Whistler Wonderland

Last week, Uschi and I spent two glorious days in Whistler. I have been skiing in Whistler a fair few times now, so you are probably wondering why this trip in particular deserves its own blogpost. Well there are a number of reasons why this trip was unique!

Firstly, it was reading week. As an exchange student, reading week is the perfect opportunity to get out and do some travelling - after all, that’s the whole reason we came on a year abroad, right? This means that every single one of my friends went on a trip away last week – to Texas, Cuba, San Francisco, Alberta – all except for me! You’re probably wondering why I didn’t go away. The main reason is that I am trying to save money for my excursions to Copenhagen and my general end of year traveling in the States, but I also had a lot of papers to write and a part time job to commit to. I didn’t really have time to go on a big trip away, so this means that mine and Uschi’s two day trip to Whistler was the equivalent of my reading-break-holiday! It was an opportunity to get away from university and have some space from academic work (once again, I have to do a lot more essay writing in Canada than I do at home). I was generally feeling run down, or maybe just a bit glum after spending Valentine’s Day working an 8 hour shift in a supermarket, so a trip away, however short, was very refreshing.  

The next reason this trip was so great: the weather. Oh my, those blue skies. Whistler was absolutely beautiful this weekend. I haven’t seen the mountain so clearly since mid-December, when I definitely took the good weather conditions for granted. Now that I have experienced skiing in the fog and snow storms, I appreciate the sun and blue skies so much more. We also had fresh powder on the second day of skiing too! There wasn’t much snowfall – around 4 cm overnight– but definitely enough to make a difference. Uschi and I are the exact same ability, so we are the perfect skiing partners. With there being just two of us, we got a lot of mileage in, mainly staying around the 7^th Heaven and Symphony areas. Under the usual mantra that every skiing trip we have to challenge ourselves, we had a hilarious excursion on a T-bar and also down a cliff side of moguls. We had two very great days of skiing!

Which brings me to my next point; the other reason this trip was so great was because we stayed overnight. Other than at Christmas, every other time I have been up to the slopes I have been there and back in a day. Ultimately this is great – it’s really cheap, we can be home to make dinner and stay in our own beds, and it just shows how accessible the skiing really is. However, it is pretty exhausting. Getting up early in the morning and coming home late at night is tiring, and it is especially tiring for Uschi who is usually designated driver. So in comparison to these huge day-outs when we travel to Whistler there and back in a day, staying overnight on this trip felt like a luxury! Uschi and I stayed in the HI Hostel near Creekside, and it is probably the nicest hostel I have ever stayed it. It’s not cheap though – around $45 for a night which is extortionate in comparison to European hostels, but this is Whistler so what else can you expect. We had a very comfortable stay and it was so refreshing to have a bit of a lie in while still being able to have a whole day of skiing the next day.

The other great aspect of the trip – seeing Jess again! Jess was on exchange at SFU last semester, but since January she has been off travelling around the States, Toronto and Iceland. We hadn’t seen her for 6 weeks but we managed to meet up again in Whistler, and it was so lovely to see her! We caught up on all of her travels, watched parts of the Winter Olympics, went for a lovely meal with Jess and her mum at Stonesedge – where they had 4 vegan options on the menu (!) – and even squeezed in a trip to the hot tub. It was so refreshing to see Jess again and to be able to hear about her adventures.  

So all in all it was a fantastic two days. The weather was beautiful, we saw an old friend again, and felt much more relaxed than on our usual skiing day-trips. It was also good to have a mini trip away from university life. I have 6 deadlines coming up in the next two weeks so I have to launch straight back into academic work, but at least I managed to have a couple of days break!

Thank you for reading!

 Carrie x