Getting Back Into the Whistler Swing of Things

Firstly, as a follow on to the last post 1- I was slightly merry when I wrote that so am slightly embarassed by it all! 2-God damn women - she stood me up! Grrrrr!

Anyway enough of that, it's been a good couple of days getting back into the swing of things here in Whistler. It makes such a nice change to be able to ride for as long or as short as you want to, without having to worry whether you're getting value for money from the lift ticket or not! Plus, we're currently managing to fluke free accomodation at the moment, all of which helps!

My riding is really coming along. I know I can't do half the tricks that Rich can do on his board, but my confidence is really coming on strong, and on every piste I'm just constantly looking around to see what little things I can jump, or where I can do a little drop off the side, or slash the lip of bank, kind of surfy style! In a word, it's all fun!

Todays been a pretty good day. Started off by actually seeing a live football match (sorry, soccer!) which made a change. Then this afternoon the band Simple Plan gave a free concert, followed by a competition up in the night pipe which was cool!

Plus, it's snowing, so once the weekends over, it should be pretty cool!

It's All Good In Whistler

I know in my last post I expressed a certain amount of melancholy in my last post, and that I had perhaps presented a slighlty negative view of Whistler.

I have to say that as of this time I take all those comments back.

I've just met a really cool Australian girl on the farewell night of some of my Alpine Elements friends. She's given me her phone number, so I think at some point I should respond.

Being generally sweet and innocent, please feel free to give me any advice that y'all feel I should need!

End of The Road

Well, here we are, back in Whistler, in the familiar surroundings of the condo, sitting in front of the tv with the laptop and free internet access once more. It feels kind of strange to be back, but at the same time it also feels pretty familiar.

The feeling of happiness to be back in Whistler is tinged with melancholy that this part of the trip is over.

It really has been great on the road for the last three weeks. It is such a great feeling to know that you don't have to be anywhere in particular and that you don't have to do anything in particular, and if you wanted to you could just drive off and end up in a different town.

I've met so many people on the way. All of them have combined to help make this trip so memorable and great, although some of the people I've met have been amazing, and I am so glad we met them.

I think the highlight of the trip for me was probably Big White and Kelowna. That was where we first bumped into Sheany, Brooke, Geoff and Luke, and I'm so glad we did! The following weeks, stalking them all the way across Canada to Calgary, then all the way back via Banff to meeting up with Brooke and Sheany in Whistler on their last few days in Canada!

Overall the journey was excellent. Banff was a good last stop on the road. It was a good town to walk around, and the scenery surrounding the town is absolutely amazing! Plus, once Alex came up it was good to get to go snowboarding again. The two resorts, Norquay and Sunshine Village, that we visited were both fun, and it was refreshing to stretch the legs and get some snowboarding practice in!

Still, all things have to come to an end, and once we were done in Banff it was decided that there were few places that we wanted to stop at in between Banff and Whistler, and what with the opportunity of free snowboarding and free accomodation, it seemed to be the obvious idea to make the drive from Banff to Whistler. The roads seemed clear, and with some snow forecast to fall in the Rockies it seemed best to head out whilst the going was still good. And indeed, for just about all the way the roads were good (Apart from some snow in the Rockies, and rock slides near Lillooet!), and 700kms and 10 hours later we arrived in Whistler, drinks in Merlins and chance meetings with just about all the people in Whistler that I knew!

Once again though, the scenery on the drive was stunning. The landscape between Kamloops and Lillooet was amazing, and nothing like we had seen for weeks.

So, a couple of sedate days in Whistler, before we head off for one final hurrah, across to Vancouver Island before saying goodbye to the car. Then it's time to settle down and look for a job! Heaven forbid!

Still on the Road

Well, another week or so on and we're still out on the road, and we still haven't killed each other. If my memory serves me right, last time I blogged I had just arrived in Fernie. Another week on, and we've actually made it to a different province. We are now in Alberta (Apparently where all the beef comes from!) in the lovely town of Banff. Just as well it is so lovely - we had to pay $110 to drive into the national park here!

Anyway, as with last time, I shall try and give a bried summary of happenings:

Fernie - Fernie's a cool town, and there's a cool mountain there as well. Unfortunately the dual problems of there being no fresh snow, and my being ill (Continued from Nelson!) prevented it being as awesome as it could have been. However, it was fun. I got up the hill for a half a day. It was damn cold at the top, but nevermind. There was an amazing view from the top o it was worth it. Most of the time was spent at the base of the hill in the small fun park, and trying out some flat land tricks. Completely dull to everyone, I know, but I tell you anyway that I managed to do all four 180's - frontside and backside, switch and forward. So there you go!

Anyway, met up with our Antipodean friends again in Fernie, where we had an amazing night out! Quite possibly some of the funniest conversations so far this trip were going on before hitting the bar (I would quote them, but for the sake of my parents and other delicate ears, I won't!)

All in all Fernie was cool, but it was time to move on to......

Calgary. Well this place pretty much sucks. Admittedly it was an interesting drive, leaving the Rockies and heading out onto the Prairies. Suddenly after weeks of trees, rock and mountains, it was grass and ranches. Just out of interest to some of my Scottish friends, the area round Calgary appears to be pretty solid Macleod country! We drove through Fort Macleod, and then visited a museum in Calgary where the Macleods seemed to have every important position in the area around the 1850-1900 time!

Calgary itself I didn't like. The hostel itself was in a dodgy area, and the whole downtown area seemed to be lacking any life at all! The only decent things about Calgary that I could see were the tower, cos we got to go up for free, and got some stunning views, and the Olympic Park, which is an amazing facility to have close to a city.

Even so, we were till glad to get on the road and head to......

Banff: Banff is pretty good so far. Once again we met up with the Aussie contingent for the last time on the trip as a whole group. We certainly had one of the best nights ever, as anyone who's seen any of the pictures can testify! Apart from that though, the scenery here is breathtaking. It's been pretty much clear, so the views to the mountains are stunning. I also broadened my mind in the Cave and Basin hot springs historical site, which became the first national park in Canada, and paved the way for all the rest of them.

Enough history though, we haven't been boarding yet. This has mainly been due to poorish snow conditions at the resorts, and the fact that Sunshine Village has a forecast high temp of -24 today! It is cold here in town as well (-18 at the hostel), and the sting in the lungs from breathing is invigorating!

Still, Alex (Rich's ex Hull Uni Ski Club mate) is arriving tonight which will be good, and hopefully we'll get some boarding in some time soon!

As for the road trip. Well, things have changed once again. It now looks likely that once we leave Banff on Monday, we may well head straight for Whistler / Vancouver. This is mainly to take advantage of our seasons passes, some cheaper/ poss free accomodation, possibly meeting up with some of the Aussie contingent out west again, and possibly better snow!

Plus, I wanna go see the big trees on Vancouver Island

Long Time No Hear

I thought I had better make an appearane on my blog, as through various means of communication people were beginning to think I was no longer around due to my substained absence from t'interweb.

Of course being a poverty stricken traveller, the real reason for this silence was due to me and Rich getting our kicks on routes 3, 3A, 3C, 97, 99, 5 etc etc. We left the safe confines of Whistler approximately a week and a half ago, and we have another 2.5 weeks approx until we darken Whistler's doors again. Therefore this may or may not be my last correspondence till then, it all depends on how stingy I'm feeling as I have to pay for my internet time now(boo hoo I hear you say!).

We are now approximately 949 kms away from Whistler in the town of Fernie, just nestled into the western edge of the Rockies. Somehow we've managed to do about double this distance, but we've visited a couple of places along the way. Here is a brief run down. Once I have free access to the internet I'll be sure to bore you all with the details.

Okay, here goes:

First Day - Whistler to Kelowna - If you look at the map this is a long way. We were going to stay in Hope overnight, but due to there being little going on there we decided to keep going to Kelowna. Trust me this is a long way, especially with the last two hours battling through snow drifting in the dark so that you can't see more than 10 yards in front of you! Very intense drive. Met some cool people in the hostel once there!

Second to Fourth Day - Kelowna to Big White and Back Again. Great ski area. Lots of friends made and good times! Good snowboarding, followed by a game of ice hockey, and beers in one of only two pubs in town!

After that (lost count of the days!) - Kelowna to Nelson. Once again a dodgy snowy drive, but at least it was light this time! Anyway, Nelson is quite a cool town. The experience was marred by spending the first night at the Flying Squirrell hostel which is prob the worst place to stay ever! Full of long term dopehead residents, who had a tendency to wander into your room unannounced. Still managed to change to a HI place which was very civilised. Snowboarded at Whitewater. Very reminiscent of the Scottish ski hiils, with only two chair lifts! Still, it had some snow, so it was fun! Stayed in Nelson for a total of four nights, and it was quite a cool place. A lot of the buildings are restored Victorian buildings, and the main street is straight off a film set (literally, cos I think it was used in the Steve Martin Film "Roxanne"). It's a very arty community, which means there are lots of hippies and weirdo's and it's fair share of potheads, but in the most part it's quite cool.

Now - Stunning drive from Nelson to Fernie. If there's one part of Canada so far I would recommend to people it would be this area, around the Kootenay Lake and onto the Rockies. The drive was amazing, crossing through the Selkirk and Purcell Mountains, before some relatively flat land, before coming across the brick wall that is the Rocky Mountains! They really do rise nearly out of nowhere. I'm looking forward to the trip from Calgary to Banff, from the prairies to the Rockies to get a real contrast!

From here - well the itinerary has been provisionally changed slightly and is likely to look like this:

Fernie to Calgary
Calgary to Banff - Week or so in Banff inluding Lake Louise and Sunshine Village
Banff to Kicking Horse
Kicking Horse to Revelstoke
Revelstoke to Kamloops (Possibly, can't really remember this bit!)
Kamloops to Vancouver
Vancouver to Vancouver Island (We're off to see some big trees! Yay!)
Vancouver Island to Vancouver
Vancouver to Whistler (sans car, boo hoo!)

I shall keep y'all informed!