Our last day of skiing was on Saturday. We finally had a chance to see some of the TELUS Whistler World cup, we made it to Blackcomb and we saw a great show at the Garibaldi Lift Company.
We managed to get up early enough on Saturday morning to make our way to the mountain by 9am. Our intention was to take the Peak to Creek run to the race course. I took a digger near the top while growing accustomed to my new Ridiculously Stiff binding cartridges. Missing the turn-off for the race, we ended up all the way (a long long way) at the bottom in Creekside. Taking the Gondola up we had a great view of three racers on the men's Giant Slalom course.
As it turns out the Gondola really is the only way to see the race unless you take a bus to the finish line. They really need to figure out how to get spectators to the race for the 2010 Olympics or everyone might as well stay at home. Some of the locals we spoke to suggested it may be an effort to get people to pay top dollar for tickets. Even then, I couldn't see many places where spectators could see the race. My suggestion, buy a HDTV and a TiVo and ski on your home mountain.
After a few more runs on Whistler mountain, we made our way all the way back to the Whistler Village base to head over to Blackcomb. Next year the peak to peak gondola will be running so you won't need to go base to base. After checking out the support structures and the span between the mountains, I can assure you I will continue go base to base.
It's insane!We started by skiing around 7th Heaven which was anything but. A nice crusty layer of ice had formed on top making ice skates the more appropriate equipment choice. We closed out the day with the real gem, Blackcomb Glacier. You have to take your skis off and hike a short traverse but you're rewarded with nature's great ice box of soft snow. I was an idiot and forgot to put my memory card back into my camera but Boester had his and this is what the hike looked like.
It's a little treacherous down that chute so I mostly kept my eyes focused straight ahead. Once we got our skis back on, the snow was spectacular and the views were even more so. At the base of the glacier there's quite a run-out but there's enough of a pitch to keep you moving at a pretty good clip. Overall an excellent way to close out the skiing portion of our trip.
That night, after polishing off our booze back at the condo, we piled into a cab for a ride back to Whistler Village. We had dinner at another over priced restaurant in the village where
the food really wasn't all that good and the wait staff had no sense of
humor. I've come to the conclusion that if you're in Whistler Village, you might as well just hole up at that
Garibaldi Lift Company (the locals call it the GLC). The food is good (we had apres ski there every day), the wait staff are friendly and best of all we were able to catch
EOTO (remnants of the String Cheese Incident) on Saturday night. We closed out the night at Maxx Fish which I imagine is great if you're in your early 20's but unfortunately I'm not.
Next time I'm in Whistler, I plan to check out what goes on at night in Creekside and I'll definitely be back to the GLC. My next stop is Vail in a few weeks, I'm ready for some powder.
