Aaaah Whistler. I’ve lived in Vancouver
To get your money’s worth on a lift ticket at Whistler, you want to get an early start from Vancouver Strait of Georgia . Slowly the grey dissipated, and daylight arrived in Squamish just as we did.
By the time we got to Whistler, there were promising patches of blue sky. We parked underneath the Holiday Inn for $10, instead of outside for $8. There is still one lot with free parking, but it’s too far away to bother and is usually full by 9am. For the amount of money a day in Whistler costs us, $10 was just part of the expense.
We had bought our lift tickets online: $329 for a 5-day Edge card is a pretty good deal compared to the window price of $95 and erroneously thinking it would be faster. The line ups to pick up these specially priced tickets were awful when we got there. Guest Relations gave us the option to just take a day-ticket and then pick up our cards later and head to the line up for the main gondola.
Taking into account parking and getting ready, walking to the village, dealing with tickets and line-ups, bathroom breaks and more line-ups, it was probably an hour after we arrived in Whistler before we actually boarded the gondola and finally headed up the mountain. As we were whisked up to 1,800m, the minor irritations of the morning shrank before our eyes just like the village did.
There hadn’t been any significant snowfall since the huge dumps that Santa brought, and it was now the end of January. This is Whistler though, and it’s like magic up there. Some runs still offered great conditions while others, that have more traffic had a few icy patches. Most of the runs were in good condition and it felt great to be on my snowboard after only having skied so far this season.
Whistler is almost too much mountain for one day when you’re a mediocre snowboarder like I am. Follow this link to download a trail map. We headed up the Village Gondola intending to make our way over to the Harmony chair via G.S. I took one look at the long flat stretch to get over to the connecting run and opted for the Jolly Green Giant instead. We missed the connecting trail and ended up at the wrong chair, so looped back up. It’s not hard to miss a trail or a connection when there are so many of them. The lift line ups were fairly long, but I’m usually happy for the chance to catch my breath.
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| Taking Marmot over the the Harmony Express chair |
Eventually we connected to the Harmony Express chair. A little hesitant to drop right into the black diamond runs, we cruised along Harmony Ridge waiting for a good window – ok fine! We were plucking up the courage ok. When I saw skiers walking up a small hill, I knew I wasn’t going that way, and made a sharp left to drop into Low Roll. The powder up there was unbelievable. You had to keep moving or your board would sink and you’d have to jump out get moving again. Great conditions like this make the black diamond runs much friendlier. We had a few great runs up and down in this area before taking the Saddle back over towards the Roundhouse. This would usually be a long gentle blue run, but the visibility was so poor that I never quite got going on it.
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| Busy day at Whistler - near the bottom of Die Hard |
There’s so much terrain at Whistler that, even on a Saturday, you can find yourself alone on a run. It’s hard to understand this when you’ve just lined up for 10 minutes to take an express lift to the top. No matter what your skill level, there are loads of runs that will suit you on Whistler. Be careful on the long greens though; they have an annoying way of flattening out. As a beginner snowboarder especially, the flat sections are hard to keep moving on and you often find yourself having to just take your board of and walk. Even some of the blues have some sections that require some speed to get across them, or you may find yourself hopping along until the slope changes.
There was an event at the Roundhouse, where we’d usually stop for lunch, so it was closed for the afternoon. The friendly mountain hosts - they’re everywhere in their red jackets with all the answers to your questions – suggested we try The Chic Pea, at the top of the Garbanzo Express chair. The food was good, as it usually is when you’re tired and hungry from hours on the mountain. It was rather expensive for a little café, but this is Whistler after all.
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| Lower part of GS - heading back to Harmony Express |
Sadly I don’t get to Whistler nearly as often as I’d like to, but I’ve never had a bad day up there. The conditions have never been lousy enough that that trip was wasted. Most of the time the snow is amazing and I drive away from Whistler thinking that was the best day ever. Now that I’m committed to at least 4 more days up there, I’m hoping for a few more best days ever!
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