All that stands between the Dave Murray Downhill and Olympic perfection is about seven degrees Celsius – that’s the temperature drop required to take the current valley conditions (El Nino special) to cold enough to turn a water-logged course into boilerplate ice. “This course is excellent,” FIS men’s race director Guenter Hunjara told a small…
Category: lisa richardson
The final torchbearer
Debate is renewed about who the final torchbearer for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games will be after organisers announced that it won’t be hockey legend Wayne Gretzky. Furlong said spectators will find out the final torchbearer’s identity on Friday night: “You can think about this as long as you’d like and you can think about the…
Thrillseekers – you were born to huck…
New research underway at the University of British Columbia suggests those Olympic ski racers and aerialists preparing to hurl themselves down mountains were destined to seek out excessive speeds and massive air… they may be genetically pre-disposed to thrill-seeking behaviour. UBC PhD candidate Cynthia Thomson was encouraged to pursue her line of research when her…
Sustainable tourism is frog pose.
Okay, so technically I was procrastinating last weekend when I sat down at my desk and started thinking about what sustainable tourism means to me… Technically, I already had something I should have been working on… Technically, writing that article was going to contribute to my own personal fiscal sustainability. Inspiration strikes in this way….
2010 reasons to head to Pemberton this February
The inukshuk, an Inuit wayfinder, points the way to Pemberton. There are easily 2010 Reasons to Take a Road-Trip to Pemberton This February – lots of the community’s attributes were crowd-sourced at GamesTown2010 – almost 500 submissions were logged by local chest-beaters, and people are still posting… The Village of Pemberton, Chamber of Commerce and…
The Centre Cannot Hold – Olympics and Anti-comps put the squeeze on Freeskiing
The X Games takes place in Aspen at the end of this month, and 39 of the 250 competitors are past and present Olympians. The roster definitely skews to past Olympians, because X Games organisers have been burned by the Olympics in the past. I spoke with Chris Schuster, Competition Director for the X Games…
5 things I learned from Bob and Sue Adams about the entrepreneurial spirit
When Bob and Sue Adams were told they were the 2009 Lifetime Members of the Canadian Federation of Independent Grocers, they had to take each other’s pulses. “Life membership?” they joked. “Are we that old?” “I guess it’s the end of the road…” I sat down with them this summer for a hilarious tag-team conversation,…
How to Become a Pro Skier, with cheat notes from Malcolm Gladwell and TJ Schiller
Malcolm Gladwell wanted to understand why some people become super-successful. He believed that “the biggest misconception about success is that we do it solely on our smarts, ambition, hustle and hard work“, because there are more variables involved in individual success than we’d like to admit. So he wrote the number one best-seller Outliers. The professional…
Silver medal on World Cup for Alexa Loo throws down chin-up challenge
Canadian parallel giant slalom rider Alexa Loo has followed last week’s silver medal at the 2010 LG Snowboarrd FIS World Cup in Kreishberg, Austria with another silver on the Europa Cup – all good prep for Sunday’s World Cup – a race that can clinch her a spot on the Olympic team, if she comes…
Local Beta on Whistler Gives The Inside Scoop
Travellers’ Law number 2 : “Get the scoop from locals” comes close second in global-hobo advice lore after Rule #1 : trust the universe. Or as Robin Esrock leads off, in his rules for the Gonzo Traveller – Never turn down a free drink. Everyone who has been either a traveller, a guest or a local knows that the…
Lisa Richardson Bylines 