Day trip to Whistler skiing – thank you Greyhound!

So I'm sure you’ve all read our skiing adventure to Mount Seymour. We now fancied ourselves as quite the skiers and wanted to go to Whistler before the season ends. As Whistler is pretty pricey we found we could get the Greyhound bus there and back in a day with a ticket that included our lift passes and rental –awesome!

There are no floodlights at Whistler so the slopes close earlier than those with lights. The last lifts are at 4pm. With that in mind we booked the early coach at 6.30 am to get us to Whistler before 9 am.

The road to Whistler from Vancouver is supposed to be one of the most scenic routes in the world. I have to say it really is. It’s just stunning. I tried to take some pics for you... 

But as you can a see our camera did not like the speed or the coach window – so you will all have to either believe me or go see it yourself. 

As we knew the view was going to be impressive, we made sure we sat on the left side of the coach (ocean side) to get the best views (well done Dave). Unfortunately for me I can’t keep my eyes open on a coach so feel asleep for a great deal of the journey, but woke up refreshed in Whistler!

As the Greyhound tickets included our lift passes and rental gear we were given a voucher from greyhound which you can exchange for you rentals when you book your tickets. You can get your rental at several of the rental places in the village.

When we arrived we queued up for our rentals and you could tell strait away that the staff were not Canadian (English actually) so the customer service was non-existent. They were all hung over and couldn’t organise anything. So after about 30 minutes of waiting around filling out forms etc. we finally  got our gear and lift passes and headed for the lift.

There are two mountains Whistler and Blackcomb that your pass gives you access to. 

Dave had conducted a bit of research and found out that Whistler Mountain was the best for green runs (the easy ones) and slow zones, so we packed into the Garibaldi lift to take us up the mountain.

The lift made a stop and I was about to get out and everyone in the car was like “you don’t want to get out there that’s for beginners”. Before I could say “I am a beginner” the door closed and we carried up the mountain. The view was amazing, but the lift went on and on and I was having a slight de-ja-vu of the last time I was in a lift for ages…

We got our at the top and it was packed of people, such a great vibe. As you can see it was such a beautiful day!

The view is just breathtaking. You can literally just see mountains for miles and miles. 

We clicked on our skis and headed to the start of the first green run.

Er de-ja-vu indeed. Oh my goodness. I really think I should have got out at the beginner. For anyone thinking of going to Whistler that hasn’t skied much, the green runs here are like blues ones on Mount Seymour!

There are lots of nice sections which have a nice gradual gradient where you can practice, then you get to a part (still a green run) and there’s a big sign which says “Easiest Way Down”.

Easiest way down my arse.

My poor arse indeed. It took quite a few tumbles. I did also manage to fall onto my front with my legs out again. Apart from there was no teacher present to help me.

Luckily two guys took pity on me, as Dave my loving BF was nowhere to be seen (he said it was because he can’t go as slow as me).

It took a good five minutes to get me up, with both men pulling me up.

Oh dear.

The views were breathtaking, but when you are skiing you feel like there’s a sheer drop to the side of you, so I felt more petrified of going over the edge than enjoying the views, which was a shame. 

We took a break at a cafe as I needed to get some sugar. Still some great views from here.

On the next section I was a bit more confident to take some pics along the way.

 Although Dave kept telling me off for being a safety hazard. No change there then!

We skied down to the beginners section which was empty. We literally had the whole run to ourselves. 

It was awesome and the smile quickly returned to my face.

As hard the experience was skiing right from the top, it actually made me better. I was able to build up lots of speed and confidence.

We had to get our rental gear back by 4 (the last lift is at 4pm as there are no floodlights) so we headed down the last few runs. The glorious weather was unfortunately melting the snow  on the lower sections and the runs were full of orange jacketed wardens waving everyone to slow down.

Slushy snow, is really hard to ski on and not go fast. So I did what I knew best... I fell over. Ha.

The thing you have to remember when you go skiing is, there are only two ways down. To ski or in a skidoo if you have broken you leg, neck etc. As much as the latter sometimes feels that it might even be the easiest option, I did the former. I feel proud.

The village was buzzing with life, with people spilling out all of the bars.

I did fancy a whisky, but after I had taken off all my gear I was quite ready to get on the Greyhound and crash. We managed to get on a earlier bus home. 


Happy days.

You can see all the pictures here:











Created with flickr slideshow.

Shoop, Shoop, Shoop: Skiing at Mount Seymour

Snow shoeing was such a fun day, that we couldn’t wait to get back up the mountain and try out skiing. Dave had been some 15 years ago so we both decided to take the Discover Lesson – which is a two hour introduction to skiing. There had been a lot of new snow so the conditions were pretty good:





Luckily as Dave had been before we were able to get our boots and skis on without help and have a little pre-lesson walk around to get the feel for the boots.








We had a small group of four which was great so we managed to progress quite quickly. We started with walking up hills, which apart from getting up when you fall down, is probably the hardest thing to do when you ski.


First we practiced our pizza’s (or plough as some of you might know it) and our turns on the small slope surrounded by five year olds whizzing around us on snow boards. I wasn’t jealous of them at all. Honest. It’s similar to ice skating in the way that you can’t move your ankles at all, so it’s all movement from the hips and the knees. I found it hard to make a big enough pizza at first, so I zoomed into Dave nearly knocking him over, I also fell over on my arse. After that I tried not to fall back on my arse by learning forward, but must’ve leant forward too much as I ended up in a reverse snow angle position, face down with a mouthful of snow. To top it off I had no idea how to get up from that position and I had to wait for my instructor (lovely Madeline, who was only about 15 and half my size) come over and help. We tried several attempts to get up and in the end, due to the position I was in, I had to step backwards with my hands sticking my arse out to the whole crowd of people waiting to go up the magic carpet (the baby slope lift). You leave your dignity at the door when you start skiing.


I’m not sure what people are like I other countries, but thankfully in Canada they are nice, polite and helpful and don’t seem to laugh and point. Also snow doesn’t hurt when you fall in it – well not at the speed I was going anyway.


We all perfected out turns and our pizzas and ended our lesson with a couple of tries down the Rookies run and I didn’t fall down – I know, I was so impressed with myself!

We were shown (thankfully) how to use the chair lifts. I was just as excited about getting on the chair lifts as I was skiing, but it’s a bit tricky to use them first and both of you trying to line your skis up!





Our lesson ended and we tried to go down the run from the top, I fell in about two seconds of the starting and my ski popped off. I just couldn’t get it back on as the snow was too deep. It was really frustrating being stuck at the top of a really steep slope with one ski off. In the end we both had to take our skis off and walk back up to the top! After a nice warm coffee and some chips, sorry fries, we were back out and the sky cleared.





We decided after a few runs to make it up to the next slope taking the mystery chair lift.





The lift went on for AGES. I started to realize how high we were actually going up, the wind really picked up the higher you went. Just as we got to the top we stopped for ages blowing in the wind, I really wanted to get off at that point. Finally it was our turn to get off and we both fell over as soon as we hit the snow. They had to stop the lift until we could get out of the way – which took a while to say the least. I just couldn’t get up. I was laughing so much which made it even harder. In the end I had to ask another skier to help with Dave to pull me up. I finally made it upright with my pants full of snow. The view from the top was amazing.





But it made me realize just how far up we were. When we got to the top of the slope (sorry no pics at this point, as I was too damn petrified and couldn’t maneuver a camera and my poles). I felt like we were in heaven, literally and the only way down was to ski down this really steep slope. 


We both zoomed down trying to keep our pizza’s but within seconds were both over in the snow. I managed to get up easier this time as I used the angle of the slope. I was so scared and thought to myself, why I had gone up a really big slope when I had been skiing for about three hours and also scared of heights? But you know what, I’m so glad we did it. It took us a long time to get down, but after that the smaller slope was so easier and looking back even though I was so scared, it was such an adrenalin rush.





As the sun started to set we started to realize how absolutely knackered we both were and also that we were pretty cold, so decided it was time to call it a day. 


And what an awesome day. We can’t wait to go back. 


I’m just aching so much today. I ache in places I didn’t even know I had muscles.


You can see the full set of pictures on Flickr.




Created with flickr slideshow.