomb. Whistler and Blackcomb are 2 side by side ski resorts that used to be separate but are now owned by the same company and all of the area is open to skiers, over 8,100 acres of ski-able terrain. It was icy in the morning from overnight but the conditions improved. I had a good fall early in the day which consisted of me going down on some hardpacked ice and snow and one of my skis flying 200+ yds down the mountain. Luckily, one of my buddies was there to catch it and avoid decapitation by flying ski. We ran the morning on Blackcomb and stopped about 12:30pm for lunch at one of the restaurants on the mountain. I took some good pictures while we waited for our food.

Self Portrait

Panoramic view


After lunch, we took the Peak-to-Peak gondola which connects the two mountain peaks. It holds world records for the longest free span between ropeway towers (1.88 Miles) and highest point above the ground (1,427 feet.) The view was spectacular. The trip was smooth and with the day being as clear as it was, it was an unforgettable 11 minutes.


We're going down...

Looking at another car going the other direction

View towards the far mountains

Looking down into the valley



We took the 7th Heaven lift once we got to the other side and the view from up there was great. I had some trouble getting down the first time as we went through some deep deep powder. I lost a ski and it took forever to get it put back on. Every time I stepped, the snow came all the way up to my thigh. Once I got back going again it was fine. While we were waiting at the bottom of the lift, there were these little birds that we eating from people's hands and landing on people's heads. It was hilarious. One of the birds even landed on some guy's camera while he was taking picking of them landing on stuff.

Panoramic view
Panoramic view

Bird sitting on top of the girl in the Smith helmet

We spent the rest of the day enjoying the great views and sunshine. After we finished up for the day, we stopped at one of the bars at the base of the mountains for a few pitchers of Canadian beer. It was a great way to cap off the day on the slopes. We headed back home for some dinner and HOT TUBBING! Dinner was 3 cheese macaroni and cheese. It was awesomely sinful. After dinner, we hit the hot tub, it was great, so relaxing. Felt great on those sore leg muscles. We played Trivial Pursuit, guys vs. girls, and the guys won, of course.

Saturday morning was a completely opposite day from Friday. We awoke to overcast skies and 3-5" of snow on the ground at the condo. We worked our way to the mountain again and headed up. By the time we got to the top, it was a complete white-out blizzard. The wind was howling and gusting to 40-50mph at the top. It was impossible to stop and stand at the top without the wind pushing you down the hill. I didn't get any pictures from Saturday. The best part of Saturday was the snow. It was all fresh powder from overnight snow and it was what every skier loves. It was soft and pillowy and it didn't hurt a bit to fall down in!

We had the same kind of schedule from Friday. We headed to the top of Blackcomb on the Glacier Express lift. It was amazing the first time down. We skiied almost all the way down the mountain and decided we should try to get one more run in before stopping for the day. We got back down to the bottom of Glacier Express just as they were closing it for the day. But with a little pleading from the Australian chair lift operator, he let us be the last ones to ride up the lift for the day!!! (by the way, all the employees in Whistler are from Australia, I guess they all get shipped here in the winter?)

The last ride Saturday was awesome. Most people had already ridden down for the day and apart from some of the heavy fog we skied through going down, it was a great way to close 2 amazing days of skiing in Whistler.

We headed back to the house for dinner. It was my night to make dinner so I made chicken parmesan and pasta and garlic bread and Caesar salad, a true Franzese meal. Besides a little trouble with the water taking forever to boil, the meal went over well. We played some Euchre Saturday night and hit up the hot tub again. It was relaxing. Oh, and remember when I said that the guys won at Trivial Pursuit, our prize was being first in the hot tub with the ladies bring us beers when we needed them!!!

Sunday we all slept in and had breakfast. We headed to the village after we got all packed up to get a coffee and enjoy the mountains as spectators for a little bit. The drive back home was pretty easy and gorgeous on the Sea-to-Sky highway. We stopped just short of the US border to get some snacks as the predicted wait time was 45 minutes. We got through no problem and carried on back towards Seattle.



Sunset as we headed home

And to finish off this posting, here's a video panorama from lunch on Friday.