Once, when I was really under pressure, blocked by my own ambition, I plagiarized. I stole an entire paragraph of someone else’s writing and offered it up as my own. The story ran in the newspaper. I was sent a cheque. And cashed it. No one ever found out. Except my mother, who was suspicious…
Category: whistler writer
Success, in spite of myself
My local newspaper has folded. And its sister publication, The Pique, which already absorbed the Question’s editorial staff, found space for me, and my column, too, starting February 8. In the editorial yesterday, Clare Ogilvie announced the changes. “Lisa Richardson and her Velocity Project will find a home in the Pique. Pemberton’s favourite writer for…
Think like an ancestor – a parting column for the Whistler Question
“Late Capitalism is as good an excuse of any for not getting out of bed, but huddling under the covers worrying about Donald Trump is a very inefficient way of sticking it to the man.”~ Laurie Penny I found a note from my brother while rummaging around in my office the other day – a…
What Do You Actually Need to Be Happy: A Packing List (adapted for families)
I first had the chance to share this piece at Arc’teryx’s The Bird blog. Thanks to Sarah Leishman for giving me the green-light when I said I wanted to write “something about adventurers trying to maintain their minimalism after having a kid without writing a mommyblog…” My husband gets the job of going through our…
What happens when the ski industry’s MVP becomes a trophy wife
I wrote this piece for Mountain magazine and it ran in their early Winter issue. I wrote it — several versions of it, in truth — in the days after the news of the takeover broke, trying to shake some crystal ball readings from all the snow-dust and Facebook chaff. I talked to a lot of people. Informed, thoughtful,…
Stopping to Celebrate: the Crankworx 10th Anniversary Anthology
So, that window of time in which I should have been learning how to express milk, bottle-feed, attempt early weaning etc? I was busy compiling an anthology of Crankworx’ greatest moments. (Think: nap-time meets triple espresso-fuelled heart palpitations.) Meaning that, when the event itself rolled around and an invitation pinged into my in-box to attend…
3 Reasons to Take Up Snow School’s “Improve Yourself” Invite this Month at Whistler Blackcomb
Dave Hobson doesn’t really believe in lessons. The Alpine Supervisor of Whistler Blackcomb’s Snow School (and 2012 Supervisor of the Year)* is inclined to the philosophy that you can pretty much teach yourself anything. Except skiing and snowboarding, that is. In part, he advocates ski lessons because it’s a social experience. Putting your self in…
How to Ski Like A Man
The failure of the world to explode in cataclysmic fireballs on the end of the Mayan calendar means those New Year resolutions you didn’t bother with suddenly demand a little attention. (It’s not too late!) Today, I told the Liftopia community that any Self Improvement journey should begin with a promise to go skiing. With…
To Tweet or To Retreat from the Social Frontier… (it’s hardly a question)
Ever since Whistler Blackcomb introduced free wifi to their on-mountain lodges and an app that allows skiers to track runs and share speed, vertical and bragging rights, the connection between real life and the on-mountain escape has gotten stronger. Personally, I go to the mountain to unplug. But, something happened in the fifteen years I’ve…
Ebbs and flows
A few years ago, Gerhard Gross wrote the best article I’ve ever read in a snowboard magazine, The Science of Stoke, digging in to explain what one of the most over-used word in our mountain culture actually means, endocrinologically-speaking. His revelations about the ebb and flow of the chemical high that keeps us so addicted…
Lisa Richardson Bylines 