Just Greg and us two

We woke to a fresh dump for our first day on the piste.  Twas the week of Good Friday, egg week. Easter no less. But where was everybody ? We had slopes and lifts literally to ourselves. Just us, Greg and the mountains. Greg was a fellow hosteler at Creekside from Australia.

Whistler BC boasts the largest and probably the most well known and loved area of ski terrain in North America covering a whopping 8171 acres containing over 200 trails.  For day one we were all over it like a rash. Huge wide slopes and lifts you could just ski right up to for your next lift up. No queue, zero people.

Linking Whistler Mountain with it's neighbouring mountain, Blackcomb, is the mighty world record breaking 'Peak 2 Peak' gondola. Riding this gondola was some experience. Unusual in it's construction as it spans this mega valley completely unsupported for a distance of 3.024 kilometres (1.88 miles), the total distance between the gondolas two main supporting towers!  With no towers it certainly made for a smooth ride. At the highest vertical point, directly over Fitzsimmons Creek, a distance of 436 metres (1,427 feet) stands between the passengers and the valley floor – the world’s greatest distance above any valley floor. Spanning over 4 km (2.73 miles) of alpine terrain in a swift 11 minutes.

This monster was completed on time for the opening of the 2010 winter Olympics. It really is a stunning piece of engineering excellence.

We hadn't been skiing since a lovely week we spent back in 2009 in Austria. Thankfully it was like riding a bike or as the locals say it's like swimming, you never really forget how to once you know. As soon as our skis hit the snow we were right back into it but all the while keen to improve by putting in as much skiing as we could. We'd had such a great first day both of us forgot that we were still actually travelling!

Living so far away from the practice ground of your chosen sport doesn't really improve your technique or muscle strength much. The same could be said for surfing, when you've travelled two hours to your nearest break and the conditions are all wrong. But here this time the conditions were spot on which really can make you fall in love with skiing. The feeling of being in a seemingly sound proof zone, clear blue skies, pure white snow, white as icing sugar, tree lined mountains, floating cruisey blues, stopping off every now and again for a coffee and a swig from the hip flask, makes for perfect days and great great people watching! The sport can't help it but it does attract a certain type of person and Canada was no exception to this rule.

Having only skied in Europe we soon found a few differences that seemed to give Canada the ski destination crown.

Pros:-

• Slopes, so wide and so empty.
• Sniffle stations at the lifts for those cold running noses.
• Washroom so big, and so clean, sweet smelling. Little baskets on the backs of each door for your gloves when in that moment of need. It's the little things.
• Tools neatly stored at mountain based stations just it case you need to give the bindings a odd tweak.
• Then you meet the staff! On only 9 bucks an hour these seasonal staff are more than friendly and really helpful and so happy that you have chosen this spot to ski. They even take your skis from you and put them right into the kit rack of the gondola as you climb aboard. All sealed up with "have a great day guys" Again it's the little things that make you smile and think yeah, that's nice.
• Glove warmers near the washrooms. Fe especially loved this little gadget.
• Yes the eateries are very big and maybe a little sterile but again oh so friendly and everything is just geared to getting you in, feed, watered, back out skiing again with as little grief as possible. You can bring your own if you should so want to and it's met with "yeah no problem' 'you gonna need a plate dude?' Don't get us wrong though those ever so small timbered, low roofed, boiling hot cosy mountain lodges in Europe are part of skiing in Europe but the Canadian way does bring a fresh approach.

Cons:

• Lift pass was pretty 80s. Just a piece of cardboard on a length of string that was manually scanned. No proximity cards here at every lift. It only gets scanned the once on entry so at least it removes one obstacle to overcome at the chair lifts.
• No vin chaud! What's that all about. Surely some attempt could be made to warm up some sort of wine.
•  In the mountains we even spotted a small building purely dedicated to "customer satisfaction". A building where feedback and complaints are welcomed with smiley faces.

 Is this quite possibly ski perfection ?