March 26, 2010

Whistler

I took a few days off work and booked a ticket to fly out to Whistler, British Columbia (~~Canadian Rockies!~~ Correction from Grant: they're actually part of the Coast Mountains) to visit Grant!

Friday, March 26th

I left work on Friday and headed right to the airport. In the cab I passed Professor X's new place on 23rd Street. Mutants!

JFK International pizza dinner.

Been called worse.

You are
here
Sheriff / Jew

See you in six hours worth of terrible movies!

The airport in Vancouver is brand new and strange and beautiful. It's like indoor nature.

Twin totem poles, 20-feet tall, welcome you to the immigration line.

grant — This guy drove two hours to the airport to pick me up at 1:20am. Thanks, bud!

grant — There was a Whistler billboard at the airport and you can see Aki and Grant's apartment in the photo they used. Here's Grant pointing to their apt window!

A quick two-hour drive through the Canadian darkness and we arrived in Whistler a little before 4am local time.

The apartment is awesome! It's like a Manhattan one-bedroom 100 yards away from the Whistler-Blackcomb gondolas.

We stayed up until 5am catching up.

Saturday, March 27th

The view of the mountain from their living room window! It was a little foggy in the morning so we decided to go...

...get some ridiculous brunch. The place Grant took me to was amazing. Eggs Florentine.

French toast. Whoa.

grant, me — After eating, I stopped off to rent gear...

...and we were on the gondola a little after one.

Whistler had around 40-feet of snow as a base!

We got off the gondola, rode down the mountain a bit to another lift...

...to go up to the top of Whistler!

Mountain peak.

grant, me — Grant and me!

grant — About to ride over the edge of the world! I love this photo.

ian m — Later that night we met up with Ian. We stopped at the playground on the way to the movie theater to get dizzy on the spinny plate.

Dizzy.

grant — Haha.

Ian and a bunch of his friends were background stunt-skiers in Hot Tub Time Machine!

Later that night we stopped by Grant's in-laws' beautiful log-cabin house.

Sunday, March 28th

On Sunday, we decided to ride Blackcomb.

On snow before 10am.

Headed up the lift.

Jersey Cream!

leslie — Later that night we met up with Laura and Leslie for...

...delicious wood-fired pizzas. Mmmmm.

grant, me — Satisfied pizza customers.

With the forecast calling for tons of overnight snow, we decided to rent a DVD (remember those)? and have an early night so we could get up early and ski!

The video store was filled with aisles and aisles of exotic Canadian treats I'd never seen. This was the one I chose. It was deliciously declarative.

If you don't plan on seeing the movie, you should at least watch this part. Willy the Shaman's voice is the same as the internal narrator in my head. Hahaha.

Monday, March 29th

We woke up at 7:30 to a whole lot of falling snow. If it's snowing down at the base, you can usually rest assured that the mountain is getting a blizzard.

With over a foot of fresh powder on the ground, I decided to rent a pair of skis for the day and try some deep powder skiing. Oh, and the original inspiration for Borat was in line in front of us.

In an aqua onesie and everything!

So much snow!

grant — Grant!

Skiing in deep powder is EXHAUSTING! The snow was so deep I was having trouble evening staying on top of it (especially in the flat parts...forget it!).

After only one run, I ran back to the apartment to swap out skis for snowboard.

We had lunch before heading back up. Veggie burger with grilled onions, I love you!

Post-lunch 20-minute nap!

grant — Then our best David Brents back up the mountain.

Haha.

Unbelievable.

Monday afternoon and the place was practically deserted!

grant, matt walker — Later that afternoon, we met up with Matt!

grant, me — Stationary tricks!

matt walker, me — A little before 2pm, we took a hot cocoa break.

Then we decided to take the Peak 2 Peak Gondola that connects the peak of Whistler with the peak of Blackcomb.

We stood in line and let a couple of cars go by so that we could get in one that has...

...a glass bottom!

Here's the view from middle of the journey where the gondola is at it's peak height of 1,430 feet above the ground. (To put that in perspective, the Empire State Building is1,454 feet tall)

Three-snowboard wind-shield!

grant — The snow was so deep and drifty. If didn't keep your speed up, or dipped your nose at all...

grant — ...you'd end up instantly stuck knee-deep. (When this happens, it usually means 10 minutes of digging yourself out and hopping over to a place where there's enough of an incline to get moving again!).

It snowed all afternoon. Each time we got off the lift there was fresh snow!

Grant snapped me coming out of the trees.

A little before 6pm, Matt used his extensive local knowledge to help us locate a nearby...

grant, me — ...hot tub we could "borrow!"

Later that night we went out in Whistler Village for...

...an awesome Japanese dinner.

Spicy tofu!

grant, me — Grant, Matt and me.

Parking lot snow hearts!

Tuesday, March 30th

We woke up early on Tuesday morning and it was snowing. Turns out it had been snowing all night on the mountain...

grant — ...and there was another foot or so of fresh snow!

whister — Check out the view.

So much snow!

Taking a break.

I always enjoyed skiing more than snowboarding, but this was the day that made me a convert.

Into the trees!

Riding through the trees in deep snow is sort of awesomely terrifying. You have to try to keep your speed up so you don't sink and get stuck, but you also don't want to go too fast, because, duh, trees.

grant — Grant leading the way through.

grant — Later that afternoon it was snowing near the top of the mountain again.

Whistler is SO BIG. When you sit down to take a break, sometimes you won't see another person for ten or fifteen minutes.

grant — Last run of the day.

grant, me — A little before 5pm, I packed up all my stuff and went to wait for the bus back to Vancouver. Thanks for everything, Grant! I had an awesome time!

All of the garbage cans in Whistler have spring-loaded doors to keep the bears out!

The bus ride from Whistler to Vancouver is so beautiful. You drive by miles and miles of what I thought were "lakes and mountains." Grant just emailed me to tell me that I was impressed by the Howe Sound. The sound is a "network of fjords; "long, narrow inlets with steep sides or cliffs, created in a valley carved by glacial activity."

Waiting for the red eye by to NYC.

Aki lent me The Value of Nothing: How to reshape market society and redefine democracy to read on the way home. Great book. Worth reading.

Tuesday, March 30th

In a cab headed home at 6:30am! I dropped off my bag, took an hour nap and hot shower and then went to work!

1 comment

diceboymay 16, 2012
Brian, I've been enjoying IKAD for I don't know how many years. Looks like you enjoyed some of what my neck of the woods has to offer. Hope the "wind-block" allowed you to enjoy some of our local horticultural products.