Archive for the 'Snowboarding' Category
This past Presidents’ Day on Monday was the first time in my 10-year working career that it was a holiday for me. Making full use of this holiday, Smelly and i went snowboarding at Whistler, site of the 2010 Winter Olympics. On our way to Whistler, we made our usual stop in Vancouver to meet up with Boon and Shaohong. Together, we had dinner at the well-known restaurant Vij’s.
Last year we came up to Vancouver during Labor Day weekend and we wanted to try Vij’s but when we got there and found out that the wait was going to be at least two hours, we ate at the bistro-style restaurant called Rangoli, which is located right next to Vij’s and has the same owner - Vikram Vij. Recently, we watched an episode of No Reservations in Vancouver and in that episode, Anthony Bourdain visited several Vancouver restaurants, including Vij’s. Coincidentally, Vij’s restaurant takes no reservations. That made me thought of going to Vij’s again.
On Saturday, after shopping at the only H&M store (located in Coquitlam, BC) in the Pacific Northwest, we went straight to Granville. By the time we arrived there, it was close to 1730. Already we spotted a long line of people waiting outside Vij’s. Vij’s does not take reservation so there’s no telling how long you have to wait. By the time we got to the restaurant, the line was already 40-people long. We were not the initial batch of people that got seated and we were told the wait was going to be 1.5 hours. Indeed, we waited for at least 1.5 hours before we were finally seated. While we were waiting in front of the bar at the back of the restaurant, Vikram would walk by every so often to ask how we were doing. It was a pleasant surprise to find that he is such a down to earth kind of guy. Not only was he visiting table to table talking to the guests, Vikram was also helping the waiting staff out with things like setting tables, moving extra chairs and taking orders. I have never seen a more personable and hospitable host like Vikram. The food was good and the wine was great. Vikram even took time out of his busy night to take a picture with us. We had a really great time there.
The following morning, we drove up to Whistler. After checking into the Westin at Whistler and unloading our stuff in the room, we went straight for the gondola. For the past few weeks, i had been collecting the Ski Free with Shell vouchers religiously. Every time i fill up my car with at least 10 gallons of gas, i would ask for a voucher. In all, i collected probably 6 or 7 vouchers. The Ski Free voucher was a great deal last year because at Whistler, we would pay regular price for a lift ticket and get the second one for free. Other than a few blackout days, it was valid for the whole season. And that’s what i thought it would be too for this season. Wrong! Found out at the lift ticket window that the blackout dates for this season are “Jan 1 thru 6, Jan 18 thru 21 and February 2 thru April 13, 2008“. Holy shit, that’s pretty much the whole freaking season! That’s so lame.
On Monday morning, Janet and i went to Aubergine Grille for breakfast, a restaurant in the Westin. After we were seated, i suddenly recognized a familiar face sitting diagonally across from me at the table right next to ours. The renowned director of “Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon” fame, Ang Lee (李安), was sitting less than 5 feet away from me! I got kind of excited and was hoping to get a chance to talk to him and let him know how much i have enjoyed his movies throughout the years. But i did not want to intrude onto his privacy. Besides, i am pretty sure he has heard enough compliments, more than he ever wanted to hear.
So that’s how i spent my Presidents’ Day long weekend, “with” the rich and famous.
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I went up to Whistler during the Thanksgiving break a few weeks ago. Snow was pretty decent, consider the season had just barely started.
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(camera: Sony Ericsson K608i)
Symphony Amphitheater - the newly open lift-accessed back country area on the Whistler mountain.
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I was in Whistler this past weekend with my sis and Smelly. Prior to our visit, it had not snowed there for about 3 weeks and as expected, most of the runs were hard-packed snow. I spent all of the first day on Whistler and went to the new Symphony bowl for the first time. On the second day, i was riding up and down Blackcomb.
(camera: Sony Ericsson K608i)
(camera: Sony Ericsson K608i)
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There is no better way for me to end the year 2006 than spending two days in a row snowboarding in the British Columbia coastal mountains. Since i was not willing to cough up $600 a night of accomodation at Whistler in order to spend both days there, and also because i wanted to take my ex-roommate Boon and his wife Shaohong along with me, i decided to only spend a day at Whistler.
The first day, i drove up to Cypress Mountain, a ski resort about 30 minutes from Vancouver. Cypress Mountain is like the mini-me version of Whistler/Blackcomb - it has two mountains side by side (Black Mountain and Strachan Mountain), like Whistler and Blackcomb. As soon as i arrived at Cypress Mountain, it started snowing quite heavily. By the time i got back to my car about 5 hours later, there was 3 inches of snow on my car. Cypress Mountain has some decent runs and the lift ticket during the peak season is $50 for the full day. In comparison, a regular full day lift ticket costs $81 at Whistler!
View of downtown Vancouver and Stanley Park from the scenic point near Cypress Mountain:
View from the scenic point near Cypress Mountain:
The second day, i took Boon and Shaohong to Whistler. It took us about one and a half hours to get to Whistler from Boon’s apartment on Beach Ave in Vancouver - there was very little traffic and the roads were clear. Because of our late departure, Boon and Shaohong missed the start time for the full day beginner lesson so i ended up teaching them, especially Shaohong, for about an hour. Man, i really sucked in giving lesson to beginner. I was especially impatient because i only had about 4 hours max to ride since the lifts stopped operating at 1500 and we didn’t arrive until after 1100. Other than a few icy patches, the snow was good from top to bottom on Whistler. The last run of the day, i rode all the way down from the top of the Harmony chair. I think i was one of the last few persons, if not the last, to ride down from Harmony. I didn’t do as many runs as i originally wanted but the almost non-stop (i stopped once to call Boon on the walkie talkie) 30-minute last run made up for it.
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The storm that brought fresh powder during my 2-day snowboarding trip at Whistler also blanketed Vancouver and Western Washington (from the Canadian border all the way South of Everett) with more than 15 inches of snow. Normally the travel time between Richmond (BC) and Seattle is about 2.5 hours but because of the enormous amount of snow on a big stretch of I-5, it took me more than 5 hours to get home. I was averaging no more than 20 miles an hour on I-5 between the border town of Blaine and exit 232 near Mt Vernon, a distance of about 50 miles. There was no sign of any snow removal equipment on the freeway and that might explain the number of vehicles that i witnessed in the ditches.
Pictures taken with my 1.3 meg pixel camera phone:
Snowing in Vancouver.
Border wait.
Snow covered border signs.
Pictures taken with Janet’s 2.0 meg pixel camera phone:
Snowing in Vancouver.
Snowing in Vancouver.
Melted snow on sunroof.
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I have been waiting very patiently since late April for this moment. It’s that time of the year again. It’s snowboarding time!
The storm that came into this region last weekend dumped a lot of snow in the mountains. In the upcoming week, the weather forecast is calling for more snow. And guess what, i will be spending my Thanksgiving in Whistler, home of the 2010 Winter Olympics. Sweeeeeet!!!
At the end of last season, my Session pants was literally torn into pieces, and since i could not find a decent pair of pants to replace it when all the winter gears were on sale in April, i have to pay premium for a pair of Burton AK Gore-Tex 2L pants. There goes all my Citibank credit card cash rebate for the year.
To get ready for this season, i started running on the treadmill about a month ago. I have never enjoyed running, i think i still don’t, but for the sake of being able to make it through a full day of riding, i am running between 2 to 2.5 miles each time. My goal is to run 3 miles in less than 30 minutes.
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I went snowboarding this past weekend with Seattle KAPS (Korean American Professionals Society). I don’t believe i’ve ever had more fun in all my other snowboarding trips. Those folks from the Seattle KAPS sure know how to party!
We left Seattle Thursday night in Tom’s “pimped up” 1991 Toyota Previa AWD minivan. Also in Tom’s van were Sun Yi, Young Ki and Jina. We ran into a freak snow storm as we drove past the border toward Vancouver. I have been to Vancouver no less than 10 times in the last 4 years and this is the first time that i saw snow. Strangely enough, as we drove north of Vancouver toward Whistler, the roads were bone dry.
KAPS rented two condos at Creekside and supposedly it was possible to ski-in and to ski-out. The ski-out part was pretty easy, all we had to do was to walk down a steel staircase and ride down a narrow trail toward the Creekside gondola. On Friday, we rode all over Whistler since we figured that mountain would be very crowded the following day. I had planned to spend quite a bit of time in the terrain park to practice on my jumps but Tom and i ended up only going through the park just once. We left the condo at around 0900 and by the time we got back, it was already 1600. Sun Yi, Tom and i could not find the ski-in trail so we ended up riding down to the Creekside lodge and walked back to the condo. It was freaking tiring to have to walk uphill carrying your board after spending all day riding.
On Saturday, we headed up Blackcomb. We took the Creekside gondola up to Whistler, rode down to the village and then took the Blackcomb gondola up. The snow on most part of Blackcomb was definitely more hard-packed than Whistler. On some runs in the lower part of Blackcomb, it was icy as hell. Because we wanted to find the ski-in trail, that is to avoid walking up Gondola way again like the previous day, we (Sun Yi, Tom and i) rode some narrow-ass cat tracks. If we had taken the main run down instead of cat tracks, we would have arrived at the ski-in trail (which also happens to be the ski-out trail) at least a half hour earlier. On one of the cat tracks, i was the lead rider and i was riding down this relatively fast run going over some serious ridges. I must have leaned back a little too much on one of the last ridges so i lost control and landed on my butt. Tom, who was a few seconds behind me, tried his best to avoid me but he ended up running into me. If not for our helmets, i think both of us would have some serious goose bumps on our heads. Tom narrowly missed one of my nuts by less than two inches. Not to be disrespectful to the great Lance Armstrong, Tom almost turned me into him :). Wheeeewww!
Saturday night was the party night. After getting all liquor up at the “party” condo (the other condo was designated as the quiet condo), we all took off for the main Whistler village. The rest of the evening was spent partying at Tommy Africas. I can’t say much about what went on in there because whatever happened at the club stays at the club :). But this i can say: it was craaaaaaaazy!
I spent the last few days recovering from the two days of snowboarding. My body took some serious pounding, especially the second day. As much as i want to, there will be no snowboarding this coming weekend for me.
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