The most frightening episode of our trip to Whistler occurred at the top of the Harmony Express, way above treeline, at Whistler’s peak.<\/p>\n
You couldn’t see a fucking thing.<\/p>\n
It’s what’s commonly known as a whiteout.\u00c2\u00a0 Where the sky blends with the snow.\u00c2\u00a0 And there’s no vegetation, no trees to provide a point of reference.\u00c2\u00a0 Imagine walking down the stairs in the dark, but each step is at a different angle and is a different width and drops a different amount.\u00c2\u00a0 Sound scary?\u00c2\u00a0 IT FUCKING IS!<\/p>\n
But you can’t freak out.\u00c2\u00a0 Because then you can’t get down.<\/p>\n
So you go a handful of feet, your skis come up to your chest, and short of breath, the anxiety kicking in high, you stop.<\/p>\n
And you don’t want to move again, but you must.\u00c2\u00a0 To the point where you eventually make it to treeline.\u00c2\u00a0 And breathe a sigh of relief, feeling you’ve dodged a bullet.<\/p>\n
Whistler’s a funny place.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s got the greatest vertical drop in North America.\u00c2\u00a0 But the altitude is LOWER than ANYWHERE in the Rockies.\u00c2\u00a0 2,100 feet rather than the 8,000 typical of Colorado.\u00c2\u00a0 Not that they tell you that, they speak in METERS in Canada.\u00c2\u00a0 They switched because we said we were going to.\u00c2\u00a0 Ain’t that America, not the company that built John Mellencamp’s truck, but the benevolent giant that promises one thing and does another.\u00c2\u00a0 If America were a boyfriend, Oprah would host all the jilted suitors, there’d be a support group for those screwed by the entity that only cares about itself.<\/p>\n
And with a temperature of 2, or 4, CELSIUS, the precipitation that descends from the sky isn’t quite snow at the base of Whistler.\u00c2\u00a0 Because when the temperature is hovering around forty degrees Fahrenheit, you get RAIN!<\/p>\n
And rain it did at Whistler.\u00c2\u00a0 And blow.\u00c2\u00a0 And snow, as you ascended the lifts.\u00c2\u00a0 It was the most challenging skiing I’ve done since I lived in Vermont.\u00c2\u00a0 The fog alone.\u00c2\u00a0 We were skiing at the top of Blackcomb yesterday, photographers were shooting families and couples at the top of Seventh Heaven, we had a run down the mountain so glorious you’d tell your GRANDCHILDREN about it, and then, just as we were heading for the glacier, the fog blew in.<\/p>\n
We’re a good 1,500 or 1,800 vertical feet above treeline.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s akin to the top of Whistler, in the whiteout atop Harmony, but this time THERE’S NO EASY WAY DOWN!\u00c2\u00a0 And you hear that horrible sound seemingly inches away.\u00c2\u00a0 SNOWBOARDERS!!!\u00c2\u00a0 Barreling down the slope, unable to see.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s like driving in Times Square at midnight with no headlights.<\/p>\n
And I want to let Felice know how scared I am, but if I do, will she be able to make it down??<\/p>\n
Eventually, we made it to treeline again.\u00c2\u00a0 Where we had some quite fine skiing.\u00c2\u00a0 Shit, I may never go above the trees again.\u00c2\u00a0 At least not in CANADA!<\/p>\n
Dan told us it hadn’t been like this.\u00c2\u00a0 That it had been sunny, with no rain, only snow.\u00c2\u00a0 That he’d had eight feet of the white stuff on his porch.\u00c2\u00a0 But when we were there it was more like a March day in Connecticut.\u00c2\u00a0 Gray and miserable.<\/p>\n
But the mark of an expert skier is someone who can ski in ANYTHING!\u00c2\u00a0 I told Felice she passed the test.<\/p>\n
And we were so lucky to BE THERE!<\/p>\n
You see Dan Fraser, whom I don’t even KNOW, who’s the touring guy at Nettwerk, offered up his condo.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s one righteous dude.\u00c2\u00a0 And seeing as how we were going to Vancouver for my speech at MusicBC, it was a perfect fit.<\/p>\n
So last night we took a cab back from the mountains, into the city.\u00c2\u00a0 And Vancouver’s so fascinating.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s like a living "Blade Runner".\u00c2\u00a0 With high rises and rain.\u00c2\u00a0 Yet we didn’t eat sushi, but Italian, at this restaurant, with Bob, Chris and Savry.<\/p>\n
Chris…\u00c2\u00a0 He regaled us with his travels to exotic places.\u00c2\u00a0 God, nobody in the U.S. goes to Peru, never mind Bolivia.\u00c2\u00a0 And to Everest base camp?\u00c2\u00a0 Travel is fascinating, it illustrates how your own world is so…limited.<\/p>\n