First Trip to Whistler!!

December in Vancouver brought more rain, lots of school work, and (thank goodness!) my first taste of skiing in Whistler. 

Waking to hear the sound of rain every morning on the pavement was not the refreshing, “Ahhh, I love the sounds of the rain” rain but an addition to the already water-logged streets, sidewalks, and pedestrians (including me).

Luckily, December also saw the opening of the ski season at Whistler-Blackcomb resort about 2 hours north of Vancouver. Let’s just say that one of North America’s world-class ski resorts was a day-trip away and my friends and I purchased season tickets: let the shredding begin (do I sound like I know what I’m talking about?)!!

We woke up in the dark and rain (surprise!) in Vancouver. I soon learned over the season that the pathetic fallacy of rain in Vancouver does not hold true and generally means ‘fresh pow’ up in Whistler. For those of you who don’t know what ‘pow’ is do not fret because I will tell you. It means fresh powder snow. Yep. The reason we (by we, I mean Ontarians who are novice skiers and have never skied anything bigger than Tremblant) do not know much about ‘pow’ is because, unless you have skied out west, we have likely never skied in it, ever. Pow is not groomed, grated, hard-packed, or icy, but knee-deep, soft, fluffy, floatable snow. 

My first trip to Whistler was on rental skis and in borrowed snow pants that were 3x too big. I thought I was an OK skier, so I was not nervous for the skiing aspect just excited! Little did I know that skiing at Whistler is a tiny bit more challenging than bombing the 2 minute runs at Calabogie.The skiing was great and was definitely a challenge.  It was still early in the season so there was 'not that much' snow (still more than I had ever seen on a ski hill). The visibility was awful and it was kind of stressful not being able to see where you were going on the half-hour-ish runs. 

 Rental skis=check! Borrowed snow pants, goggles, and helmet= check! Awful visibility= check! Smiling faces= triple check!

Mother Nature sure rewarded us for sticking it out for the whole (rainy/snowy) day because last run of the day made it all worth while: 

The snowy peaks across the Whistler valley on the last run of our day.

The day was so exciting and exhausting and I was so sore by the end of the day. I sure slept well! This was the only trip I made up in December, but there are more adventures and pictures to come in the next few months! I actually learned how to ski :) . Thanks to Adam and Ben on this trip for their patience and awesomeness on my first day on a real mountain!!