Allan and I just got back from a FANTASTIC extended weekend up at Whistler Blackcomb for the Telus World Ski and Snowboard Festival.

We were invited by the amazing Whistler Blackcomb media team (thanks Michelle, Tabetha, Amber!) to check out some of the festivities and attend some events. This was our first year attending as “media”.

We rushed to Whistler Blackcomb after work on Thursday and checked into our hotel for the night — the Coast Hotel Blackcomb Suites (thanks Danny!).

The hotel had tons of amenities such as a gym, full breakfast room, outdoor pools and hot tub, not to mentioned located right on the side of a run for ski-in ski-out access.

We loved our room! Super comfy and had a full kitchen too.

Then, it was off to Araxi Restaurant for a dinner hosted by Cindy of the BC Ministry of Tourism and Breton from Tourism Whistler. Araxi has been one of our favourites restaurants for many years (long before Hell’s Kitchen and the crazy amounts of press it has been getting over the past year or so)… and still is.

As soon as we arrived I was peer pressured into “sabre-ing” the champagne… my first time ever! It was pretty scary but very cool. I got to use a real sabre to chop off the top of the champagne bottle. Videos to come.

Araxi is well-known for its seafood, sustainable food, and local and organic cuisine.

Chef James Walt makes some amazing dishes. He actually lives in Pemberton on a farm and partners with the producers out there to source seasonal foods. The gnocchi and souffle were to die for.

It was also my first time ever tasting venison… and I loved it. So tender. Allan also loved his lamb.

For dessert we had the pistachio ice cream covered in chocolate and an apricot cheesecake. Yum. Also to note — it was my first time ever really trying champagne, red wine, white wine and dessert wine. Steve Edwards (restaurant manager and sommelier) gave me tons of information and some really amazing recommendations. I may slowly be starting to be a convert.

Here’s Michelle, Steve (thanks for all the wine tips!), myself and Cindy.

The next morning (Friday) we woke up and had a hot breakfast at our hotel.

Then it was off to Scandinave Spas in Whistler.

I can’t say enough good things about this place. The eucalyptus steam room (mmmmm), the cold baths, the hot mineral baths and the waterfalls everywhere. We spent about 4 hours here before we were completely shriveled and jello-like, and then it was off to dinner.

We decided to try the Rimrock Cafe in Whistler (by Creekside) as it was recommended to me by one of my coworkers as her favourite restaurant in BC. The drinks we had were a great start — Allan had some wine and I had a kiwi lime Brazilian caipirinha . My drink was sooooooo good.

The appetizers were also pretty good… I had the scallop lobster capellini (very delicate… loved it), and Allan had the cariboo medallions (good, but not as good as the venison at Araxi).

For dinner we had the gnocchi, mushroom risotto with sablefish, and salmon stuffed with crab. I personally thought the gnocchi and the sablefish were pretty good but the mushroom risotto was terrible. Very acidic and not creamy at all — more like a rice pilaf. Would not order again. Allan liked his salmon but thought it was too rich and the crab overpowered the salmon. The dessert was the toffee pudding which was AMAZING. So basically — we would go there for drinks and dessert but probably not dinner again.

Overall… a pretty good couple days in Whistler so far! Next post coming soon with the last few days of the weekend. What did you get up to this past weekend?

Part One of our journey to Kicking Horse Mountain and Golden, BC is posted up and now we’re onto Part Two of Three!

After a day of boarding at Kicking Horse, we headed down the mountain for a delicious dinner experience at Cedar House Restaurant.

The restaurant is tucked away in a residential area in Golden, BC just outside of downtown… and it’s one of those places that you would only really find if you heard about it from the locals. It really is a secret spot! I also noticed that they have chalets for rent beside the restaurant, so although I didn’t get to check them out, it seems like a neat place to stay as well.

We also got to meet our guide Mike, from Canadian Powder Adventures who was going to take us hiking/ski touring into the Kicking Horse back country the next day. That guy could really sing and play! On an interesting side note, I’ve noticed that a lot of people in Golden seem to be multi-talented. Everyone does a couple different jobs and helps each other out with different businesses. It really is a cool and diverse community. Allan is still trying to convince me to move there.

They bill themselves as “Fresh Grown Rocky Mountain Cuisine”, and they aren’t kidding! They actually grow most of the vegetables consumed in the restaurant in an organic garden they have planted outside. Everything is organic, and is locally sourced. This crab bisque was really good.

The free-range chicken looked pretty amazing…

I tried the halibut myself and it was awesome… tasted very fresh and rich.

Of course, the real highlight of the dinner for me was the freakin’ incredible toffee bread pudding! Now, to be honest I’ve never had bread pudding before, so I didn’t know what to expect… but it was soooooooooo good. I may have to try and find this somewhere in Vancouver now. Any recommendations?

Also, the cocktails were good. I ordered a cosmo. And is not at all the reason why we had a late start the next morning.

The next morning (well, I should say early afternoon… we slept in a little), we met our guide Mike at the top of the gondola on Kicking Horse mountain. We snowboarded a bit down one run, made it up a chair, snowboarded along the ridge and found ourselves riding down some fresh powder leftovers (I couldn’t believe it wasn’t all skied out) in the “Fuse bowl” just off the side of the resort.

The back country near the resort at Kicking Horse is AMAZING. It’s all so accessible and it all funnels down back onto the bottom of the resort so you can either take the gondola back up or easily get to where you parked your car. So many people ski tour around here it is crazy… and I can see why.

We rented our back country gear like our backpacks, shovels, probes, and beacons from Avalanche Safety Solutions in Golden, and we got our snowshoes and poles from 180 Mountain Sports in town. We even got to try out a Snowpulse Airbag backpack… which we will of course save for our awesome HD snowboard video coming up

Here I am with Mike, our fantastic guide from Canadian Powder Adventures. I honestly didn’t even know that you could hire someone to take you into the back country for a day trip… and when we met Mike in the restaurant it just seemed like a great idea. I am SO glad we did. He was so patient with us (even though I am totally out of shape and was super slow), and taught us a lot about avalanche safety as we went along on the tour. Allan and I are really new to the back country stuff… we did out AST-1 avalanche training course last year, but this is the first time we’ve really been out in the backcountry when it hasn’t been a course.

The snow was just perfect. Really stable, super soft but yet firm enough to hike on, and of course… we had a blue sky day… can’t ask for much more than that!

The views were just beautiful off the top of the ridge. I was amazed how much accessible backcountry there was… we didn’t come across anyone during our hike and we rarely saw other people’s lines.

Yeah, it took me a little longer than it should have to hike, plus we got a late start… so we did get to see the start of a beautiful sunset

Here is our trail from the gondola to where we rode down. Mike says it would take him 40 minutes to do it… it took us 2 and a half hours. Haha! I couldn’t believe how far we went though.. Mike really chose a great trail.

Here I am at the bottom of Kicking Horse, super tired and exhausted! Haha! It was a perfect day though, and I really can’t wait to show you guys all the video footage we got! Saving the best for last for sure……