So we almost had a white Christmas! We headed up to Whistler the weekend before Christmas so I tricked myself into pretending it was actually Christmas! so the Christmas part wasn't actually official, but the white part definitely was - I'm pretty sure I've never seen so much snow in my life!
I still find the chair lifts crazy amounts of fun!
especially when the views are as good as this!
There was a tiny bit of blue sky trying to peek through that I just had to capture!
Some of our favourite runs just wind around the mountain and as you ski/snowboard along you are treated to views like this! I'm pretty sure no other ski resort I go to after this will be able to compare!
We also happened to be there on 'Santa Day' where the first 75 people there in the morning dressed in full on Santa suits get free lift passes! We didn't get there quite early enough to see them all set off up the mountain so I borrowed these pictures from Whistler's site to show you:
It made for a pretty fun sight!
Even the grinch was there!
Throughout the day we would pass Santa's or Reindeer's on our travels down the slopes!
We made it right to the top of Whistler mountain at one point, this monument marks the top. It was a very freezing -9 degrees, the chairlift up there was a pretty crazy one!
but we were able to ski down on some of my favourite tree lined runs so it made it all worth it!
I'm pretty sure Whistler is one of the most beautiful places on Earth!
You can see just how much snow they had from that sheet of snow on the roof! Overnight after this they had another 18cm of fresh powder, it made for an awesome ski day!
Plus we got to try Beavertails which are these super delish pastries, like sweet pita breads topped with melted chocolate, peanut butter and Reese's Pieces! Yum!
and we ate dinner at BBQ Bob's...who made all my dreams come true! Pulled Pork + A&W +
homemade Key Lime Pie = my perfect meal!
It was a pretty snowy drive up to Pemberton where we stayed the night. Luckily we had a car with snow tyres and so we could drive at normal speeds which was a pretty crazy experience with all that snow on the road!
We stayed at Pemberton Valley Lodge, if you can see it underneath all that snow!
I fell in love with the crazy massive icicles!
and this was the view from our window! We had our own enormous lit up Christmas tree!
Plus there was an awesome outdoor hot tub which was good for resting our aching bones in! and the -5 degree dash to get into the pool was also fun!
Fortunately the next morning we didn't have a 5.30am wake up! as Pemberton is only 30 minutes from Whistler so we got a slight lie in!
I love those cabins peeking out from behind the trees...they don't even look real!
and the village looked even more magical all lit up!
We got down to some serious skiing/boarding on day 2, I manned up (or tried to) and there was far less whining than there had been on day 1! I even ventured onto a blue run so I was getting brave!
My obsession with icicles continued...
and the sun came out for a few minutes again!
We finished out the day by going on my very favourite run on Blackcomb mountain. You start right at the top and go down the 'easy way out' route and since we got up to the top just before the chair lifts closed for the day we pretty much had the whole run to ourselves!
There wasn't a person in sight as I skied through the twisty tree lined paths, not even Byron! We had lost each other a little while before...so I had to take this poorly aimed self shot trying to show you my favourite run of the mountain!
We stuck around for the fire & ice show in the evening...despite being incredibly cold!
After a few flaming dancers, they lit the 'ring of fire' and we saw some pretty cool tricks...
like this skier backflipping through the ring of fire!
It was an awesome way to spend a weekend and it certainly got us in the Christmas mood! We were so smitten we considered going back on Christmas eve too but instead we made do with booking a trip for New Year's Eve instead! More pics to come!
