Whistler Adventures

On Friday morning, Cathy and I headed up to Whistler for some mountain adventure. :) We met up with my friend Steve in the village and the three of us headed up the gondola for a tour called the Via Feratta. At the top of the gondola, we hiked/walked to Whistler glacier, strapped on our crampons, and clipped together for a mini hike. Up the glacier and over was the beginning of the Via Feratta (Iron Way). It's a route of cables and rungs drilled into the rock that allow people to climb up the rock face to the peak of the mountain. So fun! The three of us plus our guide had quite the spectacular views (and weather!).

Cathy, Steve and I are headed up the glacier

From glacier to rock

There were pretty spectacular views!

At the top! Sooo cheesy! (But fun!) :P

After that, Steve told us that since we had done the Via Feratta, we could get a discount on rap jumping. More fun times? Bring it on!

Rap jumping is face-forward repelling. Instead of kind of sitting in your harness and facing the cliff, you begin on a platform and fall forward so that you are looking below you with your feet on the rock, perpendicular to the cliff. It's quite the psychological battle to drop yourself face forward off a 140 foot cliff on the top of a mountain, let me tell you. It took a minute (ok, a few! :P ) to psyche myself up for it, but boy, what a rush! I even stopped screaming like a girly girl each time I let more rope out about halfway down. ;) I was told afterwards that Cathy and Steve were laughing at me (all in fun, of course... I was laughing at myself!). Hey, I can handle that! Whooooohoooooo! Cathy went, too. Steve had already tried it, and they were wanting to close up for the day when we went.

I'm gonna do WHAT?!?!?! Am I laughing in glee or terror? (Probably a bit of both!) Steve and Cathy look on...

Face forward, huh? 14o feet down? And *I* controll how fast I drop? Allllrighty then.

Here I gooooooo......

Cathy's turn!

Feet almost on solid, horizontal ground. Doesn't she look relieved???

(Here's a plug for anyone headed up the Whistler... DO THE VIA FERATTA. It's well worth it. Wow.)