Summer in Whistler

I'm a little late in posting the pictures, but a couple weekends ago Anya and I spent a weekend in Whistler. The picture album is here.

Most ski towns (as I've written before, Whistler is the largest & one of the best on the continent) are pretty quiet in the summer. Most of them can only dream of having the kind of year-round crowds that Whistler draws. Maybe it's the proximity to Vancouver or the fact that there's more to do there in the summer than in the winter, but this little town is almost as busy in August as it is in January.

We spent our first day ziplining - an activity where you don a climbing harness attached to a pulley and glide down cables suspended between trees. The place we went had a series of 5 cables, the largest of which was 2200' long, dropped 20 stories, and got you moving more than 50 mph. It was extremely enjoyable; I could have easily done 5 more ropes. For me the appeal was actually kind of like the appeal of skiing: a bit of adrenaline - even for those of us who aren't afraid of heights - mixed with the graceful and serene feeling of gliding through the forest and over a rushing mountain stream. After they showed us how to glide upside-down (with your head & arms dangling toward the ground) the experience got even better.

Although we couldn't bring our camera along we bought a couple photos from their professional photographer (above; they're also in the album).

You'll also see that we took the gondola & lift to the top of Whistler mountain and went for a hike. It was mostly cloudy, but at times it cleared just enough to see some fantastic scenery.

On our way home we stopped at the Whisler Olympic Park, the venue for ski jumping, nordic skiing, and biathlon at this winter's Olympics. Only one comment there: ski jumping is crazy.