Back from Whistler

I took a few days off last week, packed up the mountain bike, and headed to Canada to ride Whistler mountain. I've been up there a couple times to snowboard, but this was the first summer trip I've taken there. Overall it was good fun, but I have to admit that it felt more like a "resort" during the summer. Maybe in the winter it's just too cold to notice, but when you can stroll around in the sunshine it really does feel like some kind of outdoor theme park.

Hotel rates were much better in the summer. We stayed at the Pan Pacific Mountainside, which is right next to the Whistler lifts. It was small room with a Murphy bed and a kitchen, but it was quite nice and it offered secured bike storage.

To get to the mountain we used Perimeter's shuttle services, which cost about $50 each way. Besides being much less expensive then a rental car, taking a shuttle van is a good way to meet people and share travel stories. It also lets you enjoy the view instead of fumbling around with some rental car's traction control buttons.

Once at the mountain, Whister has a few free trails heading to some of the nearby lakes, and of course, the bike park, which you'll need lift tickets for. Riding DOWN the mountain was what I came for, and it was a blast! We don't have such hills in central Texas, so it was quite a treat. It also gave for some nice stories, like the time I came around a corner to find a black bear cub about four or five feet away from me. Thankfully I startled him, and he jumped into the trees.

One lesson learned from the trip that I have to mention is that American Airlines charges a hefty fee for shipping bike cases internationally. If it had been a domestic trip I probably could have gotten by, but brining a bike across the Canadian border costs $80 each way! It apparently had nothing to do with the size or weight of the case -- the fact that it contained a bike made it cost money. That said, you should certainly evaluate your needs when planning a similar trip. A decent mountain bike could be rented at the mountain for around $30 a day, and a killer downhill bike was around $80 a day.

Since I had never taken a mountain bike up a lift before, I had no idea how it would work. Turns out it's pretty simple. You could take your bike into the gondola's, or stick it on one of these racks. (Some of the lift chairs also had hooks attached that could be used to hang a bike from.)

The bike park featured trails, skills areas, and jump parks (this one was near the bottom of the mountain, visible from the village):

This lake was actually near the top of Whistler. We took the gondola up, then hiked a couple kilometers to the lake: