Backpacker Buzz

 It’s possible to pack quite a bit into one day in Whistler!!

So….. life here is pretty damn cool truth be known, I’m having a blast!

I started out today by meeting up with Ski Club of Great Britain PR Guru Bettony Garner and her great chum Anna…

First task of the morning was to head up the mountain to find a great viewpoint and do a bit of filming for the Ski Clubs weekly Snowcast video….. Bet and myself were doing a few words about the Olympic vibe to go in this, so where better than the vantage point at the Roundhouse – it gives a great feeling of being on top of the world there as you will be able to see in the video on www.skiclub.co.uk from Friday.

While filming this there was a rather unusual sight close by – a group of Mounties having their photos taken with one of the Stone Inukshuk monuments that are dotted around Whistler. We managed to crash the photo session and get in on the action – very cool!

Now, it may be a surprise, but not everyone here ski or boards… Anna is one such person, but you can’t come to Whistler without going on the Peak to Peak gondola that links the Whistler and Blackcomb mountains! So we went for a ride across in a major feat of engineering……

Some facts for you…..It takes about 11minutes to travel the 2.73 mile span in one of the 28 gondolas and at the highest point you are 436 metres over Fitzsimmons Creek….. we managed to hop in one of the two cabins that have a glass bottom viewing window and you really appreciate how far up you are as you look over the trees far below! Not so great if you don’t like heights, but then you wouldn’t be there in the first place would you?!

We stopped on the Blackcomb side for a cheeky coffee and cookie before making the trip back…. Seizing the opportunity, Bettony persuaded Anna that she should appear in our Ski Club snowcast video giving a few words about her Olympic experience. It’s pretty cool Anna being here; she’s taking everything on board ready for her involvement in the 2012 London Olympics. However, her job description hasn’t quite been pinned down yet and could come under the comedy guise of “Olympic Athlete Servicer”….  Apparently Anna has to make sure competitors are all happy and have all they need during the games…. Whatever that means????

I've heard the UK press has been giving the Winter Olympics a bit of a bashing – however, if you ask anyone here about their experience and the response is a really positive one… yes, I was affected by the canceling of standing tickets, but other than that everything here runs super smooth, it’s easy to get about the villages, there are so many friendly people with big smiles making it all work well it’s untrue…. I do worry that the UK press may be setting themselves up for a bit of a fall when the 2012 games come around, but I guess we’ll wait and see…

After the two gondola trips it was time for Anna to head down and myself and B to hit the slopes for a while…. Despite her protestation she rocks on skis and lead me down the hills at a good lick… As well as doing Club PR, Bettony is also an on mountain Ski rep like myself and did a few weeks leading around Whistler before the games started… she dropped fearlessly into the bowls and had me wondering where we’d end up….. I am still loving all this skiing…. People asked if I might get bored of it given that I started my whole trip in December and have skied almost the whole time… well NO WAY!!! Especially not when you have fun people to hit the slopes with too. I was also rocking the Union Jack today which always gets some cheers… the hills at the moment are seriously empty and getting out and about is just superb!

After our ski session I dumped my stuff and got ready for the next event….. we headed off to watch the first two heats of the Women’s “2-man” bobsleigh… it’s just incredible being there at trackside.. You can get soooooo close to the track it’s just amazing… being within a few feet of a bobsleigh hurtling past at about 150kmph is pretty breathtaking to say the least! They are going so fast at the end that they speed straight up an incline slope for about 200metres….

We had the flags out and cheered vigorously for our Brit girls – if you were watching the event at home we apparently made it onto the TV a bunch of times!! To get a sense of the atmosphere you can check out my video blog of the event…. It was snowing, the competitors were fast and it was a great evening!

After that it was time for a bit of food and a few beers…. We started off at the Irish pub which and were joined by a few more Olympic revelers. It turned out to be a good choice as they had some live music playing…. It was however the quietest Irish pub session I think I’ve been to…. It seems that people here haven’t quite go into the whole clapping / stomping along theme of an Irish music session yet….. oh well…

After a few pints of Granville Winter Ale and Kokanee we had gained our dancing feet and it was time to head to the Longhorn pub…. It was 80’s night!! The tunes blasted out, some better than others, and we had a good old boogie session!!

We were going to finish the night in Buffalo Bills so that we could squeeze in just a little more dance time, but were put off when the doorman couldn’t tell us how long it might take to get in, or more importantly what the entry charge would be – very odd, but never mind, we’d already done the dance floor of the Longhorn proud!

Like I said earlier – I’m loving Whistler!!

Woop woooop!

HB