Whistler

2nd - 12th December

Well this was probably one of the highlights of North America (joint with Vegas ;-) ). We actually had the insanity to take Jus’ parents on the Greyhound shuttle to Whistler (again as it was dirt cheap) but luckily, as we suspected, it was a much more pleasant experience than our previous journeys as it was full of student skiers and was a relatively short scenic journey.

We were staying in a really nice lodge, a short walk to Whistler village and the ski lifts to two huge mountains - Whistler and Blackcomb. We were there a week before peak season so everything was half the extortionate price it usually is and the slopes and lifts were never too busy. We were also extremely lucky with the weather as they had ‘record-breaking snow’ after there being none just a week before we arrived. The only drawback is that there wasn’t much going on (other than skiing) even the tube park (sliding down a hill in a rubber ring) was closed, which Phil and I were looking forward to. Never mind though as the main attraction was the endless skiing which we had to extend our stay for to get round it all!

We all started off with three days of lessons as it actually worked out cheaper than not having lessons – doesn’t make sense we know! Jus’ parents learnt to ski well but were put off by a horrendous ski instructor on their third day. The real fun started when we were done with lessons and instructor Phil took ever. Jus’ parent’s confidence improved and they left with not too many permanent injuries! We stayed a few extra days to get round more of the mountain but the slightly blizzardy weather held us back unfortunately. We improved dramatically though as we decided to hire high-performance skis instead of beginner skis and what a difference it makes! You can’t help but look cool in flash skis!

After a full nine days of skiing we returned to Vancouver shattered. We were quite lethargic in Vancouver as we just wanted to finally go home for Christmas and stop the planning! The journey home was very long but we are used to it now. Heathrow was a nightmare as they were having problems transferring the bags from the plane to baggage claim. However we can’t complain as a couple of days later was the fog catastrophe that I’m sure you all heard about on the news!