Loading a chairlift in Whistler is like pulling up a chair to a stranger's table. Pro riders, movie stars, local legends... Who knows who you're riding with or what kind of awesome stories they have to tell.
You always hear about the lack of women in ski towns but here in Whistler we not only have lots, they all rip. The Insider chats with three homegrown Olympians about skipping school, riding pow and other joys of growing up in Whistler.
Whistler freeskier Mauro Nunez has been performing in the Fire & Ice show every winter weekend since 1999. The Insider gets him to reveal the secrets of the flame.
The Whistler Sliding Centre is much more than "Olympic Leftovers." It's a place designed to build stronger athletes and create brand new ones. And for the public it offers a chance to go really, really fast.
It's all fun and games until someone kicks off a class 4 avalanche, or ends up lost in a creek bed with no food or shelter, or breaks their femur or... It's all fun and games until it isn't... then it's time to call Brad Sills and Whistler Search & Rescue.
Here in Canada we call them Toques and these grab-and-go headwarmers were just voted "Best Example of Whistler Style" in the local newspaper. The Insider heads out on the town to get the skinny on toques, beanies, knit caps or whatever else they're called.
Snowcats are what brought Feet Banks and his family to Whistler but the Powder is what kept them here. Feet remembers being a kid, riding in snowcats, and busting huge daffy's in Jersey Cream bowl.
Enjoy that "Olympic Athlete" feeling (and speeds over 100km/hour) without any of the pesky training or preparation by hitting up the public Bobsleigh and Skeleton programs at the Whistler Sliding Centre.
The Coast Mountains have big mountains, but they also have some of the most impressive trees on the planet. Local Native peoples have been protecting and using these forests for generations and now their "culturally modified trees" may play a role in heritage and environmental conservation.
Growing up in North America's premier mountain resort isn't all fun and games...okay, actually it kinda is. Musician/Songwriter Ali Milner talks about the joys and memories of childhood in the mountains.