Upto 3 months on a holiday visa (the one you fill in on the plane)
Hop over the border to Seattle for the day, come back another 3 month visa iirc.
Bike Forum
going to live my dream - a season in whistler - talk to me.
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Posted 8 months ago #
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If you don't plan on working, take four times the amount of money that you think you may possibly need! Vancouver is one of the most expensive places on earth to live, and Whistler is worse.
Buy a crappy vehicle. You may well go insane spending all your time in Whistler. Insurance is stupidly expensive but you can always just insure it on a day to day basis, and there are no vehicle checks if registered outside Vancouver, so any old shitheap will do.
Posted 8 months ago # -
Winter:
I would avoid Whistler. I'm sure the mountain is great but prices are ridiculous, finding accommodation is virtually impossible and its full of pretentious look-at-me ski and snowboard clowns wearing their pants round their ankles. I spent my winter season in Fernie, south east BC. Amazing experience, better quality snow (although not quite so much but 11.5m over the season is not half bad), less clowns, less tourists, cheaper etc etc. Other smaller interior resorts would be similar, eg revelstoke, red, big white etc.
Summer:
Whistler no question. The place is unbelievable. Its not just the riding but the whole vibe and experience, as Seb has written much about in his Dirt articles. I recently went back and got the chance to ride silverstar and sunpeaks (sunpeaks being my favourite, steeper!) which are both great but the resorts are very quiet in summer and the towns are a way away. In Whistler everything you need is right there.
I spent most of my time in the park and I regret not riding more in Pemberton and Squarmish (make friends with someone with a truck for shuttling!) and also the whistler valley xc which is just mind blowing. The North Shore is not far away either, the possibilities are endless, you will not get bored. Accommodation is far easier to get in the summer and its also way cheaper. I got really lucky by using the alluradirect website and landed myself and some buddies a luxury townhouse with garage, deck, hot tub, en suite double room and 20 second ride to the lift all for only 440 bucks a month
Put dates in for the whole summer into that website and see what comes up, then email some of the owners and you may get lucky with someone that will want to benefits of renting out for the whole season rather than sporadic holiday lets.
Bike: Big burly DH bike is the way to go, no question. I bought an sx trail out there as a do it all bike and halfway through the season I found that the bike was holding me back on the steeper, rougher double blacks. I ended up buying a Cove Shocker. A smaller bike is still fun but if you are good enough to get the most out of a DH bike on the rough stuff then that is the bike to get. If you can afford it, go for a full on DH bike and a 130-150mm trail bike for the xc riding.Have fun, don’t brake on the wood.
Posted 8 months ago # -
Oh forgot to say...
Jobs: worth at least going out with a working visa so you can work if you need to. Maintaining a bike in whistler is not cheap at all and neither is beerage. I worked as a landscaper in whistler which was good pay and I got to drive bobcats and diggers although it was Monday to Friday (not so bad with extended play – 3 hours of riding a day after work). You could always sleep in a tent to save money.
Cars: Don’t forget you are only legal to drive on your uk license for up to 6 months from your date of entry. I fell foul of this and had to sell my Ford exploder only a couple of weeks after buying it. No idea how I was sold a car and insurance without any body checking whether I was legal to drive!
Posted 8 months ago # -
I went on a gap year in my teens that ended just before my 30th birthday. Good times in mountain resorts.
If you don't plan on working, take four times the amount of money that you think you may possibly need!
This is one of the best pieces of advice you'll receive. It still stands true even if you do get a job. In terms of bike costs alone, my mate was a bike guide in the Alps for a while and used to go through a set of pads every day.
Posted 8 months ago # -
I'm planning on doing the same thing next year after I graduate and when I have enough cash to make it work. Planning on working but I hear jobs can take a while to find and work can be patchy until it gets busy. I'm planning on doing a whole year over there. Do the seasons transition straight from one to the other? When does the skiing stop and the biking begin, in say, Whister?
Posted 8 months ago # -
Bike park is open mid-May to mid-October, although the upper Garbanzo zone isn't usually available until June (July this year becuase of epic snowcover).
Ski season is snow dependent, but typically late November to mid/late April for most of the ski area, with glacier skiing going to right into June/July I think (only for the very keen). The quality stuff is December-March though.
Posted 8 months ago # -
Planning on working but I hear jobs can take a while to find and work can be patchy until it gets busy.
That's the situation I'm in now. End of bike/summer season but have at least another month or so to go before winter/ski & board season comes. Unfortunately I only have and can afford accomodation til mid October so think I may have to return home unless something picks up job wise. I would love to stay here through winter (probably just work solidly through a lot of it as boarding and skiing aren't really my thing yet) and then do the full summer bike season next year!
Posted 8 months ago # -
^ Why not just move to Vancouver if you have some sort of open work permit? Whistler is going to be totally dead in the next couple of weeks or so through until December. That's what I did in 2007 and I'm still here!
Posted 8 months ago # -
I'm looking for work in Vancouver as well, just nothing has come up yet.
Posted 8 months ago # -
Well, if you have any shop or tech experience, these guys are always looking for staff, mainly because no local wants to work for the grumpy owner!
But you'd hardly ever see him and work over the winter will be super easy. I was stoked to finally get an open work permit again so I could leave, but it was a means to an end.
Posted 8 months ago # -
The only shop experience I have is a uni summer holidays spent working Tesco night shifts, and I can only do simple repair stuff on my own bike
There are normal dishwasher, bar staff type jobs about on craigslist, Pique etc, I've just only had 1 call back/interview so far! Ideally I would get a job doing what I did back home (video editor and some graphics design) but those jobs are few and far between. The tv/film/media Vancouver craigslist is full of people looking for adult film actresses Posted 8 months ago # -
thank you all for yourd advice. please keep it coming. it all helps. very envious of all of you who are there now and are also doing a winter season. living the dream or what!!
Posted 8 months ago # -
Tom_ did you find more work or did you have to come back? Any tips you can pass along? I'm in the process of applying for the visa at the moment with the plan to head out at the start of next November?
Posted 4 months ago # -
probably a bit late in the day but my nephew did this in the summer of '11.
Booked for 3 months and came back after 6 weeks (lovesick we think).
Spesh demo was too much for the trails. He is now getting a bottlerocket.
Bashed his elbow after 4 days (vanity prevented him using elbow pads) so off the bike for two weeks. Couldn't afford to see doc so get insurance.
Cant drink 'till you are 21 (quite strict with this too)
Cheese is very expensive.Posted 4 months ago # -
probably a bit late in the day but my nephew did this in the summer of '11.
More info the better.
Cant drink 'till you are 21 (quite strict with this too) - 24 here, so thats not a problem.
Cheese is very expensive. - This is
Posted 4 months ago #
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