Whistling Whistler

My next stop after Vancouver, was Whistler, a small-ish resort town ~120 km from Vancouver, which was a key host of the 2010 Winter Olympics. It’s a picturesque town surrounded by beautiful mountains:

I wish Polish highways had such views when riding them…

Nice arrangement in the city centre.

These type of thrash cans were all around the city. Notice the handles on them – they’re designed like that so that… bears can’t open them XD

Mystic Whistler.

Hotels all around (but at least they don’t stand out with big signs or something).

Tried some night photography, but I was afraid of stumbling upon a bear so I did not venture too far…

Of course, it’s been chosen to take part in the Olympics not only because of the views. It offers all sort of thrills, even without snow:

Whistler is really big on downhill mountain biking – looked really fun.

I did however go ziplining – scaling from one side of the valley to another on a line.

It’s *super* fun and thrilling.

Even if the first time is super scary…

But moving between stations, you get to see up close the forest.

Or move around in the trees!

As I was visiting before the skiing season, most of the lifts were not running. However, the one going to Whistler Mountain was still operating – probably because from Whistler to Blackcomb there’s the Peak 2 Peak Gondola. Supposedly, it holds three world records:

1. World’s longest unsupported span for a lift of this kind at 3.024km/1.88miles.
2. World’s highest lift of its kind at 436m/1,427ft above the valley floor.
3. World’s longest continuous lift system: Connecting 2 high speed chair lifts and 1 gondola.

It really is an amazing experience – especially since both mountains are already very high, with some even more impressive ones in the distance. Not to mention that this is an outstanding feat of engineering.

The weather was ever-chaning, but that made shooting photos quite exciting.

Somewhere in that fog/clouds is the actual peak of Mountain Whistler. Since the lift was running (and included in the price of the ticket), I took it…

So far, so good – nice view on the station from where the Peak 2 Peak gondola operates to the other side of the valley.

OK, people are coming back alive from the top and relatively happy, there’s hope for me.

….nope. nope, nope. This is not an exaggerated picture – the closer to the peak, the worse the visibility got. I don’t even have any good pictures from the peak, because it was really foggy and windy there. But I’m glad I rode it all the way to the top!

Starting the journey between the two peaks in the Peak 2 Peak gondola.

Looking deep into the valley, you can see some really impressive and massive mountains.

Sometimes not ideal weather conditions are not so bad 😉

The view sometimes changed dramatically within a minute – the fog coming from the left obscured the whole mountain just a few moments after I took this photo.

One of the many lifts that are waiting for the skiing season.

It’s probably obvious by now that I’ve really enjoyed my stay in Whistler and I’m happy that I’m coming back there this year too – hope to explore the area more or even go to the same places and try to experience them again in a different way.