Sun Peaks

Sun Peaks got its name not because the sun shines all the time on top of the peaks, but because the sun "peeks" in from time to time. At least, we only saw it one day during our stay.

On our first day, we started right with double black diamond trails and we did ski a lot of them during our stay. My favorite runs are Hidden Valley (black), Three Bears (blue) and Runaway Lane (blue).

Three Bears

After lunch, we joined the "Ski with Nancy Greene" crowd - she is a Olympic Gold medallist and won the World Cup in 1967 and 1968. She promoted skiing all over Canada and is a local hero. The Canadians in the group immediately told us all about her - like she was appointed to the Senate in Ottawa. That's the reason, why you can only ski with Nancy on the weekends.

Nancy Greene

The other days, we kept on going through the woods and more or less finding a way on our own, sometimes guided by the trails left behind by others, sometimes setting our own. Usually going down the double black diamonds meant a lot of work and we were getting really warm.

Thanks to Victor's GoPro Video camera, we can present you some ski movies.

cameraman

Hell's Kitchen movie (aka Freddie's Nightmare)

There is only one lodge on the mountain at the top of the Sunburst lift, but you can find toilets at some other points as well as a warming hut on the Top of the World (2080 m !!!). You can also eat in the village that you can access on skis. On two days, we went down to the hostel and cooked something ourselves.

Sun Peaks

The resort has only one supermarket and no fuel station, so you better think about what all you have to bring or you will have to live without.

Skipasses: Same as in Whistler.

Hours of operation: 8:30 (Burfield Chair starting at 9:00) to 3:30 (depending on month)

Lifts: 5 chairlifts (one with bubble, Burfield chair taking 22 minutes to the top), one T-bar, two ski lifts and two magic carpets.

Trails:

Green - easy to the point of going uphill and if you fall nothing happens. Usually groomed. (European green/ blue)

Blue - a bit steeper, mostly groomed and if you fall, it's okay. (European red)

Black Diamond - really steep, can be narow and ungroomed. If you fall, you slide. (European black)

Double Black Diamond - extremely difficult, steep slope, difficult moguls, glades, drop offs and trees. If you fall, you may slide over a cliff or hug a tree.

Snow: all kinds - groomed trails, harsh fields, sloshy warm, powder if you hunt it down.

Specials: Like Whistler, Sun Peaks offers free mountain guide host tours twice a day (9:15 am and 1 pm from Sunburst base). A real special thing is skiing with Nancy Greene.

Mount Morrisey

Review: Sun Peaks Hostel, Sun Peaks

General appearance

The Sun Peaks Hostel looks like a ship turned downside up and is very flashy with its red roof. Its design is not fitting the classical alpine architecture, but it has a great atmosphere.

Location

The hostel is situated at the beginning of Sun Peaks, across from the Burfield Chair. If you have a car, the position is just fine. Without it's either a ten minute walk to the bus stop and then a 5 minute ride or a 30 min walk up the hill to the village. During the day, you can do a trip to the village by skis going up Burfield and then to the village.

Room

There are private rooms and dormitories. We had a private room on the first floor below the roof. It was small, had two beds and a cupboard. The walls are not soundproof, so you hear the snoring at the night and usually do not need a wake-up call in the morning.

On the ground floor is a big relax and dining area. A big kitchen completes the front part of this floor - in the big fridge everybody can store their food. There is enough space that two or three parties can cook and prepare food at the same time.

In the basement, there are the laundry room, five public toilets/ showers and changing & storage room for your outdoor equipment.

Breakfast

Every morning, there is a pancake mixture you can use and add water and then bake your pancakes on the griddle. Maple syrup is available but we were more in favor of apple sauce.

Other

As usual nowadays, free wifi was available. There was also a storage room for skis and snowboards in the back entrance. The staff at the hostel offers also snowmobile tours.

Whistler to Sun Peaks

Friday morning, we left Whistler and after a 40 km detour for the Brandywine Falls that were closed we headed north on Highway 99 to go to Sun Peaks.

We used the chance to stop at the next falls and hiked 1.5 km along a steep creek to the Nairn Falls.

In Pemberton, we filled the tank and then crossed about 100 km of Alpine "No Man's Land" with no settlements and only some people going out there for snowmobiling, ski trekking and cross-country. Our car brought us safely through. When we stopped for lunch, a bird landed on the car peeking in for some bread crumbs.

Then we changed highways to Caribou Highway and later to Trans-Canada Highway (#1) and crossed vast areas of land. We passed some scattered houses, cars and farms.

mobile watering systems

We stopped at another view point from which we had a splendid view, only a sign warned of some dangerous animals. So we left in a hurry.

In Kamloops, we moved to Old Highway 5 and after some twenty km took a turn to the right and drove uphill for 32 km until we arrived in Sun Peaks. Our hostel was situated right at the beginning, but the GPS did not know the address, so we missed it the first time. After checking a tourist map we found it.

Review: Market Place Lodge, Whistler

General appearance

Market Place Lodge is housing several apartments and is quite big. Right at the entrance is the reception with friendly staff.

Location

The lodge is right at Market Place in North WhistlerVillage - it's just one, two minutes off the Sea to Sky Highway. But to the lifts you have to walk the Village Stroll (pedestrian zone) for about 10-15 minutes.

At Market Place you will find all necessities like post office, grocery store, Starbucks, McDonalds, KFC, a bank, a candy shop and ski outfitters.

Room

We had a one-room-apartment on first floor looking out on the Market Place. As you walk in you have the bathroom with a tub on the right and the laundry room with washing machine and tumble dryer inside on the left - that's we put our skis for the night.

Next there was an open kitchen with a big refrigerator, micro-wave, dish-washer and stove.

The bed was hidden in a cupboard and our clothes we could put in a walk-in cupboard next to it.

To the end of the room is the fireplace, couch and TV set. Most important channel: the Weather Network. The firecplace was only operated with gas and only with a countdown, so it did not heat up and was just for setting the atmosphere. You could also enter the balcony there which was freezing cold.

Breakfast

We prepared it ourselves, so it was either fried eggs, vegetables, rolls and jam or German pancakes with apple sauce.

Other

The lodge offered also complimentary wifi internet & international long-distance calls, free undergroud parking and a hot tub.

You could access all areas only with a key card.

The only downside was that the Market Place was snowplowed every morning at 5 am when snow fell earlier and the peep-peep of the reverse gear was driving you crazy.

So ask for a room to the backside!

Whistler-Blackcomb

So we started off our skiing adventure on Blackcomb and Whistler Mountains - changing daily the mountain or during the day thanks to the Peak2Peak Gondola. The first days the weather was very snowy and windy.

Great for us, the last two days it cleared up - at least in the valley.

But on the peaks, there were still heavy winds and flurries, so we hurried up to get lower and did some gladed runs through the trees with great powder - going "off piste" is not an offense, it is a MUST!

I didn't know that 7th Heaven is that cold, so I better stay on earth:

Skipasses: big paper passes with a rubber band (very old-fashioned), staff is scanning them at the valley stations. Most of the staff on the lifts, schools, hotels and lodges is from foreign English-speaking countries like Australia, New Zealand, England, but you can also find Germans, South Africans and other nationalities. It is said that a collapse of the skiing industry in Canada could cause a serious rise in unemployment figures in Australia.

Hours of operation: 8:30 to 3:00 (depending on month)

Lifts: 3 gondolas incl. Peak2Peak, several 4-seater chair lifts (only one with bubble), some smaller chairs and some T-bar lifts.

Trails: different labeling system (more on that in Sun Peaks) and not all of them are groomed at night. There are trails for every ski type - just there could be more runs to the valley as the handful there is gets really crowded in the afternoon.

Snow: mostly powder, and if not it was very nice soft snow that you can even handle easily after a long day of skiing.

Specials: Mountain hosts offering you a free orientation tour - our host took us to the powder bowls and through the trees.

The only animal we had seen.

Whistler Village in the evening

www.whistlerblackcomb.com

Our adventures live on video - enjoy!

Vancouver to Whistler: Sea to Sky Highway

We went back to the airprt, picked up the rest of our luggage and rented a car - a Mitsubishi Outlander. We stored our luggage inside, switched on the GPS and moved in direction of Vancouver. We entered Stanley Park, crossed the Lions Gate bridge and hit Highway 99 "Sea to Sky".

Lions Gate Bridge

Unfortunately, the weather was very bad - raining all the time and visibility very low. So we did not see much from the splendid coastline. The only viewpoint we made use of was Shannon Falls. From the parking lot we walked a nice forest way uphill to a platform from which we saw the falls.

Shannon Falls

forest way

The recreation area near the parking lot also had a stone walled toilet house, but they had hung up the following sign:

So instead, I used one of the following huts:

The highway that is not an "Autobahn" but more like a "Bundesstraße" (federal road) we were allowed to drive a maximum speed of 60-80 km/h (there should be some parts which are 100 - where?). On the way, we also saw a lot of interesting signs - here is one of them:

Around 11 am we arrived at Whistler, got our ski passes and off we went to the mountains.

Review: Barclay Hotel, Vancouver

General appearance

The hotel looks nice from outside and lobby, but if you venture beyond you see the corner where it's worn.

Location

The Barclay Hotel is on Robson Street - the runway of Vancouver. Even it's several blocks from the SkyTrain, you reach it within 15 minutes.

Room

Our room was small and cosy with two beds looking oout on a side street. Bathroom was a bit unclean, but okay for one, two nights.

Room 322

bathroom

Breakfast

There is a breakfast offer for less than 10 CAD in the adjoining "The Den".

Other

Nothing.

Vancouver, B.C.

Two flights (Munich to Montreal 8h30 and Montreal to Vancouver 6h00) brought us to Vancouver in British Columbia - due to the weather in Munich & Montreal and strong headwinds we arrived only after midnight and we checked into Barclay Hotel on Robson Street at 1:30.

Starbucks on Robson

Nonetheless, we were awake quite early and had breakfast at Café Crêpe. Besides this franchise, we saw a lot of Blenz Coffeeshops and uncountable Starbucks. As we found out later there 47 Starbucks in Downtown and about 250 in all Vancouver. On Robson Street there are at least 5 and two are facing each other on one crossing. So enjoy your coffee.

Entrance to Marine Building

Stomachs filled, we headed to the waterfront looking for some landmark buildings: Marine Building, Canada Place, Vancouver Lookout. Canada Place is formed like a cruiseship and functions as a terminal for the same. From there we saw a seaplane start and head off to Victoria on Vancouver Island (capital of BC).

Canada Place

Back downtown we joined a guided tour run by Steve from TourGuys who led us through downtown and Gastown and told us a lot of stories and history. So if you ever go there, check out their website www.tourguys.ca. It's free and they only work for tips.

According to Steve Vancouverites like to protest and have a riot from time to time - most interesting: public weed smoking in a central place on Victor's b-day, naked cyclists block a bridge once a year (the other months they do it with their clothes on) and the riots took place after the Stanley Cup losts in 1994 and 2011.

Tourist shop in Gastown

The tour ended in Gastown - named after Gassie Jack (a pub owner who brought the first alcohol to Vancouver. It's the oldest part of town, but not everything that looks old is so. Much of it was put there to keep the image with the tourists up. The steam clock is a good example - it's neither old nor running by steam. A lot of the older city buildings are heated by steam and as this builds up pressure you will find everywhere in the city steaming poles, tubes, flower baskets and the steam clock.

Steam Clock

After the tour we moved on to Chinatown. There, the preparations for Chinese New Year were on and a lot of people were at the bank where we cashed the traveller checks. Then we took a break and entered Dr. Sun Yat-Sen's Classical Chinese Garden - a serene spot in the middle of the city.

Chinese Garden

We found another old culture on the premises of the University of British Columbia next to the Museum of Anthropology - the totem poles of the Haida and other first nations villages on the coast of British Columbia.

Museum of Anthropology

Haida totem poles

Granville Island Public Market

In the evening, we walked passed the neon signs of Granville Street to the water and strolled from Coal Harbour with the private yachts to Stanley Park. On the way back to the hotel we did some grocery shopping at a Safeway - prices for food are quite high in Canada. So we just bought the essientiels for a quiet dinner in our room.

Granville Street

Coal Harbour