Top 10 Travel Moments

We’ve now been home for a month and are already back into our normal routines so needed to write this post before I forget all about our incredible trip. We did so many things that I could never have dreamt of but here is our top 10 (not in any particular order as it’s too difficult!):

Fresh Tracks on a Powder Day in Whistler
Picture this – it’s 5.30am, you’ve just woken up & checked the snow report and you see 50 whole cm has fallen overnight. You’ll soon be in the queue to be one of the first people up the mountain for the day to enjoy a big buffet breakfast. You’re full from bacon, sausages, hash browns etc (and have filled the tupperware you brought) then at 8 a bell rings, you and your friends rush out to be literally the first to experience fresh runs in 50cm of powder! And if you know the mountain you can keep getting fresh tracks all day long!

Seeing the Glaciers Melt in Patagonia
This was never something we planned but was absolutely incredible. From buenos aires down to El Calafate, Patagonia was a 48 hour bus ride but believe me it was worth every minute. The views of the glacier were stunning but the sounds were just as impressive. We were on a boat ride for literally 5 minutes before we witnessed a huge piece of ice fall off and explode into the water.

Visiting the Amazon Rainforest
Thanks to England getting drawn in Manaus for their World Cup group, we were in the perfect place for a trip into the amazon. We did a three day tour of the jungle which included – alligator spotting, trekking through the jungle, canoeing down the river, piranha fishing and watching an amazing sunrise. Something we will never forget!

Before

Seeing Machu Picchu
Who doesn’t want to visit one of the greatest wonders of the world?! We opted to do a 4 day/3 night jungle tour as our way to get to Machu Picchu – highly recommended. Despite not being able to walk on the day we got there, it didn’t put us off and the views from the top were like nothing else.

Salt Flats Tour
For miles and miles all you can see is well, salt. I’ll admit it doesn’t sound the best but it was one of the best 3 days we had in South America. We drove around the desert stopping at incredible places and eating surprisingly good food that our driver made on the road. We even got a stint at driving the jeep through the desert!

Bluebird Days, Outings to Vancouver & The Final Countdown

This time next week we will be jobless, homeless and no longer living in the Whistler bubble. We’ll be in Vancouver for a couple of nights before going to Vancouver Island then heading down the West Coast. Spring has arrived in Whistler and we’re loving the weather! The last few weeks in Whistler have been great, we’ve had a bit more snow, some awesome bluebird days and we’ve made a couple of trips to Vancouver for football and hockey games.

Going back a few weeks we had 35cm of snow overnight when the forecast only predicted about 5cm – always  nice surprise  Luckily we had already planned to get out early (6am!) for our last Fresh Tracks Breakfast of the season. Pow and a bluebird – what a day that was!

4 Weeks to Go…

I can’t believe we’ve only got a month left to go in Whistler (it’s also been over a month since I last posted – soz avid readers!) Time has gone so quickly, it feels only months ago that we were counting down the weeks to flying out to Canada. It’s going to be tough to leave, but it helps that we’ve got some pretty exciting travel plans in place!

Since I last wrote our travel plans for Whistler have changed a little, we are no longer planning on going to Australia and Asia as it’s too expensive to fly there from South America and Whistler is killing our bank balance. We are still planning on doing our trip round America which we’ve pretty much got sorted now – woohoo. We will be leaving Whistler on the 22nd April to go to Vancouver Island. From there we will be heading down to Seattle -> San Fran -> San Diego -> LA -> Vegas Baby -> Gran Canyon -> Salt Lake City – > Yellowstone -> Cody – > Denver – > New York -> Washington -> Chicago then finally to Miami before heading to Brazil. I’m tired just reading that list, we’ll be driving over 4,000 miles in just over a month! Then after Brazil for the World Cup, we will be going to go to a few other countries in South America, starting with Peru, Bolivia, Argentina and Chile. Money will determine where we go next/when we book those dreaded one-way tickets back to the UK.

Okay, back to Whistler… these last few weeks have been great. The snow has continued to fall through March and we’ve had some epic powder days:

 

Snow Much Fun

The snow is back!!! I had faith it would return and it’s back with a vengeance. Whistler was having the worst season in about 20 years, even the BBC pointed out last week that some Scottish resorts have more snow than here in Whistler… but not anymore! In the last 7 days we’ve had over 140cm of snow fall and it doesn’t look like it’s going to stop anytime soon.

Like the last time we had a lot of snow, my days off fell at the perfect time. For my first day off we had about 15cm of pow then the second we had 35cm! Like everyone else I got up for the first lift at 8.15 so there were big queues which weren’t moving due to waiting on avalanche clearance. Well worth the wait though, even the main groomed runs still had great snow on them and we found good stashes of powder. I had so much fun going down some of the bowls and tree runs. Boarding from 8.30-3 both days killed me off – definitely the most tired I’ve been. The snow hasn’t stopped since then and I now have two days off again to enjoy even better powder!

3 Months into Whistler Life

Can’t believe it’s been 3 months since we left our jobs, flat and life in the UK to fly out to Vancouver for the winter season. Time is flying by and I can’t even remember what back home was like (exaggerating now, it hasn’t been that long). It only feels like weeks ago we were last minute planning everything and writing a blog ‘3 Months to Go’. Whistler life seems very normal to me now – waking up at ridiculous a.m on both work days and snowboarding days, drinking Kokanee, a Canadian beer and tedious work. I found out this week that I’ve already scanned over 12,000 people this season whilst validating and I’ve probably said ‘Hey, how you doing?’ (in a non-Joey way, people just don’t understand ‘you alright?! so that’s easier) to almost all of them…. that’s a lot of people!

So what’s new?! We still haven’t had snow for two and a half weeks, since my last post when we had 70cm in a couple of days. We are due a whole 8cm in the next few days, which we usually wouldn’t get excited about but every little bit of snow helps at the minute. It’s been sooo hot this week, it was 13 degrees at the top of the mountain a couple of days ago. Literally like spring skiing, not that I’ve ever skied in spring, but that’s how I assume it will be! Enjoyed not having having to wear 10 layers whilst boarding and having a beer outside at the top of the mountain, but I will be relieved when it cools down again and we get some much needed snow. A few recent pics:

Snow Gods, Fresh Powder & Whistler Fame…

The snow (proper snow) has finally arrived in Whistler. After a slow start to the season for snowfall, the last week saw over 90cm of snow fall! We were forecasted to receive 20cm on Friday night, which for the season we are having would have been great, instead we got 49 whole cm’s overnight with the snow still falling heavily on throughout Saturday. Luckily I had the weekend off, which is a rare occasion in Whistler as weekends are the busiest time for my work, to do a Women’s Snowboard Camp here.

I was like a very excitable 5 year old at Christmas to go out and play in the fresh powder (for once!). Even better that I was on a 2 day training camp so it was the perfect opportunity to learn how to snowboard in proper snow :-). The Arc’teryx womens camp was good fun and think I’ve finally managed to get there with snowboarding! The good snow conditions made it much easier for me to turn down a lot steeper runs than I have been doing. I did my first tree run, first black run and we even hit the park at the end of the day on Sunday… haven’t quite mastered jumping yet! Although I did get the tiniest bit of air on a ‘jump’ yesterday and I didn’t fall – that’s progress right there 🙂

Good day to have lift line priority!

Fresh pow in the trees

McDonalds Reunited in Canada For Christmas!

What a week this has been! My mum and dad came over from Bradford and brother from Saskatoon for Christmas. I’ve just had to say another emotional goodbye, but we’ve had such an amazing week in Whistler and few days in Vancouver!

So my mum and dad flew over on Friday, after a hectic day at work I met them at their nice little apartment in Whistler village (courtesy of airbnb – highly recommended!). Straight to the pub for a beer we went, in true McDonald / Whistler fashion!

Luckily we ha a bit of snow the night before they came so Whistler was all pretty and snowy again! I had quite a few shifts at work, so tried to fit showing them around and doing touristy things between that. We went to lost lake and Alta lake which looked very different to how they did a few months ago, with all the snow on top of the now frozen water. Cue pictures…