Whistler 2022

Saturday morning at the start of February 2022, I woke up early and my friend David gave me a ride to the airport. I dropped off my two checked bags at the Delta desk and made my way through security. There had to be thousands of people in the line, but I was able to skip that line and got into the TSA Precheck line and zoomed right through security.

My plane was not boarding for an hour, so I stopped by a Chili’s and ordered pancakes and sausage. I must say, they were pretty good. I walked over to my gate where there was a puppy quietly playing with her handler. I walked over and asked if I could pet the little girl and found out it was a bernedoodle, a Bernese mountain dog and poodle mix, who would be joining us on our flight to arrive at her new home. The individual transporting the dog was not the owner, but a chaperone. As we flew to Seattle, I looked out the window. When we got closer to our destination, I saw Mt. Rainier, which stood out high above the surrounding mountains in the landscape.

After the plane landed safely, I went to collect my two checked bags. One was full of snowshoes and other winter gear and the other was full of clothes. I only kept a small backpack with things I would need for the day with me on the flight.

I then had to take a shuttle bus to the car rental place. When I arrived, they said that they had no cars in their system. They had the cars, but they could not pull them up on the computer, so they had people running around in the parking garage trying to find the cars and doing it all by radio. They couldn't find the car that I had reserved, so they upgraded me and charged me $10 more a day. I was not happy, but I had been there for about an hour trying to get a car. When I got to the car, it only had 3/8 a tank of gas in it. I drove about an hour north of Seattle and filled up the tank. At over $4 a gallon for gas, I was shocked and ended up paying over $50 to fill the tank. I will not be using Budget/Avis again, because I believe they behaved unethically with the bait and switch, and, when I returned the car they tried to charge me a fuel surcharge. They did take that off when I showed a photo and a receipt.

I kept driving north and came up to the US/Canadian border. I waited in a line, which seemed to take longer than the other lines. When I got to the agent I had my passport, COVID vaccine card, and a negative test result in one nice bundle. I answered her questions and was granted admittance into Canada. It did not take that long compared to those in front of me. I drove through a dead spot for cell coverage and the GPS gave me some issues, but I made it through Vancouver and headed north on the very scenic drive of BC-1, looking at snow capped mountains. Initially there was not a lot of snow on the ground by the road, but as I got closer to Whistler I could see more and more snow on the ground. As the sun went down, I saw a huge line of cars heading south leaving the Whistler. I arrived in Whistler just after 5 and got to see my sister again.

I hadn't seen my sister since the previous summer, when she and her husband started their 12-cities-in-12-months adventure, which you can see on their YouTube channel, The ChriMel Show. It just so happened that in the month of February they were staying in Whistler.

We chatted a bit, then headed out for dinner and discovered how busy this town gets on a Saturday night. The restaurant we wanted to go to had a three-hour wait. Well it was close to 6 now and my stomach is still on Minnesota time. We went to a few other places, but they all had the same story. We eventually found a fast casual restaurant that was very nice called Portobello. I ordered chicken and bratwurst with a biscuit and potatoes and had no complaints. We then headed home and got a bit lost on the way as we explored the town.

The next morning I woke up early, as I was still on Minnesota time and waited for my sister and brother-in-law to wake up. I started writing my day one adventures as they got up and functioning for the day.

My sister prepared breakfast: bacon, eggs, and toast. We spent the morning getting ready for the day. I packed my backpack with things I would need for the day and we talked about our plans for the day.

Our plans started with snowmobiling with The Adventure Group. We arrived, checked in, and hung out around the fire for a bit. Our guide, Dan, then came out to us along with another group of two women. He led us to get our helmets and gave us a snowmobile tutorial. We started out slow as we all got used to the machine. He took us along groomed trails, checking in with us from time to time. My sister and brother-in-law shared a snowmobile and started out right behind me. The two women followed behind them, each on their own snowmobile.. The guide took us to a nice overlook where we were able to get some photos.then we continued on our way through the winding system of mountain trails.

Later, we arrived at an open groomed area where we could do our own thing for a bit. When we got going again, my sister and brother-in-law went ahead of me. We took an ungroomed trail for a while, which caused the snowmobile to bounce around. It was quite nerve-racking for a first-timer. We met up at the bottom of the ungroomed hill and waited for everyone to finish.

We came across an avalanche zone and had to go one at a time. There was an amazing view of a snow capped mountain, but the guide told us that it was not the time to look at the view. We had to cross one at a time, so I was able to look at it while my sister and brother-in-law crossed at least.

We went through some more winding trails, getting a good bit of speed, until we made it back to our starting point. We thanked our guide and headed out to get some lunch in Whistler Village. We made our way to a small pizza place that sells pizza by the slice called Fat Tony’s. It was not the best pizza I ever had, but it was fast, affordable, and really hit the spot after snowmobiling. We later learned that in the past Fat Tony’s had an unpleasant encounter with a bear. A bear broke in and started eating everything it could get it’s paws on. The pizza was fairly good, but best of all it was quick, so we could get to our next event, bobsledding.

We made our way to the bobsled track. We were very early and had time to watch some people do the skeleton, an event where they lay on their belly, head first, on the same track we'd be bobsledding on; and, they really could get moving fast. It was really fun to see. We hung out for a while, then made our way inside for the bobsled tutorial where they basically told us what to expect. They made it sound like a death trap, but no one was deterred from going.

We had a shuttle ride up to our starting point, it was not at the top of the hill but a fair bit down the hill. I guess they thought that it being everyone’s first time they would start us off easy. We watched a safety video, got fitted for helmets, and headed out to the track. We, my sister, Chris, and I, were the first ones to go down. The three of us loaded into the bobsled, along with our driver Kori. It was a tight fit, me being the tallest sat in the back. They had a bit of technical difficulties with a GoPro, but once that was sorted out, we were off down the hill and I was hunching my shoulders and hanging on to the hand rail for dear life. 41.50 seconds later we crossed the finish line. Those seconds felt like they took forever though as we banked from side to side while the world passed us by. Everything happened so fast that it is very hard to recount accurately, but suffice it to say, it was a blast.

We made it back to my sister’s place and she realized she reserved us a table for a restaurant in Vancouver by mistake. We fixed that issue and had a 6:00 reservation for Joe Fortes. ordered a pork chop with asparagus and roasted potatoes. My sister and Chris both ordered a filet. Our dinner came and it was amazing. For dessert, I ordered the Chocolate Sin Cake. I saw the waiter bring it out to the table stacked 5 layers tall with a large piece of white chocolate to hold it up straight. The cake was fantastic.

We waddled back to the car and headed home, shortly after we all went to bed.

In the morning, we started out the same as the previous morning, but the big plans on this day were to go to the Sea to Sky Gondola. We drove down to Squamish, a town along the Sea to Sky highway connecting Whistler to Vancouver, and took the gondola up. We ate our lunch at their cafeteria style restaurant in the lodge. I ate a cheeseburger and fries. We then looked at the wonderful views and took the suspension bridge before returning back to the lodge to rent snowshoes. We then started our snowshoe adventure by going down the Al’s Habrich Ridge Trail. It was quite the hike. The trail went through nice, wide, groomed trails to rugged, ungroomed paths. Then, the trail got more narrow and ungroomed. We crossed Olsen Creek. A rope was provided to aid in crossing. I felt we were unable to finish the hike in the amount of time we had to do it. The gondola closed at 6pm and I was not sure how long it would take to get back, and I wanted to leave as much of a buffer as possible in case something happened. We turned around and headed back, so we could hike the Wonderland Lake Loop. We eventually made it back to the gondola, purchased some snacks, headed back down to the car, and drove back up to Whistler.

That evening my sister and brother-in-law had their usual Monday date night, so I headed into town and checked things out. There were a lot of people milling around. Many of the shops were closed, but the restaurants were all open and doing a hell of a business. I ended up going to The Old Spaghetti Factory. It was decent, about what you would expect. I then walked back to the car and headed back to my sister's place for the night. When I arrived, they jokingly gave me crap about getting home at the late hour of 9PM and I did my best rebellious child voice of “You’re not my dad, you cannot tell me what to do!” We all had a good laugh and went to bed.

My last full day in Whistler started off on my tablet, writing about the previous day. After getting caught up, my sister and I went out for breakfast while my brother-in-law caught up on work. After eating breakfast, my sister and I did some shopping and walked around the village, peaking into shops. Then, we met up with my brother-in-law and went to our big activity of the day. 

We decided that we would zipline on my last full day in Whistler. This is not something my sister and her husband would normally choose to do, but they have been open to new experiences and gave it a try. We checked in early and waited for the tour to start. We were joined by another individual who also signed up for this time. The guide soon came and took us down to the equipment room to get our harness and helmet on. A second guide was there to help us. They gave some instruction and led us onto the gondola, which took us up the mountain. Once we got off the gondola, they handed out Yaktrax for us to put on our boots to give us traction while walking on snow and ice. We had to walk a good way to the first zipline through the woods. It was a great little hike. 

We got to the platform to zip off from. One of the guides took the zipline to the other side to get things ready for when we came down. The remaining guide then asked the big question, “Who wants to go first?” I said I would if no one else wanted to. There were two ziplines so we could race on this line if we wanted to. The stranger who joined our group offered to race me. Our guide hooked us in and we walked down the staircase to nowhere. That is to say, there is no bottom to the stairs, it just drops off.  The guide counted down, then we both sat down in our harness and lifted our feet off the steps. I remember saying “ohh shit” just as we started to get going. I zoomed down the line feeling the wind blow past me. I had very little control until I reached the end, where we slowed down and made it to the next platform. This zipline was way longer and way faster than I thought it would be, and it was a blast!

I watched as my sister and brother-in-law made it and then the other guide. We all hiked to the next platform. Along the way our guides taught us a bit about the forest and conservation efforts. 

On the next line, the guides taught us how to go upside down by laying all the way back and kicking our feet up. I am proud to admit that I was the only one who managed to do it. We had three more lines after that. Some we reached after a short hike, others after an elaborate series of bridges and treehouses. We learned a lot about the old growth forest, conservation, and about Whistler.

When we finished ziplining, we ate dinner outdoors, in February, in Canada at Dubh Linn Gate. The three of us returned to the AirBnB for a quiet night. My sister and I watched Cool Runnings, a movie loosely based on the first Jamaican Bobsledding team. I started packing for my trip back to the states. and shortly after, I went to bed.

The next morning my sister and I grabbed donuts. Then, I headed back to the states to spend a full day in Seattle before catching my flight home. During this time I went to the aquarium (amazing), Space Needle (overrated), Amazon Go Store (neat, but nothing too exciting), Pikes Place (must see). We packed a lot into this trip and had a lot of fun.

Videos are available at on my sister and brother-in-law’s youtube channel. Go check them out.