Whistler and Harrison Hot Springs

Last week Roz and Reuben had the week off so we all decided to take a trip up to Whistler for a few days of midweek snowboarding action. So on Wednesday afternoon we went to Enterprise car rentals to pick up our compact class car. The car they gave us was a Toyota Yaris, a very small car. After driving 15 minutes to my house to pick up some stuff I forgot, we decided that this car was really not going to work for us, as it would have been a very uncomfortable trip with 2 snowboards and a set of skis. So we gave the rental company a ring an organised to pick up a larger car a Chevrolet Malibu. This car was much nicer and fit us in very comfortably. So of we went for the 1 3/4 hour trip north to Whistler.

It was my first time driving any significant distance or in any traffic in a left hand drive, and at for the first little while it took a bit of adjusting to. Reuben was very helpful in pointing out that I was very close to the right hand side of the lane, I guess I wasn't used to having that much car to my right. The sea to sky highway from Vancouver to Whistler is a notoriously dangerous road, but after driving it I fail to see why. Compared to roads in New Zealand it was a very easy drive. I guess if it had been snowing or if the roads were icy it could have been a little scarier, but in the fine conditions we had it was quite a pleasant drive.

On arrival we checked in to our hotel then went out for a bite to eat. The restaurant was having an open mic night as the entertainment, but not many people took up the invitation to join the band and sing, so we were stuck listening to some band obsessed with reggae music. We didn't stick around long after our meal.

In the morning we got up nice and early to get our free breakfast before hitting the slopes. The weather was very nice with barely a cloud in the sky. Unfortunately it had been that way for quite a while prior to our trip, so there was no fresh snow around and some places were a bit icy. I decided that given the hardness of the ground, this was not going to be a good week to practice any jumps, so contented myself with just improving my turning and general control. I also decided to retry the run that I got very stuck on last time I was at Whistler. Last time there was over a foot of powder on that run and I had an awful time trying to get up each time I fell over. This time there was not much powder at all and I found the run to be much easier and great fun.

On the second day Roz and I spent most of the day going down the intermediate runs at Blackcomb, where the snow was a bit better. On one run Roz got a little over confident and went for a jump off a little drop off. Unfortunately for Roz she hadn't checked out what was below the drop off and she ended up bailing pretty badly as she landed amongst a bunch of moguls (big bumps in the snow). I was following a little behind her and decided to stop at the top of the drop off. When I looked down, there was Roz lying in the snow with her poles and hat 15 metres up the slope. The fall hurt her knee a bit, but she was able to keep on skiing, although her confidence was a little damaged for a while.

After our 2 days at Whistler we made our way back to Vancouver, then on Saturday seeing as we still had the rental car, we decided to take a trip to Harrison Hot Springs for a nice soothing soak. Harrison Hot Springs is about 1 1/2 hours east of Vancouver, just past Chilliwack. After driving for an hour on highway 1 I was beginning to see why people think the sea to sky highway is so dangerous. Highway 1 is really straight, for miles and miles.

When we arrived at Harrison Hot Springs we found that the public pool was a little on the disappointing side, it was pretty small and patroned by mainly old fat people. We decided to pass on the pool and just had lunch at a local restaurant that we had a discount voucher for instead. The food was decidedly average, or maybe even a little below average, except for the seafood chowder that Roz and Reuben shared, apparently that was quite nice. I had some scallops and shrimp with some kind of risotto. The sauce that accompanied the shrimps and scallops was very bland, in fact I can't even recall it having any flavour at all. The risotto was actually difficult to cut on one side, making me think it had perhaps been sitting under some warming lights a little long. The lake at Harrison was very pretty though, so the trip wasn't a complete waste of time. Unfortunately I didn't take my camera with me, so you will just have to take my word for it that it was a nice lake.