Wednesday Jan 31 - Super Blue Blood Moon and Eclipse
I had another terrible sleep - just can’t get into a normal sleeping pattern.
A cold one today and not much new snow - so there’s no improvement in the conditions. We headed out to 7th heaven and it was heavenly - great packed powder, even Hugh’s Heaven top steep pitch which is always icy was excellent. After a few hours of skiing we decided to ski down to the Mallard for a late lunch - as always it was perfect. We stayed home for a steak dinner - a 10 out of 10 even if I say so myself.
Thursday Feb 1
I had a decent sleep with the aid of 1/2 a Stilnox at 1:30am. Got up at 8:20am to trees again covered in snow - yippee (and the news Nicole had a baby girl).
We took to 7th Heaven again on a cloudy, foggy with flurries kind of day. The snow was not as good as yesterday but it was still pretty reasonable skiing. After a few runs we decided to call it day and ski down to the Mallard for a late lunch before heading home. We did some shopping and stayed home for dinner - pork chops and red cabbage.
Friday Feb 2
I had a so-so sleep in spite of being in bed from just after 9pm until nearly 8:30am. It was snowing heavily when I got up but this soon stopped - very mild weather does are auger well for the skiing over the following week (ie the rest of our stay).
We went out for a few runs anyway ending up in Steeps for lunch. We went to Sidecut at the Four Seasons for an excellent dinner (sablefish for both of us).
Saturday Feb 3
The warm and cloudy/foggy weather continued.
We tried Blackcomb then Whistler then quit early for a late lunch at the Mallard. We stayed home for sambos for dinner.
Sunday Feb 4 - Super Bowl today
The warm and cloudy/foggy and now rainy weather continued - note freezing level.
We went out around 11am in spite of what appeared to be less than ideal conditions. Mid-mountain was in heavy fog so when we got to the top so we headed over to 7th Heaven which turned out to be 7th Hell - from mid-ride up it was a complete white out - it was so bad we decided to just ski back to the Rendezvous which was a bit hairy in itself. From there we skied Jersey Cream which had wet snow but OK - reasonable visibility. We went to the Mallard for a late lunch then home for a rest then out to the IGA as we were low on provisions. Our plan to take a taxi back with out shopping was tharwed when there did not seem to be any taxis about so we walked back in heavy drizzle. We got home around half-time in the Super Bowl - we watched the second half before having pasta for dinner.
Monday Feb 5
The weather pattern continued.
We went out and skied Jersey Cream until the fog closed in totally then did the P-2-P and tried to get into Steeps to no avail so we downloaded and went to our favourite - the Mallard. We went to the Westin for their prime rib Monday night special - it was very good but their restaurant is somewhat lacking in atmosphere.
Tuesday Feb 6
The weather pattern continued.
We skied Jersey Cream again (due to the conditions) - still foggy and now quite icy. We came home for a late lunch and also stayed home for dinner - pork chops.
Wednesday Feb 7
The weather pattern continued but a little warmer.
We took a rest day due to my ailing back and poor weather. We had lunch at the Brew Pub then did some shopping before heading back home for the rest of the day. We stayed home for sambos - pretty much cleaning out the fridge.
Thursday Feb 8
The weather still not the best - quite warm in the village but much clearer.
As Dieter was getting his ski gear on the zipper on his 20+ year old ski pants broke so it was off to the Excess ski shop where he scored a nice pair of Spyder pants. Since it was very icy on the upper mountain we skied on the lower mountain which had spring conditions. We finished off the day with a late lunch at the Mallard then dinner at the Grill Room.
Friday Feb 9
The weather turned cold (well colder than it had been) but the day started out clear and mostly sunny,
We headed out for our last day expecting very hard-packed to icy conditions - we had a few runs on Jersey Cream which was OK then took the P-2-P for a few runs on the Peak t-bar - conditions up there were excellent and the line-up at the t-bar kept on growing. We finished off the day with lunch at Steeps then home for dinner and a bit of Winter Olympics viewing.
Saturday Feb 10
The weather was sunny and cold but it was back to Vancouver for us on the 10:40 am bus. We arrived at the Shangri La just after 1pm - since our room was not ready we upgraded to a suite for an additional $30 per night - seemed like a good deal but they could have given us the upgrade automatically; however, I presume since we booked through Expedia (at a cheap rate) they weren’t inclined to do us any favours.
We dropped our luggage and headed to Joe Fortes for lunch - the concierge offered us her card in case we couldn’t get in and said just to mentioned her name. Well this worked a treat - we were initially told up to 1 hour wait but when we flashed the concierge’s card it was “open sesame” and we got in straight away. We had brunch then went back to the hotel, did a bit of unpacking and then made a walk around Coal Harbour.
We went to Cin Cin for dinner which we had booked a week earlier - and had a bit of a mishap which ended very well. The waiter spilled my main course all over the table - the manager rushed over after we were re-seated and said our whole meal was complimentary - what an amazing service recovery.