20-30 March 2013: Whistler, Canada

Once again we (Terreis and I) found ourselves in Whistler, Canada – our favourite place to ski.  Once you’ve skied here, you’ve been spoilt for life!

We did it slightly differently than last year and went with a hotel for accommodation only.  The hotel – Aava Hotel – was OK and we were more than comfortable for the 10 days we were there.

Terreis didn’t start off too well with being delayed for a day…that didn’t stop me getting out and enjoying my first day on the slopes :).  The sun was out, the temps were warm and I was eager to try out my new app – Ski Trax.  This clocks everything from speed, to distance to elevation.  By the end of the trip I had clocked my fastest speed at 83km/hr!!  I was skiing about 35-40km per day over 9 days and my knees were not very impressed at all!

The weather in the first 4 days was outstanding – sun, warm temps - very unseasonably good weather.  By day 5 we were getting worried as it was too warm (70 degrees in Whistler village one afternoon).  By day 6 we had given up on fresh snow and basically went out late’ish morning (after the ice had thwarted), skied straight through till early/mid afternoon and then called it a day.  Nothing worse than skiing through mush on tired legs!

One afternoon I even decided to go and do some cross country skiing…if my knees weren’t already feeling like they were 80 years old, they certainly did after 3hrs of this!  Very hard work but worth the effort.

We usually ate out for our meals and tried quite a few different restaurants.  All very good, but some more expensive than others.  But that is Whistler Village for you – even the massage we had one afternoon was nearly 0.5x more expensive than New York.

It was a fantastic, if not tiring, 9 days and I really do recommend Whistler to everyone who skis/snowboards. There is a slope for everyone and you never get bored.  Remember there are two mountains here with a very long gondola between them!!