UMTravels

As is my usual summer holiday routine, it’s off to Whistler to enjoy some “hiking”, which for me means the one Black Diamond hike that is the only way to get to the Whistler Peak Express chairlift. But we’ll come back to that – first we have to get there.

I booked Sunday night at the WorldMark Birch Bay, to cut the drive in half so we’d get there in the early afternoon Monday. Decent view from the 2-bedroom unit. The view toward Mount Baker, which I’d never realized you could see from the resort:

And the view of the water:

Not as nice as the 3-bedroom penthouse units at the front, but also not as expensive (and hard to come by).

And I brought us food to cook on the grill since Whistler Cascade Lodge has no BBQ’s on the deck, or even the premises. We split a big steak, salad, baked beans, and a bottle of Uruguayan Tannat I brought back from Boston this spring.

Got a decent start in the morning, and the wait wasn’t too bad at the border, even with Rache not having his Nexus card yet. Of course, our room wasn’t ready, but we walked over to Guest Services and picked up our Season Passes. This makes the fourth (or fifth) year running I’ve been up there with various people:

On the way back, we stopped at Araxis for their happy hour, and still managed to spend a little over CAN$100:

While we couldn’t bring in any vegetables, we did bring in the protein for the week, helping to offset the “snack” above. Tonight, it was pork loin with Cajun rice, salad, and a bottle of Bordertown Cabernet Franc that I couldn’t find anywhere last year.

We got out of the condo around noon – Rache had already toured the village, found breakfast, and basically gotten the lay of the land. Overcast today, so NO LINES at all to get on the Whistler Village Gondola. But the views were a little obscured:

And then onto the Peak 2 Peak Gondola….

When we got to Blackcomb, we caught the bus to the 7^th Heaven chairlift to the peak.

And as we got closer to the top, the less visibility:

Yes, there is a ski bowl somewhere down there…you can barely make out the T-Bars coming out of the clouds.

Grabbed this shot on the way down – man was I glad I’d borrowed one of Rache’s hoodies! It was about 34 degrees at the top.

Back we went to the Whistler side…

And eventually back down into the valley.

Tonight’s dinner was a butter chicken, salad, leftover rice, and a nice rosé:

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After dinner I went down to the pool area for a quite soak in the hot tub. It was NOT to be:

Think twenty 6-10 year-olds.

Weather tomorrow is supposed to be better. To be continued.

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