Peak 2 Peak Gondola (07.08.09) & Other Assorted Ramblings

You know, it’s not scary at all. Piece of cake! (ooh, cake…)

So yesterday, Rich & I went up to Whistler (2.5 hrs) to see his cool cousins from California who are on vacation up there.  We took the “old” gondola up Whistler mtn to the Roundhouse lodge (6069’) & then caught the Peak 2 Peak to the Rendezvous lodge on Blackcomb mtn (6102’). Then we walked around the “Alpine Walk,” a 1-mile “easy” trail (hard for these other folks on the trail, visiting from Tx: “And this is the *easy* trail??!!??!” Hahaha I reminded them at it’s at least cooler here!), but it was a nice little walk for us. (But you bet I added it to my summer hiking log! LOL) Then we took the P2P back & the Whistler gondola back down.

I gotta tell ya, this thing’s a piece of cake. You barely know you’re dangling 1400’ or so above the valley below. Heck, you hardly know you’re moving, if you don’t look out. It was absolutely safe & secure & smooth, which, frankly, was a little disappointing. I was kinda looking fwd to that slight feeling of panic-stricken terror you would expect to have in a situation  like this. I was kinda looking fwd to feeling safe & relieved when we got to the station at the other side. But ho-hum, there we were, gliding thru the sky, relaxed & chatting & taking pictures like we were on a train or on a boat. Only it was smoother than that.

So, since there isn’t much more to report, here are some pictures:

It was kinda rainy… Most of the views out of the front looked like this. So I started taking pix out the back, LOL

With rain comes rainbows… (look how far down the trees are!)

We saw some mtns…

On the trail we saw a marmot. When I pointed him out to the gals from Tx behind us, one actually placed one hand on her chest & the other on her rib cage & gasped. Too sweet!

Isn’t he cute??

 Bonk! The trail should have a height limit, like at the amusement parks: You must be under this height to go on the trail…

Peek! There I am! (Notice the gloves? It was kinda chilly – there were patches of snow around, & we even saw some snow mixed w/ rain on the P2P over to Blackcomb)

Trust. Descending into … um …

Whew! There is a world on the other side of the fog…

Whistler Village in the distance. This is kinda how I like to see the Village – from a distance! (see ramblings, below)

Rising back into the clouds & up Whistler Mtn from the bottom of the cable sag

Those who know us by now know that we’re not really into the whole Whistler scene. It just kinda makes my skin crawl. As one of my residents used to say (she probably still says it, I’m just not around to hear it): “Too much too much.” Too much buildings, too much people, too much money-spending, too much affluence, too much materialism, too much opulence, too much frivolity, too much mountain bikes (!), too much greed, too much bourgeois.

OK, so I do recognize that the world will be descending on this little village in 6 mos for the Winter Olympics & there has been much building in preparation of this, but Whistler has been “too much,” to me, anyway, long before Vancouver won the Olympic bid.

On the one hand, it’s great that so many people want to holiday in the mountains & have the opportunity to experience the beauty that surrounds Whistler, but on the other hand, it totally defeats the purpose, y’know?

If you wanna party, go to a friend’s house. If you wanna buy stuff, go to the mall. If you wanna eat something, cook (yes, we did eat in restaurants twice yesterday, so call me a hypocrite!). But if you wanna go to the mtns, take a hike.

(and, yes, I feel the same way about cruise ships)

My Desolation Wilderness water bottle (the one I got at the Ranger station in Lake Tahoe – the one that caused us to re-route our way home thru Mt Lassen) has the slogan: “Altitude – Solitude – Attitude” on it (Now see? Totally worth the re-route!). That totally sums it up. That’s why I go to the mtns. I’m perfectly glad to leave the partiers behind!

Rich’s cool California cousin’s 23 y/o daughter just completed a spell in an orphanage in Guatemala, where she used some of her own personal savings to buy diapers for the babes there. It was so hard for her to return home to the affluence of middle class America, let alone to experience the opulence of Whistler. So much work could be done in the world with the amt of money that is spent in just one day at Whistler! It’s really sad, if you think about it.

Later this summer we will be spending a week in another centre of opulence: Banff. Banff & Whistler are very similar. The thing about Banff, tho, is that solitude is very close by. You simply have to walk a mile on (almost) any trail to lose the crowds. And if you’re on a crowded trail (like the oh-so-touristy Johnston Canyon), just go a little further. The tour busses only stay for so long, so the folks don’t have time to go far, LOL.

We are staying in the Banff townsite strictly for financial reasons (a place w/ a kitchen in Banff for $109/night? Are you KIDDING me?), & I’m expecting it to be a real dive, but honestly we don’t plan on spending much time at “home.” Just sleeping & meal prep (oh, & blogging, LOL). The rest of the time, the revellers in Banff will be looking at our backs as we hike away from them into the amazing mountains that surround the town, the glorious mtns that the partiers probably don’t even see.

Altitude – Solitude – Attitude
The first two definitely affect the third.