Vancouver to Whistler BC

/ Garrulous Gwendoline

Tuesday June 12th 2018

A cheery welcome this morning from our new coach driver, Rob, and his mascot Razzamatazz, as we set off in his brand-new coach for our next destination – the alpine village of Whistler.

First we took a small detour back to Stanley Park, passing another rose garden in full bloom, and on to Prospect Point for a final vista of Vancouver. In the below photo an unladen oil tanker is heading under the Lions Gate Bridge.

Then we set off to the Coast Mountain Ranges via the Sea to Sky  Highway.

Along the way we stopped at Shannon Falls reputedly the third highest in British Columbia. I enjoyed the leafy walk as well as the actual Falls.

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Arriving Whistler village around lunchtime we decided to go up the mountain and ride the peak to peak gondola. This joins Whistler and Blackcomb Mountains. The span is more than 3 kilometres long (a bit under 2 miles) and is suspended over a deep ravine. You can see the weather changes in this series of photos.

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Nearly every employee we spoke to on this day was a young Australian. One of them enticed a Whiskey Jack with a crumb, and then the bird obliged with a number of poses for my camera.

We set off to walk the “snow walls” up to a high peak. The trail is about 4klm long on a steep ascent. We had loads of clothes on plus a backpack. And we aren’t in top condition. Add in that it started to sleet and then turned into wet snow, so even if we’d reached the top we wouldn’t see anything. We were encouraged  to keep going as people kept saying the walls of snow got better the higher we went, but eventually we gave it up. The walk down    was pretty hard on the legs too. I took loads of photos for my yet -to-be-held art exhibition which I plan on calling “Snow Walls in Sleet” 😀 Here’s a few . . .

Notwithstanding that the weather had closed in over the few hours we were up the mountain, it was a great afternoon, celebrated with a mild snowball fight. 😀😀

Finally ready to check in to the hotel around six that evening, we were delighted to find a rum cocktail and snack on offer in the lobby. Once up in our room, we were greeted with this pretty view from our window.

We decided that a frozen meal from the nearby supermarket was a fitting match for the day! . . . And you can bet we slept well too.

17 thoughts on “Vancouver to Whistler BC”

    • I felt like a trussed turkey and if we hadn’t been in such a hurry to get up on the Gondola I might have been able to rearrange what I was carrying so as not to be so overloaded. I understand if we’d got to the top the snowwalls would have been much higher and whiter – but we were happy enough with what we had seen.

      And the coat has been very handy so far, let’s see if it is enough for the Alaskan leg.

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  7. Being as I had 2 great-aunts migrate from St. Kitts to England to Vancouver, I’ve been curious about the area. Coming from the Caribbean, I’m surprised they liked such harsh weather.
    Whiskey Jack sure is a ham for the camera, isn’t he?! But he has nothing over on your MLB pitching stance!!
    So glad you had a good time!

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    • Hi Bill and Gwen,,
      When we were there it was a clear day and half up were I was flat we were hosted a bbq by the cricket organisers, never saw snow like that, we stayed at Stanley Park and road bikes around a lot younger then with Pam and Vic.
      Sounds as it you are having a great time.

      Marion and Lindsay

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