Monkey see, Monkido
Friday was the other big pre-planned excursion for this vacation: we rented a car and drove up to Whistler, the site of much of the skiing for these past Winter Olympics.
In case you were wondering, driving in Canada isn't terribly tricky, since all the rules are the same as in the U.S. The rental company even gave us a car with California plates, so all the dials and such were defaulted to English measurements instead of metric. Unfortunately, the kph portion of the speedometer was tiny and hard to read, but we got by. The drive itself is spectacular -- they call it the "Sea to Sky Highway," and they're not kidding. That would have been worth doing on its own, I think.
Vancouver itself seems to have done the Olympics, agreed "Nice party, eh?" and then gone on with its business. At Whistler, they're still riding the Olympic high, which is, admittedly, only fair -- they're a ski resort in the off-season, after all. They're bulldozing the plaza where the medal ceremonies were held to build an outdoor theater, but there's still a big statue of the rings right nearby:
The shops still have plenty of Olympic merchandise too, all marked down now, which was fine with me, so I took a t-shirt off their hands. Sure, I wasn't here for the Olympics, but I was here in part because of the Olympics, so it seemed reasonable.
We took the gondola up to the lodge on Whistler, about 6,000 feet. It's kind of neat to see a major ski area in the off-season, when you can see all the trails and things, but the snow is missing. Just going by the signage, Elora was impressed with the number and variety of trails, and the way they were laid out (I have no basis for comparison). The lower portions of the mountain were being used for mountain biking, which is evidently their big thing in the summer. We saw a ton of bikers of all ages, all with fancy protective gear...and in the evening we saw a guy with his arm in a sling and an ice-pack on his shoulder, so I guess this course doesn't kid around.
From the lodge we took a chair-lift up another 1,000 feet to the summit, where we were finally glad of the weather. The forecast when we packed had been cold and rainy, so we packed accordingly, but except for Tuesday, it's been sunny and gorgeous here. So I, at least, was pleased that it was about 44 degrees up there and I was able to wear the sweatshirt I'd brought. The views are, as you'd expect, pretty awesome. I've never been good at capturing mountain vistas in photos -- there's a trick of it that I don't know -- but this is my best shot:
They've also got an Inukshuk up there that may have been the one that appeared on TV several times (there's a bunch of them around), so we got a photo of that:
If you're not up on your BC geography, Whistler mountain sits right next to Blackcomb mountain, with a rather deep valley in between. (If you're a fan of Microsoft code names, incidentally, "Whistler" was Windows XP, "Blackcomb" was Windows 7, and "Longhorn" (a restaurant in the village) was Windows Vista. Guess where Microsoft's teams hold their planning conferences?) The lifts for both mountains come down within yards of each other in the village, but some enterprising soul thought that wasn't good enough, and so the "Peak2Peak" gondola was born. It's exactly what it sounds like -- one seriously long gondola ride: 1.88 miles between towers over the valley, and 1,427 feet off the ground in the middle. I'm not normally one to be worried about heights, but that's an awful long way to be supported by just one cable (well, three, for safety, but you get the point). This isn't the best photo from inside the car, but it should give you an idea of what it looks like:
Speaking of not being worried about heights...
When we were looking into things to do at Whistler, we heard about a variety of zip-lines, but then we later learned that zip lines aren't so much "an eco-friendly way to see the beauty of the forest" and more "high-speed thrill ride that happens to shoot through the trees." So we scratched that plan, but we learned about something called Monkido at WildPlay, which is pretty much a ropes course, but the goal isn't team-building, it's "how about you try to walk on this swinging log 50 feet above the ground?" It's got the double-carabiner safety harness and all that good stuff, but it's still quite high and challenging. Did we need to travel all the way to Whistler just to do a ropes course? No, but it was there, and it looked like fun, so we did it. Sparky did the kids' course, which requires a parent to be present, so Elora and I drew straws, and I "won" the right to do the full course on my own. Sparky did fantastic on the junior course, enough that the guides invited him to do it again, some portions with his eyes closed:
As for me, well, the adult course is pretty long -- a couple of hours, depending on the size of your group. I was with a dad and his two teenagers, who'd done this once before, so we made pretty good time. The first two segments weren't so bad, but by the time I got to the "advanced" portion of the course, I was feeling the burn. I've been trying to increase my upper-body strength lately, and lose some weight at the same time, and I guess I've been succeeding at both, because when I did slip completely off a log, after the initial moment of panic, I was able to haul myself up on the safety cable for long enough to snag the log with my foot and get my weight back on it. I don't think I'd have particularly minded if the experience had ended after the third segment, but the rest of the group went to the end, so I did too. It looked something like this:
For future reference, wearing bicycle gloves: good idea. Even the guide commented on my foresight. (I took them off for the one obstacle in the photo, because I could grip the wood better bare-handed.) Wearing a baseball cap: Bad idea. I didn't lose it, but I came close several times. Not bringing water along: Very bad idea. Once you're up there, you don't get to come down unless you quit, and there's no water coolers in the trees (although there are several on the ground, mocking you), and it's a workout, so you're going to want some water. Also noted: standing on a narrow platform 50 feet up doesn't bother me. Riding a zip line doesn't bother me. Walking on a steel cable between trees doesn't bother me, if there's a safety line to hold onto. Trying to jump from one swinging log to another while 50 feet up does bother me, safety line or no.
On the whole, Whistler turned out to be the most active day of the trip, which I suppose was appropriate, given the Olympic theme. We're going to take it somewhat easy today -- shopping on Granville Island -- and then head home tomorrow.
In case you were wondering, driving in Canada isn't terribly tricky, since all the rules are the same as in the U.S. The rental company even gave us a car with California plates, so all the dials and such were defaulted to English measurements instead of metric. Unfortunately, the kph portion of the speedometer was tiny and hard to read, but we got by. The drive itself is spectacular -- they call it the "Sea to Sky Highway," and they're not kidding. That would have been worth doing on its own, I think.
Vancouver itself seems to have done the Olympics, agreed "Nice party, eh?" and then gone on with its business. At Whistler, they're still riding the Olympic high, which is, admittedly, only fair -- they're a ski resort in the off-season, after all. They're bulldozing the plaza where the medal ceremonies were held to build an outdoor theater, but there's still a big statue of the rings right nearby:
The shops still have plenty of Olympic merchandise too, all marked down now, which was fine with me, so I took a t-shirt off their hands. Sure, I wasn't here for the Olympics, but I was here in part because of the Olympics, so it seemed reasonable.
We took the gondola up to the lodge on Whistler, about 6,000 feet. It's kind of neat to see a major ski area in the off-season, when you can see all the trails and things, but the snow is missing. Just going by the signage, Elora was impressed with the number and variety of trails, and the way they were laid out (I have no basis for comparison). The lower portions of the mountain were being used for mountain biking, which is evidently their big thing in the summer. We saw a ton of bikers of all ages, all with fancy protective gear...and in the evening we saw a guy with his arm in a sling and an ice-pack on his shoulder, so I guess this course doesn't kid around.
From the lodge we took a chair-lift up another 1,000 feet to the summit, where we were finally glad of the weather. The forecast when we packed had been cold and rainy, so we packed accordingly, but except for Tuesday, it's been sunny and gorgeous here. So I, at least, was pleased that it was about 44 degrees up there and I was able to wear the sweatshirt I'd brought. The views are, as you'd expect, pretty awesome. I've never been good at capturing mountain vistas in photos -- there's a trick of it that I don't know -- but this is my best shot:
They've also got an Inukshuk up there that may have been the one that appeared on TV several times (there's a bunch of them around), so we got a photo of that:
If you're not up on your BC geography, Whistler mountain sits right next to Blackcomb mountain, with a rather deep valley in between. (If you're a fan of Microsoft code names, incidentally, "Whistler" was Windows XP, "Blackcomb" was Windows 7, and "Longhorn" (a restaurant in the village) was Windows Vista. Guess where Microsoft's teams hold their planning conferences?) The lifts for both mountains come down within yards of each other in the village, but some enterprising soul thought that wasn't good enough, and so the "Peak2Peak" gondola was born. It's exactly what it sounds like -- one seriously long gondola ride: 1.88 miles between towers over the valley, and 1,427 feet off the ground in the middle. I'm not normally one to be worried about heights, but that's an awful long way to be supported by just one cable (well, three, for safety, but you get the point). This isn't the best photo from inside the car, but it should give you an idea of what it looks like:
Speaking of not being worried about heights...
When we were looking into things to do at Whistler, we heard about a variety of zip-lines, but then we later learned that zip lines aren't so much "an eco-friendly way to see the beauty of the forest" and more "high-speed thrill ride that happens to shoot through the trees." So we scratched that plan, but we learned about something called Monkido at WildPlay, which is pretty much a ropes course, but the goal isn't team-building, it's "how about you try to walk on this swinging log 50 feet above the ground?" It's got the double-carabiner safety harness and all that good stuff, but it's still quite high and challenging. Did we need to travel all the way to Whistler just to do a ropes course? No, but it was there, and it looked like fun, so we did it. Sparky did the kids' course, which requires a parent to be present, so Elora and I drew straws, and I "won" the right to do the full course on my own. Sparky did fantastic on the junior course, enough that the guides invited him to do it again, some portions with his eyes closed:
As for me, well, the adult course is pretty long -- a couple of hours, depending on the size of your group. I was with a dad and his two teenagers, who'd done this once before, so we made pretty good time. The first two segments weren't so bad, but by the time I got to the "advanced" portion of the course, I was feeling the burn. I've been trying to increase my upper-body strength lately, and lose some weight at the same time, and I guess I've been succeeding at both, because when I did slip completely off a log, after the initial moment of panic, I was able to haul myself up on the safety cable for long enough to snag the log with my foot and get my weight back on it. I don't think I'd have particularly minded if the experience had ended after the third segment, but the rest of the group went to the end, so I did too. It looked something like this:
For future reference, wearing bicycle gloves: good idea. Even the guide commented on my foresight. (I took them off for the one obstacle in the photo, because I could grip the wood better bare-handed.) Wearing a baseball cap: Bad idea. I didn't lose it, but I came close several times. Not bringing water along: Very bad idea. Once you're up there, you don't get to come down unless you quit, and there's no water coolers in the trees (although there are several on the ground, mocking you), and it's a workout, so you're going to want some water. Also noted: standing on a narrow platform 50 feet up doesn't bother me. Riding a zip line doesn't bother me. Walking on a steel cable between trees doesn't bother me, if there's a safety line to hold onto. Trying to jump from one swinging log to another while 50 feet up does bother me, safety line or no.
On the whole, Whistler turned out to be the most active day of the trip, which I suppose was appropriate, given the Olympic theme. We're going to take it somewhat easy today -- shopping on Granville Island -- and then head home tomorrow.