On Whistler-Blackcomb Mountain, The view from on high from the Peak to Peak
"I've decided to give the Olympics a rest and take a 'Mental Health Day,'" which is code for 'Time to go skiing.'
With that in mind, you stand in line, wait patiently for your turn at the ticket booth, then out comes the VISA card. A moment later, in comes a charge for $97.00.
$97.00! That's a breathtaking amount for one day of skiing. (Made even worse by the memory of paying $10.00 for a day pass at Mammoth Mountain at some point in the previous century.)
Add to the pain, knowing that the old canard: "Well, it's only Canadian money", no longer holds true, as the U.S. dollar trades pretty much on par with the Canadian dollar. Suffice to say, it's worth every penny, if only for one day.
Not so much for the skiing, (conditions were excellent if you like ice) but for the meditative setting. Specifically, the meditative opportunities offered by the new PEAK to PEAK gondola: http://ww1.whistlerblackcomb.com/p2pg/
Peak to Peak, the name speaks for itself. The superlatives are everywhere: highest, tallest, longest. For full viewing pleasure, wait until the 'glass bottomed' cabin is available.
The ride allows you to view the earth at exactly the right elevation. Not jet plane high, where everything likes pretty and pretend, but eagle high. Exactly right.
(For any backpacker, the idea of making your way from one peak to a distant peak without hiking down (losing elevation/ouch) and then hiking up (ouch/ouch) is nothing short of intoxicating.)
For 11 minutes, bliss. Your 87 problems shrink and shrink until they amount to nothing more than grains of sand. (We all have 87 problems - we're born with 87 problems / we die with 87 problems. The problems evolve over time / they wax and wane. They never go away. They cannot go away. How we deal with those 87 problems defines our identity.)
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