newfeatures
Vancouver/Whistler
2008-01-21
A Few "Lasts" Before the Big "First"...
The reality of the move is really starting to sink in. This weekend was a very fun weekend, but ti also made me realize that time is running out to get a bunch of things done.
Saturday, I made a trip up to Whistler to get in a last day of skiing before the move. It was as excellent day, with pretty good conditions. As I had sold my SUV, I had to rent a car for the trip, and picked up a Dodge Charger on Friday night. Now normally, I'm not the "muscle car" type, but let me tell you, this car is fun to drive! Especially on the road up to Whistler, which had fairly light traffic. Let's just say, perhaps I was driving a little faster than I should have... :-)
Whey I got up to the mountain, it was overcast, and snowing lightly. I think they said that there was a couple of centimeters of new snow overnight, so there was a little bit of fresh stuff. I decided to start off with Whistler (as opposed to Blackcomb) to start, with the plan to ski Blackcomb in the afternoon. Planning to start off easy (only my second day skiing this year), I jumped on one of the blue runs off the top of the gondola - to be promptly throw into a mogul run. So much for an easy warm up. I skied the rest of the morning, wrapping up around noon for lunch. After lunch, I made my way over to the "new" Symphony Amphitheater, which was opened last year. To add to the day, the sun came out in the afternoon, and the views were spectacular!
Signage for Symphony; Black Tusk peaking through the clouds; Blackcomb Mountain from the top of Symphony Chair
OK, in my personal opinion, Symphony is the best area of either mountain! It's at the far side of the mountain, and on this day was significantly less busy than the rest. It has big, wide bowls, and best of all, lots of glades for skiing in the trees. I was even able to find some fresh ankle-deep powder in the trees, despite the fact that it hadn't snowed all week.
Trail map for the Symphony Amphitheater. A "must ski" for anyone going to Whistler.
I ended up skiing this new-found treasure until the lift closed at 2:00, then spent the next hour skiing out to the bottom of the mountain. My legs were killing me - by the end of that last run I could barely make another turn. So much for Blackcomb...
Sepia image of some trees - playing with camera settings
I created this panorama image of Blackcomb Mountain. Maybe I should have picked something a little easier, for a first try...
Sunday, I went for a last run on the seawall around Stanley Park. After the full day of skiing, I'm not sure how smart it was, but I had suggested it to Risa earlier in the week.
Sunday was a beautiful day - sunny and clear, and a little cool. Perfect for running. There had been new snow on the local mountains on Saturday, so they were white and gleaming in the sunshine. I was hurting the whole way, but we had a great run, and I was glad we did it. As I said, it was possibly my last chance to get out and do it.