Robin O’Neill goes deep for Deep Winter

Dear Robin, I was 100% in your corner last night at the Deep Winter Photo Challenge, but damn, was I nervous for you. “First woman competing for the King/Queen of Storms title.” Girlfriend, that’s a lot to carry on your shoulders. I love that you owned that, telling the Pique “I hope I can rock…

In Defence of App-less Skiing

I wrote a rant for Skier magazine recently, arguing that ski days should be app-less and device free. I wasn’t being deliberately provocative. I really do think that app-games, of which Vail’s new Epic Mix is the Grand Poobah, take away some fundamental aspect of the mountain experience. But as I wrote, If you need a…

Inspiring Moments: 5 Ways in Which 2010 Blew My Mind

So the year’s over. Did you learn anything? Some. Like what? I learned that things other than obligations and deadlines have power… Guess you’re ready for 2011 then. May the force be with you. Power of water. The second largest landslide in Canadian history happens up the road in August. The Meager Mudslide travelled at an…

A New Year’s Resolution, to SLOW the fuck down.

People who don’t know me well think I’m chill. Easy-going. Relaxed. As people move into my inner circle, that turns on its head. Thoroughbred. I’ve been called that twice in the last year. It sounds like a compliment… but high-strung and hot-blooded isn’t usually. I think that’s why I’m so drawn to the Slow Movement….

Taking the “bah, humbug” out of Christmas

“Christmas is here, the magic of Christmas, filling our hearts with glee…” I kill the radio before I can burst my eardrums with sharpened chopsticks to prevent having to listen to another second of sentimental drivel. Explaining why I hate Christmas in the middle of December is too much like honestly answering what motivated me…

Down the rabbithole – SBC SKIER magazine turns 10

A ski mag was my rabbithole… How else does a girl from Brisbane wind up in Whistler? I took the direct route, falling through a copy of some neon-flecked Australian ski magazine with Glen Plake on the cover, circa July 1994, to land in Whistler five months later into what would become a completely different…

Revisiting Revelstoke’s Boulder Mountain avalanche

“Why go over it again?” people asked, when I told them I was writing an article for KMC mag about the second biggest avalanche disaster in Canadian history. People died. There’d been enough finger-pointing. And there was enough media coverage at the time to wear everyone raw. But I’ve lived in a (distinctly non-morbid) house…

PR is dead. Long live the storytellers.

I didn’t decide to wrap up my 4 year tenure as the Communications Director of the TELUS World Ski and Snowboard Festival because PR is dead. (Although Mat Wilcox closing down her firm rang like a bell from the heart of Vancouver : ding, dong, the the game is forever changed. Start over. Start over.)…

Writer, unplugged

Three weeks just spent reconnecting with my inner feral at Yosemite’s historic Camp 4 helped me pinpoint the three most important ingredients for a happy life: 1. shelter from the storm, 2. good company, 3. quality coffee to ease the morning into its groove. Added bonus? A down puffy jacket and hot running water. Those…