In Search of Kingdom Living

Glad to say I’m almost done my first term at Regent! Also, since it’s a time of reflection/confession on Good Friday, I thought it would be good for me to ‘finally’ share updates about my journey so far… mainly my time at Whistler two weekends ago.

Glad I was able to go on this trip organized by a fellow UofWaterloo Alumni, John H. We were trying to get a trip up to Whistler (only 2 hrs from Vancouver) for a while, and he was able to slap together a trip with Denni L. (another UWer), and some of their friends. And off we went to Whistler. 

We left Vancouver late friday night and probably went to sleep a little past 2 am. When we woke up early to go snowboarding, unfortunately it was very clouded and foggy (boo, no view). BUT, it was lightly snowing which means POWDER up on top of the mountain. We stuck to Whistler mountain the whole day.

So first thing that struck me, was that as we boarded onto these gondolas at the base of the mountain I couldn’t see the top of Whistler mountain. 

Already getting into a gondola instead of a ski lift was bizarre (used to my small hills in Ontario). As we’re inside the thing, we chatted it up with some older boarders who’s been boarding for the whole week. Insane. The ride up to took a good 10-15 minutes and you only go up to around 3796 feet.  

When we finally got off, I decided that I try to be ‘regular’ for the entire day (meaning, boarding with my left foot first). I strapped on my boots onto the board (lent to me by Jesse C, another UWer), and we went down a few green runs, the variations of the Marmot trail. 

After the TWO RUNS, and it being my second time snowboarding ever… these good friends of mine decide to take me to the peak. Even though I could barely carve, I figured I might as well go up to the very top. So off we went, ski to the lift that would take us to the very top of Whistler Mountain.

Already I knew I was in for a world of pain. I’ve been falling quite a bit, but the snow was nice. I understood what people meant by boarding on POWDER feeling like floating on clouds. It was fun. Now, to get to the peak lifts, good ol’ Dennis took us through a ’shortcut’… the moguls. No wonder nobody else went down that route. I ended up sliding down half of them on my butt.

Finally arriving at the peak in the early afternoon, here’s the picture to prove it.

 

Yes that says Whistler Mountain Peak Lookout Elevation: 2182 m / 7160 ft

Insane.

If you were to compare Whistler to Blue Mountain (elevation of 1483 ft), that’s not even a quarter of Whistler. So sad.

Another fun thing to see at the top of Whistler Mountain is the Inuksuk, the native stone landmarks that are now being used as the logo for the Vancouver Olympics. 

At the peak of Whistler mountain, the fluffy snow on the ground level has turned into a full blown blizzard. I couldn’t see maybe 10-15 metres in front of me. And it was cold! My goodness. 

Now Dennis was the most experienced boarder among the three of us (him, John, and myself). So he wanted to take us to the famous Peak to Creek blue trail. It would be my first blue run and supposedly a really fun one. So first thing Dennis does, he takes us past a roped off area that had a SIGN that told us not to go that way. I guess he thought there would be a shortcut. We ended up going for a few seconds, then climbing back up the mountain cause it was a cliffside .

When we finally went down Peak to Creek, it was fun… initially. Then, it began to hurt. Then, I wanted to quit. I heard it takes a pro maybe 20-30 mins to go down the whole thing. Well, it took me TWO HOURS. 

What I didn’t realize was that when we had light, fluffy snow at the top, the middle part of the mountain was turning into ice. I also hit upon many flat patches and had to get off my board and walk so many times. When I hit the ice, I must’ve fell at least once every 5 seconds or so. 

Three particular falls were memorable at this point. First, I slipped on ice, fell on my butt, but stretched out my arms behind me to brace myself. I felt my left shoulder pop a few times and I had to sit for a good 10 mins for the pain to die down. Second, during the middle of the Peak to Creek run, you go in this little tunnel. I totally collided into this other skier (sorry again dude if you’re reading this). Third, as I was going down further on the ice (probably 1 1/2 hours into this run), I did a face plant but carried so much moment that my legs went over my head. It didn’t help that this was right in front of a huge group who was resting. 

Good times. Painful times.

Finally, the snow started to melt and get quite a bit slushy. I was getting closer to the ground and the fog was lifting higher so now I had quite a view of the original Whistler village – Creekside.

Yes those little houses down there are the village. I still had quite a ways to go. 

I think the time now was close to 2pm. I was boarding close to John but we had lost Dennis, he had gone way ahead of us. Since my legs were getting really tired, I had to take the easiest route to Creekside.

At Creekside, John and I went to one of the restaurants, ate for a few minutes, and Dennis quickly came down the mountain. Apparently he had LAPPED US. When he waited and didn’t see us, he boarded down quickly and went all the way back up to check if we were stuck anywhere along the run. Too funny. Kinda embarrassing.

So after our 2pm lunch, I was contemplating going back to the lodge. My legs were totally shot. At diff points of the day, I felt like I pulled my calves, quads, hamstrings, and ankles. It also realized that borrowing someone else’s board that doesn’t fit you fell is bad news – the shoes were a bit too tight, but the ankle support was too loose for me. In the end, my buddies coaxed me to go up 3/4 of the mountain again. They would do a few blue/black runs, and I took the easy run through the Ego Bowl down through the Olympic green run, all the way to Whistler Village. I tried to practice carving again but I was so tired I couldn’t make do. 

Finally, after a long day of falling, tumbling, hitting my head (thank God I had a helmet), cutting my knee, almost dislocating my shoulder, and feeling like one big ache… I reached the bottom of Whistler Village and it’s neverending racks of snowboards and skis.

The next day, I wished I could go up the mountain again. It was nice blue skies, great snow, but I was a giant pile of sore muscles. So instead, John and I went around sight seeing. First thing, here’s the view of Whistler from the Village.

Unfortunately, the mountain is sloped so you can’t even really see the peak when you’re that close to the base of the mountain. But all in all, a very pretty sight.

We also checked out the Whistler Sliding Centre – where they’re having Olympic bobsledding, luge, and skeleton. 

It’s crazy that you can go up to the guardrails, you are literally only a few centimetres from the bobsledders going down potentially 200 km/hr. Hopefully they’ll move the rails a few feet backwards.

As we were leaving Whistler, we also got to see 2 other Olympic landmarks.

First, the ski jump.

I can’t imagine the stress/pressure on your body when you leave.

We also checked out the biathlon course. It was great to see an actual competition on an Olympic course.

All in all, it was an awesome time. I think I’ll need a few more runs on the local hills before I go back to really take advantage of Whistler.

Thanks again guys.

My first snowboarding adventure was… wait for it… legendary.

Yesterday, I went with a bunch of friends to Cypress Mountain, one of the local mountains in Vancouver and official freestyle skiing and snowboarding venue for the 2010 Winter Olympics.

I arrived there around 11am, strapped on my boots and gear and headed outside. It was a bright, sunny morning and the picturesque landscape was a perfect backdrop for my first snowboarding lesson.

So first things my friends do to me is PUSH ME around, helping me try to figure out my stance on my board, whether I’m ‘regular’ (left foot first) or ‘goofy’ (right foot first). Apparently I may be ambidextrous which proves to be a difficulty for the rest of my day. Several tests that you can administer to discover your lead foot is by taking your first step after a push (for me, it was my left foot), or what is your dominate foot used to do a hockey stop (my right foot first), and kicking a soccer ball (right foot). Anyways, ultimately I tried being ‘goofy’ the entire time.

Before we began going on any trails on the mountain (go HERE for the map), I just tried to get my balance on the board and sliding a few feet on the ground. After a few minutes, it was trial by fire as we went up the Easy Rider lift and tried to do a few things on the easy slope.

My first challenge: stand up on the board from a sitting position onto my heels. Wow, it was near impossible for me. I’m not sure why it was so difficult for me – my height, weight, bad flexibility, etc. But in any case, I couldn’t stand up straight without falling down the hill already. And of course, this results in multiple falls on my butt.

After a few dozen attempts, my friends suggested that I try starting with my face towards the snow and stand up on my toes. I did that immediately – which apparently is rather different from most people. I’ll discover throughout the day that I have some rather peculiar snowboarding traits. Another hour of falling down and getting up and I was finally able to start standing up on my heelside, and eventually do a basic falling leaf pattern on my heelside, and on my toe side.

After lunch, I practiced a few more times on the bunny hill, then off we went to one of the nice green runs called, Collins.

On the Collins run, I tried to start going from my toeside to my heelside, and vice versa. The weird thing again is that I can’t figure out my dominant foot. Sometimes I would ski down the slopes with my left foot first, and other times with my right foot. This makes turning even more bizarre, because I would turn so many different ways and apparently I should just stick to one way of turning until I become pro then I can do whatever I want. Somewhere along the way, I was able to start linking my turns, and other times I crashed hard.

Finally, close to the end of the day, I ‘graduated’ to the last green run called Panorama. This run had some nice sweeping views of the other mountains.

Now on the same run, Panorama, you have a great view of Vancouver. Too bad it was cloudy by the time I could ski on this run. Vancouver is way down below past the treeline.

I’m thankful I’m not THAT sore. Even after falling so many times, my butt’s not too bad. I was also afraid I may have sprained my wrists when falling down so many times but they’re ok. So what do I think after my first snowboarding experience? I think I could enjoy doing this as a regular sport. I love being so close to the mountains, and when I didn’t yell out in frustration from falling ANOTHER time, I found myself saying a little prayer of thanksgiving for the wonderful surroundings.

Must do this again.