Whistler Washout

Again!

The Creek beneath Shannon Falls

It has not been a great year for Whistler, the snow was late arriving, closely followed by warm weather and rain.  The week-long freeze and subsequent snow did not lay enough of a base for Whistler to get through the latest warm, wet spell.  

After our wet Whistler Christmas, we headed up the Sea-to-Sky highway on Monday 29th in rain, fog and 8c.  Waterfalls of varying sizes were cascading down the rocks alongside the highway from the combined rain and snowmelt and the creeks were thunderous.  

We stopped off at the Shannon Falls on the way up, the third highest falls in BC.  The volume of water was such that it was impossible to see the main falls because of the spray showering us from 50' away.   It was quite a sight and sound. We felt like we were in the falls!

The creek running off at the base of the falls

It is not only Whistler that it 'enjoying' the warm weather.  All three ski centres on Vancouver's North Shore - Grouse, Cypress and Seymour - shut on the Wednesday of our Whistler week, along with all of Whistler's alpine lifts (the high ones above the treeline) and Mt Washington on Vancouver Island.  It was summed up in the article in City News, Vancouver.

Ice dippers

We managed to get halfway up the alp on the Tuesday, which was very Spring-like, but headed back down when it started raining mid-afternoon. Deciding against skiing in the rain on Wednesday we headed home early on the Thursday.  A washout!  According to BC's Global News Daily temperature records in BC have been broken five straight days in a row by Feb 2nd. 

I am not sure if it was the warmer temperatures, but some of the hotel guests at Nita Lake Lodge, near where we stay, braved the ice-covered lake for a freezing dip.  Rather them than me.  All of the lakes had high water levels, albeit frozen and many diving platforms and docks were submerged to the top of the deck or higher.  We've not seen that before.   Fred tried to entice me to go for an ice-dip... "it's healthy and its good for you" she said, yeah right! 

In somewhat more positive news, the Winter sailing race season has started and seven boats took part in the first race on Sunday 28th.  We were placed second after a piece of equipment failed on the boat and we lost time.  We were running down to the penultimate mark on the first circuit with the spinnaker flying and were getting ready to gybe (turning with the wind behind rather than in front of the boat) around the mark, when the block holding the guy (one of the two ropes that control the two bottom corners of the spinnaker when it's flying) shattered allowing the pole to crash into the forestay.  

Old left - new right

We had other boats around us and it was a scrabble to get the spinnaker down and safely round the mark without hitting the mark or anybody else.  I was on the helm at the time and managed to get us round while the others hauled in the sail.  On the last run down we flew the sail without the spinnaker pole, which was fun, and did help us make up a bit of time and get us over the line first, albeit placed second on corrected time.  The blocks have since been replaced and upgraded.

I've been spending quite a bit of time helping Nick & Lizzie with the renovations on their house in North Van.  Just after we finished assembling the new kitchen cabinets a burst pipe flooded half the basement where the made up cabinets stood and totalled all of the new base cabinets, floor coverings and the basement's fitted/built-in shelving units.  

The new kitchen wall units, drawers, shelves and doors fortunately survived.  We spent a day clearing soaking carpet from the basement and drying out the room, assembling replacement cabinets the following day.  Another day was spent removing the lower level plasterboard to give the walls a chance to dry out.  I see more work on the horizon!

All of their work is now done apart from final electrical and water connections and it looks pretty smart.  They move back in over the weekend of Feb 10th and 11th.  

Filled with water for 24 hrs
before inspection

I have been surprised by the way Vancouver building bylaws require inspection at every stage of the building process - considerably more than in the UK.  Plasterboard cannot be put on until the framing/studding has been inspected, all electrical and plumbing has to be inspected after the first fix (roughing out over here), even the wet room shower tray needed to be filled with water and left for 24 hours and inspected before the tiling could go on.  The process undoubtedly delays work while inspections are awaited.

The good news is that the weekend of the move we host Sebby on the Coast, who I'll bring back after another day of slave labour on Friday when I'll putting the sliding doors on the wardrobes I made. 

Brrrrrrr

Fred whets her whistle in a Wet Whistler

Docks and pontoons semi submerged

Flooded trails and abandoned old wrecks (the wreck is alongside the footpath)