Letters to John — From Canada — Letter Four

Visiting the Grandiose Town of Whistler

With all the skiers in the gondola and without skis myself, made me feel somehow… naked

When I went to Canada in 2016, I wrote John a letter (email) every day. In this way, we felt as if we were travelling together. This is part of my fourth letter to John, which I wrote on the third day on my way from Whistler to Lillooet.

The previous part of the letter you can find here:

It’s 1:30 pm, and I am still in Whistler. Yes, I know, I planned to stay in town for only half an hour, as I don’t like touristy places, especially when I am on my own, but… almost 3 hours later I am still here.

After I finished writing to you in the morning, I went for a short walk in the caravan park and paid for the night. As I didn’t use any power or water, they charged me only $21, which is quite good, considering that the price for a site here is around $50.

The rates for a log cabin are around $250 per night, and the minimum stay is two nights. Very expensive, I know, nonetheless I still can dream how lovely it would be to come here with you in winter and hide in one of the cosy little houses for a couple of nights…

Can you imagine how enchanting it would be to go skiing or just walk in the snow during the day, and then in the afternoon, come back to the warm nest, cuddle up on the couch together and relish each other’s company while watching the snow falling outside?

Have you ever been in a log home? They have something special about them, something that makes you feel calm and peaceful and takes you into a different dimension. In Poland, people in the mountains used to live in similar log houses, just much, much bigger than these little cottages.

I walked through the park, admiring the views, taking photos and dreaming. They have diverse modern yurts in various sizes, too. I believe it would be also an exciting experience to stay for a few days in such a big tent; nevertheless, in my case, the motor-home adventure is more appealing than the yurt.

One aspect of the RV park that caught my attention was the setup. Riverside Resort is a rather large caravan park, spreading over 40 acres. The buildings and camping sites are interspersed between the trees. Each campsite is separated from the neighbours by a row of pine- or some other trees. I believe that this gives you a feeling of privacy even during the busiest time of the year.

On my walk, I came across a board showing some information about behaviour in the “bear country”, what you should or shouldn’t do to stay safe and also don’t “disturb” the animals. For example, feeding bears, be it purposely or accidentally (by leaving food lying around), would ultimately lead to the bear getting killed because the creature would become a public safety concern.

Reading these warnings gave me some alluring feeling, as bears are a rather exotic danger to me. There are a few brown bears living in Polish Tatras, but… I don’t think there were any warnings about these animals, and even if there were, I haven’t been there for more than 20 years. Reading the sign made me realise that I am far away from my home, where the danger is instead in the form of snakes, spiders and sharks or crocodiles ;)

I arrived at Whistler village around 10:30 am. I walked on the empty streets of the winter holiday paradise and photographed everything around me — the opulent hotels, where you easily can spend thousand of dollars per night; the gourmet restaurants overcrowded during the ski season but lonely and deserted now, and the wonderful mountains surrounding the town.

I was a bit disappointed with the weather. All these would look much better with a blue sky in the background, but… even a cloudy and rainy day has some charm to it. The weather here changes all the time. I was lucky, at least it wasn’t raining, and even the sun showed its face for a few seconds. The mountains can be very temperamental…

During my walk, I came across two signs — one pointing to Blackcomb (Excalibur) Gondola and the other to Whistler Village Gondola. I had no idea how many cable cars or ski lifts there were in town and where they were going (I know, I should do some research before I came here).

I chose the one further away from me, Blackcomb Gondola, which gave me some excuse for more walking. It turned out that as it was outside of the season, some lifts were closed during the week, so it was impossible to get to the summit of Blackcomb mountain. The mountaintop would be accessible only on the weekends.

I walked to the entry and suddenly… I felt very weird. All people around me had skis, and I was the only one without them. I know, it usually is not a problem for anybody, but… I can’t recall ever before being on a ski lift without skis. It made me feel strange, kind of as if I was naked…

When I arrived at the top, the majority of the people with skis continued their journey up by the next ski lift, the Excelerator Chair, which was a chair lift and, therefore, available only for skiers. I went for a walk. There still was some snow lying around, not enough for skiing, but more than enough to make my runners very inappropriate for tramping there and therefore, I had to cut my walk short. However, I believe it was better so…

The exuberant skiers, the views of the mountains with the lower parts resembling the hills of my childhood country, the fields hiding below the thin but rather heavy white blanket of wet snow, the snow cannons… All these brought back memories from my past.

The times when I used to go skiing with my parents and my sister, later with my friends, and then after I emigrated, the unforgettable times in the Alps and Dolomites… I started to feel very, very lonely… I have never been to a ski resort by myself… There was always someone to share the moment with… I have never felt so forlorn before; it was starting to get emotionally painful…

For a short while, I watched a young woman teaching a gentleman in his mid-twenties snowboarding. I took a few photos of the magnificent vistas, of the interesting wooden sculpture of a… “mountain man”, I guess, carved from one piece of wood, and of the red snow groomer. I was happy to get back to town before the pain of loneliness became unbearable… I think it wasn’t a good idea to take the gondola… My mood has been in the cellar since the drive…

I googled the gondolas, and the Whistler Village one connects to the well-known Peak 2 Peak gondola spanning between Whistler and Blackcomb Mountains in the Fitzsimmons Range. It would be marvellous to behold the panorama from both summits, but… I am not really in a mood today, and I am not sure if the famous cable car is open… Maybe one day I will come here again, with somebody with whom I could share the experience and then I will enjoy rides in all the lifts… I hope to come here with you, John…

This story is from my unpublished book called “Letters to John — From Canada.” One day I hope to publish the entire “Letters to John” series, but until then, I decided to share snippets of my books on various social media and writers’ platforms.

More articles relating to this book and my adventures while driving across Canada you can find in the following collection/list

Every article starting with “Letter X” is a collection of posts that together create the given letter. So, if you want to travel with us across Canada, go through the “Letter X” — articles. I hope you will enjoy the travels as we did! Happy travels!