I was fortunate to make it up to Whistler for the first time. Corporate closing function brought me out there, so the arrangements were suitably plush. Limo took us from the airport up to Whistler fairly late on a Thursday, plan was to ski/ride Friday, do the corporate dinner on Friday night, then head home Saturday morning.
The ride up left me feeling a little green with the twisty roads, and I was hungry by the time I checked into my hotel at 9:30 without a proper dinner. I stayed at Legends, seperate from our group since their hotel was full, but was pleasantly surprised by the convenience of the place. My room was huge, it was a condo style room for sleeping 6 people with a kitchenette for nearly $500/night. After checking out both "wings" of the room I headed over to Zen for some sushi.
Naturally, a sushi dinner at the base of the hill in Whistler isn't going to be a value oriented place to grab some grub. Even with that pretext, I was a little surprised how quickly my bill ran up. The lifestlye junkie who was serving me was off his shift as I was eating, so he sat down and we talked over the hill map for a while. Whistler/Blackcomb is intimidatingly large, and I had one day to do my best to sample the terrain. I went to bed eager to board!
I met up with the boss and his wife early in the morning. I think I've heard him mention skiing only half a dozen times in the 7 years we've known each other... usually people who don't say much about skiing aren't big skiers. I was a bit surprised that they're both good skiers, we spent all day navigating the blue and black runs of the hill... and when it came time for the double blacks in whiteout conditions they usually left me to my own devices.
We spent the morning on Blackcomb, stopped for lunch at Garibaldi Lift Co. Bar & Grill, and had a great light lunch. I was impressed at the menu, it's nice to see appetizing dishes that don't leave you feeling sluggish for most of the afternoon. We did our best to tackle Whistler with the remaining energy in our legs, which waned quickly in the afternoon.
I was pretty satisfied that we'd done probably 9 different lifts, and had generally sampled the terrain. I rode right down to my doorstep, but found that my hotel access card didn't open the hotel door... so only choice was to walk the long way around. The front desk guy said it happens all the time so he recoded my key and off I went.
Surprise came when I opened my room door and found a couple making afternoon snacks in the kitchen. They had checked in earlier, and hadn't seen any of my stuff in the room. I head back down to the lobby to sort things out, and find that my reservation had only been made for one night. Not particularly insightful on the travel agents part considering my flights were two days apart, you'd think that'd be a routine check in the industry. I was charged $80 for late checkout fee for them to pack up my luggage for me. Anyway, they weren't keen to give me another room right off the bat, the fellow thought I was asking for a room for free, and didn't understand that I was willing to pay... the critical part was just having a place to sleep!
All was eventually sorted out, and I decided to nap for a couple of hours before our late dinner. I woke up feeling great, and made a surprisingly tasty pot of hotel room coffee. At this point I decided I didn't like my haircut from a couple days ago, so I did some rather extensive adjustments myself. It's actually pretty easy to cut your own hair, I honestly don't think it came out looking shabby. I didn't really care anyway, I knew we'd be drinking in a "mood lit" lounge and dinner setting, so people weren't going to be too perceptive, and I could always use the excuse that my toque messed it up if it looked too odd.
Dinner was at the Bearfoot Bistro, which apparently is a place with a little cachet. Good appetizers, had a great time swapping ski stories with the assembled group. Each meal course came with it's own glass of wine, there was a rather impressive magician that dropped by, and all told it was a great night. Several hours in, boss' wife and the host of the party both told me I should stay another day, why would a lifelong skier like me head home right away. After a few glasses of wine, this seemed like an easy thing to adjust, so I headed out to the phone room and rebooked my flight on AirCanada. Done like dinner!
Finished up with dessert, port, and some undoubtedly expensive but nasty tasting congac, and headed home to sleep off the booze for another day of riding! I had no problem getting up and getting ready, but after about 8 runs I really started to fade. I made it a point to hit a few higlights on the hill that I felt I'd missed out on yesterday, including Spanky's Ladder. It was a lot busier being a Saturday, but hitting the singles lines let me get quite a bit of skiing in.
I stopped for an early lunch, complete with coffee to keep me going. It didn't help, I nodded off in my chair for a half hour. After that I felt a lot better and made what I could of the afternoon on my tired legs, exploring Bagel Bowl.
My hotel said the easiest way to get back was the Greyhound which stopped across the street, and was only $20. I certainly didn't mind that, so I showered up and started my way back to Vancouver.
Limo from airport
489/night room, huge and apparently on hill.
Sushi dinner for one 85
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