Whistler Ski Trip

I should preface all this with the fact that Ruben went to Tahoe for a skiing trip just a week ago with an old buddy of his. He had a great time, skied a bunch of runs for his first time on the newer parabolic skis.

One of his goals of his sabbatical was to take me and the kids on a trip to go skiing - like up at Whistler. I was a bit resistant at first - basically not wanting to take another trip, yet here we are.

We left a little late from Seattle (seems familiar no?) - around 4pm after collecting Matthew's friend Jonas from his house and then Elias from school.

Traffic in Everett sucked as usual. It took us nearly 2 hours (at least 45 minutes longer than normal) to get to Mt. Vernon - our first scheduled stop - to pick up the lift tickets at the Haggen grocery store.

We got off at the main exit for Mt. Vernon and found the Haggen, up the hill a couple of miles. We also stopped here for dinner at their cafe - which was quite nice.

Little did we know that there was a Haggen JUST off the very next exit. Oh well, live and learn.

We hit a bunch of traffic at the truck crossing border (there's road construction up here), and even with the rainy, foggy weather and twisty windy roads, we made to to the Village at around 10pm. This means that a normally 5 hour drive took us 6 hours. Oh on the way we saw the 7-11 in Squamish where you can also buy the tickets for less money than on the mountain.

We arrived and checked into the Coast Whistler Hotel - the rooms are nice, clean but a little small. We do have 5 people in this little room, but it works. We just have to schedule bathroom time.

Today we got up at 7 to get Elias up and ready for his full day snowboarding lesson. Pablo (our friend from CA who met us up here with his family) brought us yummy fresh pastries and even yummier hot out of the oven croissants.

Elias was with his ski school at 8:30 and we ran back to the hotel (about a 3 minute walk) to get our gear on. Pablo, Ruben and I got back to the gondola around 9am and after 40 minutes of waiting in line (and quite a few interesting discussions, including a very existential one) we were actually on the thing. I could feel once we got above around 4500 feet because I started to feel a little queasy.

Ruben's GPS kept track of our movements for the day - I'll link to that when I can upload the data. We started out by going straight from the top of the Gondola down the Marmot or G.S. to the Harmony Express (quad) lift to the top of the mountain

At the top we were treated to an amazing view of the peak (picture to follow). It was windy and cold, but not too bad. We went "off the back" side of the slope through the Sun Bowl - which is a black diamond. Pablo attacked the run. Ruben was confident, but it was a little much for me - first time on parabolic skis and still learning how to deal with good turns in deep(er) powder. Ruben and I "escaped" on Burnt Stew Trail (because I was burnt) and we missed the turn that would have taken us to the Symphony express chair. That was probably for the best though - I think that whole back area would have been too much for me. I was already bonking and it was our first run.

Ruben and I stopped at the base of Harmony and got some water and a cookie. This helped me tremendously. I think the altitude issues were being exacerbated for me by dehydration.

Ruben and I contacted (by SMS) Matthew (and Jonas) and Pablo to tell them to meet us at the top of the Gondola at The Rendevous for lunch at noon. Then he and I went on another run of off Harmony, even though the lines were huge. The wind and clouds were picking up at the top and I did overhear someone say "you can really feel the storm coming in." Now I knew that there was more snow on the way, but I didn't think it was coming in that early - I thought we'd be getting a pretty good day of skiing in.

We took the Saddle run down to the T-bars, then those back up to Pika's traverse and the Ridge run. A quick swoop down and we were at a lunch table at 12:05.

Lunch was fine - uneventful. Ruben and I stuck with Matthew and Jonas for 2 runs - but it was obvious that Jonas' cold was not helping the fact that he has less experience on a snowboard than we do on skis. We took the Jolly Green Giant run to the Emerald Express lift, back up and then we went down Marmot again to Harmony.

Along this route I heard someone comment "wouldn't it be nice to have some kind of magnetic binding?" - So Ruben and I started to figure out if electromagnetic ski bindings would work... my comment was that the battery would have to be in the boot.

At this point it was really obvious that Jonas needed to head down the mountain for some rest and recuperation. Matthew was also tired, so they headed down the nice mellow Sidewinder while Ruben and I waited in line one more time for Harmony Express. In hindsight this was exactly the right thing to do.

We hooked up with a guy who was from east LA (Chino Hills) on the lift and chatted with him. He, Ruben and the other guy had all been to Tahoe and could compare notes about the runs there. Meanwhile, the weather was frightfully cold. I bundled up the best I could, but it was still biting through everything - the wind was intense. Towards the top the ice spray burned and the winds were pushing us UP the hill on the chair lift.

We immediately got off and followed signs to the Harmony Ridge run. The blowing snow was ... well it was intense. I suddenly could understand how people can get lost in bad snow conditions very quickly on a mountain. I even (at one point) looked for a spot of shelter out of the wind and made the mental image of clearing out a nice spot to keep the wind off of us.

No one else was on the run. I did feel very alone - but the snow was incredible. I felt very isolated, but at least Ruben was with me. He and I just kept plowing down the mountain, enjoying and yet fearing the solitude of the slopes.

Finally we got back down to the Harmony Express chair to find the line completely cleared out and the chair not running. It was only 2:43 - the chair wasn't supposed to close until 3! As we skied past we heard that they had to close the entire top of the mountain due to high winds: at least 70kph.

The run down from Harmony via side winder was ego skiing, except that there were so many people. Quite a contrast to what we found at the top. Also the run was a bit chewed up from all the skiers and snowboarders. There were a lot of mountain safety type hosts on the mountain tot make sure people weren't being stupid.

A little bit down the hill the snow turned to the round ice granuals that you mostly see in Snoqualmie pass. Still, good skiing, if a bit more icey in patches.

The bottom was a MESS - too many people and slush for snow. Still we made it down just after 3pm - in time to pick up Elias from camp (around 3:30). Ruben returned to the hotel with the skis and cleaned up while I waited for him.

He had a great time, but didn't want to do a 2nd day of classes. We'll take him up to the magic carpet and family ski area tomorrow. Pablo and Devon picked up their kids too - we all reconvened at the hotel and hung out until dinner. We were surprised by a BIG basket of fruit and snacks sent to us by my parents. It was incredible and perfectly timed. The fruit was a hit.

We attempted to go to dinner around 6pm - big mistake with 5 hungry children. We opted for plan B - get the kids pizza (and the bigger kids Japanese food), pay the bigger kids and go out to eat a placed called Seven for tapas. It was very very good - and the hotel supplied van (and driver) to get us there was a huge win in the pouring rain.

Tonight we're all tired, but the plan is to go back up tomorrow. The time and the configuration of kids and adults will all be dependent on the weather. But more tomorrow... right now everyone is asleep except stupid me :)