Last Day at Whistler… =(

I had such a massive day of riding on Monday (11am to 8pm) – that i was pretty tired Tuesday morning. I faffed around at the Lodge until about 1pm, talking to Brett, another aussie fulla who is on a working holiday visa also… surprise surprise…

Anyway – off to the park again, to do a little bit of riding….. or so i thought….!

I thought i would do the touristy thing and take the gondola right up to the top of Whistler Mountain – it was a little cloudy today, so probably not the best day, but i thought i should better make use of the season pass before heading back to Van.

There is a  lodge/restaurant thing at the top of the gondola, and some other sights to see…. this pic is a view across the valley over to Blackcomb mountain… the other mountain!

The top of the whislter village gondola – Looking into the “glacier bowl” which is situated just beneath the Peak of Whistler Mountain – clouded over today…. oh well, there will be another time!

More Blackcomb.

They have the Trademark, icon, symbol of the 2010 Vancouver/Whistler Olympics up there outside the lodge!…. reminds me of the dude i used to make out of stacked Mahjong blocks..!! nice one.

They (Intrawest – the company who owns the skiing/accom/resort etc) are building this MASSIVE cable gondola thing which is to be strung between the two mountains…. only four towers, the cable will span a max of over 3km unsupported.. and a whole heap of other ‘worlds first facts’… pretty cool
, but kind of stupid, as stringing the thing from peak to peak doesn’t help access more terrain, but probably more of a touristy thing at the end of the day.

some construction photos – one of the foundations for the towers…. hmm… concrete right?

A nice timber roof in the roundhouse lodge.

so yeah, a bit cloudy as you can see, but still pretty massive.

There’s loads of activity going on on the mountain, loads of heavy equipment moving earth and stuff. From what i can gather, this pic is of maybe the downhill ski course or something, as it was steep, and went on for ages!

Cloud in the Valley between Whistler and Blackcomb

Well, after coming back down the gondola, i got back on the bike and did maybe 4-5 runs on the lower mountain… that was enough to convince me that i just wasn’t up for it today!!.. man, my hands were so sore/cramped that it was hard to pull the brakes, and hold onto the bars when it got rough…. yesterday had taken it’s toll!!

So yes, you can have too much of a good thing… but nothing a day of rest can’t solve!!

Anyway – i thought i would phat out and treat myself to a nice Banana, cream, nutella crepe….. mmmmm….. i had been walking past this place for the last 10 days, and thought it would be rude not to sample ones delights……… a lot better than pizza by the slice!… oh, this was just heaven!

So …… thats about it!…. no big fan fare, no big last crash/endo off the dream drop, no cheerleaders or hot chics handing me water bottles…… sore, but happy hands leaving the bike park………. until my next weekend trip up here!

yeah, there are plenty of odd-jobs, hotels, hospotality going everywhere in Whistler.. they can’t find enough people… so, if any of you want to take a break and live the mountain lifestyle… it is all here and waiting….. girls – remember, 6 guys to every one girl… you do the math!

Canadian BBQ Championships, and Bears

My last weekend in Whistler just so happened to coincide with the Canadian BBQ Championships, held in Whistler Creekside – which is where i was staying.

$5 on the Sunday gave you an “all you can eat/sample” from the competitors tents. This was pretty good value actually – The competition had 4 courses/disciplines, to be handed in/presented on the hour. Mike, an aussie from Perth at the lodge, also on working holiday, joined me to check out all the fuss!

11am – Pork Belly

12pm – Beef Brisket

1pm – Chicken

2pm – Ribs

Apologies in advance if any of these photos make you hungry…

Some of the smokin’machines were impressive!.. gives you a new appreciation for BBQ-ing!

ok – first meat shot – this is the Beef Brisket – 10-12hours of slow smoke-cooking…. not kidding eh, these guys/gals stayed up all night stoking their bbq machines to the right temp for this competition!…. i haven’t got any photos of the pulled pork bellies, but they were oh so nice and tender eh,…. great flavours too!

I don’t know how many entries there were, but i’d guess around 30 odd competitors? mmm beef brisket…

I got my old digital camera out for these pics today – can you tell the difference from the previous blog photos?… anyway – this is serious competition – they pull, pick and slice pices up and present them in a white styro-foam container, on a bed of lettuce… then it goes upstairs to the judges… From what i can tell, the competitors look at the colour, texture, tenderness, how easy it pulls/holds together etc etc….

Judges upstairs – and a crazy looking ROCK smoker/bbq thing above.

Ok – some teams went to great lengths – this guy below had 3 beef briskets done overnight, then got four of his lads/mates to taste test them all, before deciding which one to cut 8-9 slices of and present to the judges!…. what happens to the rest of the meat? it gets cut up and given away to the lucky taste testers! (US!)…. mmm…

yeah, this is the 3-brisket guy..

slicing and spicing his MEAT.

the standard styro box and control lettuce.

ok – i sampled about 5-6 different briskets. some were tender, soft, sweet and juicy. Others were a bit chewy and obviously not quite there… a fine ART after 10-12 hours of cooking eh… makes you realize that this is more than just meat on the grill. And these briskets are HUGE eh!….. must be fun trying to do this for the first time, it could come out all charcoal, or underdone…

The event was held at “Dustys” bar in Creekside – the only real pub in Whistler Creek. had Kokanee on Tap which was good….

Most teams were TEAMS of several guys.. some of the typical big fullas, but surprisingly not all standing around drinking beer!.. this is serious folks. Some good heated banter between teams, and guys complimenting each others ‘meat’. Wow Chad, your chicken looks gorgeous!…. classic funny…!

This guy was a one man band, with his wife doing some things on the side.. he must really love his BBQ to have this wicked set out/trailer all to his own. note fire box, to cooking chamber, to exhaust!

butter up your ribs?

Well, the pork and beef were the all-nighters. The chicken and ribs were said to take about an hour and a half or there abouts.. these three puppies are sitting on plates with a can of Kokanee up them!… presumably with spices/seasonings to infuse them.

ok – so these chooks got cut and and Re-smoked from what i could tell…

ok – so the next team below cracked me up BIG-TIME. there were like 6 guys all beavering over the chicken that they had cooked. Seriously intense discussion over colour, cuts, flavour, texture etc! check it out.

Can you see the intensity!

ok, so he has cut the breast, and now aligning the thing for presentation….

now i think he is cutting up another one to CHECK if it is better or worse than the one they think is the ‘money breast’!

right – into the styrofoam/lettuce….. seriously – they fussed over this for 5-10 minutes – placing lettuce in the right place, not to shadow the chicken, arranging the parsley, man, fuss fuss fuss!!….. all good, i don’t know who won – but their chickentasted pretty good,kind of like… chicken!

ok – people were lining up around the place for the hell of it by this stage, all got meat on their minds!

What better way else to waste away the day, but go for another dip in Alta lake -  It was pretty busy, loads of ‘people’ hanging out. I forgot to mention it was a long weekend, with BC day on Monday – so a few more visitors in town. After a good few hours swimming and pissing around, I went and saw the new Bourne Ultimatum movie with Mike – man, great movie, can’t go on how good of an action flick it was. That was my lazy Sunday!

Ok – Bears? This was on Monday!….mummy and a cub – well, 3 actually in the fields between the two main chairlifts.

The photo below is the construction of the “sliding centre” for the 2010 winter olympics!… luge, bobsleigh, skeleton etc….. cool eh. Just like the one i saw at Calgary!

ok – looking a bit tired and jaded – this must have been on Monday – i had an AWESOME day on the hill – 11am to 8pm, riding the upper double black technical trails – Original Sin, Goats Gully, In Deep, Facrobat into Too Tight…. all good!

ok, i’m not as cute as a bear….

for your viewing pleasure – i’ve cropped the photos above (since i had the big camera), and i’m posting these up too! The photos above were taken at 350mm focal length – i.e MAX ZOOM… hence why the cropped photos look a bit soft. but you get the picture!

so cute eh.

ENJOY

Well, although these look cute, residents at Whistler need to take care of their rubbish/trash so as not to habitualize them – when bears discover rubbish, and houses mean food (easier than waiting for berries to ripen on a bush/tree (ahem!…Kurt………), they break in and starting ripping the place/fridge to pieces!.. no shite eh, there are stories in the papers, and these ‘conflict bears’ are often removed, or killed as they cannot unlearn their behaviour.

So there are special bins around the place, bear-proof, and lots of education/signage around about bear awareness…