Sea to Sky Highway Panic Attack

[Tenn4ever]

Has anyone ever experienced a panic attack while driving this highway? I would really like to do this while we are in Vancouver but a couple years ago I had a major panic attack while on the Beartooth Highway crossing from Montana into Wyoming.

[Putterdude]

Not at all, prior to the 2010 Winter Olympics a reported $1 billion was spent upgrading and straightening out the highway. It is now a very pleasant drive, I am quite certain you won't have a problem.

[Urban trekker]

AS PD mentioned the highway has been vastly improved and unlike the Beartooth - which I drove many years ago while enroute to Yellowstone - doesn't have any high mountain summits - Whistler is only about 2800' above sea level so there are no scary climbs.

 

Hope this helps - if you get a nice sunny day it will be one of the best drives anywhere - make sure on the northbound trip to Whistler to stop at the Tantalus viewpoint - the view is awe inspiring.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[chipmaster]

I have driven this two to three times a year to Whistler the past 8 years, many while the construction was ongoing.

 

There are parts that are really nice two lanes of the best you can get, you can't get around the fact that on some portions you still hug the cliff with a concrete divider, sheer cliff on one side, huge droppoff to water on the other, a beautiful drive.

 

IMHO not much has changed beyond having more lanes, if heights, speed, turns and sheer cliff are going to get you scared, nothing has changed, but that is just my opinion.

 

Has anyone ever experienced a panic attack while driving this highway? I would really like to do this while we are in Vancouver but a couple years ago I had a major panic attack while on the Beartooth Highway crossing from Montana into Wyoming.

[Tenn4ever]

AS PD mentioned the highway has been vastly improved and unlike the Beartooth - which I drove many years ago while enroute to Yellowstone - doesn't have any high mountain summits - Whistler is only about 2800' above sea level so there are no scary climbs.

 

Hope this helps - if you get a nice sunny day it will be one of the best drives anywhere - make sure on the northbound trip to Whistler to stop at the Tantalus viewpoint - the view is awe inspiring.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

 

Thanks for the replies. I really want to do this because my husband loves scenery and I don't want to ruin it for him.

 

So, you have been on both? Is the Beartooth scarier than the Sea to Sky? At one point the Beartooth is almost 12,000' above sea level. The Sea to Sky Highway is not anything like that? Is it worse going up or coming down?

[usermom]

Thanks for the replies. I really want to do this because my husband loves scenery and I don't want to ruin it for him.

 

So, you have been on both? Is the Beartooth scarier than the Sea to Sky? At one point the Beartooth is almost 12,000' above sea level. The Sea to Sky Highway is not anything like that? Is it worse going up or coming down?

 

I would also like to accomplish this, but fear heights.

[Cruise_More_Often]

If you both would rather see the view rather than drive, the Whistler Mountaineer railroad parallels the highway and is really a fun way to spend the day. It's pricey but worth every penny.

[Putterdude]

So, you have been on both? Is the Beartooth scarier than the Sea to Sky? At one point the Beartooth is almost 12,000' above sea level. The Sea to Sky Highway is not anything like that? Is it worse going up or coming down?

 

For the most part the Sea to Sky is anywhere from a few feet above sea level to hardly a few hundred feet. Once you leave Squamish and start up to Whistler it is pretty tame except for one spot along the Cheakamus River which is a bit high it shouldn't be a real issue and the duration is only about 5 minutes.

[trophy_23]

It is a much nicer drive than it used to be. It was not very nice during the construction, but it has been widened out in some areas with more passing lanes etc. I don't think you will have a problem.

[donaldsc]

Has anyone ever experienced a panic attack while driving this highway? I would really like to do this while we are in Vancouver but a couple years ago I had a major panic attack while on the Beartooth Highway crossing from Montana into Wyoming.

 

If you do have a problem, you can do what my mother did many years ago when we drove to the top of Pikes Peak in Colorado. She announced to my father that nothing on earth could make her go down in the car and she was only willing to go down on the cog railway. Turns out that the cog railway was fully booked for the rest of the day.

 

So, she got in the back seat, got down on the floor of the car (this was before seat belts), covered her head with a large towel, and did not come up for air until we got to the bottom of the mountain.

 

My brother and I never let her forget it but it did work and she survived the trip down.

 

DON

[Tenn4ever]

If you both would rather see the view rather than drive, the Whistler Mountaineer railroad parallels the highway and is really a fun way to spend the day. It's pricey but worth every penny.

 

I gave that a thought but we already have the Gold Star Dome Car on the Coastal Classic from Seward to Anchorage reserved and it is pricey so I think that's the only train we'll do.

 

For the most part the Sea to Sky is anywhere from a few feet above sea level to hardly a few hundred feet. Once you leave Squamish and start up to Whistler it is pretty tame except for one spot along the Cheakamus River which is a bit high it shouldn't be a real issue and the duration is only about 5 minutes.

 

Thank you. This sounds like I will be able to do it. Until the Beartooth I had never had problems with mountain roads before having grown up in the mountains and living there all my life until the last few years. Of course, those mountains weren't 12,000' either :o

 

If you do have a problem, you can do what my mother did many years ago when we drove to the top of Pikes Peak in Colorado. She announced to my father that nothing on earth could make her go down in the car and she was only willing to go down on the cog railway. Turns out that the cog railway was fully booked for the rest of the day.

 

So, she got in the back seat, got down on the floor of the car (this was before seat belts), covered her head with a large towel, and did not come up for air until we got to the bottom of the mountain.

 

My brother and I never let her forget it but it did work and she survived the trip down.

 

DON

 

I can completely relate. I was down as low as I could get in front of the dash board hyperventilating. Afterwards, I read about a man's brother who did the same thing your mother did while he was riding on the Beartooth Highway.

 

Thanks for all the encouraging replies. I really want to do this when we go to Vancouver before our cruise.

[Urban trekker]

Here's a link to a You tube video put out by Tourism BC on driving the highway - it also gives you a number of places to stop and there are several more that are not shown in the video - like Porteau Cove, Alice Lake Park, Brandywine Falls and the Whistler Olympic Park.

 

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[Tenn4ever]

Here's a link to a You tube video put out by Tourism BC on driving the highway - it also gives you a number of places to stop and there are several more that are not shown in the video - like Porteau Cove, Alice Lake Park, Brandywine Falls and the Whistler Olympic Park.

 

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

 

Thanks, Dennis, for the link. I don't think this will bother me at all.

[usermom]

Thanks so much for all these great replies and the You Tube link. It doesn't seem bad at all. I expected a very narrow, winding road on the side of a cliff. I'm looking forward to the Sea to Sky Highway now thanks to you guys.

[Putterdude]

You are very welcome, it was one of those things that had to be addressed in our bid for the 2010 Winter Olympics and now it is a legacy of same....just drive the speed limit and enjoy the terrific views.

[Steamboatin]

This past June we took a Tran-Canadian Trafalgar escorted tour. We were driven on our 52 passenger bus on the highway in question from the ferry landing on the mainland from Vancouver, British Columbia all the way to Jasper, Canada.

 

The highway was nice and in some spots they were in the process of constructing a new 4 lane strech of improved highway. The new streches would be straiter and at a lesser grade we were told in addition to being a wider 4 lane highway.

 

Now there was one section that we traveled one morning high in the mountains and it was a switch back and forth road. Our driver said that was the one part of the drive he hated the most and for us not to "bug him" while he was driving that strech of roadway. Normally he would chat and joke with the bus passangers. Anyway, execpt for that one strech I see no problems as of last June.

 

Enjoy your trip.

[Urban trekker]

That would be the Trans-Canada highway which is the opposite direction to the Sea to Sky - the likely spot of the construction would be coming out of Golden, BC as they are 4 laning the highway there - it was one of worst and most accident proned section of the highway.

 

Almost all of the re-construction of the Sea to Sky was completed before the Olympics - just some touch up here and there now.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[cruiseonecer]

That would be the Trans-Canada highway which is the opposite direction to the Sea to Sky - the likely spot of the construction would be coming out of Golden, BC as they are 4 laning the highway there - it was one of worst and most accident proned section of the highway.

 

Almost all of the re-construction of the Sea to Sky was completed before the Olympics - just some touch up here and there now.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

 

If that Trafalgar tour was on a run from Vancouver to Jasper, I think it would more likely have been on the Yellowhead Highway rather than the T-C at Golden.

[Urban trekker]

I thought of that as well but I don't think there is any major construction going on the Yellowhead and they could go into Lake Louise/Banff and then take the Ice fields highway to Jasper.

 

The grade on the Yellowhead is a lot more gentle and doesn't need a lot of improvements.

 

Am aware of the construction that I mentioned as I drove it last summer.

 

Without checking the Trafalgar web site i can't see a Rockies tour that would do just Jasper and not Lake Louise/Banff and the Ice Fields highway.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[Putterdude]

We are all only guessing but Trafalgar does offer a tour that goes Vancouver, Kamloops, Jasper then down to Banff and Calgary....my guess is that the poster is speaking of the Duffy Lake Hwy which can be a bit hairy.

[Urban trekker]

Other than replacing a couple of narrow bridges the Duffy Lake section of Highway 99 isn't likely to be getting any four laning - perhaps it's time i checked Drive BC and see what our tax dollars are building.

 

If the Trafalgar tour does that loop that would likely explain it - they are twinning the Trans-Canada through Banff Park and continuing to improve Kicking horse - with some realignment. There is also some 4 laning between Monte Creek and Chase and through to Salmon Arm.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[Sally Forth]

Here's a link to a You tube video put out by Tourism BC on driving the highway - it also gives you a number of places to stop and there are several more that are not shown in the video - like Porteau Cove, Alice Lake Park, Brandywine Falls and the Whistler Olympic Park.

 

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

 

Don't forget the mining museum at Britannia Beach. It's got great history and they've done a good job making sure the tour is interesting for all ages.

 

Viv