Posts Tagged Whistler-Blackcomb
September 1, 2010 – Decker Loop Trail
Posted by Dave in British Columbia, Mountains, Picture of the Day on September 1, 2010
Decker Loop Trail, Blackcomb Mountain
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
http://davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=1682
Hey, it’s Wednesday, I should toss a picture up here, huh? First off, I’d like to welcome everyone from Glenda Lott’s HS101 class at Spain Park High School in Hoover, Alabama. I’m not sure why exactly she chose my blog as suggested reading for her class, but hey, it’s awesome that she did! I hope you all.. umm.. found what you were looking for?
As promised, here’s the first of what I’m sure will be many shots from this last weekend in Whistler. This is definitely not my favorite of the set, but it’s good enough to post here. (Since it’s the first day of the month, this post will be the very last one shown from here until eternity for anyone looking for the archives of September 2010. Meaning, 3 or 4 posts from now, it’ll never be seen again. Awww, how sad.)
For a long time, they’ve had the gondola on Whistler Mountain open during the summer so you could go up there and hike around. A few years ago they started running the Peak Chair too, which takes you all the way up to the summit. That’s pretty cool. Independently, they’ve been doing summer skiing (usually through late July I think) on Blackcomb, but it was always a pain in the butt to get over there. By that I mean, you had to ride two chairlifts up, then take a bus over to a third chairlift, and ride that one up too. It’s not clear if people on foot were allowed or not originally, or if it was just people that paid for the skiing ticket on the glacier). In the last couple years they actually officially started offering hiking on that mountain, but it wasn’t really marketed much, which is understandable, because it was a pain in the ass. And, to make it worse, they didn’t even have any designated trails over there, so you basically just scrambled around on the rocks for a little while.) BUT, since they went through all the trouble of building the Peak 2 Peak Gondola (you know, the one that takes you between both mountains) Blackcomb has now been a regular stop for the “sightseers”. Thus, now from the top of the second chairlift (the Solar Coaster), you can either take the Peak 2 Peak over to Whistler, or you can head off on the newly designated actual-trails-for-hiking on Blackcomb.
So, that’s what I decided to check out (since I’ve been on the trails on Whistler a few times now). And, it’s TOTALLY worth doing. I’d say it’s even better than the hiking on Whistler, although that’s a bold statement, because the High Note trail on Whistler is also pretty spectacular (as is the Half Note trail). For those of you that know anything about the layout of the mountain: the trail heads out from the top of the Solar Coaster, and heads around the mountain to the 7th Heaven area. It passes under the chairlift there, and keeps going, out to (and past) the boundary for Garibaldi Provincial Park (which is actually the ski area boundary). There are some nice views to be had out that way, not only of Blackcomb itself, but also out over some of the big peaks in Garibaldi Park (including Black Tusk, and the Cheakamus and Overlord glaciers). Well worth the time and energy. Do it. Now. This weekend. I’m serious.
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 lens. 1/200s, f/13.0, ISO 200. Focal length: 30mm.
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Popularity: 6%
May 5, 2010 – 7th Heaven
Posted by Dave in British Columbia, Mountains, Picture of the Day, Winter/Snow on May 5, 2010
7th Heaven, Blackcomb Mountain, Whistler-Blackcomb Ski Resort
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
http://www.davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=353
Happy Cinco de Mayo everyone! I realized as I was tying that last sentence that today would have been a perfect day to post a picture from Mexico. I don’t have one handy though, and I’m not even entirely sure I have one at all. I’ve been there a couple times, but I’m not sure I got anything picture-of-the-day worthy while I was there. Sad. Instead, here’s a shot from our other North American pals, Canada.
This was shot in the 7th Heaven area of Blackcomb Mountain, at Whistler-Blackcomb Ski Resort. Those peaks in the distance are all part of Garibaldi Provincial Park, and that’s all I can think of to say about this picture.
In other news, one of my friends asked me yesterday for some camera advice, which isn’t that uncommon of an occurrence these days. After spending a decent amount of time writing up a fairly detailed response, which contained a lot of advice I’ve rehashed several times in the past, I realized that I might as well save that work for a larger audience. Thus, I posted it here on my blog. You can also find it by clicking “Camera advice?” up above. Note that this is in addition to the My Equipment page, which contains exactly what it sounds like it would. Note that this particular camera advice was somewhat tailored for somebody in my friend’s situation, which is that she was confident that she wanted to go the digital SLR route, but was wondering what to do about which one to pick, and what lenses to start off with. If you’re just in the market for a decent point and shoot, or a full-featured camera that’s not quite as much of a commitment as an SLR, obviously that advice won’t be really applicable. But, feel free to take a read, and set me straight if required.
Notes: Canon PowerShot S500 (Point and shoot). 1/800s, f/11.0.
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Popularity: 20%
March 24, 2010 – Hiking on Whistler Mountain
Posted by Dave in British Columbia, Mountains, Picture of the Day on March 24, 2010
Half Note Trail, Whistler Mountain
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
http://www.davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=1101
Here it is, folks. The last image you’ll be seeing from me for a couple weeks. I know, I know, you thought this day would never come. For awhile, it sure seemed like it wouldn’t. But, time kept rolling on, as time does, and now it’s time for me to get the heck outta town. I would promise that I’d miss you all, but I probably won’t. I’ll be too distracted by fun stuff.
This picture was taken along the Half Note trail on Whistler Mountain. I’ve posted some other pics (well, at least one) from this same trail before. Whistler is a great place to go in the summer as well as the winter, because they have those magical lifts that take you way up into the high country, without you having to do any of the work. Ah, it’s a beautiful thing. That’s why I love Europe, because those kind of things are all OVER the place. Here in the northwest, they’re few and far between, and the mountains are steep, and the roads all follow the rivers way down in the valley, so if you want to get up to the pretty stuff, you have to work your ass off. Unless you ride up the gondola (and the Peak Chair) to the top of Whistler. Then it’s almost free! (Well, not monetarily, but whatever.)
This picture was taken with my super wide angle lens (Tokina 11-16), which I only acquired at the end of last summer. (Thus, it hasn’t been used too much.) It should get plenty of use this summer. Although, it might not, because I *also* got my hands on the Tamron 17-50, which is itself much more wide-angle than any lens I was using before (previously 28 was as wide as I could get). The difference between 17 and 11-16 is a lot less than the difference between 28 and 11-16, so I may find myself able to get most of the wide-angle shots I want with the other one, we’ll see. Or, more likely, *I* will see, and you will just continue to see random pretty pictures. That works too.
Have a great couple of weeks!
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Tokina 11-16 f/2.8 lens. 1/250s, f/11.0, ISO 100. Focal length: 11mm.
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Popularity: 36%
February 26, 2010 – Cheakamus Lake
Posted by Dave in British Columbia, Mountains, Picture of the Day on February 26, 2010
Cheakamus Lake
Friday, February 26, 2010
http://www.davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=1099
So I mentioned yesterday how I already had today’s picture picked out. That was true, but this isn’t it. I realize earlier that, while I absolutely LOVE that picture, the version I had online was a little bit over-sharpened. (This one is too, but it’s not quite as drastic.) So I need to revisit it, and maybe I’ll use that one in a week or two. Instead, you get this one, which was actually taken on the same day as that other one. Blah blah blah, I realize that it’s really all the same to you guys, as long as I post a picture at all. But this way I’m keeping it straight in my own head.
This is the view over Cheakamus Lake from the backside of Whistler Mountain. You can’t ski to where I was standing when I took it (well, you CAN, but it’s out of bounds, so it would require hiking all the way back up to where you started), but you can hike there. This was along the High Note trail on Whistler mountain. (Which makes a big loop, although you can shorten the loop to something easy to do in 2-3 hours by taking the Half Note trail which branched off about a quarter mile from where this was taken.) This spot is a little ways below the top of the Symphony Express, if that helps you place it at all. Obviously, it’s a pretty nice view from up there.
This trip took place very soon after I picked up my awesome super-wide-angle lens this summer, the Tokina 11-16. Since I wasn’t very happy with my other lens at the time (the super-zoom Tokina 28-300), I ended up putting the wide angle on the camera for the entire hike. Which was kind of an interesting experience. The pictures you can get with a super wide angle are way different from any other kind of lens, so it really makes you think differently about framing your shots. But it was definitely fun. Although now that I’ve gone to the Tokina 17-50 as my workhorse lens, I haven’t found myself reaching for the wide angle as often. (When your workhorse lens starts at 28, that leaves a LOT of ground on the wide-angle side. At 17? Not so much.) But that’s okay, it’s still there if I need it.
Hahahahaha, I just took a look at the EXIF data on the image, and it turns out that everything I wrote in the last paragraph is basically totally wrong. Whoops. Turns out this was NOT taken with the Tokina, in fact it was taken with my Tamron 28-75, which means I had ALREADY swapped out my 28-300. (And then I eventually traded the 28-75 for the 17-50, which is basically the exact same lens except that it’s more wide-angle). And, that’s the lens I used for this picture, which means that what I said about not changing my lens at all during the hike was also a complete lie. Ha!
This brings to a close Whistler/Vancouver week on the Picture of the Day, thanks for reading! Come back next week for the rest of the world.
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Tamron 28-75 mm f/2.8 lens. 1/250s, f/10.0, ISO 100. Focal length: 28mm.
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Popularity: 26%
February 24, 2010 – Changing Leaves
Posted by Dave in British Columbia, Fall Color, Macro, Picture of the Day on February 24, 2010
Changing leaves
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
http://www.davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=1088
Rather than suffocate all of you with a neverending set of mountain vistas from the twin peaks of Whistler and Blackcomb, I figured I should mix in some other stuff too. Like this one. This could have been taken anywhere, really. But it wasn’t, it was taken a little ways up the Singing Pass trail, which starts up the hill from right near the Whistler gondola. I really really wish I had gotten the bottom of the leaf in focus too, but I didn’t. It’s a textbook example of one of the really annoying things that can happen with digital. The shot looked great on the camera’s little screen, so I moved on, confident that I got the image I wanted. It wasn’t until much later (when I got home) that I realized my mistake. I was working with a pretty small depth of field as you can see, so what I *should* have done was gotten more square on that leaf in front, such that the whole surface would have been within range. Instead, I came in from a little bit above, so the bottom was just out of reach. (That, and the leaf was a bit curled in on itself.) Careless, careless, careless. Sigh.
Still a beautiful couple of leaves though, so it’s not a complete waste of time. Check back tomorrow, that’s going to be the day that I’m going to get the picture of Shannon Creek out of the way. (You didn’t think I’d go a whole week of PICTURES OF CANADA without tossing one of those in there, did you??)
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Tamron 28-75 mm lens. 1/125s, f/3.5, ISO 400. Focal length: 59mm.
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Popularity: 40%
February 22, 2010 – Black Tusk from Whistler Mountain
Posted by Dave in British Columbia, Mountains, Picture of the Day, Winter/Snow on February 22, 2010
Black Tusk from Whistler Mountain
Monday, February 22, 2010
http://www.davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=869
Wow, Monday again. Not totally unexpected, but still. I decided that this week, I’m going to post only pictures from around Vancouver and Whistler in honor of the Olympics. This probably would have been more appropriate to do LAST week, but you know how it goes – with the time-delay broadcasting and everything, it took this long for the idea to reach the west coast.
Today, you’re looking at the million dollar view from the top of Whistler Mountain: the view out toward Black Tusk. (Yeah, that little cliff-thing poking up there on the left.) Given the predominant weather patterns we get here in the Pacific Northwest, it’s never a sure thing that you’ll be able to see it, but when you can it’s pretty cool. You can basically see it from anywhere along the top ridge (basically anywhere between the top of the Symphony Express and the Peak Chair), and I think this particular view was most of the way from the Peak Chair to the Saddle. (Blah blah blah, yeah, I realize you probably haven’t been there and thus these names are all meaningless. I’m totally just showing off how well I know the mountain at this point. Because I am awesome, obviously.)
Honestly, I’m fairly surprised that they placed the ski courses where they did. They put them all way down at the bottom of Whistler Mountain. But if you’ve been to Whistler more than once or twice, you know that the lower mountain sucks way more often than it’s good. I mean, you’re dealing with more than 5,000 feet of vertical here. The top of the mountain is nearly always fantastic, and the bottom of the mountain is nearly always crappy. So… why put the courses down where it’s crappy? Not only that, imagine how much more awesome the views would be as the cameras followed the racers down the hill if they had this kind of background instead of just grubby trees everywhere? I mean, sure, the visibility tends to be better down low (because when the fog rolls in, the upper mountain is worthless), but still. Hmm. Whatever, I’m sure they have their reasons. Grumble grumble grumble.
See you all tomorrow, right?
Notes: Canon PowerShot SD850 IS (Point and shoot). 1/400s, f/11.0.
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Popularity: 23%
December 11, 2009 – Glacier Express, Blackcomb
Posted by Dave in British Columbia, Picture of the Day, Winter/Snow on December 11, 2009
Glacier Express, Blackcomb Mountain
Friday, December 11, 2009
http://www.davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=876
Hello again everyone, welcome to another Friday during ski season! To celebrate all of the upcoming turns this weekend, here’s a shot taken on the Glacier Express chair on Blackcomb Mountain. (Which is of course part of Whistler-Blackcomb Ski Resort, where the 2010 Olympics will be held.) I say that, but it’s not actually clear if I’ll be making it up to the hill or not this weekend. But a man can dream, a man can dream…
The day that this picture was taken was exceptional for a lot of reasons. It was taken over Thanksgiving weekend, and before we headed up there they hadn’t really gotten any snow at all, so all of the rooms were super cheap and there was nobody there. But once we got there it started Dumping. (With a capital D, did you notice?!) So the skiing was fantastic. Plus, while the weather on this particular day looked pretty crappy down in the village, once we got up top, as you can see, it was really beautiful. (Don’t believe me? Here’s another example.) That always brings a smile to my face. Know what else brings a smile to my face? The fact that all that great stuff happened on my birthday. Actually, that’s not the whole story. Birthdays don’t bring a smile to my face any more. This was in fact the last birthday that did so, because it was my 29th. Ah, those were the days.
Make sure you get outside and enjoy your weekend, it should be a great one! Even if you’re not a skier. What do you people do with your time between November and May??
Notes: Canon PowerShot SD700 IS (Point and shoot). 1/1000s, f/5.6.
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Popularity: 14%
October 30, 2009 – Whistler Mountain
Posted by Dave in British Columbia, Mountains, Picture of the Day on October 30, 2009
Half Note Trail - Whistler Mountain
Friday, October 30, 2009
http://davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=1142
What’s up Dan, Diane, Shannon, and my other Facebook reader?! (Richard.) Hello too to my nameless Picture-of-the-day.com readers! And to my Picture-of-the-day.com readers that have names but whose identities I don’t know. And, of course, hello to Will also. Today’s picture was taken near the summit of Whistler Mountain. Julie and I took took the gondola up there to go hiking around, since it’s an easy way to get up to the high country, without having to, you know, walk all the way. This particular little pocket (right along the Half Note trail) was a bit odd because it was all white granite everywhere, whereas most of the rock up there is much darker. Since none of us are geologists, that’s probably not interesting, but there’s still two interesting nuggets in there, so the quota is fulfilled. That’s how I work: I do just enough to get the job done, but I don’t have the drive to do any more.
I used my new new wide angle lens for this shot. I say “new new” because the first time I bought it, it had this weird distortion in the middle, so I had to exchange it for another one. I would normally use a polarizing filter for this kind of shot, so that the clouds would really stand out against the blue sky. But I don’t have one yet for that lens, so that will have to wait until next time I guess.
Summer (and fall) is a great time to visit Whistler. Whistler is hosting the Olympics. The Olympics are cool. I’d say more, but I’ve run out of sentences.
That’s all for today folks, have a great Halloween!
End template.
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Tokina 11-16 mm lens. 1/400s, f/10.0, ISO 100. Focal length: 13 mm.
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Popularity: 14%
September 17, 2009 – Blackcomb
Posted by Dave in British Columbia, Mountains, Picture of the Day, Winter/Snow on September 17, 2009
View from Blackcomb Mountain
Thursday, September 17, 2009
http://www.davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=877
It’s full-on ski-pass-buying season now, so to celebrate, here’s a nice, snowy picture to bring back happy memories from last winter. This picture was taken from near the top of the Glacier Express on Blackcomb Mountain. Since I’m not afraid of providing every last detail no matter how mundane or obvious, I’ll go ahead and point out that Blackcomb is half of Whistler-Blackcomb, which is in British Columbia, about a 4 or 5 hour drive from where I live in Seattle. I actually thought I had used this photo awhile ago, so I was really surprised when I just went back to check and didn’t see it.
I’m pretty excited for this upcoming winter/ski season, since I now have an official “skiing camera”. I upgraded my SLR this summer (from the Canon EOS Rebel XT – Amazon link: http://bit.ly/O1fAh – to the Canon EOS Rebel T1i – Amazon link: http://bit.ly/kKTkV ), so now I have my spare camera that I can toss in my backpack when I head to the hills. My ski buddies will of course hate me even more now, because now each time I stop I’ll have to take off the backpack, unzip it, etc, etc, etc. But I’m pretty excited. It still won’t solve the problem that I only ever go to about 3 or 4 different places between November and May, but at least those 3 or 4 places will be documented in excruciating detail now.
Map: http://bit.ly/rSpSR (This one’s weird – they took the satellite photo when it was snowy, but then turned it green so it looks like grass.
Notes: Canon PowerShot SD700 IS (Point and shoot). 1/400s, f/10.0.
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Popularity: 7%
July 10, 2009 – Whistler Mountain
Posted by Dave in British Columbia, Mountains, Picture of the Day on July 10, 2009
Hiking on Whistler Mountain
Friday, July 10, 2009
http://www.davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=611
So I had originally planned to post another picture from last summer’s Whistler weekend today, but this morning, I just wasn’t feeling it. Maybe it just wasn’t the right picture for my mood, or maybe I decided the picture sucks afterall. Not really clear, we’ll see how I feel about it next week. But, to soothe your disappointment as much as I can, I at least decided to post a picture from the same area.
This picture was taken a couple years earlier, on Whistler Mountain. (The one I was originally going to post was from Blackcomb.) It’s still from the summer and all that though. This was taken along one of the hiking trails accessible from the top of the gondola. In fact, if you’re familiar with the layout of the mountain at all, this might help: this was overlooking Harmony basin. You know, the basin where the Harmony chair is. That mountain you see in the distance is presumably Overlord Peak, which is purely a guess given that the snowy part is the Overlord Glacier.
I love those pine trees. I’ve never seen that particular kind of tree anywhere but up here in the Pacific Northwest. That’s not to say they don’t exist anywhere else, I really have no clue. But that’s the only place I’ve actually seen them. They’ve got so much character tough. They’re so perfectly straight, but all the little knobbly things poking off of them makes for a great texture in a photo. But, I’ve found that I have to silhouette them against something else to really draw it out. They’re such a dark green that it’s hard to make them turn out in pictures. The light has to be just right, or you have to be contrasting them against the background as I’m doing here. They can be really frustrating, because this is one of those cases where our eyes see something different from what the camera sees. So it’s tough to translate something that looks fantastic in person to something that doesn’t just look like crap on “film”.
Some of you may have noticed that my post came a bit early today. Crazy, right? I’ve got an all-day meeting at work, so this is the only chance I’ll have to write anything up today. Not that I, you know, do this stuff at work, or anything. Yeah, whatever man.
Anyway, have a great Friday, and a great weekend!
Map: http://bit.ly/2xqwT
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel XT, lens unknown. 1/125s, f/7.1, ISO 100. Focal length: 54mm.
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Popularity: 1%
July 8, 2009 – Blackcomb Mountain
Posted by Dave in British Columbia, Mountains, Picture of the Day on July 8, 2009
Blackcomb Mountain
Wednesday, July 8, 2009.
http://davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=937
I was going through some pictures from last summer recently, and I dug up a bunch from a quick overnight trip up to Whistler that Julie and I took. We were only there for one night, but we scored a great deal at I’m pretty sure it was the Fairmont Chateau. (Courtesy of HotWire.com)
Since she was fairly pregnant at the time, she decided to spend much of the next day hanging around the (extremely nice) pool sipping cocktails (virgin, presumably), while I wanted to head up onto the mountain to do some hiking. I had been up the gondola on Whistler several times in the summer (that’s where all the hiking is), but I had never gotten around to making it up on Blackcomb. (They have summer skiing on the Horstman Glacier up there, but not so much in terms of hiking trails.) So, that was the plan for me.
Whereas the Whistler side is nice and easy to get up top (one gondola ride and you’re there), Blackcomb is a bit more of a pain in the ass. You have to ride two chairlifts (Wizard and Solar Coaster), then ride a bus over to the bottom of a third chair (7th Heaven), then ride that one up as well. But, definitely worth seeing if you’re up there, and I’ve heard that they’ve actually added some real hiking trails on the Blackcomb side as well for this year.
Anyway, I spent a few hours up there walking around, and when I was flipping through my pics last night, I found a couple that I wanted to post here. (I’ll post one today, and one Friday. That means that tomorrow is going to be a SURPRISE!!! Not, like, the exciting kind, more of just the “neither one of us know what’s coming” kind.)
Both of the pictures are playing with the same theme: some cool rocks in the extreme foreground, and other stuff way behind. The big question mark when you’re taking a picture like that is what you want to be in focus. Assuming you make the stuff in the foreground sharp (which you don’t have to), changing how in-focus the stuff in the distance is can make for a completely different picture. To change that, you of course need to change the size of the aperture. A wide-open aperture means your depth of field is really shallow. Which means that only things that are very close to the focus point (close in terms of distance away from you) will be sharp, and everything else will be fuzzy. A smaller aperture widens the depth of field, to the extreme case where if your aperture is as small as possible, you can make both things that are close and things that are very far away come out in focus.
The two pictures I’m going to post don’t really show off the difference too well (both of them I used a pretty small aperture), but it’s still worth talking about. It’s of course nice if everything in the frame is nice and crisp, such that you can see all the detail in everything, but it’s not always desirable. For example, if only one part of the picture is sharp, your eye is naturally drawn to that spot, so it can be a great way to add emphasis to the subject. The rest of the stuff in there adds context and all that, but it doesn’t detract any attention from the point of interest. Also, differences in focus are another way of adding contrast – if everything is in focus it can be tough to tell what’s close and what’s far away, which flattens the picture and everything blends together. In this case in particular, that wasn’t necessary because the colors and the patterns in the rocks are completely different, but that’s not always true.
And of course there are other pitfalls to changing up the aperture size. Sometimes it would be really nice to use a small aperture, but there’s just not enough light to allow it. Using a smaller aperture means you’ve got to keep the shutter open longer, to get in enough light to expose the image. In bright sunlight this isn’t as much of an issue, but in other cases you have to choose between an image that’s got a really narrow depth of field or one that’s completely blurry because of camera shake. Not a hard choice, but it does limit your options. My general rule of thumb is to use the smallest aperture I can get away with (meaning my shutter speed is 1/200th of a second or faster), although in certain situations when a small depth of field is desirable, I go the other way. (I keep my camera in Aperture-Priority mode (“Av” on Canon cameras) when I’m taking outside shots. Although I use Shutter-Priority (“Tv”) for things like taking pictures of my kid, but I’m not going to go into that now.)
Man, after spending all that time talking about keeping the background in focus vs. making it blurry, I’m starting to reconsider the image I picked for Friday. Maybe I should actually choose something that illustrates this. Hmm, we’ll see. Regardless, get EXCITED about TOMORROW! Who KNOWS what I’ll be putting up here?!?! You’re right, probably a stupid flower picture.
Map: http://bit.ly/14EIH7
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel XT, Tamron 28-300 mm VC lens. 1/40s, f/32.0, ISO 400. Focal length: 119 mm.
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Popularity: 3%
May 26, 2009 – Whistler Mountain
Posted by Dave in British Columbia, Mountains, Picture of the Day, Winter/Snow on May 26, 2009
View from Whistler Mountain
Tuesday, May 26, 2009.
Vote on this picture:
http://www.davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=705
This was taken up near the summit of Whistler Mountain, which, as the name kind of implies, is a fairly large portion of Whistler-Blackcomb, the ski resort. Since it’s one of the closest large destination resorts to Seattle (and definitely the largest), those of us in Seattle that call ourselves skiers tend to spend a fair amount of time up there.
The valley that you’re overlooking in this image is the valley that Highway 99 comes up through. It leaves Vancouver, heads up along Howe Sound to Squamish, then cuts into the mountains to Whistler, then it continues on to Pemberton further north-ish. The mountains in the area are all super-young and glacier carved, so they’re super rocky and steep. There’s a huge Provincial Park in the area too, Garibaldi. (Province = state, pretty much). Lots of cool stuff to explore. Sorry if this description seems composed more of random fragmented thoughts than a cohesive story, I’ve been interrupted about 6 times while writing it, and I’m not motivated enough to go back and rewrite it. That’s okay though, just look at the pretty picture and move on. 
Map: http://tinyurl.com/ou2v67
Notes: Canon Powershot SD700 IS (Point and Shoot). 1/500s, f/8.0.
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