 |
| Susan got me this helmet cover so that she could spot me on the trails. My coat/ski pants are pretty generic. Turns out one other guy had the same spikes this weekend! |
My sister's guy is renting a place at Whistler for a month, and I was invited to join at a time convenient to me. Since I am heading off to Berlin at the end of next week for three more months of Humboldt-Hertie fun, this was pretty much the only time I could go. I was afraid that there would be long lift lines since it was a holiday weekend in the US, but other than no fresh snow, the timing worked out great.
Whistler is definitely my favorite place to ski (although another Eurotrip may challenge that). It has a wide variety of terrain, there are so many blue cruisers that I didn't manage to do them all in two full days and two half days, the scenery is just amazing even if the trees were not topped with snow, and a pretty swell village at the base.
This was my fourth time:
In 2014, my daughter and I stopped by while she was checking out UBC for her undergraduate studies. She developed sore shins so she stopped after one run. I told her to hang out for two hours while I tried as much of Whistler as I could. That was a great two hours--super blue skies, hardly anybody on the slopes.
My first taste of Harmony Ridge
In 2016, I gave a talk at UBC on my latest book, Adapting in the Dust, and used that as a chance to get up to Whistler for two days. It rained/snowed the first day so I only could do the bottom half of Blackcomb. The second day I learned that I suck at skiing in deep snow. I did get to the top of Whistler and then proceeded to fall into deep deep snow on the Peak. I had to then stick to groomed runs. I should have gotten rental powder skis (a recurring lesson that I have yet to follow).
The wet first day
In 2022, my sister crashed my anniversary trip with Mrs. Spew. The weather was great--blue skies again--and my sister sprung for a lesson for the two of us. That mostly kept us mid-mountain on Blackcomb one day, and we did the top of Whistler the day before. At the time, my sister was quite nervous about relatively narrow slops, so she did not love one of my fave runs--Harmony Ridge. I had one morning by myself to hit slopes I had never skied before--the higher up stuff on Blackcomb. People had told me Blackcomb was better than Whistler, and I couldn't believe it, given my love for Harmony Ridge and the other fun blue cruisers over there. And then I did Jersey Cream, and it was the best run. But then I went higher up on the Glacier lift to do Blue Line and it was the best run ever. Challenging, steep, a bit narrow in spots, but a fun, fun, long run.
Blue Line: Great views,
super fun challenging blue
This year, I had a half day, two full days, and a half day. I took a 6am flight that landed at 9 local time, and then I got a shuttle that got me to the mountain at 12:30. This gave me time to change (the whistler baggage storage at the Hilton was super helpful and well located), and get on the slopes before the lifts at Harmony and Symphony closed. I did what was then my fave run--Harmony Ridge. I then went over to the Symphony area via my now favorite green run--Burnt Stew. It just had a nice pitch, great views, and I could get into a good rhythm. It really was a blast to ski. Indeed, the greens at Whistler/Blackcomb are super fun, making the last ride down the mountain at the end of each day a heap of tiring fun. I did one of the best named runs--Jeff's Ode to Joy--which was full of joy. And then as the Symphony lift closes at 2, I took Burnt Stew back to Harmony, skied out to the central part, took a lift up to the Peak and did much of Peak to Creek, a very long, steep run that was a heap of fun. Not a bad way to start a four day weekeend at Whistler.
I am now, alas, confused as to which is my favorite part--Whistler or Blackcomb. Whistler has Burnt Stew and the fun runs off of Harmony and Symphony lifts--Ode to Joy, Adagio, and some fun easy glades. Blackcomb has heaps of great blue cruisers off of Crystal lift, the awesome runs off of Jersey Cream, and Blue Line, which is just a blast. I guess I don't have to decide. The snow could have been better as it was mostly hard pack. The grooming was excellent. The only real risk we faced was collision at the end of each day as we threaded the masses of skiers on the runs out of both sides. Otherwise, despite being a holiday weekend, it really wasn't crowded. We were able to ski right onto most lifts, and only found a few lines of 5-10 minutes on Sunday.
I am so glad my sister found skiing again, as she is a great ski buddy. I won't be skiing with her until next year, probably, but I am sure we will find another few fun days on the snow somewhere.
I was supposed to ski near Kelowna before my talk at UBC-O, but it didn't work out. That's ok, as I had a heap of fun out west.
No comments:
Post a Comment