May 13, 2006

endless Winter?

Alright, it is mid May and I went skiing. I expected sunshine but I definitely didn't expect fresh snow! I was up at the peak, getting ready for my first run, looking down southwards and thought "ohhh, those trees over there look white". I didn't think more - that is until I found out that white trees means fresh snow! Of course it wasn't too much, maybe 5-10 cm, but it was enough to make me laugh throughout the first run. And it did not only last for the first run - it was not busy at all. At the end of the day the lines down flute bowl were still countable (I made two of them). All that combined with the bluest of blue skies made an amazing day!

Black Tusk at the left.

But I have a lot more to tell today, I guess I was just thinking too much in the car.
Highway 99 from Vancouver to Whistler is undergoing a $600 million improvement project, on the one hand for safety, but I assume a major factor are the 2010 Olympics. Apologies to all those who have made bad/sad experiences on HW 99, but what a waste of money for those stupid games... Investing those $600 million dollars into social programs in eastside downtown would save more lifes. I mean I don't have anything against infrastructure, but building it for one single event looks like such a waste. Whistler now has less guests than in the late nineties... And I am sure it would be possible to make it safer by spending less (tell people that pick-ups don't make overtaking safer, tell motorcycle riders that it's noe of the most boring places to ride, tell chopper riders that the best place to keep a chopper is in the living room, including the nutshell helmet).
And then there is not only the highway, but also the luge track and ski jump facilities. Who needs those? Oh yeah, I forgot... the many two-man lugers of Vancouver!

(the rightmost one - I didn't cross any other lines)

Yes, I know, I am thinking weird stuff. That brings me to something else: Check out Google Trends, for example by typing in "sex". I don't want to comment on that, but I was absolutely surprised! Especially the "Regions" tab is interesting (have to ask about India though).

Did I ever write about the great system of giving out telephone numbers here? They seem to be strictly limited to 10 digits. That means whenever a company etc. does not want to spend the money for a 10 digit number say for every workplace, they have one number with extensions. So you call there and it says "This is BlahBlah, if you know the extension you can dial it now." Very conventient! I wonder how much productivity time is lost in North America due to that system and the wait times it implies.

Back to Whistler... I was in the gondola with a family from Victoria. They somehow told me that back in the seventies Highway 99 was a gravel road  (OK, more infrastructure than that is needed). So I said it always strikes me how young everything here is as compared to Europe (they found out that I am not from here). I said something like Vancouver would be about as old as ski resorts in Europe. It is not entirely true, but somewhat:

The history of skiing in St. Anton am Arlberg
Foundation of the Arlberg Ski Club (1901), the first ski race (1904)
(http://www.stantonamarlberg.com/)

Anyways, their son was absolutely surprised. Then they told me about their daughter, who was in Europe recently and she must have said something like "They even have buildings from B.C. there!". It seems that this is quite surprising for those kids here. I wonder what they learn in school?

I guess I forgot one thing (One More Thing!): The Whistler Bike Park opened today - it seems to me that some cool people invented this kind of sport almost ten years ago in Missen!

Dreckbären - dirt bears? I mean the bikers.

Oh and this was ski-day 21 on which I took photo number 5000 with my camera.