If
yesterday had been the path to Haven, today was a peek at the hallowed sanctuary.
The Rockies stood proud and tall draped in glorious hues of green with the
rivers and lakes embellishing her with borders of emerald green, blue and
brown. The ribboned roads were mere folds between the drape and the borders.
Oh, the drive was an experience never to be forgotten. With the summer heat beating
down, the mountains, or most of them, had shed their snowy ornaments, letting
the melt make their way across her curves. There were small crowns of snow on
the Whistler and Blackcomb mountains, popular for skiing during the winter
months. The history of Canadian Pacific Railway is inextricably intertwined
with that of the Trans Canada Highway. The former opened up most passes for the
latter. Sights of massive pythons trains, often with more than 150 wagons,
snaking across the glorious landscape of the country are proud and awe
inspiring ones for a former railwayman from India.
As
I was driving into Whistler I noticed a ‘rainfall’ of pollens. They were
everywhere and had settled on sidewalks and water bodies. Later, I found staff
engaged in sweeping them off the porch and sidewalks of hotels. One of them
told me that this is a problem peculiar to the summer months. Dried seeds of
wild dandelion waft into the valley from the mountains and all that they can do
is to gather them and put them along with waste for disposal. 
I
was booked to stay at the centrally located Pinnacle Hotel in Whistler. The
properties in Whistler are pricey and therefore, it had taken me a while to
identify one that would suit my pocket. When I was checking in to the hotel I
was told that a private car park of the hotel would down me by another C$ 22
plus taxes. Having experienced over the past six weeks that public parking is
safe I was given direction to one that was just five minutes away from the
hotel. Once the bags were deposited in the large and well-appointed room I
drove the car to the parking lot. I was taken aback by the large parking lots
operated by the city authorities. 15 different lots have been developed to park
vehicles of different types. Lot 4 is facility for parking cars, which to my
mind could accommodate over 500 cars. All the public parking lots were free
parking areas till 14 June, I was told. I got a free slot easily and walked
back to the hotel.
The
popularity of Whistler can be gauged from the fact that the town has 10,000
rooms, all of them booked out the year around! While skiing, snowboarding,
snowshoeing, tobogganing and ski jumping in the Olympic Park (Whistler was a
venue of the 2010 Vancouver Winter and Para Olympic Games) other winter
activities fill up the season from November to April, mountain biking, kayaking
and hiking fill up the rest of the year. Its proximity to Vancouver, which is
just over an hour's drive, is a saleable USP.
The hub of Whistler is a
pedestrian only village with large number of hotels (including a pod hotel),
activity centres, bike and equipment rental shops, cafes, restaurants and
grocery shops. The most sought after activity in the village centre seemed to
be mountain cycling. Ski lifts took the cyclists and their cycles up to the
crest of the Whistler Mountain. A popular ski slope in winter had transformed
into a mountain trail for cyclists in summer. It is this transformation that
has made Whistler a popular ‘go-to’ destination all the year round. The
Peak2Peak gondola is a major tourist attraction in Whistler, which is the first
lift to link two side by side mountains of Whistler and Blackcomb. It also held
the world record for the longest free span between ropeway towers – 3.03
kilometres - till 2017. The gondola at 1430 feet is still the highest point
above ground. 
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