Ozgirl’s Mini RTW Adventure
Mini Shred wants to go to the Mac & Cheese place to now 
Works for me, she can have the cheese, I’ll grab a (i)mac 
(Miz, you need a new one as well 
)
This was on the way to the mac and cheese place.
I was def a novelty with the two kids and they were becoming a little annoying with their “hey Kim’s…”
So I go them back with a nothing! LOL
The eldest caught on quick smart what it was all about and got me a few times after! I had to record it. the look on his little sister face at the end is adorable!
So its been a month since I got home so I think it is way overdue that I finish the TR (and make a video)
Its time for Whistler Baby!
On Monday 7th of Jan with a mother of a hangover I woke at 5am for my 6.30am flight to Seattle. We were a little slow getting out the door and even though my friend lives only 6mins from San Jose airport I managed to miss the baggage check time for my flight (there may have been a mix up over which terminal I needed to be at opps.) So even after booking a whole new ticket to get to Whistler at a reasonable time It seems I was now going to arrive at the same time as my first flight (9.30pm at night). Its worth nothing to those who are considering travelling to Whistler from the US that even if I had of flown over the border to Vancouver I wouldn’t have saved much time as I would have had to catch two planes – due to the way airlines are saving cost by having hub airport.
I went back to my friends place and started researching buses etc to get me to Whistler and I wasn’t having much luck as buses were already booked out. On a whim I checked out how much it would be to rent a car. Turns out I could get a car for $270 for the week including insurance!! So I decided to go with that option. Conservative estimates had me arriving in Whistler about 4.30pm.
Well my flight ended up arriving about an hour late and by the time I got my luggage and caught a bus to the rental car area, argued with the lady on the desk who was insisting I needed a 4WD (but not giving me a complementary upgrade so my rental went to like $500!!) I finally drove away at about 3pm.
I stopped once for lunch and then again when I became paranoid that I was going the wrong way. At this stage I was still making reasonably good time and the border crossing in to Canada was a breeze. I was driving through Vancouver and saw signs that Highway had a bridge crossing that had a toll. I had no cash on me so panicked and got off the freeway. BIG mistake (even stupider when I found out there were no tollbooths and they just billed you later which would be charged to me via the rental car company) I think I lost about an hour of time on this little detour.
Things then became a little bit interesting when I finally got out of Vancouver it was pitch black at the point and started to rain. For those who know about my accident last winter you will appreciate the fact that this was the furthest I had driven since then and the conditions were pretty much replicating that. Add in really windy roads with concrete barriers on either side of the car and I was pretty stressed. I pulled into Wendy’s car park at Squamish to msg Finney using free wifi and facebook (for some reason I had no phone reception when I crossed over the border – very weird) That I was struggling with the drive and that I was would see him soon not knowing when I would get there. And the radio was not helping! I was snowing which stressed me a little more not knowing what the roads were like.
Well it turns out that the road is nowhere near as windy between Squamish and Whistler and I made pretty good time.
The next bit was pretty funny as I had no way knowing where Finney lived and I had forgotten his flat number So I was driving up and down the street which was pitch black and I couldn’t see the house numbers. So I pulled over and got out the car. By some miracle I had pulled up in front of Finney condo complex, but I couldn’t remember his flat number (turns out I probably wouldn’t have found it anyway. So I knocked on a random door and asked if they knew Finney (LOL) they didn’t but they did let me use a phone to call him.
So we dragged my stuff in and order pizza knowing we had a big day planned for Finney birthday the next day!
..... more! ^_^
Finney’s Birthday
So the next day we got up at 6 -6.30am and headed to the Whistler Village to meet up with Finney’s friends.
We also had to get some rentals for me. Which turned out to be a pretty frustrating experience on a number of levels. In particular was the fact that I paid for 5 days of demo’s and had a person who had no idea what they were doing and actually gave me a pair of High Performance ski’s. They were that bad in the end for that day but the next day they woudl have sucked!
So the aim for Finney’s birthday was to ride every lift on Whistler Blackcomb, you can read Finney’s side of the story here https://www.boardworld.com.au/forums/viewthread/8248/P450/
I was a really great day although fairly interesting for me having never ridden the mountain before and had no idea where we were going. The heated discussions were pretty funny about which lift should be next. Also when someone (usually Finney) would head off down a run telling everyone which lift we were to head for and me having no idea where or what it was! LOL made for an interesting day. I managed to keep up with most of the crew until the very end of the day when they headed off to the mid station of the Village Gondola and I went to the bottom. With no way of contacting Finney I was relieved to find a supervisor of his who I had met that morning who kindly texted Finney and told him I would meet him at that famous place we have all heard about Dusty’s!
So on the bus I hopped (it was decided since it was so late that i would be safer busing it rather than getting lost on the mountain again!) and headed over to Creekside. I found some of the group I had been with that day and enjoyed some beers and Ribs.
We then headed back to Finney’s to shower and change before heading out for “Rounds”
A great first day. And with it snowing for most of it and due to snow all night we knew it would be epic the next day so we tried to have a early night - well I tried not to look like a nagging gf to Finney’s friends by dragging him home (even though he told me he didn’t want too stay late!)
Your life is an EPIC 
I think Hollywood should be all over this, would make an awesome blockbuster
Les’ Ozerables?????
And mine will be Les’ Mizuramblings!!!!!
Whistler pics?!
Yep getting there! Will try and finish today and post pics. There were no pics the first two days.
I still need to work on a video of the trip!
Whistler pics?!
You may regret that when I do start posting them! It was very hard to cull!
Your life is an EPIC
I think Hollywood should be all over this, would make an awesome blockbuster
I wish! It would certainly help with the cash flow issues at the moment!
Powder Day Wednesday
So the day after Finney’s birthday we were up bright and early to try and make first lifts and um dig out the car (sorry Finney!!)
Before and after pics (the road was clear the night before)
If I am remembering correctly over 45cms had fallen in the last 24hrs - and the above was at base level - so we were pretty stocked to get up the hill.
Finney the trooper that he was drove the car to Creekside as I was still freaked out about driving. Not that he was much better when he realised there were no snow tires on the car!
We got to the Gondola in plenty of time although there was a MASSIVE queue. which i got on video. I am going to try nd do a very mini edit of this day just to keep you all at bay.
So after a bit of a wait we finally board the Gondola (another lift to check of my list from the day before!) and then head up the next chair. (we were on or way to peak chair)
A funny thing happened on the next chair we were on the chair with two other Nth Americans who start to have this massive b!tch about how on days like today Patrol and Lifties were dick’s and purposely held up opening the lifts to their own advantage. Finney claims he tuned out to this convo I wish I had cause it took ALL ,my self control to keep my mouth shut. Actually I think I spent most of the lift ride trying not to giggle cause of the absurdity of it all.
At the top near Roundhouse there was a Demo tent and Finney thought it would be a good idea for me to swap out my ski’s long story short I ended up on a batter fatter pair of ski’s but I still wasn’t happy but didn’t want to miss the day so off we went.
While I was stuffing around with the ski’s situation a couple of Finney’s mates joined us and we all went up peak chair together. I was very happy to have a girl (and a skier!!) in the ranks!
At the top we headed over to “Christmas Trees” there was quite a few headed in the same direction and it was a bit a mission to get over there people weren’t making it across the traverse and were unstrapping and walk in the most inconvenient spot. It was every man for himself.
I am so not used to having a bun fight in an advance area and so i was very hesitant. The boys were very patient with us girls considering the snow conditions!
So Helen and I were pretty equal in most regards and one would wait while the other struggled and then it would be the others ones turn to wait while the next struggled. The boys were having a great time!
The tree skiing was a bit of a shock to the system. Its been a few years since I had done trees that steep and that close together. The last couple of times had been in Japan/Niseko and it was a very different experience. Tahoe wasn’t the same cause the pow wasn’t fresh or deep and the ski’s weren’t helping either. The snow was also a little bit heavier than we expected as well.
By the time we got to the cat track at the bottom I was shattered and Helen and I had made a pact to let the boys go up again and we went to Roundhouse for a coffee! LOL
I am working on a bit of an edit from the day I think you guys will think it was worth the wait!
Whistler pics?!
You may regret that when I do start posting them! It was very hard to cull!
Fire away! Trip reports are the best for using up train time and I am on trains at lot at the moment!
First edit is up - I hope you like it i am stoked with it!