Whistler Mountain, Canada

Back to Whistler Mountain to-day ...  this would be our last day out on the mountains, so we were going to make the most of the weather.



The girls in their usual places, we headed to the top of the mountain again and started on the long route around the back ... apart for the occasional excursion to find some powder. We stuck mainly to the trails


Apart from where we got into the shadow of the tress we were mainly in the sun.

 Next Dave and I had been salivating over the runs down the front of Whistler mountain, straight down from the top ... so whilst Sue and Jane went down on the wide trails we took the direct route

In some of the steep bowls we had a good chance to give our legs a serious workout.

Then there was the long run out at the end to get back to civilization and the main trails..  but this also gave us a good view of the whole descent.

After exhausting ourselves we all met up back at the lodge...

one item to notice when picking Katie up from ski school... the temperature in the village after the sun went below the horizon ...  -10 deg as was seen on the sensor in the information board

Blackcombe mountain, Canada

Today we would go tot he other mountain at Whistler .. Blackcombe and have a gentle explore.  Katie was in ski school again learning how to Pizza (snowplough), and Steph was with the child minder.

We rode the lifts up to the top ...  behind us Whistler mountain was sitting in the sun, but on this side we had to get above the trees before it started to get warm.

The mountain opened up all around, however for the first runs we took it easy and stayed mainly to the wide trails.

The snow making was still going despite the sun to show how cold it was.

After a while we could no longer resist so Dave and I went off for an excursion into one of the back bowls....

Here we found some cut up bit still enjoyable slopes to have fun on.

Back to the top and even further to the back was an area called avalanche bowl ..  not an inspiring name, but there was a long off piste run going through there....

There was even some Direct routes into the bowl, but we avoided these.

From the end where the routes met up with the conventional trails we got a good look back up the way we had come.


Time to catch up with the others before making our way down.

Right at the bottom they were preparing a slope for a moguls competition .. the first time I have seen these in action .. still a long way to go before (if ever) my knees will allow me to descend like that!

Whistler mountain, Canada

The next day the sun was shining and we got ready to head out to the slopes ... Steph was going to a child minder for all day play, and Katie was to have her first ski lessons.. in ski creche.

We took the cable car up to the middle station, on the way passing the ski school where Katie was having fun.

The lower runs were wide motorway , but Dave and I did find a few unpisted runs while the girls went around the tracks.

We went up to the top of the mountain to see the view and also to get to the high point

We made the point to be off the mountain when the sun went down ...  the temperature drops significantly as we had found the night below.

Whistler village, Canada

We had planned a few days up at Whistler to check out the ski area.

We packed up the ski stuff, and plenty of cold weather clothes for the girls, stuffed everything into Dave's SUV and headed up the highway.

It was a little further than it looked on the map, mainly because I did not read the scale, and also because of the very low population density.

Around Half way we got to Squaw rock, and the falls, a convenient point to stretch the legs and have a look around the trading point.

The it was onward to Whistler. We found the "lodging" ... unlike the ones in Europe, they were all low rise and more like terraced apartments. The parking lot was full of snow, just to remind us why we were there.










The inside was well laid out, and we were soon we making our selves at home.

Sunset from the condo

Hollyburn, Canada

New years day ... time for another little excursion...

We left the house at lunch time heading out to Cypress Mountain ..  on the way up to it was another mountain -  Hollyburn. This later will become an extension to the Cypress ski area, but at this time it is just a series of trails in the woods, mainly used in the summer months.

leaving the car in the lay-by we set off up the main track.

Before long the track disappeared ... leaving us wandering around in the trees, not really sure where we are. IT was not a phobia at the time, except later I will be very wary of wooded areas.

We obviously made a slightly wrong turn somewhere and ended up on a steepish slope, and the snow was packed down hard ...  not having ski crampons meant we had to go up very carefully.

There was one particularly steep section that ran across some pine needles and debris, at this point Dave took a little tumble.

Because of the heat Dave had his sleeves pushed up ... the tumble skinned his forearm. We did not think of it at the time, just patched it up, but later on it would get infected and become very ugly.

This little chap watched the proceedings, then got closer.

Keeping going we got to the top as the sun was dropping below the horizon

We took a few pictures then stripped the skins off and prepared to descend...  the descent was straightforward, with the trees beign faar enough apart to make it relatively simpler to avoid them.

Back at the car it was just getting dark .. almost perfect timing ...  we packed everything up and headed home for dinner

A few days later Dave's arm was looking really bad, and he had to go on a course of Penicillin ....  but then we had seen this all before on the second Lundy trip.