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…

Our First Hockey Game, Settling into Whistler Life & It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

Hello! It’s been a busy few weeks in Whistler. We’re now just over 5 weeks into Whistler life but it feels like we’ve been here so much longer. Time goes so quick here.

Last week we went to our first hockey game, woo! Although it wasn’t to see the Vancouver Canucks (the team we’ve been following since we got here), but the Vancouver Giants, who are in the league below the National Hockey League here. As part of one of the perks of working for the Whistler Blackcomb mountain you can join Club Shred which gives you discounted tickets. So for $20 we got transport to Vancouver, tickets to the game and a $10 food voucher… which was an absolute bargain! We were three rows from the front at the side so had a great view, although it seemed to close a few time when the players barged against the glass I really thought it was going to smash right in front of us!

It was obviously very different to football (sorry, soccer) back home and our beloved Bradford City, but it certainly didn’t disappoint. Within the first few minutes there was a big punch up between two players, seemingly over nothing, but that’s the whole point of the sport! It was just a little hard to keep up with and I lost where the puck was quite a lot. The Giants won 3-2 after scoring a late goal. We will definitely be going again, it’s probably the best $20 we’ve spent since arriving in Whistler. But will still be venturing to watch the Canucks at some point too, once we have a few more spare pennies  cents.

We had to buy some merchandise!

Don’t usually see signs like this at city!

Pretty close (just before a fight!)

Our First 10 Days in Whistler!

How time flies when you’re having fun, eh? Can’t believe we’ve been in Whistler for 10 days now, it’s been a pretty hectic few weeks but are now settled into our staff accommodation and generally loving life so far! Here’s what our first few weeks have entailed:

Moved into Our Flat

We decided to live in the staff accommodation Whistler Blackcomb provide and really glad we did. We’ve moved into Brio which was meant to be the quieter flats a bit further out of the village. Was expecting a pretty basic, uni hall type accommodation and was pleasantly surprised. The flat was a lot bigger and nicer than expected, we had more pots and pans than I thought we would, and it’s only a five minute walk into the village. There is a table tennis table in the common room too, which isn’t good for mine and Kyle’s competitiveness!

Brio Staff Housing

First Week At Work

I started my training for my job as a Ticket Seller and Validation Host for Whistler Blackcomb last Monday. Pretty standard first week at a new job really, apart from everyone else is new too! The job seems like it’s going to be pretty good, always going to be busy so the days will go quick even when we’re starting at 6.30/7! I’ve got my first proper shift on Sunday for the second day the mountain is open, actually looking forward to it.

My new uniform!

In 10 Days Time…

In 10 days time I’ll be…

– Jobless (just until I start at Whistler Blackcomb)
– Flat-less
– Car-less (though have been for a month!)
– Sat in the airport bar with fellow Working Holiday Clubbers heading to Vancouver
– Stressing that I’ve forgot something but not caring as much as usual as I’m going to Canada baby!
– In disbelief that we’ve actually taken the plunge to do this

Can’t believe how quickly the last few weeks have gone. I feel like I’ve wrote a still to do list loads of times and still not completed it. Here we go again… Still to do:

– Finish packing up our flat
– Finish packing our lives into 2 suitcases and hand luggage (actually started now, go me!)
– Finish at work (4 and a half days working days left!)
– Print all documents
– Check into flight

29 Days to Go!

Arrggghhh only 29 days til we fly to Vancouver! I can’t believe how quick it’s come round, it seems only yesterday we were talking about it being 5 months away! I’ve only got 17 days left at work too 🙂

Starting to panic at how much we’ve still got to do though, as I’m spending all the time I should be doing something productive watching videos of Whistler on Youtube/searching Whistler on Instagram & Twitter.

Already Sorted

– Flights

– Jobs – Thanks to The Working Holiday Club we’ve got our jobs sorted before flying out

– Insurance (got a great deal with skicover.com – £489 for both of us and it covers everything we need!)

– Accommodation in Vancouver

– Staff accommodation in Whistler

Still To Do

– Stock up on Winter clothes

– Attempt to get fit – Just a little fitter than I am now would help so I can attempt to snowboard at least 3 times a week!

– Pack – Attempt to fit everything we need for a year into one suitcase and hand luggage!

– Move out of flat

Roll on 28th October! 🙂

Whistler v Banff – The Pros and Cons (without going to either!)

One thing we knew for sure when we decided to take a career beak and move to Canada was that we wanted to go to a ski resort and find work there. While there is a lot of choice for what are meant to be amazing ski resorts in Canada (Banff, Fernie, Jasper, Lake Louise, Tremblant, Whistler, Great White) we quite quickly narrowed it down to Whistler and Banff.

We changed our minds a dozen of times. First I was 100% set on Whistler, while Kyle wanted to go to Banff, then we both changed our minds until we both decided back on Whistler! Here is how we came to our decision (a lot of internet research & speaking to people who’d been to both):

Whistler Blackcomb

Pros

– The biggest ski resort in North America

– Incredible scenery and mountains

– Ski in , ski out

– Huge choice of terrain

– Plenty to explore in a season

Cons

– The biggest ski resort in North America (maybe it’s too big for some people)

– More expensive

– Wages are low in ski resort