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…
Trish Jamieson dishes musical dirt on CBC
We were eight hours and counting into a gnarly drive from Nelson to Pemberton – extreme weather warnings were issuing up and down the province. Freezing rain dominated the forecast. Suddenly the radio crackled with familiar voices – CBC’s On the Coast broadcasting live from the Whistler Brewhouse, with Trish Jamieson playing her original tunes,…
Freeskier Mike Douglas hangs five in Hawaii… on skis.
Innovation is about synthesis, and imagineer Mike Douglas has upped the ante again, mashing up a Hawaiian surf Mecca with two boards… Hmm, if surfing inspired snowboarding, is skiing about to start a salt water revolution? Says Douglas, “If you never try things, if you never put yourself out there and try something new, then…
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…
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…
Lisa Richardson Bylines 