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…
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SNOW, the Whistler Musical, offers choice of anthems
I reveal my vintage a little too clearly if I share the songs that rallied us to the dance-floor no matter what time of night nor what degree of inebriation, during my first season in Whistler. But after a year of working with Whistler talents Grant Stoddard, Leslie Anthony and GD Maxwell to develop SNOW: the…
Olympics won’t be thwarted by fickle snow gods
Whistler writer Leslie Anthony went looking for Ogopogo for Explore magazine last year, and placated himself re: his failed quest to find the Great Lake Snake by recalling the words of a famous sasquatch hunter: Although he spent huge amounts of time and money searching for the creature, in a moment of startling candour he’d told an interviewer: ‘It sure…
Whistler’s Killer Highway is Born Again – The Kittens Are Safe Now.
It’s February 1996 and a high-pressure system has locked over Whistler and Squamish. My brother and I pile into my husband’s old Volvo and navigate the narrow winding highway for a day of down-clad rockclimbing. The highway’s canyon walls press so tightly against us that in places I suck in my breath. I’m driving, which proves what a high…
Araxi in running for gold medal from the Cookbook Olympics
The Gourmand World Cookbook Awards have been variously described as the cookbook Olympics or “a sort of Nobel prize for cookery writers.” As if James Walt hasn’t enough accolades in his apron, he gears up for the Winter Olympic season with his newly released Araxi: Seasonal Recipes from the Celebrated Whistler Restaurant having just won…
Araxi offers up high-class gastroporn
I can’t read cookbooks. I’m illiterate when it comes to technical directions. But Araxi: Seasonal Recipes from the Celebrated Whistler Restaurant currently has pride of place on my bedside table. Call it high-class gastroporn. I interviewed Araxi’s Executive Chef, James Walt, a few years ago for a series of Chef Profiles that ran in Whistler…
Best Places to Tie The Knot
I got married at twenty. It was spur of the moment, and we really didn’t care about the details. Flowers, rings, fuss, whatever. At the time, I couldn’t think of anything worse than having a room full of people scrutinising me while I tried to fake them out that I was really a princess. But now…
Imagineery Ski-bums
Mike Douglas features in On the Shoulders of Giants, Whistler Blackcomb’s new documentary about the PEAK 2 PEAK gondola. When we developed the script for the story of the Peak 2 Peak gondola, director Jim Budge and I knew we wanted to place the new gondola in the context of Whistler’s long history of attracting…
Quit Work Now
My husband bought me a tshirt that says, “Work is forever. Snow isn’t.” Manifestees are a fashion staple in ski towns, and The Escape Route’s “Quit work, buy some stuff, go somewhere, have some fun” is an ethos the store has been promoting for 20 years. When I talked to owner, Jayson Faulkner, about the store’s 20…
Did the world owe Sarajevo?
For Kootenay Mountain Culture’s Winter 2009 “Competition” issue, I investigated what an Olympic hangover looks like at altitude. Now, with just 78 days until the Winter Olympics rolls into Whistler, it seems fitting to look at what previous host mountain communities have gotten for their hospitality. Anyone who’s ever hosted a wicked party knows the…
