Snow levels: 1800 m in the Whistler Backcountry

This was one of those trips that you plan out a few months in advance.  Figure out the route, where you'll be staying, what you'll do, everything right down to the fine details.

And then months pass when you don't find time to do the trip.  Finally, the opportunity presents itself (i.e. this is the last day of the season for the Gondola up).  So you check the weather forecast and head out.

You get to the mountains, get up to the start of the hike, and at this point you realize: the weather report said "snow and rain".  But since you planned this trip months ago, you have been imagining sun and clear skies this whole time.  You saw "snow and rain", but read "should be fine".

Not the trip we were expecting, but pretty amazing anyways.  The snow was definitely there, but the rain held off and the clouds only seemed to make everything look better:

(As always, clicking on the picture will take you to Flickr for more)

It's amazing how much bigger ski resorts seem when you are on foot.  Our route is below.  This basically amounts to two or three smallish runs at whistler, but took us about 5 hours on foot.