Whistler - Synopsis

Whistler is a fabulous place! But, the time has for Bonnie and I to pack up and head north to Haida Gwaii. The time in Whistler has been filled with friends both new and old, renewed inspiration about lifestyle possibilities and of course lots of time outside. Here I will share some of my favourite memories of this month, though the entire experience and all the people will always stay with me.

On day one, I got up to Whistler early, unpacked my belongings, changed my car insurance and still had time to get on the mountain in the afternoon. I plugged in my earphones and was ready to hit the slopes. Prepared to spend the afternoon on my own, on my first chair ride up, another skier actually started chatting me up. Turns out he was from Australia and was in Whistler for a week long vacation. After finding out he was skiing alone as well (and checking out his awesome gear) I suggested we do a run together. I quickly realized that we would have fun skiing together and made a day of it which led into Alex and I preparing dinner together – a perfect start to a new friendship. I hope that Alex will be the first of many new friends I make on this journey. I always feel fortunate and inspired when I meet other people that share a similar outlook on life to I, that enjoy being outdoors and active, and that are young and ambitious.

The benefit of meeting people from elsewhere in the world is you get to learn so much about your differences as well. For instance, even though Alex is Australian and young, I had a really tough time understanding what he was saying more that I would like to admit. This is not a result of his accent, but rather than the idioms and words that he uses to express himself. For instance, Alex says to me, “I can’t be asked.” Right away I wonder, asked (because of the pronunciation in this case) about what? Turns out that “I can’t be assed” or “I can’t be stuffed” both mean “I can’t be bothered”. I don’t speak Australian. On a similar note, later in the month I met a British guy who says he faced a similar situation when he first moved to Canada where he would go around asking people how they are doing. The problem was that in Britain he was used to saying, “Hi. Are you ok?” I explained that people would think he was a nut if he went around asking if everyone was ok all the time.

The beginning of the month I was also lucky enough to be visited by my Mum and Dad from Montreal. Their visit was filled with lots of skiing and good food and wine. During this time my Dad introduced me to a new special activity – heliskiing! Never having been in a helicopter or skied in back-country conditions before, I was both very nervous as well as very excited about the experience. I have this irrational fear of anything which contains a motor – that they will spontaneously explode. I also get motion sickness. For these reasons, it took a lot for me to feel comfortable in the helicopter, but the skiing was well worth it. The snow was light, deep and untouched; the mountain tops were sublime and the stillness in the trees was meditative. On top of the awe-inspiring surroundings, skiing in powder is such a unique sensation that I can’t wait to go back!

My Mum doesn’t ski, so my Dad and I made a point of doing some non-ski activities during their visit. One of these activities was alpine snowmobiling. (Again, I had to face my fear of motor-driven-machines.) The Callaghan Valley mountain tops and views are beautiful, and it was neat to be on the top of a mountain in a different capacity than skiing, hiking or snowshoeing. I also am able to boast that I was the only one on the tour that didn’t get their ‘sled’ stuck in the snow.

Bonnie also spent a lot of time up at Whistler in the beginning. A novice skier, Bonnie only took up the sport last year well into her adulthood. Nevertheless, she is a rock star! My Dad and I invited Bonnie to come skiing with us one day and she quickly went from only having been on green runs on the lower mountain to black runs in the alpine. Bonnie has fabulous control on her skies, but the best part is that she has a lot of trust. Though intimidated, Bonnie knows that we would never tell her that she can do something if we didn’t believe it. My Dad quickly took over the role of Bonnie’s personal ski coach. We focused on pole planting for the day and Bonnie says she will forever hear my Dad’s booming voice shouting “pole! pole! pole!” as he slowly makes turns down the mountain with Bonnie following closely behind. It was quite an amusing site for me. Now to give a bit of insight into this experience, all parties involved were concerned about the outcome before we even got started. For one, my Dad and I are very much alike – he is very impatient, doesn’t like to be held back and feels he needs to have accomplished something at the end of every day. Bonnie knows this all too well and so she was concerned that the differences in our ski level would cause problems (as did my Dad). However, in the end it was such a pleasant day and I am so proud of Bonnie for being such a brave beginner!

My friend Alex came to visit me mid-month. Given that Alex and I really enjoy going to see music together and generally seeing what is going on, we made a point of going out to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. Also to my delight, Alex convinced his colleague Bob to come up and celebrate with us as well. Now the story is that both Alex and Bob are Conservation Officers for the province of British Columbia. Bob had to come straight from work, so arrived at my place in his full uniform – bullet proof vest, gun and badge. Unfortunately Alex forgot to let Bob know that I live in the downstairs of my house so Bob went to the front door where my 80-year-old Bulgarian landlords were a little taken aback that a corrections officer was asking for me. I can only imagine what they were thinking.

Later that evening, we started our St. Patrick’s Day celebrations with a trivia night at the Brewhouse Pub. I love trivia!! Though we didn’t win, I would certainly go back. Here are some of the questions for your enjoyment:
Q: What is a dried-out water bed that fills with water called in Australia?
Q: What Star Trek species is the only species to have cloaking capabilities?
Q: Which animal’s eyes are bigger than it’s brain?
Q: What word can be spelled by rearranging this phrase: cry met loco

Soon thereafter, my friend Marco came to visit me after his three month long stint house sitting a ranch near Burns Lake, BC. Marco and I decided to dog sledding one afternoon because Marco doesn’t ski. I have always wanted to go dog sledding, but was disappointed with the experience. The run was only about 8km long which took maybe 30 minutes. On top of that, the dogs were misbehaving and weren’t running properly. In all fairness, the guide said it was probably the worst tour he had ever run and was extremely embarrassed and apologetic. As a consolation, he invited Marco and I to go snowshoeing the next day for free at his other workplace. The guide gave us a 30 minute guided snowshoe tour on which he taught us many fun facts about the outdoors including the fact that woodpeckers wrap their tongues around their brain when they are not searching for insects. This helps cushion the brain when they are doing all the pecking. We also learned to identify bear markings on trees, various indigenous plants and their medicinal/culinary uses. At one point we popped the sap blisters of a type of pine tree to taste – it tasted like tree.

On the snowshoe tour, our guide has also let us know that he lived in a hidden cabin between the Whistler and Blackcomb mountains at one point in his life in Whistler. He invited us to go check it out if we were interested and that the lock was in the door. As soon as I heard the words hidden cabin, I knew that I had to find this place. To that end, when my friend Adam came to hang out with me towards the end of the month, we set out to find this hidden gem. The guide had given me loose clues on how to get to the place – hike up this trail, take 100 steps past this marker and turn left into the woods to find a rope which would be used to rappel down the mountain side to the cabin that was very well camouflaged. We were successful with all the clues except finding the rope. After almost half an hour of searching, Adam decided that is would be best just to rappel down the mountain to the creek bed below by hanging on trees. The climb was doable, but definitely not for everyone. We were very muddy by the time we got to the bottom and back out. But, the hidden cabin was worth it! Built seven years ago, it is essentially a room on stilts well insulated. The furniture consists of two shelving units and a cot. There are books and miscellaneous items around the room. Definitely reminiscent of Into the Wild, but with the housing prices the way they are at Whistler, it is understandable that someone would prefer to live in the great outdoors in a rudimentary cabin and spend their cash in other ways.

The last weekend in March, I actually took a little hiatus from my time up in Whistler and went on my company retreat on Pender Island. This was the perfect occasion for me to relax with my coworkers and say my final goodbyes. However the weekend also served an alternative purpose – challenging me to think of what business opportunities I would like to pursue in the next few years. We started the weekend with a visit to a winery on the island. I must admit, with every visit to a new agricultural operation, I always imagine myself running the show and what I would do differently to make it better. After talking with my coworkers about my future, I definitely am considering the option to start my own business and am eager to see what kind of opportunities exist. That being said, my time on the mountain has also exposed me to many new professions including guiding, outdoor education, outdoor gear and equipment production and outdoor events – all of which I find fascinating and about which I hope to learn more.

I could continue to tell stories for many more pages, but I believe you have a pretty good sense of it all. I got to live a dream and feel exceedingly fortunate about this fact. Now onto the next adventure where the agricultural part of my journey will finally begin. I am off to Haida Gwaii!