First time in Whistler

And actually my first time in Canada.

Anyway, forget about going to Whistler for the snow, go for the food. The village is teeming with restaurant choices and everything I have eaten is amazing. The best so far is the roasted beet, apple and goat cheese salad with candied pecans (which I couldn’t wait to eat, hence no pictures).

And the village itself is beautiful, especially at night when all the trees are decorated with strings of lights. I’m staying a bus ride out of the village because (even compared to Switzerland) accommodation prices are terrifying. The public transport is great though so it’s no big deal and the place I’m staying has a hot tub which is probably the main reason I am still capable of walking.

I mentioned it on my to-do list because I’ve wanted to learn how to snowboard in Whistler for a long time. I knew it would be tough but after day one I have aches in the most interesting places. For example, my collarbone – I spent the day sat on my butt and yet that’s the stiffest part of my body.

I’ve never skied in a helmet so I wondered how that would go. What I have discovered is that I love wearing a helmet, it is my new favorite hat. I want to wear it forever. Except maybe to sleep.

In other good news, the rumors are true and snowboard boots are so much comfier than ski boots. And snowboards are not as heavy as skis (and I haven’t accidentally hit myself over the head yet although I guess with my new fabulous helmet that wouldn’t be such a big deal).

As for snowboarding itself, I wouldn’t recommend it for someone with no sense of balance and a general level of clumsiness which means they can fall over their own feet while standing still on the spot. So as you can imagine it is going really well for me! When it works it’s great and I don’t really mind the falling over (that’s nothing new to me). But some basic skills are still tough like fastening my second foot into the bindings when sat down. And standing up once both bindings are fastened. The actually traveling down the hill bit is not too bad.

And magic carpets! So much easier than T-bars or button lifts. I only fell over once which is way better than my record on any other kind of lift (clumsy, remember). I needed to conserve all the energy I could and the magic carpets really helped with that.

In short, Whistler rocks and I’m glad I’ve tried snowboarding but, really, don’t expect to see me at the X Games any time soon. Especially if I keep eating all the food!