Grouse Mountain

I haven't been to Grouse Mountain in a few years. The last time was when I did the Grouse Grind a few years ago. I climbed the Grouse Grind and then took the gondola down. This time is for more of an adventure.

The first activity was sno limoing, We originally wanted to go sno mobiling in Whistler. But my friend decided he didn't want to go so far. He had a dinner to attend that night and going so far would be an inefficient use of time. I don't know how to ski or snowboard. I was looking for activities for us to do. I found sno-limo. It looked interesting. It kinda looked like a cruise ride in the snow with someone pushing you. It was a bit pricey but it was worth a try. We booked an one hour tour. The tour started at 11am. We were the only ones on the tour. They took away our bags and stored it away. It would've gotten in the way during our ride. We sat down on the limo and they put a few layers of blankets on us. I was happy that I would be warm on this ride with so many layers of blankets. The sno limo is me sitting on the limo with a tour guide pushing me. We then proceeded to start our tour. They were pushing us down a small hill when my friend said that it was like a roller coaster ride. Little did we know. They took us on the ski lift. I have never been on one before. I thought I would freak out cause I'm kinda scared of heights. The guide lifts the limo up a bit and it fits on the ski lift. Another advantage to going sno limoing is that you bypass the lineup for the skilift. It kinda seemed like we butted in line but the boarders and skiers let us merge in line. Our tour guides took us down ski hills. They took us down a few blue runs and a few green runs. Now I get a sense of what skiing is like. It's very dangerous. One disadvantage of going sno limoing is that you don't have control of it. It's the tour guides that pushes the limo. Since you are so high in elevation, it's cloudy, misty and hazey. When we were going down the runs, it seemed like I was fighting with the mist going towards my face. It was so cloudy that it was hard to see the runs. I felt like I was on the Space Mountain ride in Disneyland; you can't see what's ahead of you. I did scream on the first run because I didn't know what to expect. I felt I shouldn't scare away the skiers and boarders with my screams. After the second run, I wasn't scared anymore. My the time I got used to the ride, it was over.

After the sno limo ride, we needed to defrost for a bit. We had a small lunch on the mountain. We shared some pulled pork poutine. I know it's fattening but it's so delicious.

With a filled belly of poutine, we were really to tackle our next activity; snoshoeing. It is walking in the snow. It isn't a strenuous activity. On this tour it was just my friend and I. It was good because then the tour guide can go at our pace. We were going quite slow. It was because we weren't used to walking in snoshoes. I liked our tour guide. He was prepared for worst case scenarios. He had a first aid kit, a shovel and a whistle. I'm sure he had other items too but I am not sure what they are. As we walked in the forest, he explained to us about the nature surroundings. There were also special attractions in the forest. One is this carving in this tree. It was so interesting to see that they can carve something so beautiful while the tree is still standing. The other interesting attraction is the yurt. The traditional yurts are made from mud and dirt. This is a modern one with electricity and insulation. This was used as the Coca Cola headquarters during the 2010 Winter Olympics. Since then it has been used for anything.

This was a fun filled day in the snow. It was exciting to try a new activity (sno limo). Our tour guides made our experiences filled with fun facts.