Skis the Day

While we were in Whistler, Brett really wanted to go skiing at least one day with the kids. I dropped off Colin and Ian and Brett at the base of the resort, and the plan was for us all to meet up for lunch on the mountain. Lana, Evan, and I got there a few minutes early, and we were rewarded by this beautiful sight!

Because both of the boys were skiing with Brett, Colin had to ski entirely on his own without any help. At first, Colin would bomb straight down the mountain until he got going too fast . . .

. . . and then he would gracefully crash on purpose.

After a hundred or more crashes, Colin finally figured out how to make a "snow plow" (or a "pizza," as Brett explained it to him) so that he could slow himself down without needing to crash.

One time, after Colin had only crashed a couple of times on the way down, he said to Brett, "Dad! I achieved my goal!!!" Brett was baffled, because he didn't know of any goal. Colin explained, "Dad, I wanted to be able to 'achieve' by not crashing too many times on the way down!" Basically, Colin had set some kind of goal for his overall skill at skiing the mountain, crashes included. And he "achieved" it! Way to set a goal and work toward it, Colin!

Ian, on the other hand, wasn't so interested in learning how to crash gracefully. He just bombed down the mountain, when it wasn't too steep, and when it was too steep, he had Brett hold onto the back of his jacket to slow him down. Except that in the next picture, Brett just let go of him (without warning me!), and he came bombing down right toward Evan and me! I had to tackle Ian with the camera strapped to me so that he wouldn't crash into Evan (and a rack of skis)!

Evan, of course, didn't notice or care! He was just happy to be playing in the snow.

Evan didn't know what to make of it. The closest thing to snow that he has ever experienced is bubbles. One of his favorite things to do with bubbles is to get a big handful of them and clap so that they explode all over the place. He kept trying to do the same thing with the snow. The snow would sort of explode, but it would stick to his gloves, and he wasn't always so happy about that!

While the kids were finishing their lunch, Brett really insisted on taking Evan for a trip down the mountain. So he strapped Ian's skis on Evan . . .

. . . and the two of them took off!

Evan giggled the entire way down the mountain, and because he had so much fun, Brett decided to take him again. On the second run, it was giggles again for the first half, and then it changed to an elated, "Wheeeee!!!" for the rest of the way down. Evan only got to ski those two runs, but he had a total blast!

When it came time to take the skis off, Evan wasn't too happy. But it was way past his nap time, and Colin and Ian were itching to get back out on the slopes. So we took a group shot and parted ways.

Before lunch, the boys had been skiing on Blackcomb Mountain, and Brett really wanted to get the kids over to Whistler Mountain, as well. Brett took the kids over to Whistler on the "Peak 2 Peak" tram which is a tram connecting the midpoints of both mountains in one mind-boggling span.

Here are some statistics (courtesy of Brett).
World's longest free span: 1.88 miles (3.03 kilometers)
World's highest point above ground on a gondola: 1,430 feet (436 meters)
By way of comparison, that's 8 stories higher than the observation deck on the Sears Tower and 2 and 1/3 times as long as the span on the Golden Gate Bridge.

As Brett said, "Where were the adults when the kids were planning the thing?!"

Some of the gondola cars had glass bottoms, and there was a separate line you could wait in to ride one. Brett and the kids waited for one, and it was worth it!

Here is a view straight down at the highest point.

By the end of the day, the kids were totally pooped, but they couldn't stop talking about how much fun they had skiing and how cool the Peak 2 Peak gondola was!