Max and Joann on Whistler Mountain
On the morning of Saturday March 25th, Joann, Ed, Karen, Zoey and I drove up to Whistler from Bellevue for a long ski weekend. We had planned the trip with Brent and Christine a couple months back (when Christine was still overseas), but unfortunately Brent and Christine's cat Joshua got sick and so they had to stay home. Joann and I drove up together in her car, and Ed and Karen drove up in a rented SUV. The drive went reasonably well until we got to Vancouver, at which point we got stuck in some heavy traffic for about an hour. That soured our mood for much of the remaining beautiful drive, but we were in good spirits when we arrived around 6pm that evening. Our home base was a cabin owned by friends of Brent and Christine that is about 5 kilometers from Whistler Village. Saturday evening we cooked pasta with pesto sauce and went to bed early in anticipation of a full day of skiing.
Sunday morning, Joann and I got up around 7:30, ate breakfast, and then headed to the mountain. We took Zoey with us and left her in Joann's car. We decided to ski Whistler mountain because I had never been before; on my only previous trip to Whistler we had skied on Blackcomb exclusively. We warmed up on some cruiser runs, and then we met Ed and Karen who had left the cabin a little later. We all skied together for a few runs, and then I broke away from the crowd to go on some more challenging runs. We met for a long lunch, and then skied together for the rest of the day. The weather was cloudy with occasional snow flurries throughout the day. I was having some problems with visibility, particularly at the top of the mountain, but it was generally good skiing.
Karen and Ed on Blackcomb Mountain
Zoey was acting a little strange when we returned to the car. We decided to walk her around Whistler village to stretch her legs, but then she got a little nervous because of some loud live music. We all returned to the cabin and Ed cooked an awesome egg scramble with some potatoes. Around 6pm, Brent's brother David arrived after spending some time with Brent and Christine. He was planning to ski the next day with Matt and Athena, who are good friends of Brent and Christine, and we agreed to get on the first chair the next morning.
Joann and Karen on Blackcomb Mountain
Monday morning, David and I got up and headed over to the mountain where we met Matt and Athena. The skies were blue and it was cold, and there was a respectable amount of new powder from the day before. Although we were not the first ones on the slopes, we had a reasonably early start. We warmed up on some cruisers, and then headed to some more challenging terrain. Around one that afternoon I split off and met Joann back in Whistler Village. We took Zoey out of the car and walked her to an outdoor restaurant where Joann and I had a couple really good burgers. Joann and I then spent the rest of the afternoon having a great time skiing together. We met Ed and Karen back at the cabin, took showers, and then went to a really good Indian restaurant for dinner.
On Tuesday, I struggled with the decision of whether or not to ski with David (the rest of the group was taking the day off). I expected not-so-great snow conditions and I was sore from the previous two days, so I decided to hang out with Joann. We went for a really long walk with Zoey along the snow covered bicycle trail, and Zoey had a blast. Next we headed to the gym where we did an hour on the machines. I pulled a respectable time on the erg, which surprised me because I hadn't done a serious erg workout in over two months. Joann split her time between an elliptical machine and a bicycle. We came home, took showers, and then went walking around the neighborhood looking at houses with Ed and Karen. We came home and watched the movie Walk the Line while Ed cooked dinner for us all.
Wednesday morning we got up, packed, and were on the road by around 9:30. A fantastic trip!