Whistler 

 
 Camping in Whistler
There is this one campsite close to town: and every tourist coming to Western Canada has to come to Whistler and then you camp here: and so when we walked around the campsite: 99% Rentals and then those few strange Canadians like us. Sure it was super classy and clean… maybe not wilderness camping – but then what do you expect if you are only 2 of the 2 Million people visiting Whistler each year.
 Whistler Village
So what’s the first thing you do: you go and visit Whistler Village – so we found a spot on the huge parking lot… they are sneaky, free parking is the furthest one away. So we walked along the cute streets with restaurants, hotels and enjoyed the views up the mountains. Yes it is a nice cute tourist village… with the super cute signs, the village square, arts, and rivers
 
Some historic facts:

• First surveys happened in the 1860s – the surveyor called it London mountain because
  of the heavy fog and clouds hanging around
• In 1877 a trail was cut through the valley linking Lillete with the Burard Inlets
• Trappers came here in the early 20^th century
• In 1914 Alex Philip bought land here and built the rainbow lodge – after he heard about the naturally beauty of the area
• In 1914 the Pacific Eastern Railway was completed and provided easy access to Vancouver compared to the previous 3 day journey
• In1962 four Vancouver business man explored the area with the intent of building
  a ski resort and bidding for the 1968 Olympics, and in 1966 whistler opened for the public
• In 2010 the Olympics and para Olympics were held in Whistler

 The Olympic Rings
And no-one can miss those cool rings: so visit them too and rememberedthe 2010 Winter Games.

 A Rainbow
Whistler is nice but even nicer is it, if you can see a rainbow hanging over the mountain… if only we could be fast enough to run up the mountain and find the gold at the end of the rainbow. This was only the first of our Whistler super amazing spots.

 Good Morning Sunshine
After some days of clouds and rain – we are greeted with blue sky and sunshine… it can’t be better if you want to go up into the mountains.

 A 2-Day Pass
If you are here, you have to go up and ride the Peak-to-Peak Gondola. But one day cost nearly as much as 2 days… so let’s by a 2 day pass: one day for relaxing and looking and one day for a hike?

 The famous Whistler Mountains:

• Are part of the Coastal Mountains
• Whistler mountain was originally called: London mountain, but changed in the late 1960s
  because of its bad reputation to the bad weather which was not good for advertising
• Whistler is to represent the whistling calls of the Marmots
• Whistler mountain is 2181 m high
• Blackcomb mountain is 2436 m high

 Whistler Mountain
So we take up the Gondola to Whistler Mountain and soon we are greeted with the great Mountain View - arriving on top and we are greeted with a mind blowing view. We wonder what we should do first – because there is so much to do

We decided to walk to the next lift: already nearly above tree level and walked by snow in Sept! We went over to the Peak express to end up on the top: this lift takes you up in the rocks and the snow – and there is no question: this is one amazing mind blowing view … AND it`s freezing cold up here, and we thought it`s still summer, guess not: so we walk around the top to
see and discover each direction: the mountain I like the best is the black tusk… it looks so cool standing out, no wonder everyone wants to go there, Up here that`s when we discover what we will do tomorrow because here starts the hike. 


 Inukchup on top of the world
If there is an Inukchuk up, we have to visit it but only quickly, because we got too cold – picture time will be tomorrow morning (hopefully warmer), it’s time to go back down with the peak express and then on we go to the world famous:

 Peak to Peak Gondola
The cool part of the peak to peak gondola is that you can look in both directions – especially since the gondola was not full, and we had enough space to walk back and forth.
Also we saw right away, that some clouds are coming… looking like it isn`t getting much warmer….

And what makes this Gondola so unique

• It goes from the top of Whistler Mountain to the top of the Blackcomb mountain
• It is in the Guinness World record book
• It spans 4.4 km across the valley
• It`s the worlds longest unsupported span for a lift with over 3 km
• It`s the world’s highest lift with 439 m above Valley floor
• It takes 11 Min to cross

 Blackcomb Mountain
First thing we discovered is a super nice wood carved bench with a cougar… After the first viewpoint, we decided to do a short walk along here… which one I can`t remember, but we saw a lot of wood carved animals, flowers and had some great views, walked over huge rocks, saw the first colored mountains, saw huge ice fields, discovered more mountains, saw clouds and rain crossing the mountains and lucky for us, it didn`t rain where we walked! For a little while we even had the sun coming out again.

And we could enjoy again the Peak-to-Peak Gondola on the way back to the Whistler Mountain – when some raindrops came.

 The Inuksuk
And back on Whistler Mountain: we had some more sunshine! Which made it perfect to visit the Inuksuk… yes I really like those. With the sunshine – a little break at the lodge and checking out how the peak to peak goes over, enjoying the sunshine and then the time came to go inside the Gondola and we are on the way back down to the Valley.

We started the day out in sunshine and it ended it sunshine!