10.04.2012 – 10.04.2012  15 °C

V early start this morning as we wanted to get up to Whistler as early as possible. The drive up into the mountains is truly breathtaking. For most of the way the road winds around a fjord that is flanked on either side by huge mountain peaks studded with snow.. Beautiful!

We stopped a couple of times to observe the beauty of the mountains and in particular, we stopped at this enormous waterfall that was heavily pregnant with all of the local snow melt.. Amazing! An hour later we made it to Whistler (the drive is one of the easiest around if it isn’t snowing!) and started to get ourselves organised.. Rented boots, poles and skis and got our lift tickets (believe it or not a season pass is cheaper than buying three single days of skiing!). Before starting off, we had met my cousin near the hotel and stopped to have a bite to eat. Lunch over and we headed up the mountain to start our skiing.

Whistler is a little different to our ski resorts at home (for starters, it is far more picturesque and secondly you use gondola’s to get to the top of the mountain as opposed to just using chair lifts.) Once up the mountain (Whistler as we are staying at the base of the Whistler gondola) we started down on an easy green run… (Another difference between AU and here is that the green’s more resemble a blue at home and the blue’s here aren’t that much more difficult than a green!) Well, first run down I managed to get down with just a small stack, but already my right knee was complaining… Ominious… Second run, huge wipeout and a I felt a real wrench in that dratted right knee… Ummmmmm… Ok so third run I decided to wait for everyone up the top to give my knee a break. After the third run everyone decided to come in for a cuppa so I actually got a good rest for this knee.

Straight after our break we decided to go over to Blackcomb via the Peak to Peak gondola (another gorgeous ride that is not for anyone who suffers from heights!). Started down the mountain and immediately the old knee started to whinge… Mmmm.. The big problem over here is that the run’s are so much longer than our runs so you are buggered after only doing a quarter, add to this a sore knee and well you have a recipe for disaster… By the time I had gotten down to the half way station on the Blackcomb gondola I had stacked it I don’t know how many times and could not turn right (my knee just wouldn’t turn)…. I ended up getting down the mountain doing a very bad impersonation of someone trying to do snow plow with a bung knee (I’d given up parallel after I almost went over the edge ’cause I couldn’t turn right!!).. Needless to say what a crap start to my three days of skiing..

I limped my way back to the hotel and it was a general concensus that we needed some liquid refreshment to dull the pain, so off to the Irish pub we went for a night of great music, food and of course beverages! A better end to an otherwise up and down day! Big fingers crossed my knee pulls up ok so that I can hit the slopes again tomorrow (I’m not feeling super hopeful though….)

Song of the Day– Paul Simon, Slip Slidin’ Away!

PS: I found out today (gold star to Koreena for picking up my mistake!) that I’m not skiing the Rockies (as I had always thought)… Whistler is actually in the Pacific Ranges and that the Rockies don’t start til I get to Northern BC and Alberta!! Thx mate!