Friday 12 April 2013

Spring Break Part 2: Whistler, Cypress & Las Margaritas!


So it was inevitable that Spring Break was going to involve some sort of Whistler fun! It had been a month since our last visit and we were getting restless! Plus with the warmer weather finally coming our way, we know our time on the slopes is limited so we need to fully make the most of it while we can!


It was a beautiful clear day, which is pretty unusual for Whistler so we were loving the awesome views! I think I've mentioned before but Whistler ski resort is made up of two mountains: Whistler and Blackcomb.  We decided to dedicate our whole day to Blackcomb, because we've spent way more time on Whistler and wanted to see what we were missing out on!


As we got to the top of 'Seventh Heaven' the sun was just shielded behind the clouds and making this rather cool glow!


We also got some really awesome views from up there! We tried out some pretty fun runs, but the snow wasn't as thick as we'd have liked so we decided to venture even further up to Blackcomb Glacier.


I had to go on my first t-bar to get there! which I was a bit worried about but luckily it wasn't as hard as it looks and we made it up to the very top.  When we got there we realised to then get to the top of the glacier you had to walk quite far up, so there's Byron in the picture below (in black) with his snowboard on his back hiking up to get a good spot! 


The glacier was full of pure powder...and it was really deep! We were kicking ourselves that we've been to Whistler so many times and never discovered the glacier before!


The pictures don't really do it justice, but it was pretty amazing! I wiped out pretty big at the bottom of our first trip down it, and landed on my head...so my feelings on the glacier were skewed slightly because of that!! but at the end of our day I gave it another shot, thanks to Byron's insistence and this time just enjoyed whizzing through some awesome snow...and this time I stayed upright! 


While Byron did another run of the glacier bowl, I had some of the other runs all to myself! It was so quiet and it ended up being one of our best days we've had on the mountain in a while! 


A few days later, we got our gear together again but this time we headed to Cypress, one of the local mountains.  It takes us about 1 hour, 45 mins to get to Whistler, whilst Cypress mountain is only 45 minutes away from our house.  The reason we usually ski Whistler instead of the local mountains is just because it's so much bigger and the quality of the runs and the skiing there more than make up for our longer travel time! However, the chairlifts at Whistler close at 4pm whereas all of the local Vancouver mountains offer night skiing and this is something I definitely wanted to try! 

So we ventured out on an unusually clear and blue sky day in Vancouver, because we knew that would make for the most awesome views and we were certainly not disappointed! 


We stopped at Cypress Provincial Park on the way to check out the awesome view...


Although it was blue skies, it was a little hazy.  


We had a little picnic at the picnic spot, it as pretty crazy to be sitting in t-shirts and then 10 minutes after lunch we were wrapped up in our skiing gear in the snow! 


Byron thought I looked like a pro because of the backpack! Really, it was just so we could take our big SLR and get some better quality shots this time around.


Icicles!!! 


Despite there being frozen trees at the top of the mountain, it was still surprisingly warm and probably the warmest day of skiing I've experienced so far!


As you ski down, on one side you have views of the ocean and the islands in the distance...


on the other side you have views of the skyline and Vancouver city below! It's pretty incredible!


I was loving it! and kicking myself for being so snobby about the local mountains!



Can you believe these views?!


We snuck over this fence at one point to get closer to the edge, luckily a french man had done the same and so he was able to take this picture of the two of us!


and I had to take a feet shot to add to our new collection!


As the sun set, the floodlights came on, most of the other skiers went home! and we were left with the slopes to ourselves practically! Often we were the only ones riding the chair lifts in the dark! It was so fun! and unfortunately I managed to delete the night pictures I took which wasn't very clever! but we did take a few mini video clips...and I had a go at editing all our clips into a video for the first time!
So here for your viewing pleasure is a little snapshot into our day on the slopes! Forgive the shaky camera...there was no go pro involved! Only an SLR we hung around our neck, and so every time we went over a bump the camera experienced the bump too - hence the shakiness! 



We finished off our action packed Spring Break week with some Margarita fun at our favourite Mexican restaurant - Las Margaritas! because nothing beats some strawberry-lime, raspberry-coconut and pineapple-coconut virgin Margaritas! 


and all meals that start with free chips and salsa...


and end with churros are great nights out! Especially because these were the yummiest churros! and nothings better than good Mexican shared with good friends!

1 comment:

  1. Gotta love the local Vancouver mountains! My favourite is Grouse as I don't drive, so love that I can jump on a bus from Downtown after work and be at the Skyride in 30 minutes. You can't beat Whistler for pure terrain though!

    ReplyDelete