Education time!  Today's MTB slang term is ...

Pinned/to have it pinned - A term borrowed from motocross, meaning to have the throttle pinned, or held all the way open.  Used in mountain biking to descibe people riding really hard, e.g. "I had it pinned coming into that last corner and washed out".

Every mountain biker worthy of being called a mountain biker has experienced that, I guarantee it.  :)

Today was an unplanned day off due to yesterday's shoulder carnage.  Thankfully the bike park people are very understanding of injured people and I managed to get a refund on the remaining 2 days of my triple play (3 day) pass.  Nice!

The forecast for tomorrow is for pretty average weather and judging by the clouds rolling in over the mountains at the moment I'd say the forecast is about right.  Whenever you ask a local what the forecast is they look at up Blackcomb peak - if it's clear they say it's going to be fine but if there is cloud, the forecast is crap, no matter what the weather people say haha.

With that in mind I decided to grab a lift ticket and go as far as possible up the Village Gondola - the Roundhouse Lodge which is 1,850m (6,069ft) high.  Whoa!  The ride takes about 25 minutes and has some of the most breathtaking views I've ever seen.  I think in all my time the only place that comes close in terms of the view is the cog railway up the Jungfrau in Interlaken, Switzerland.  Here's what I mean ...

The mountain view from the top of Whistler mountain next to the Roundhouse Lodge.

Good timing - a clear flag and an eagle soaring past, all at the same time.

Amazing eh?

Once you're at the top of the Village Gondola the tourist thing to do is catch the Peak 2 Peak Gondola from Whistler to Blackcomb.  The Peak 2 Peak Gondola is, surprise surprise, a gondola on an 8850m long cable that transports skiiers and snowboarders (and tourists) from Whistler to Blackcomb.  It opened on December 12th 2008 so is pretty new in the grand scheme of things.  The full technical details of the Peak 2 Peak Gondola are available all over the internet but here's a few that I reckon are pretty cool (they're printed on the insides of the cabin windows so riders have something interesting to chew over aside from the view).

• There are 3 cables.  A 46mm thick cable pulls the cabins while two 56mm thick cables support its weight.
• The gondola is part of the longest continuous lift system on the planet - cool!
• The tallest tower is 65m tall!
• 4100 people can be transported per hour.
• There is 1 cabin every 49 seconds
• The journey from one side to the other takes 11 minutes
• It's 4.4km long
• And my favourite fact ... the highest point of the gondola is 436m above ground level - this thing isn't for you if you're scared of heights.
• Someone reading this must be interested in the full details - I'd recommend reading the Wikipedia article about the Whistler Blackcomb Peak 2 Peak Gondola.  :)

Awesome!  The Doppelmayr company is well known for this sort of thing - man I'd love to work for them.  On the Blackcomb side I had to do the tourist thing and have lunch at The Rendezvous restaurant.  Sitting 1,860m above sea level and eating lunch is very relaxing.  :)  Oh, and last but not least, here's what the gondola and some of its views look like ...

A Peak 2 Peak cabin going the opposite direction from me. They all waved just a little bit too late though!

One of the new gondola cabins on the Peak 2 Peak gondola.

I admit I stood and watched the mechanical bits of the Peak 2 Peak gondola for way too long ... I love this stuff (I should've been an engineer!)

One word - AWESOME.

I've only got 1 full day left here before I have to say a sad goodbye to Whistler and make my way back south towards Vancouver so I doubt I'll have anything worth posting tomorrow.  I'm going to have a wander around Van though so I'll post some photos if I get some good ones.

I hope you've enjoyed my ramblings about Whistler so far - this place seriously ROCKS.  :)