Photographer Tim O’Brien provided the details and images for the Whistler, British Columbia destination.
The town of Whistler is located 128 KM north of Vancouver in British Columbia. The ski resort there, the largest in North America, was the ski venue for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. The resort has ski runs on two mountains, Whistler and Blackcomb. The two mountains are part of the Pacific Ranges in the Coast Mountains. These ranges include the largest temperate latitude ice fields in the world and there are ski runs on a glacier on Blackcomb Mountain.
In addition to the ski resort, the area also has extensive trails for hiking, biking, and cross country skiing in winter. Since I am not a skier I hit the trails rather than the slopes. (I literally hit the trail a number of times falling down on my first attempt at cross country skiing on this trip. I stuck to hiking after that.) There were numerous bear warning signs on the trails but the bears were safely hibernating in January when I was there. I did find a squirrel though. I shot from dawn over Blackcomb Mountain to the alpenglow on the mountains at the end of the day. I did take the ski lift up the mountain to get a different perspective on the mountain ranges. The resort also has a lift that goes between the two mountains. It was definitely worth waiting for one of the glass bottom gondolas on the peak to peak lift. It let me capture a shot of the forest from two hundred feet in the air.
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