Panorama Mountain Resort ~ Panorama, BC

Our next adventure weekend took us to, drumroll……yup, British Columbia!! I’m really starting to see a trend with our travels, we just couldn’t get enough of BC it seems! January 24, 2011 had us on a bus trip bound for the beautiful Panorama Ski Resort in the Rockies. Not being avid skiers (I only tried once before at 16 and never made it past the bunny hill), and Tony not really skiing before either, this was going to be an interesting and hopefully injury free trip. We arrived in the early evening and the resort hit the wow factor right away with all of the beautiful lights reflecting off the snow. We checked into the Taynton Lodge and settled for the night, excited to see what views awaited us in the morning.

After a relaxing soak in the hot tub and a good night’s rest, we were eager to check things out in daylight. Panoramic mountain views all around (hence the name), icicles hanging off of the rooftops, sparkling like jewels in the sun and the fresh, snowy air was a 5 star wake up call for me! Tony was ready to tackle the day by crossing off another bucket list item, learning to ski. He was like a kid at Christmas with excitement. He applied the basic “pizza, French fries” technique on the bunny hill a few times. Then, he was on the lift, making his way up to the top! He’s a fast and driven learner and with his athletic background in sports, biking and being a great skater to back him up, I wasn’t the least bit surprised. Myself, not a chance! I prefer to sight see, sit by a warm fire while enjoying a few hot drinks and people watching. The setup of the facility (The Great Hall), allowed me to do just this, in comfort with a wall of windows looking out onto the hill to visually partake in the action on the other side. It was, and still is one of my favourite places to go to while Tony skis for this reason.

This was the day I lost my husband to the slopes! When he returned to me after a full day of skiing, he was a changed man with a new passion and a love for skiing. He fell a few times up there, tearing his new ski suit in the most visually eye opening of places, which made for a good laugh, but he was hooked on skiing regardless of how embarrassing his first day was. He was able to capture some great shots for me at the top so I was pretty happy and proud of him for his accomplishment. I knew at that moment what our future winters were going to look like.

While Tony skied, I split my time between watching the skiers from the warmth and comfort of the Great Hall and exploring the lower village. The gondola ride down was a treat in itself offering majestic views of the village nestled into the mountains surrounding it, snowy rooftops lined up row by row. It really felt like I was in a hidden city in the mountains.

Taking the gondola down to the lower village.

The remainder of our stay was filled with great food, dancing at the beach theme party in the Great Hall, some more skiing and even night skiing for Tony. On our last day before leaving, we came across a huge stone wall fireplace with hundreds of messages and signatures on the rocks from past guests, which of course we had to add to. This was a great introduction to ski life and how we have spent part of our winters since…. on the mountain.