photo: Brad Kasselman/CoastPhoto.com
Whistler: An insider’s guide
Our local writer divulges some secret pleasures of life in this celebrated West Coast ski town—the official Host Mountain Resort of the 2010 Winter Games.
I remember the day I truly “got” Whistler. As I rode the Peak Chair up Whistler Mountain that chilly March afternoon, wind streamed across the rock-toothed ridges, chasing storm clouds from the valley. Below, alpine bowls glistened with new snow. Looking south from the summit, I marvelled at the imposing spire of The Black Tusk, a volcanic remnant spearing the sky amidst the otherwise Pleistocene sweep of blue glaciers and alabaster peaks. Wow.
The Coast Mountains landscape would transfix any skier, but that wasn’t what held my gaze. Instead, from where I stood atop a high, little-known entrance to West Cirque, my eyes fell to the scene between my ski tips. I traced the white veins of ski runs edged by rock and forest down to the valley, where the familiar Disneyesque outlines of Whistler Village abut the flanks of Whistler and Blackcomb mountains. And in that moment, I saw beyond the tourism infrastructure—the lifts and cobbled streets, the upscale shopping plazas and restaurants—to the distinct neighbourhoods curled around the village, their schools and parks and playgrounds.
Read more in the current issue of British Columbia Magazine
