Whistler, round two!
Maybe I should clear up something about the “Whistler
Trip”. It wasn’t as smooth as it
sounded. We first arrived in
Whistler on a four-day trip, but the weather only allowed us to spend one day
on snow with some impressive displays of rain and high winds.
Although our first trip wasn’t productive, we did manage to squeeze a few adventures
in. One night we snuck away to check
out the TELUS Ski/Snowboard Festivals “Skier Big Air Event” taking place above the GLC in
Whistler Village. This was
crazy! I don’ think I have ever
really witnessed first hand how big these crazy kids go. Every second trick was a double corked
this, or double flip that. Obviously some really sweet carnage to go along with the impressive
tricks that were landed, the crashes were probably my favorite!
The next night, to amuse ourselves we decided in the late afternoon we would
take on a mission to pass the time by looking for “Keyhole Hot springs” in the rain, which
turned out to be a not so easy task (surprising huh?). An hour drive, followed by a short sled ride, then a kilometer or so
walk through the snow covered forest, we found the hot springs covered with a
nice film/layer of algae. A short
‘clean-up’ mission to get rid of the slimy green stuff I’m sure tourists would
pay huge money to sit in… it was ‘game on’ and time to soak in the smoking hot
natural tubs. There might have
been some beverages and a few dips in the glacier fed river as well, just to spice things up a bit!
After a short intermission back in Golden, I returned to
Whistler to continue our spring coverage. This is where I hooked up with Team Slednecks and witnessed their
shenanigans. These guys truly are
professional in almost ever sense of the word.
With huge, 80 foot plus
step-down Indian Airs, huge wedge gaps with every trick in the book being
thrown, and step-ups that defy gravity, these guys did it all. I’ve always thought they were probably
riding machines that were “special” somehow that allowed them to pull off these
huge airs, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. They were all on either their 600cc race sleds (stock), or
2010 stock machines that were accentually demo sleds that you and I had the chance
to ride.
Yes, they really are that much better then us!
After that, it was family time in Vancouver, then back to Golden to milk a few last
days before we have to summarize our sleds.
It ain’t over yet folks, but dang it’s getting close!
