The Down Family Christmas - Whistler Style - Part III

Having realized painfully the day before that a short sleeved Kiwi rugby shirt (found left many years before amongst the detritus and general tat abandoned by an old house mate in Brighton) would not cut the mustard keeping me warm in such baltic conditions, I broke out the gimp mask and England shirt for day two's endurance mission.

Much better - even if i did look like a weegie bank robber about to do over the local post office !

Thankfully that look soon became one of Scott in the antarctic as mousture froze on my face within seconds. In fact the feeling of snot becoming ice within the nostrils can be quite off putting sitting on chair lifts but hey ho ! Welcome to Canada I suppose. So much for Whistler being famed for wet snow. No chance of that here.

The trade off and advantage of such cold conditions however was that thankfully the sun poked its head out for a wee while and long enough for Mom and John to embark out on their second day's adventure snow shoeing from midsatation.

They had done this a few days before on Cypress Mountain overlooking Vancouver but unfortunately within a pea soup of visibility that had hid the wonderous views known to be had over Howe Sound and the city itself.

Strapping on wierd looking contraptions to feet and wrapping up well too off they went dodging out of control snow skidders (boarders) and into the trees looking out for bears and cougars.

I did tell them that they need not worry about Cougars as my mate Leigh had snogged them all the previous season and they had died of a rare form of alcohol induced ADD during the winter but all they did was look at me in bemusement (as I am sure most of you are doing now reading this).

Finishing up our day in the 'Duhb Lihn Gate' having finally managed to get all five of us around one table whilst fighting off the hoards of yanks trying to corrall chairs together, the famed 'spinach and artichoke' dip was swiftly ordered along with several pitchers !

Life is tuff I tell ya ! As we had such top seats and having had such a good day on the hill with a vastly improving Pricey Boy perhaps the Apres action got a little too energetic and before you know any chance of dinner in town had been missed with several empty picthers lined up on our table.

Oh well - back to the digs and a hot tub with some yellow lemonade I suppose. Damn, life is tuff !

2 days skied - 48 to go !