The value of Rest at the Four Seasons Whistler
Bottom Line: The Four Seasons Whistler proves that a Hotel is more than just bricks and mortar, it’s always about the people you meet and interact with that truly affects your experience. The people here made us feel at home and the location is steeped in Whistler history. If you want to rest and recuperate while still hitting the mountain slopes then visit the Four Seasons Whistler. Observations: We recently had the opportunity to visit the Four Seasons Resort in Whistler. Something we’ve been focusing our energy into in 2015 is rest coupled with our training and adventures. By the end of 2014 our bodies were feeling the effects of pushing them constantly for the previous few years with little to no planned rest. Niggling issues were becoming chronic and hampering our ability to progress further in our pursuit of exploring our local mountains. So when the offer came up to spend a night at the Four Seasons Resort in Whistler we gladly accepted. Upon arriving, our first impression that really stood out for us and continued to stand out for the duration of our stay was the manner of the people we’d meet that worked there. It’s always the people. We love Whistler and spend a lot of our time practicing skiing there. We also know that the majority of the people that live and work there are there to ski also. You can feel it when you are buying a coffee or browsing in a shop. Everyone is helpful but you get the sense that they’d rather be skiing. You get used to it as it’s understandable. They are working a job here to facilitate their need to ski. This was not the case at the Four Seasons though. The staff there talked to us, not like Royalty, but like fellow humans. The interest was genuine and sincere. It was frankly astonishing to the point that it stuck with us. I asked Danny, a Manager at the Four Seasons Whistler, about this and he informed me that the Four Seasons goes to Hotel Schools in Australia and England to search for candidates ahead of the upcoming season, be it Winter or Summer. It is in this way that they can find people who love their work and need experience but also want to live somewhere beautiful like Whistler for a season. I thought this was very clever and evident in the standard of service we experienced. Rest and Rejuvenate: Our room was awesome. I don’t know much about decor but it was cozy and comfortable. It looked out on trees which I actually appreciated. After our day of skiing we...
Hat Mountain Photo Essay
Hat Mountain is a small peak in the North Shore Mountains near Vancouver that is not as popular due to being dwarfed by it’s neighbour summits of Brunswick Mountain and Mount Hanover but also because it is not heavily featured in hiking guidebooks for the area. I’ve found that mountains that are well documented and detailed in guidebooks will almost always grow in popularity. The description for Hat Mountain on the popular mountain database bivouac.com reads: “A minor bump located on the NW shoulder of Mt. Brunswick.”. Wow, I wonder why hardly anyone goes there! These lesser mountains have always interested me, I guess because I like a good underdog story and none of the “minor” or “insignificant” summits I’ve visited have disappointed me yet. They’ve always been highly enjoyable to climb and offered amazing views out towards the other summits nearby that would be considered “significant”. Check out my photo essay below to see what you can expect to encounter if you climb Hat Mountain. Directions: If you’d like to visit this mountain for yourself you can find instructions at this link: Clubtread: Hat Mountain We followed the 3rd option, ascending the mountain via the Hat Pass Trail. We highly recommend it....
10 Things My First Ultra Taught Me
Technically anything over the marathon distance of 42.2 km (26.2 miles) is classified as an ultra distance. With this in mind it means I officially ran my first ultra trail race in August 2013, when I ran the Squamish 50 50 km (31 miles) trail race. However, it wasn’t until I decided to run my first 80 km (50 mile) trail race that it actually felt like I was entering the ultra arena. This felt monumental and to be honest a little outside of my wheelhouse. But I was committed to running it, not just surviving it, and I tried to focus hard on training. Seeing as I am not a professional and fairly new to the trail running scene, my approach to training, although a little more refined recently, could be called somewhat clumsy and haphazard. I have several sports/hobbies that I like to pursue - rock climbing, mountaineering, ice climbing,skiing - so my attention and energy can be diverted easily. Because of this my training became a bit of a juggling act. I ended up learning a lot while training and running my first ultra. Here are the top 10 things I learned during the process: 1) Run a lot of hills - Yes this means hill repeats. BORING! That’s probably what you are thinking and I know because I thought the exact same thing. In fact I remember one elite trail runner say that you know are deep into training season when you have a fair share of boring runs. Yes, not every run is going to be about having fun but about pushing you outside of your comfort zone. Besides if you are anything like me, slightly masochistic as most long distance runners are, you will find joy in these training runs too! 2) Run back to back long runs -The LSD (long slow distance) is the trademark of endurance runners. Spending a lot of time on your feet, not worrying so much about the actual distance covered, but about the hours you spend out there. So run a big 6-8 hour run on Saturday and get ready to run at least another 2-4 hours on Sunday. Let your body know your mind is in control and you are running whether the body protests or not; run on tired legs. 3) Eat a lot while running, even when you don’t want to - I learned this when I let a podium finish slip through my fingers because I didn’t focus on getting calories into my body early on in the race. It was only when my friend, who was keeping pace with me that day,...
Sky Pilot Race Recap
From reading some of our past posts you may have realized that the Sky Pilot is one of our favorite mountains around Squamish. It’s a spectacular alpine area where backcountry adventure is around every corner. So when we heard that the Coast Mountain Trail Series was bringing a trail race to this area, we knew we had to run it! The inaugural race was scheduled for September 21, which could mean beautiful fall weather or torrential rain; it could go either way here on the west coast. With the race being set in such a rugged area there was a lot of trail building happening weeks before the race. Everyone involved in creating this race wanted to make it a unique mountain running experience. The excitement was building when there was talk of roped sections, boulder fields and ridge running. However,days before the race, the endless summer sunshine we had been experiencing changed to the autumnal rains, which meant all of the fresh new trail became streams of mud. The steep trails were now too wet to run and it would be too risky to send all of the runners out onto this terrain. But if I have learnt anything about the Coast Mountain Trail Series races, it’s that they do not disappoint, and with literally hours before the start of the race, a change of route was put in place. They were going to make sure everyone got the mountain running experience they promised! This was some of the rugged mountain trail. Mt. Habrich from the summit point of the race. Checking out the view from the summit. We showed up to the starting line, on a sunny blue bird day at the top of the Sea to Sky Gondola, not totally sure of the new route and curious where exactly it was going to take us. Leigh and I were running this one together and decided to run it as a fun run. No need to race, just enjoy the new course, take a few photos along the way and revel in the scenery. As usual the starting area was buzzing with the energy of runners antsy to start, one of my favorite parts of racing. Just feeding off of that energy can carry you for miles! And we needed that energy to carry us. This course was unforgiving in its ascent. Starting on the tame and gentle uphill Sky Pilot ridge trail, we would eventually be taken straight up to a ridge that connected to Mt. Habrich. Running or rather power hiking up steep, loose, duff covered forest trail, straight onto a boulder field. Crossing the...
