Whistler Christmas & New Year

Whistler should be renamed "Christmas Town" - because that what it feels like when you are walking around! The whole village was covered in snow when I arrived, thanks to a couple of days of steady snowing. Whistler is quite a small town & has a uniformed, understated, appearance - which gives the whole place a quaint & friendly vibe. I met Ricky off of the bus & then went to his house - which he had told me very little about.

It turns out that Ricky & his housemates (Arianna, Louise & Emma) are living the life of luxury! (His house is the pic above on the right). They have a large lounge with dangerously comfortable leather sofas, large plasma TV with cable, a powerful HiFi, fully mod-con kitchen, decent sized bedrooms, a fireplace...& a HOT TUB! :-)

The view from Ricky's balcony is the pic below. You can see both Whistler (right) & Blackcomb mountains (left) - with the new Peak2Peak gondola running between them. This gondola has the world's largest unsupported distance...it is a long way between the towers on either side of the valley!

+Christmas Day+
Our Christmas day began at 5:30am with calls to home (interrupting Christmas lunches back home), then we went to the Restaurant at the top of Whistler for a fry up breakfast. After which we hit the slopes! I got the hang of boarding pretty quickly, after I had mastered the toe-heel edge turn. It is a LOT of fun! There were some ice patches that could cause some trouble (aka - wipe outs), although in the most part the conditions were good.
After our snowboarding we hit the hot tub, as always armed with plenty of beer. Ricky & co. then cooked a fantastic Christmas dinner...

...after which we were all thoroughly stuffed! It was then time for the presents!

As a thank you for the hospitality, my friend Chris (who joined us for four days over Christmas) & I purchased the house a sled & Twister. Activities to fill both indoor & out leisure time. Both were used on Christmas day

We were going to be going to a house party in the evening, but the warmth of the fire, the copious amounts of alcohol, & twister, prevented that!

+New Year's Eve+
...I shall remember this as "POW POW" day. Pow Pow is the term used to refer to powder, aka FRESH & plentiful snow on the slopes. That morning we woke to 26cm of it! Ricky & I were up there all day - 8am to 4pm, soaking up the incredible conditions. After which it was the standard hot tub & beer routine, before going to a house party over in Whistler Creek. The party was a good laugh & v.drunken!

(check out the classic "blue steel" pose from me & Arianna!)
I went to bed at about 6am, having made a couple of drunk calls to Allan & Stu back in the UK (which they both thoroughly appreciated of course!). What an awesome way to see out 2008! I would be envious of me too ;-)

My two & half weeks in Whistler were "magical." Ricky & his friends were incredibly accommodating & I cannot thank them enough. I managed a total of 7 days on the slopes, costing me a whopping $80! It really shows that it is not what you know - but WHO you know! ;-) You can see how good a time was had by the amount of beer we got through in Christmas week...

Ricky & I decided to make good use of the empties...a Neil Buchanan "Art Attack" moment that even the artistic legend himself would be proud of...

My next destination is Victoria, via a weekend stay with friends in Vancouver. I have got about 9 places to visit on the West Coast of the US before I fly out to Hawaii & meet with Mr Christopher Small! It is going to be a busy & eventful month - so stay tuned! :-)

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL x

written by

johnnoble on January 7, 2009 from Squamish, Canada

from the travel blog: John's year off...

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