Olympians from Whistler, Squamish and Pemberton reflect on their journeys to Milano Cortina 2026. - By David Song
06 OPENING REMARKS Whistler is once again wonderfully well-represented at the Winter Olympics, writes editor Braden Dupuis—but how long will the Winter Games last?
08 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR This week’s letter-writers share ideas for improving the Whistler Blackcomb skiing experience, and thanks for successful growth management.
22 RANGE ROVER The second in Leslie Anthony’s two-part series on Olympic Winter Games host venue Cortina, Italy.
42 PIQUE’N YER INTEREST As AI advancement continues to accelerate, it’s worth considering how future-proof your career is, writes Vince Shuley.
12 SETTING THE STAGE The Resort Municipality of Whistler is formalizing a new policy to celebrate international athletes as the 2026 Olympic Winter Games get underway in Italy.
13 COMMUNITY BUILDER Remembering Whistler’s Nigel Woods, the Alpha Lake islander and “zest-for-life” icon who passed away peacefully Jan. 24.
26 ROAD TO REDEMPTION Olympian Justin Kripps and filmmaker Tyson Hepburn discuss Redemption Run, a three-part CBC docuseries filmed in part at the Whistler Sliding Centre.
30 JUST DESSERTS
Local comedy troupe Laugh Out LIVE! Is set to launch a brand new dinner theatre experience on Feb. 21.
COVER Inspired by Olimpia Zagnoli’s poster, Visione Olimpica. Having lived my life between Canada’s two Winter Olympic hosts it’s easy to feel inspired by the game’s legacy, venues and facilities. Looking forward to seeing many more local athletes grow and develop into World Champions and Olympic medallists! - By Jon Parris // Adobe AI // @jon.parris.art
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Founding Publishers KATHY & BOB BARNETT www.piquenewsmagazine.com
Will there be a Winter Olympics in 2090?
FRIDAY, FEB. 6 marks the Opening Ceremonies of the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympic Winter Games, and Whistler once again boasts an outsized Olympic impact.
Whether it’s Whistler born-andraised, Whistler-trained, or just Whistler-adjacent, the Olympic ties to this place are likely unmatched, percapita, anywhere on Earth.
BY BRADEN DUPUIS
Whistler produces so many elitelevel Olympic competitors and coaches, writing about them always comes with some anxiety attached, lest we’re inadvertently leaving someone out (so if your son/daughter/neighbour/second cousin/mailman is competing at this year’s Games and didn’t get a mention in Pique yet, please know it’s nothing personal—there are just a lot of you, is all).
Leading the way is homegrown skicross superstar Marielle Thompson, tapped this year to be one of two Canadian flagbearers at the opening ceremony, alongside legendary Canadian moguls skier Mikael Kingsbury.
“I’ve seen all these amazing athletes … carry the flag, and it’s kind of the highest honour, I’d say, in our Olympic journey,” Thompson said in a release. “I’ll probably cry. I think back to when I won my gold medal in Sochi [2014] and how I just could not hold the emotions in. I think carrying the flag and thinking about Canada, I’m gonna be a mess, maybe, but I’ll try to hold it together.”
We here in Whistler will also be doing our best to hold it together, but the local pride of seeing Thompson leading our
nation’s finest athletes into competition will no doubt inspire more than a few tears here in the resort.
(Read more about local Olympians on pages 12 and 24—and again, if we’ve missed your loved one, please know it is not an intentional omission.)
As always, whether or not our local athletes end up on the podium is beside the point—they’ve already more than done us proud, and watching them compete on the world’s biggest stage is almost an added bonus.
But as we watch the Games over in Italy, the current winter conditions in Whistler are disconcerting, to say the least. As of this writing, the morning of Feb. 4, the forecast calls for 8 C and sunshine, not a natural flake in the weekly outlook.
There’s a temptation in resort towns to normalize whatever the current conditions are. Bad year? Blame El Niño.
not reliably, not without massive intervention. The colder, higher places will be fine for longer. Everyone else? Increasingly marginal.
A study published in 2023 in the journal Current Issues in Tourism examined 339 survey responses from elite athletes and coaches in 20 countries, using them to define “fair and safe” conditions for snow sports competitions.
“The frequency of unfair-unsafe conditions has increased over the last 50 years across the 21 [Olympic Winter Games] host locations. The probability of unfair-unsafe conditions increases under all future climate change scenarios,” the authors wrote. “In a low emission scenario aligned to the Paris Climate Agreement, the number of climate reliable hosts remains almost unchanged throughout the twenty-first century (nine in mid-century, eight in late century). The geography of the OWG changes
Austrian Innsbruck and resorts in Italy’s Cortina d’Ampezzo and Turin are expected to reach unreliability in this century, while venues in French Chamonix, German GarmischPatenkirchen and Russian Sochi were deemed unreliable from the start.
North American venues, outside of California’s Squaw Valley, are only expected to become majorly unreliable if the current emissions trajectory continues until the end of the century. Same with Japanese venues Sapporo and Nagano, while Pyeongchang in South Korea is also expected to be snowless soon.
Athletes included in the study “expressed trepidation over the future of their sport and the need for the sporting world to be a powerful force to inspire and accelerate climate action,” the authors wrote.
The Olympics are useful here because
There’s a temptation in resort towns to normalize whatever the current conditions are. Bad year? Blame El Nino. Good year? Thank Ullr and move on. But year by year, the baseline keeps shifting.
Good year? Thank Ullr and move on. But year by year, the baseline keeps shifting.
The Winter Olympics themselves are not immune. Beijing 2022 was the first Winter Games where every flake of snow was artificial. Entire mountainsides engineered into winter because nature wouldn’t cooperate. And not just a one-off anomaly; a preview. Climate researchers have been quietly pointing out that many traditional Olympic venues simply won’t be cold enough in the coming decades—
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radically if global emissions remain on the trajectory of the last two decades, leaving only one reliable host city by the end of the century.”
After Milano Cortina 2026, the Olympic Winter Games head to the French Alps in 2030, and Utah in 2034. Will there be a Winter Olympics in, say, 2090?
In the aforementioned study, researchers say European venues will feel the brunt first. French Grenoble,
they act as a stress test. If the biggest, best-funded winter sporting event on Earth is struggling to find cold, what does that say about the rest of us?
Artificial snow buys time. It doesn’t buy winters.
None of this means Whistler is doomed. High elevation helps. Geography helps. So does money, frankly. But those advantages don’t make us immune—they just slow the clock. And slowing the clock only matters if you actually use the time. n
Nigel Woods
Nov 22, 1951 - Jan 24, 2026
Born on November 22nd, 1951, in Edmonton, Alberta, to Bill and Mary Woods, Nigel settled in Saanichton BC, at the age of 10 with sister, Heather (Cormie) and brother, Adrian. Nigel grew up connected to nature on his family farm where he fell in love with horses, tractors, and hard work.
As many of the old Whistler stories go, a weekend spent skiing in the early 70’s resulted in him dropping law school, and instead, brought him and his backhoe to the budding ski town where he never looked back. Like many of us, the mountains called to him; Whistler was truly where Nigel belonged. It was here that he collected lifelong friends, and created many memories during Whistler's early years. For Nige, everyday was a good day – sun, sleet, snow, hail, you would find him in the outdoors enjoying one of his many passions: skiing, golfing, mountain biking, of jumping off his diving board on Alpha Lake.
Nigel lived a life defined by love, adventure, and connection. His family and friends were his most valued treasures. He lived each day like it was a fresh new adventure and found joy in each and every one of them, like seldom do. If you ever had the opportunity to share a seat next to Nige on a chairlift or gondola ride, you were sure to quickly realize he wasn’t quite like anyone else. His passion for all things Whistler, new and old, was unmatched. On the slopes he could make a friend for life and then probably ski your legs off!
Nigel shared nearly 44 years of marriage with his devoted wife Buff. He was a proud and deeply loving father to his three kids,
Matty (Courtney), Carleigh King (Myles), and Adam (Gillian). Together, he and Buff grew their family at the home they created together, Woods Island, in the heart of Alpha Lake. He was an adoring and involved “Fajah” to his Grandchildren - Cooper, Liv, Corden, Pete, Conlee, Robin, and Ellie. His family was his greatest source of pride. His guidance, gratitude for each day, and unconditional love have undoubtedly shaped us for generations.
In the local business community, Nigel was a legend, widely respected for his integrity, his leadership, vision, and generosity. He believed in doing things the right way, and in lifting others up along the way. To many, Nigel was a mentor, a leader, and a lifelong friend.
Nigel’s legacy lives on through his family and the many lives he touched throughout the Whistler community and beyond. His kindness, leadership, and adventurous spirit will be remembered long after his passing. We will move into the future asking ourselves “What would Nigel do?” because with that special spark in his eye, Nige would always say yes to the adventure, the journey, fun, and connection.
A Celebration of Life will be held at the Fairmont Chateau Whistler on April 25th, 2026, at 3:00 PM.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Nigel’s memory to The Whistler Healthcare Foundation or the Kelty Patrick Dennehy Foundation.
Nigel will be deeply missed and lovingly remembered by all those whose lives he had such a profound impact upon.
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How to improve the Whistler Blackcomb skiing experience
I wrote a letter to the editor in Pique a couple of years ago, urging Vail Resorts to improve the skier experience. One way I suggested they do that is to improve where they sell good coffee. Not just coffee. Espresso. They sell espresso at the Roundhouse, in the Rendezvous and possibly other places on the mountain, but not where we need it most. My suggestion was to sell espresso in Raven’s Nest, Chic Pea, and the Crystal Hut.
Coffee is easy to make and has high margins. You don’t need a whole kitchen, just a barista and a few basic inputs like hot water and coffee beans. Good coffee—espresso particularly— does require special equipment, but that investment is a business decision and can be made based on pricing and the economic returns. This year I was delighted to see that we can now buy an espresso at The Raven‘s Nest. Well done, Vail Resorts. You were either listening to the skiers you serve or you figured it out all by yourself. Either way you have begun your journey to improve the ski experience at Whistler Mountain.
Now I have another suggestion for
you. This past holiday season saw plenty of skiers and holiday-makers in Whistler, and we all use our phones. For everything. These days, Vail Resorts makes skiers use its app (or heavily prefers them to use the app rather than a physical card). This puts further burden on the network. Some of the issues are with the app itself, but these past few weeks have seen network issues and dead spots across the whole ski area. It has become a well-known fact by regular skiers that mobile phones get a poor connection on the Creekside Gondola. Guest Services at the Creekside base is
Write to us! Letters to the editor must contain the writer’s name, address and a daytime telephone number. Maximum length is 450 words. Pique Newsmagazine reserves the right to edit, condense or refrain from publishing any contribution. Letters reflect the opinion of the writer and not that of Pique Newsmagazine. Send them to edit@ piquenewsmagazine.com before 11 a.m. on Tuesday for consideration in that week’s paper.
another rather unfortunate dead spot. When Vail Resorts requires skiers to open and use the app to buy ski passes or fix issues, it needs to ensure a proper connection is a priority. The problem is likely more about the network than the app itself, which is an issue for the telecom carriers (Telus and Rogers), but Vail Resorts needs it resolved, and fast.
The fix is never as simple as it sounds. Adding capacity requires upgraded equipment or new software, or both, but there’s always something that could be done to tweak the network in order to improve performance. Eliminating the dead spots and perhaps even improving the app itself are two new ways Vail Resorts can improve the skier experience.
Blake Corbet // Whistler
Kudos on growth management
I’d like to thank Barrett Fisher for providing some additional context and highlighting the nuance in the recent summer visitation growth.
After reading the original Pique article I was left thinking how well we absorbed that growth in the summer with, from my perspective, no feeling of additional crowding compared to other years. Now I know that it was due to midweek and spring and fall growth.
Kudos to Tourism Whistler, the Resort
Backcountry Update
AS OF WEDNESDAY, FEB. 4
Groundhog Day has come and gone and many forecasting critters delivered a familiar verdict: six more weeks of winter. For backcountry users this season, that prediction feels less like folklore and more like a summary of the winter so far. Storms arrive with promise, only to finish with rain to the mountaintops, followed by high pressure and sunshine. Rinse, refreeze, repeat.
The snow from last weekend met a similar fate, ending with rain that was closely followed by a spike in freezing levels and clear skies. These weather factors are, unfortunately, the perfect recipe for crust formation, which is how the work week wrapped up.
There is a difference this time around, perhaps thanks in part to the Groundhog Day prediction: the high pressure was short-lived, and the weekend is looking more active, with a strong Pacific low-pressure system moving onto the coast early in the weekend.
This type of storm combines rapid loading and wind, so while snowfall rates may not feel extreme at any one moment, touchy storm slabs can build quickly in
alpine and treeline terrain. The storm slab problem will be most pronounced and sensitive to triggering where wind has deposited new snow into lee features.
All of this new snow will fall on the most recent crust, which could take time to bond to the previous surface. Avalanche hazard is likely to be elevated, with the size and sensitivity of avalanches increasing as new snow accumulates.
The best way to manage a storm slab avalanche problem that increases throughout the day is to avoid letting storm-day fever draw you into consequential terrain. Verify conditions as you travel and communicate your observations clearly with your group. Have a plan B and be willing to change plans or turn around if conditions warrant.
If you’re heading into the backcountry this weekend, check the avalanche forecast—it’s updated daily at 4 p.m. on avalanche.ca, or on the Avalanche Canada mobile app. And be sure to check it again in the morning, because it’s updated if the weather we got is dramatically different from the forecast.
CONDITIONS MAY VARY AND CAN CHANGE RAPIDLY Check for the most current conditions before heading out into the backcountry. Daily updates for the areas adjacent to Whistler Blackcomb are available at 604-938-7676, or surf to www.whistlerblackcomb.com/mountain-info/ snow-report#backcountry or go to www.avalanche.ca.
NickDavies, Whistlerlocal andexperiencedfamilylawyer practisingacrossBCandYukon. Callat 604-602-9000 or visit www.macleanlaw.ca
Municipality of Whistler and all of those private and non-profit organizations working to better responsible and effective growth management. Tourism is the driver of Whistler’s local economy providing yearround jobs up and down the corridor and such an important industry in these uncertain times.
Dan Wilson // Whistler
No barge businesses on our lakes
I’m glad to see mayor and council rejected a barge business licence proposal at the advice of Resort Municipality of Whistler (RMOW) staff. We already have an assault of party barges on Alta Lake. To give a legitimate green light to more would increase the amount and go against what the silent majority want for Alta Lake.
There are so many concerns and issues already, many referenced by mayor and council in their reasons for rejecting, with the more than 30 barges currently on the lake. Among them moorage: already the barges litter our most pristine shores and parks on Alta Lake. Some barge users trample through Scotia Creek wetlands to access their barges with no respect for these lands.
RMOW staff and council already know these barges are an issue and instead of even entertaining the idea of barge businesses I would rather see our tax
dollars spent on advocating for the majority of residents who want to see less of this type of activity and to protect our lakes from the increasing pressure on them.
A couple of years ago, the RMOW petitioned residents on banning gaspowered motors and an overwhelming majority supported this ban. However, the feds turned down the petition and
“RMOW staff and council already know these barges are an issue...”
- KEN MASON
the RMOW accepted the decision. I would like to see mayor, council and staff work harder at getting this ban. As individuals we don’t have much say, but our local government collectively does. I am glad to hear, though, that RMOW staff is looking into having more control over the foreshore lands of our lakes.
Originally there was one party barge on the lake and people thought it was pretty cool. It’s not cool anymore when they have proliferated and we have to put up with the
noise which can go all day and into the night without any enforcement to stop them.
The users have no regard for other users that rightfully belong on the lake, such as fishers, swimmers, paddlers and sailors. This is what the lake is for, not party barges. What makes them entitled to moor their barges anywhere they like on the lake? I don’t see this happening on other lakes. Be happy that we have many, many public docks in the four public parks we have on the lake. Isn’t this enough? I see no reason for a barge business for elopements, yoga etc. This can be done on what we already have on or around the lake, and in fact it is already being done.
Ken Mason // Whistler
Canadians are so polite
Canadians, as a visitor to your great country since 1990 the one thing that never ceases to amaze me is you are polite—too polite, some would say.
That polite attitude, as an Australian visitor, in my opinion, carries more power than the “in-your-face” display of “power and might” that I have observed on your hill.
Examples: last season, during a busy lunch break at the Roundhouse, a family group secured a table. The head of the family, a large and imposing gentleman, stripped off to his “muscle top,” produced a MAGA hat from somewhere and paraded
for several minutes around the area. Who, I ask, would purposely carry and then wear a MAGA hat indoors unless the sole purpose was to maybe intimidate and confront others? Net result: you polite Canadians just “let it through to the keeper.” As a visitor, I wanted to confront this imposing chap and say, “mate, you are a guest in Canada, please respect this fact by keeping your political views to the other side of the border.”
One, he was bigger than me and, two, I, too, am only a visitor in awe of your polite attitudes towards others, so I did what you do and was polite.
This season, a family paraded for all to see a very bright and “out there” message to all of us mere mortals that they were from the U.S. Every member of the family from the baby in the stroller to the other family members on the hill was wearing a bright designer ski suit plastered with the American flag and U.S. embossing. Again, as a guest in your country I wanted to say to them, “read the room, mate—it is not a good look.”
Thank you, Canada, and thank you for allowing me to be a guest in your country. I have nothing but respect for your polite and courteous attitudes towards others. My only wish is that respect and polite attitude could somehow be conveyed to your near neighbour.
Purpose: Thepurpose of theproposedbylaw is to addschoolandauxiliarydaycare uses aspermitteduseson aportionoflandwithinthe existingRS-E2(ResidentialSingleEstate Two) Zone,and to permit asubdivision to create aseparatelegaltitlefortheportionof landwhereonlya schoolandauxiliarydaycarewouldbepermitted.
Howtoprovideinput: Allpersonswhobelieve that theirinterestinpropertyisaffected by theproposedbylaw willbegivenanopportunity to providewrittenand verbal comments that willbe considered by Councilasfollows:
1. Submitwritten commentstoCouncilviaemail: corporate@whistler.ca(mustbe received by12:00p.m.on February10,2026)(include“Zoning AmendmentBylaw (School Use) No.2503,2026 ”inthesubjectline,addressthe commentsto“Mayorand Council”,and include yournameandmailingaddressintheemail);and/or
2. Su bmitwrit te nc omme nt stoC ouncilvi ah an dd elivery: Re sort Municipality of Whistler, Legislative Services Department –Corporate Officer, 4325 BlackcombWay, WhistlerBCV8E0X5(mustbe received by 12:00p.m.on February10,2026)(include “ZoningAmendment Bylaw(School Use) No.2503,2026 ”inthesubjectline,address the comments to “MayorandCouncil”, andinclude yournameandmailingaddressin theletter);and/or
3. Provideverbal comments at the PublicHearingviaonlinevideoor phoneconferencing Visitwhistler.ca/publicnoticesorscantheQRcodebelowforinstructionsonhowto accessandparticipateinthe Public Hearing. ThePublicHearinglinkandphonenumbers are alsobelow.
SCANTHEQR CODE FORA COPY OFTHEPROPOSED BYLAWS AND BACKGROUND DOCUMENTATION
Whistler formalizes new policy to celebrate international athletes as 2026 Olympics unfold
NEW RECOGNITION POLICY CREATES A FRAMEWORK FOR HONOURING HOMETOWN COMPETITORS FAIRLY, CONSISTENTLY
BY LUKE FAULKS
AS SOME OF Whistler’s top-tier athletes compete on the world stage at the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympic Winter Games, their hometown is setting new ground rules for how they’ll be celebrated back home.
During the mayor’s report at the Feb. 3 council meeting, Whistler Mayor Jack Crompton proudly shared a lengthy roster of local athletes currently representing Canada—or in one case, Great Britain— in Olympic and Paralympic competition.
“I’m grateful to be part of a community that is able to raise people like this, but then also host them as they train to compete at the highest level,” he said.
It was a timely reminder of one of the challenges the Resort Municipality of Whistler (RMOW) faces: how best to recognize athletes who represent Whistler and Canada internationally.
A NEED FOR CLARITY AND FAIRNESS
Over the years, Whistler has honoured its elite athletes in many ways—ad hoc shoutouts in council chambers, parade invites or social media tributes during World Cup seasons. But those gestures lacked consistency.
“Recognition of their accomplishment has kind of occurred in different ways over time,” said the RMOW’s legislative services special projects coordinator Erin Marriner at the Jan. 6 committee of the whole meeting. “And we are on the eve of the next Olympic and Paralympic Games, so we thought the timing for this policy [was] in good standing.”
Policy A-43, now endorsed by council, aims to rectify that by creating a clear, equitable and flexible system for athlete recognition.
will be included in group recognitions and event announcements.
Importantly, the policy doesn’t rely on municipal staff to track down every competitor. Instead, it places the onus on national sporting organizations and the athletes themselves to come forward.
“We were concerned we would miss people, and that would not be something that we would want to worry about,” said RMOW manager of legislative services Pauline Lysaght. “So we put the onus back to the sporting organizations
“There are a lot of sports that are incubated here that really aren’t appreciated here.”
- JEN FORD
Developed through the Governance and Ethics Standing Committee (GAESC), the policy outlines two levels of recognition: Podium and Performance. Athletes who medal at Olympics, World Championships or World Cup Finals will receive enhanced honours—formal acknowledgement at a council meeting, public acknowledgement at events and potential roles in Canada Day celebrations. Performance recognition, meanwhile, for athletes who qualify to represent Canada at major world events but do not podium,
themselves to self-identify their athletes.”
To avoid budget implications, the policy ensures all recognition happens within existing RMOW communications and events. “Let’s use what we got,” Crompton said. “We already have big moments where there are a crowd of people, [so] celebrate these people when there’s a crowd.”
EXPANDING THE TENT
While councillors supported the policy, the discussion revealed some reservations
around who might be left out.
Councillor Cathy Jewett flagged the risk of overlooking lesser-known sports and disciplines: “We forget about different disciplines, enduro potentially being one,” she said. “We have a lot of great athletes out there [and] they represent our community in the very best way.”
Coun. Jen Ford raised similar concerns about national-level athletes or those competing in disciplines like luge or mountain biking, who may never make it to the Olympics but still train and live in Whistler. “There are a lot of sports that are incubated here that really aren’t appreciated here,” she said.
Staff clarified that performance recognition includes both national and international competitions, allowing for some flexibility. Still, Ford proposed the idea of a large public wall or monument listing past and present international athletes—something that could supplement, rather than replace, the policy framework.
Coun. Arthur De Jong, while offering strong support, raised a question: what about the coaches? Staff responded that a future update could potentially include coaches, provided criteria were established and governing bodies helped identify them.
De Jong emphasized the symbolic power of the policy: “Whistler was built on a crazy vision of hosting the Olympics when nothing was here. And so to keep nurturing and raising that culture, it’s special to me.” n
STAR STRUCK Whistler ski-cross star Marielle Thompson after winning her 2024 FIS ski-cross Crystal Globe.
‘One of the last of the best’
REMEMBERING
WHISTLER’S NIGEL WOODS: ALPHA LAKE ISLANDER AND ‘ZEST-FOR-LIFE’ ICON
BY LUKE FAULKS
NIGEL WOODS, a pillar of the Whistler community for more than five decades, passed away on Jan. 24, at the age of 74.
To many, he was a builder. His company, Coastal Mountain Excavations (CME), helped shape the infrastructure of modern Whistler— from digging out Marketplace, to constructing the Nesters underpass, to making Riverside Campground and the Scandinave Spa a reality.
“He was a link between the early pioneer days of Whistler and the incredible heartbeat that it is today. One of the last of the best,” his daughter, Carleigh King, said. “And he was just as excited about the past and the wilderness [as] he was about the future and the promise of this place.”
To his family, friends, and the countless people he befriended on chairlifts and trails, he was even more: a visionary, a devoted father and husband, a lover of life and a man who saw each day as “the best day ever.”
“He was my best friend,” said his son Matt Woods. “He was the leader of our family. He did everything with us— shared our passions. For me, it was skiing and golf. He was my dad, my friend, my mentor, my business partner. He was everything to me.”
A LIFE REDIRECTED TO THE MOUNTAINS
In the early ’70s, Nigel was studying at the University of Victoria (UVIC), making the occasional weekend trip up to Whistler to ski. He was on track to follow in his father’s footsteps and become a lawyer. A ski trip to Switzerland changed that.
“He was skiing in Switzerland and broke his leg on the first day,” recalled
his wife Buff Woods. “Flew home, and thought, ‘I really don’t want to go back to law school.’”
Instead, he headed for the mountains, borrowing his brother’s backhoe to make his way in Whistler. He made ends meet plowing driveways and parking lots at the base of the then-fledgling ski resort. He coached skiing and waited tables at The Keg to make the life work.
“He just loved it here,” Buff said. “He couldn’t think of going back to Victoria.”
ROCKS AND ROAD-BUILDING
From those humble beginnings, Nigel founded CME, now “Whistler’s oldest operating company,” explained Matt. “Look around town and see how many other businesses are named ‘Coastal Mountain-something.’”
CME had a hand in everything from Valley Trail development and Olympic venue prep to crucial public infrastructure.
The company built the tunnel linking Alpine to Nesters—a project Whistler Mayor Jack Crompton said transformed pedestrian safety and connectivity, despite a challenging approval process. “He worked incredibly hard to convince our organization the tunnel was better than a bridge [and] I think he was proved right,” Crompton said at the Feb. 3 council meeting. “It’s a really neat asset for our community.”
The company also played a pivotal role in bringing the Scandinave Spa to Whistler. Woods explained in a 2022 podcast interview that the new business helped justify expanding Whistler’s network of roads and bridges.
Crompton called CME “a company that has been leaned on by the municipality to do a lot of work for us,” helping to build not just roads but a foundation for modern Whistler life.
ZEST FOR LIFE According to Nigel Woods’ son, Matt, “if you met Nigel on the chairlift, you had a friend for life.”
PHOTO COURTESY OF MATT WOODS
AN ISLANDER IN WHISTLER
Among Nigel’s most personal legacies was the family home he built on the only island in Whistler—a spot known locally as “Woods Island.”
Contrary to local legend, Nigel didn’t just stumble upon the island and claim it. Buff explained Nigel spotted the forested parcel while riding Red Chair. He learned it had been purchased in 1945 by Grace Naismith for $50. After her death, Nigel tracked down her estate and in 1977, bought the lot using “every cent that he had.”
Buff remembers him doggedly building the family home and the bridge that connected the island to the mainland. It was his pride and joy.
“It took two and a half years to build it,” added Matt. “From knocking down trees to get access to finishing the bridge.”
Matt, Carleigh, and their brother Adam grew up on that island.
That original bridge was eventually disassembled and replaced by Nigel. The original wood now rests on Carleigh’s ranch in Williams Lake. “We’re going to use it build something really neat and have scotch in there for Nige when it’s done,” she said.
A FAMILY MAN
Nigel’s life was rooted in love for his family. “He was the best guy I’ve ever known,” said Carleigh. “A combination of incredibly
humble man with humble beginnings, with a huge heart and a dreamer [with] handshake-honest, old-fashioned values.”
He put Matt on skis at 15 months. He promised Carleigh a barn and pasture for a horse, and though that turned into Riverside Campground instead, she inherited his love of horses and ranching. “He was a horseman,” she said. “Still is. I
200 people deep, with little kids that are crying and it’s pissing down rain, and he’d be like, ‘It was the best day ever.’ There was always a silver lining.”
That spirit never waned. In his sixties and seventies, Nigel took on sailing expeditions, including one from Florida to Belize. “He just kept doing all these amazing things, even when he was sick,”
“You could be lined up in the village, 200 people deep, with little kids that are crying and it’s pissing down rain, and he’d be like, ‘It was the best day ever.’ There was always a silver lining.”
- CARLEIGH KING
guess I got that from dad.”
Buff estimated Nigel spent 25 years volunteering with Whistler Search and Rescue. “He missed many, many dinners because somebody was not that responsible,” recalled Buff. “It was one of his passions.”
He was known in the family for his “ZFL”—zest for life. “I’ve had friends only decide on their life partner because that person had the ZFL,” said Carleigh.
“You could be lined up in the village,
said Carleigh.
“He lived a hundred lives in one,” Matt added.
A COMMUNITY LEGACY
Whistler developer and former councillor Duane Jackson remembered Nigel as a man who “supported and encouraged his kids to follow his passion for the outdoors, sports, career and community.”
Jackson met Nigel at the old Whistler Tennis Club in the 1980s, and said the
family’s deep impact on Whistler came without sacrificing joy. “Nigel [had] a real impact on Whistler’s infrastructure and development—but not at the expense of missed travel, golf, skiing, racket sports and family time,” he said.
The legacy of generosity extended far beyond his company. “Nigel and [Buff] generously supported a number of community initiatives over the years,” Jackson said. “And all family members were encouraged to participate.”
As Crompton put it: “He was a real advocate for helping find ways for people to live here,” and built his company into a beloved local employer.
BACK TO WOODS ISLAND
Nigel died on his own terms, on his island. “He wanted to stop the ambulance, sit in a wheelchair and look at his bridge,” said Buff.
The next day, a lone swan appeared in the water beneath the bridge. “We knew it was him,” said Carleigh. “It was his big sign. Loyalty after loss.”
Nigel Woods is survived by his wife Buff; children Matt, Carleigh and Adam; grandchildren; and a wide circle of friends whose lives he helped shape.
“All the sadness just comes from us missing him,” Carleigh said, “not from any regret. He had the most beautiful life. And if we could all live a life just a fraction of our dad’s fulfilment and meaning and what you mean to others, then we’ve done a good thing.” n
Roger Molinaro sentenced to eight years for underage sexual assault
THE PEMBERTON RESIDENT AND FORMER BUSINESSOWNER WAS ORIGINALLY SENTENCED TO 5.5 YEARS IN PRISON IN 2022
BY LUKE FAULKS
LONGTIME PEMBERTON resident Roger Molinaro has been sentenced to eight years in prison for the historic sexual assault of two girls in Pemberton. The girls were family friends of the offender.
Molinaro was sentenced to five years in prison for sexual assault against Xiola Aldrich and five years for sexual interference against Katelyn Pidperyhora. Judge Lindsay Smith reduced the penalty to a total eight years in prison based on the principle of totality, which ensures the total punishment fits the offence.
The victims, who requested a publication ban be lifted during Molinaro’s re-trial, were between the ages of six and 12, and nine and 12 or 13, respectively, when the abuse took place.
TRIAL AND RE-TRIAL
This is the second time Roger Molinaro has been sentenced for crimes against Aldrich and Pidperyhora.
Molinaro was first arrested in April 2020. His first trial concluded on Nov. 25, 2021 with Judge Patricia Janzen finding him guilty on seven counts. On Aug. 3, 2022, he was sentenced to 5.5 years in prison. He successfully appealed the decision and a new trial was ordered in December 2024.
A verdict in the re-trial was delivered on June 25, 2025. Molinaro was found guilty on two counts of sexual assault and two counts of sexual interference of a person under the age of 16.
Judge Smith elected to sentence on charges three and six—sexual assault against Aldrich and sexual interference of a person under 16 against Pidperyhora. She issued a stay of proceedings on counts two and four based on the Kienapple Principle, which applies when a number of offences describe different ways of committing the same criminal wrong, rather than different criminal wrongs.
THE ARGUMENTS
Sentencing was original slated for Dec. 17 and 18, before Judge Smith requested more time to prepare her decision.
During the December sessions, crown prosecutor Jason Krupa emphasized the relevance of R v. Freisen (2020), a landmark decision by the Canadian Supreme Court that found sentencing on underage sexual assault cases should reflect growing understanding of the long-term harms it generates.
Aldrich and Pidperyhora, now in their twenties, appeared in court in December to read out victim impact statements cataloguing the extensive immediate and lasting damage Molinaro’s offences had caused the once tight-knit group of families. Statements were also delivered by the women’s parents and siblings.
Krupa asked the judge for a sentence
between 10.5 and 12 years, reduced to 8.5 to 10.5 on totality.
Molinaro’s counsel, Richard Peck and Casandra Tam, argued he should serve 2.5 years on count three and 3.5 years on count six, with a global sentence of five years’ prison on totality.
They argued his lack of anti-social behaviour, lingering community support, significant time since the offences and relatively low risk of re-offending merited the lower sentence. They also noted the terms of his bail, which demand he not be in proximity to children, meant he has been forced to live in a trailer and has limited his ability to seek employment.
SENTENCE
In preparation for the verdict, Judge Smith considered the facts of the offences, Molinaro’s circumstances, the impact of the offences and the exhibits filed for the sentencing hearing—including a psychiatric assessment on Molinaro, the victim impact statements and 22 letters of character reference filed on behalf of Molinaro.
On count three, sexual assault against Aldrich, Judge Smith said:
“His actions against this child when she was six years old continued until she was 12—a full half of her childhood. Foreseeable harm has been realized in most significant and unfortunate ways, and with which she continues to contend today.” She also cited emotional, psychological and financial harm to the parents and sister.
On count six, sexual interference against Pidperyhora: “His actions against her were also repeated and frequently committed over years,” resulting in “foreseeable harm.”
“While she was several years older when he first began sexual violence towards her, she was still a little girl and vulnerable,” Smith said. “His actions were repeated breaches of the trust which he actively took steps to build with the parents, with resulting access to the child facilitating his offending.
“A sentence must reflect the gravity of the offence and the offender’s moral blameworthiness,” she concluded. “It must reflect the consideration of all of the relevant aggravating and mitigating factors and be in alignment with the principle of parity and must be applied to the offender’s rehabilitation. I’ve done so here.”
The eight years—five on count three and five on count six, reduced on totality— will be served consecutively. In addition to his prison sentence, Molinaro must register as a sex offender for life, submit a DNA sample and is banned from contacting the victims or their immediate families. He cannot work or volunteer in any role involving trust with minors, and must not have contact with anyone under 16 unless in a public place with others present or under adult supervision by someone aware of his restrictions. He is also prohibited from possessing firearms. n
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Whistler Library launches 40-book challenge to mark 40 years
THE LIBRARY IS INVITING RESIDENTS OF ALL AGES AND READING STYLES TO TAKE PART AND MAKE THE CHALLENGE THEIR OWN
BY LUKE FAULKS
AS IT TURNS 40 this year, the Whistler Public Library (WPL) is inviting the community to join a “40 for 40” reading challenge—one book for every year since its founding.
The year-long initiative launched in January, inviting participants to log 40 books by year’s end using the free digital platform StoryGraph.
“We do want it to be a challenge,” said WPL programming and communications coordinator Jeanette Bruce. “But there are lots of ways to tailor the challenge to yourself. Maybe they want to read 40 graphic novels, or 40 YA novels, or 40 poetry collections. And there are plenty of books under 200 pages to get into.”
The effort builds on last summer’s first-ever adult reading challenge, which drew more than 50 participants. “It was enough of a proof of concept that we could do something a little bit bigger,” Bruce said.
Feedback from last year’s challenge helped shaped the 40 for 40 challenge.
New this year are mid-year and yearend, in-person gatherings designed to build community among participants.
A “literary salon” in June will offer a chance to share book picks and experiences, while a December wrapup party will celebrate those who participated. “It’s not a competition, of course,” Bruce emphasized. In-person events will be announced in the WPL’s adult programming newsletter.
Participants can track their reading online through StoryGraph, a user-friendly alternative to Goodreads. Bruce praised the platform’s accessibility, community features, and responsive design. “It’s run by one woman who is just tirelessly gathering user feedback, improving the user experience, tweaking features,” she said.
With a target as ambitious as 40 books, library staff are offering practical advice to help readers get there. “Audiobooks count,” said library director Mikale Fenton. “You can be an avid library user without ever entering our building.”
Shorter books are another strategy. “Lots of book influencers do short books in February because it’s the shortest month,” Bruce added. “If you’re having trouble kickstarting your challenge, why not read books under 200 pages in February?”
Other participants may choose to zeroin on specific genres or themes to stay motivated. Fenton suggested commuters and athletes take advantage of free digital
lending through the library’s audiobook platform—a service many residents still don’t realize exists.
“The saddest thing to me is when I hear someone talk about their Audible account because they don’t realize that they can use their library card to download materials for free,” she said.
Patrons are also encouraged to request titles not currently in the library’s collection. “A large portion of our collection purchasing comes from reader requests from the community,” Bruce said. “It’s doing us a great favour.”
The challenge is just one part of a year-long slate of events commemorating the library’s 40th anniversary.
Official celebrations will take place on Aug. 27 and 28 with an adult-focused evening on Aug. 27 and a family-friendly birthday bash the following day. Library staff are also collaborating with the Whistler Museum to create signage chronicling the library’s growth from a “book mausoleum” into what Fenton describes as “one of the most accessible community spaces” in town.
In 2025, the library welcomed more than 19,000 people to programs ranging from English-language classes to the Elektrik Kitchen electronic music production workshops and a men’s circle
focused on reducing social isolation. “We have something happening in the library, I would say almost seven days a week, and typically multiple times per day,” Fenton said.
The breadth of programming reflects broader trends.
According to the Canadian Urban Libraries Council, libraries across the country have seen surging demand not only for books but for digital tools, literacy programming and social support services. Libraries are increasingly viewed as essential community infrastructure, particularly in high-cost, transient communities like Whistler.
Despite the changes, the library remains anchored by a commitment to literacy in all its forms—early learning, media literacy, digital skills and lifelong reading. The 40 for 40 challenge, Fenton added, reflects that broader mission. “Whether you’re a new reader, a commuter, a parent, or an ultra-marathoner listening to [Haruki]Murakami while training,” Bruce said, “we want everyone to feel welcome to participate.”
Learn more about the 40 for 40 challenge on the WPL’s website. Those with questions or suggestions are encouraged to contact Jeanette Bruce directly at jbruce@whistlerlibrary.ca. n
Pick up the latest issue of your favourite read in Whistler.
End of an era as Sea to Sky McDonald’s changes hands
AFTER 15 YEARS IN THE CORRIDOR, BRI AND RYAN OLIVER ARE SELLING THEIR MCDONALD’S FRANCHISES IN SQUAMISH, WHISTLER AND PEMBERTON
BY LIZ MCDONALD
The Squamish Chief
IT’S THE END of a Golden Arches era for the current Sea to Sky McDonald’s owner.
Bri and Ryan Oliver announced in an Instagram post on Jan. 26 they are selling their franchises in Squamish, Whistler, and Pemberton to STS Saba Restaurants Ltd. Ryan is the owner, and he and his wife, Bri, operate the outlets jointly.
Effective Feb. 2, Golden Goose Holdings transferred to Amir Aminpour, owner/operator of eight McDonald’s franchises in North and West Vancouver.
“I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my time in the Sea to Sky. It’s a great place to be. The community is great. It’s welcoming. Everyone’s friendly. It’s a pretty magical place. So, spending 15 years here, yeah, leaving it, it’s hard,” Ryan said in an interview with The Squamish Chief
The Olivers have owned Sea to Sky McDonald’s for 15 years.
Ryan said he was approached by McDonald’s Corporation to sell his franchises. After growing his family in the Sea to Sky, the decision was challenging.
“You make a lot of acquaintances and friendships over time … whether that’s community groups that you meet and support, or if it’s employees that work for you, business leaders, things like that,” he said. “So many mixed emotions, I think is the best way to put it.”
The family will relocate elsewhere in Canada and continue to operate McDonald’s franchises.
He thanked his many connections throughout the corridor, from guests to community groups, and expressed his deep appreciation for the staff.
“I think thank you is appropriate as well. Each and every day, rain or shine, [staff are] here and they’re putting on a smile for the guests, and that was another consideration for me, is having to leave those guys,” he said. “I have great relationships with my staff, and I think having to leave them is another hard part about it. I’m really going to miss them all, I really will.”
Aminpour said the Sea to Sky outlets are a good fit with his other franchises.
“What attracted me to [the] Sea to Sky market is actually very similar to what drew me to North Vancouver… Just the community local pride, and to have people who live in Squamish, who love where they live and where they work,” he said. “So, Squamish is growing, but still it has this small-town feel, and I see a lot of alignments between my values as a local owner-operator and what this
community stands for.”
Aminpour began training to become a franchisee under an owner in North Vancouver, then moved to Regina to purchase a franchise there.
“When he was retiring, he gave me the chance to purchase his market. So, I sold my restaurants in Regina, and I moved back to North Vancouver,” Aminpour said.
Aminpour declined to comment on the amount he paid for the purchase of Golden Goose Holdings.
Known on Instagram as @mcds2s, the franchise employees in Squamish have become known for their fun dance videos and strong public presence online.
Aminpour said he doesn’t expect the work culture to change.
“The restaurants have really strong teams, and my focus will continue to be on supporting them and to invest in training and to create growth opportunities from within,” he said. “Over time, we will continue to invest in the restaurants to make sure they are well-maintained, modern, welcoming.”
Aminpour said his years of experience running multiple McDonald’s fast-food chains mean he’s capable of managing a smooth transition and tackling whatever comes his way. He’s an electrical engineer with 12 years of experience in solar energy before immigrating to Canada in 2013. He also gained a master of business administration (MBA) in Canada.
After his MBA, he set his eyes on the burger franchise.
“I started to talk with different franchises, including McDonald’s, and after interviewing all different food franchises, I decided to move forward with McDonald’s, and if I couldn’t move forward with McDonald’s, I decided not to do anything food-related,” he said.
“So I guess I’m pretty biased, because I see McDonald’s as a great company who supports their people, their franchises, their employees, and also the communities. So that’s what made me choose them as a business partner.”
While McDonald’s is an American multinational corporation, the Olivers lived locally, an important point for some customers in Squamish, Whistler and Pemberton.
Aminpour said he’s a resident of Horseshoe Bay, and he sees himself as committed to the region where his businesses operate.
“It really doesn’t matter if it’s North Vancouver or if it’s Squamish, I’m here to listen, learn and grow alongside the Sea to Sky community,” he said. n
RobertWilliam Gilmore
December13,1937 –January23,2026
Itiswithgreatsadnessthat we announcethepassingof Robert WilliamGilmore Hepassedsuddenlyatthe ageof88atthe PembertonHealthCentre.
Bo biss urvi ve da nd fo re ve rl ov ed by hi sw if e, Mary ;c hild re n,Ca ro l, Sylvia(Heinz),an dB ernice(Ross) ;g ra ndchild re n, Ky le,A mr a( Mi ke ),Chet , Caleb(Kirstie),Sharina,Cody(Stephanie),Morgan(Aman),and Jolene(Nic); great-grandchildren, Kaden,Zaiah,Asher, Jaida,Sully,andNaomi;hisbrother Doug;andallhisnephewsandnieces.
Whistler council adopts new guidelines for bestowing its highest honour
POLICY FORMALIZES THE PROCESS FOR CONFERRING THE FREEDOM OF THE MUNICIPALITY; PRESERVES COUNCIL DISCRETION AROUND POSTHUMOUS RECOGNITION AND NOMINATIONS INVOLVING FORMER MUNICIPAL OFFICIALS
BY LUKE FAULKS
WHISTLER COUNCIL has formally adopted a new policy governing its highest civic honour—Freedom of the Municipality (FOTM)—in a bid to streamline and safeguard a process that has historically lacked clarity.
Approved on Feb. 3, Council Policy A-42 provides Whistler with a comprehensive framework to consider nominations, recognize recipients and handle commemorations. The move follows months of deliberation by the Governance and Ethics Standing Committee.
“Over time, when we have bestowed the Freedom of the Municipality, we’ve had to go back to see—well, how did we do it last time? Did we like that? Was it the right way to go?” said manager of legislative services, corporate officer and acting general manager Pauline Lysaght at the Feb. 3 meeting.
“This policy puts together more of a shared-governance approach so that we are helping future councils and staff with some guidance on process.”
While Section 158 of the Community
Charter authorizes councils to confer the honour by unanimous vote, it is “very light on detail,” Lysaght noted. “I think it amounts to three lines in the Community Charter,” she added.
The new policy fills those gaps.
According to the adopted policy, contributions may span civic, cultural, social, environmental, humanitarian or economic fields, but must be “foundational, transformational or
include public presentation, photographs, commemorative gestures, and flag-lowering protocols upon a recipient’s passing. Public recognition of a new FOTM-holders also requires the recipient’s consent.
One of the more contentious issues debated at the Jan. 6 committee of the whole meeting was whether the policy should explicitly allow or prohibit posthumous awards and nominations of people who served as a municipal
“This policy puts together more of a shared-governance approach.”
- PAULINE LYSAGHT
essential to Whistler’s development, identity or long-term well-being.”
Procedurally, the policy affirms that nominations can be initiated by any council memberatanytimeandmustbesubmittedin writing. All nominations are to be discussed in a closed meeting, with confidentiality provisions and potential internal vetting for nominees who are former municipal staff or elected officials. Recognition may
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employee or elected official.
“Our practice has been not to award posthumously,” Mayor Jack Crompton explained. “I think we’ve also in practice not awarded it to people who are currently employed by the municipality.”
However, council members pushed back on codifying those restrictions in the new policy. At the Jan. 6 committee of the whole meeting, several councillors
voiced discomfort with limiting council discretion to recognize Whistlerites who go above and beyond.
“If a recipient or potential recipient has passed, their contribution—their spirit—has not,” said Councillor Arthur De Jong. “We might find ourselves in a situation where we might have regretted not recognizing someone while they were still physically with us, and we still have that opportunity.”
At the Jan. 6 council meeting, council asked to remove the posthumous eligibility prohibition. And at a followup Jan. 20 meeting, council motioned to amend the limitation around awarding the FOTM to municipal employees; instead, the new FOTM policy contains a passage allowing for the RMOW’s legislative services branch to request a review of an employee up for the award to determine their suitability.
The new approach also confirms flags will be lowered when a FOTM holder passes, subject to the consent of the family. Some councillors floated ideas for more visible commemoration, including a pin or public monument like a plaque, though the policy leaves that open to future council direction. n
TS ET SPA7 FO RE ST RY LIMITE D PA RT NE RS HI P FO RE ST OPER AT IONS MA P ID #2900
NO TICEOFPU BLIC REVIEWAN D CO MMEN T
Noticeishereby giventhat Tsetspa7 Forestry Limited Partnership, Licensee andholder of Forest Licence A83924isseekingpublic review and comment on Forest OperationsMap(FOM)ID#2900,whichis covered by Tsetspa7 Forestry Limited Partnership Forest Stewardship Plan#745.The review and comment period related to FOM#2900is available fora30-dayperiodbetween February 6th,2026 to March 8th,2026.This FOM consistsof19proposed cutblocks,and13 associated roads,locatedintheLowerLillooetRiver ValleyintheSea to Sky Natural ResourceDistrict.
The FOM can beviewed athttps://fom.nrs.gov.bc.ca/public/projects,and by searching the FOM ID#2900orthe Tsetspa7 Forestry LPLicenseeusing the ‘find’function.Alternatively, the information contained inthe FOM can be made available for in-person viewing from9am to 4pm weekdays at Chartwell ResourceGroup Ltd.’s office at #201–1121Commercial Place,SquamishBC, V5B 0S5,or at Tsetpsa7 Forestry LP ’s office at 7338Industrial Way, Pemberton,BCV0N2L0.
Comments canbesubmittedanytimeduringthe30-dayperiod through https://fom.nrs.gov.bc.ca/public/projects, e-mailed to wstaven@crgl.ca,ormailed to theaddressnotedabove.Please referencethe FOMIDwhen submitting comments.
Followingthe review and comment period,this FOMmaybe relied upon to apply fora Road PermitorCutting Permit fora3-yearperiod, ending February 6th,2029.
‘A good start’: Pemberton clarifies shippingcontainer policy after months of debate
A LOCAL BUSINESS OWNER BROUGHT PEMBERTON’S SHIPPING-CONTAINER POLICY BEFORE COUNCIL IN JULY 2025 TO CHALLENGE WHAT HE PERCEIVED TO BE AN UNEVENLY APPLIED BYLAW
BY HILARY ANGUS
PEMBERTON COUNCIL has laid out a new path for business owners hoping to use shipping containers on their property after months of debate.
In a meeting on Jan. 20, council approved a staff-recommended policy to permit shipping containers in the downtown core by way of temporary use permit (TUP), which would enable them to keep the cargo boxes on their property for up to six years.
Under current policy, shipping containers are not permitted within the Commercial, Town Centre (C-1) Zone as a result of a 2018 bylaw prohibiting their use.
With the new TUP strategy, business owners can circumvent the bylaw for three years, with an additional three years of extensions.
Any business hoping to keep the container for more than six years would then have to apply for a site-specific rezoning when the time period ends.
In a report presented to council on Jan. 20, planner Erik Morden wrote “using TUPs would not require any changes to the zoning bylaw and is therefore more flexible in responding to potential changes in community character or opinions towards the use of shipping containers in the downtown.”
container he estimates he’d had on his property for at least four years by then.
May asserted the bylaw was not being evenly applied as several other businesses in the downtown core also use shipping containers on their properties, but May in particular was fined as a result of a complaint from a community
“[U]sing TUPs would not require any changes to the zoning bylaw and is therefore more flexible...”
- ERIK MORDEN
Mountain Glass and Mirror owner Shayne May, who first brought the issue before council in July 2025 after he received a fine for a shipping container he’d had on his property for years, called the new policy “a good start,” but he would still like to see council remove or amend the original bylaw.
CARGO COMPLAINTS
May’s container woes began in summer 2025 when he was handed a fine by the Village of Pemberton for a shipping
member against his business.
In a letter penned to the Village, May argued the selective application and enforcement of the bylaw was a “violation of the rule of law,” and that moreover, the bylaw is outdated and out of touch with the needs of small businesses in the face of mounting construction and property costs.
Another business owner, Garth Phare of Pemberton Valley Hardware, wrote in support of May’s letter.
The shipping container policy has been the subject of debate at three
council meetings since then.
May called the most recent policy update “a fair and political diplomatic approach to the system” to enable business owners to get their containers legalized quickly, but questions why the bylaw prohibiting containers can’t just be removed entirely.
He said the six-year window just pushes the problem further down the road and creates further regulatory hurdles for many businesses who will likely want to keep their containers.
May said he understands both council’s and residents’ concerns about aesthetics in the downtown core, but argues the bylaw doesn’t apply to all of downtown, only to the specific properties under C-1 zoning.
The BC Hydro lot directly across the street from his business has several visible containers, but is not subject to the bylaw as it is zoned industrial.
“It’s very hard for me directly across the street to have to be told that I have to move my container because it doesn’t conform with the downtown requirements in the bylaw,” May said, noting that if you do a 180 turn from his business you’ll see BC Hydro’s containers, which are already legally permitted due to the zoning difference.
“That was where my frustration level kept rising.” n
GLASS HALF FULL A Google Maps screenshot of Mountain Glass and Mirror in Pemberton, with the shipping container in question visible to the left.
The 2026 Olympic Winter Games will mark a new era for Cortina, Italy, where what’s old is new again. This is the second of a two-part look at the venerable Dolomites resort.
CORTINA is one of the better resorts for introducing beginners or low-end intermediates to the big mountains, and in particular the Alps. There are many gently angled runs off the Socrepes area
BY LESLIE ANTHONY
on Pomedes, with a ton of intermediate terrain to graduate onto. There are also some pretty bad-ass race-style runs in the same sector, such as Labirinti. Of course, everyone also wants to ski Olimpia delle Tofane if only to experience the famed womens’ downhill Tofanaschuss and do something the racers never get to—stop to touch and stare up those foreboding rock walls it drops through.
When it’s sunny, as is often the case, it’s best to head up high given that so many of Cortina’s main slopes face south (that tan you’re cultivating also means the snow is getting baked). Though you don’t necessarily go high so you can ski couloirs so large they could hold small ski areas (and on whose massive, exit-aprons you may—should you be able to slow yourself enough—spot small groups of chamois nibbling hidden vegetation), you can certainly find them an easy 10-minute bootpack from the top of Tofana chair
(pro tip: many of those bootpacks are from groups led by guides, which you should also definitely have). Mostly you go high to bag shorter runs of better snow and bank your share of incomparable views—the usual Alps-rooftop vibe but with the decidedly singular nature of the Dolomites, possibly the most sunsetready part of the entire range.
When it’s storming out, locals advise heading toward Passo Falzarego and Cinque Torri, where skiing is as protected as the 270-degree view is stunning. From the bottom, the area appears small and compact, but up top, Cinque Torri is a Russian Doll that not only unpacks the “five towers” captured in its name, but a bonanza of gullies and slots offering perfect between-piste playgrounds.
of Piccolo Lagazuói, from whose summit tram station and hostel-like Rifugio Lagazuói at 2,800 metres you can either ski the long Armentarola route over the back through the beautiful Hidden Valley (topped off by a fun horse-tow) toward Alta Badia and return by taxi/bus to Cortina, or wrap back around the front to the base on the so-called “museum route.”
Museum? Sort of. Not only do the Dolomites rise above Cortina and its surrounding countryside like so many limestone fortresses, but most of them have actually been used for just this purpose. You can go as far back in time as you like to chart the many times this ragged range stood in the way of one invader or another, an historic footnote
When it’s storming out, locals advise heading toward Passo Falzarego and Cinque Torri, where skiing is as protected as the 270-degree view is stunning.
There’s also no shortage of long cruisers, and the highest chair, Averau (another pro tip: also recommended is the chair’s eponymous refugio—some of the best eating in the Alps), tips you into one of these that can also deliver the kind of ski safari emblematic of the Dolomiti Superski consortium Cortina is part of: from the col where the chair leaves off, you ski to valley bottom in the opposite direction, re-ascend to another pass, descend to yet another valley, head up a platter-lift then ski back into Cinque Torri having traversed three ski areas and 3,000 vertical metres in under an hour. This circuit will also introduce you, at least visually, to the historic ramparts
made no more vivid for visitors than on Lagazuói, where Austrians and Italians waged their infamous “battle of the caves” during the First World War.
During that conflict, the ski troops of both combatants excavated extensive tunnel systems in Lagazuói’s 600-metre limestone face, from which they could not only overlook and defend their own front lines, but also blow up the enemy from below. Five enormous chambers packed with up to 32,000 kilos of explosives were detonated within the mountain over the course of the war, leaving indelible marks still visible today. Nothing was accomplished militarily, of course, and the armistice that ended the war was
declared shortly after the last fruitless explosion in 1917. While you can still experience the tunnels as an open-air museum either on skis or on foot, there isn’t much left for nations to contest in the Dolomites other than who’s better at scaling or descending them.
It is then, perhaps supremely fitting, that the 2026 Games will see the debut of ski mountaineering, with men’s sprint, women’s sprint, and mixed relay events, as well as several new events in established sports—men’s and women’s dual moguls, women’s individual largehill ski jumping, women’s luge doubles, and mixed-team skeleton. The latter two are taking place in Cortina, which, in addition to hosting the sliding events of bobsleigh, skeleton, and luge, is also the venue for curling and women’s alpine skiing (men’s alpine skiing is in Bormio, and all freestyle skiing will take place at Livigno). Having run women’s alpine ski race events continuously since 1993, staging these and providing for spectators is well in hand.
Among the several upgrades taking place, however, Cortina’s sliding-sports centre is undergoing a significant rebuild of its century-old track—perhaps familiar to Americans for its many appearances on the long-running program ABC’s Wide World of Sports—at a cost of nearly USD$100 million, with a focus on enhancing the overall experience for both athletes and spectators. The upgrade was a bit controversial, as the IOC urged the Milan Cortina bid group to include more modern facilities in nearby Austria or Switzerland. But national pride prevailed: adjustments would be made to improve the historic track and hey, who knows what kind of innovation that might conjure up?
Leslie Anthony is a Whistler-based author, editor, biologist and bon vivant who has never met a mountain he didn’t like. n
HIGH FIVE The famed Cinque Torri, or five towers of the Dolomites, in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy.
Fulmer urges BC Conservatives to ditch culture wars, focus on cost of living
BY ROB SHAW
BC CONSERVATIVES should unite around half a dozen core issues important to British Columbians and then keep their mouths shut about everything else. That, leadership candidate Yuri Fulmer argues, is the difference between forming government and blowing another winnable election.
“We need to coalesce the right of centre around a few issues that are really important to British Columbians,” Fulmer told me in a recent interview.
“We’ve got to show up with solutions … We’ve got to show up with optimism and some hope for the future. We’ve got to paint people a picture of British Columbia that they can buy into.
“And to be honest, we’ve got to zip it on everything else.”
Everything else being the pet projects of individual MLAs, or personal “bugaboo” issues they want to champion far beyond the interest of most voters, said Fulmer. Like ostriches. Or genderneutral washrooms. Or transgender people competing in sports.
The 51-year-old business man said he’s hearing “zero” of those issues from people he talks to. MLAs on his team, should he win the leadership, will need to unite around core issues like cost of living, health-care, public safety and the economy, and leave the rest at the door.
“Being part of a team means you don’t get your own bugaboo,” he said, dismissing the kind of niche culturewar obsessions that have consumed party oxygen while doing little to move undecided voters.
Or put another way: “It’s 100 per cent about compromise. None of us are gonna get everything we want.”
Fulmer, a businessman and investor who owns a chain of A&W restaurants, said government needs to be run more like a business, with revenues aligned to expenses instead of the NDP’s massive deficits and debt.
It’s old-school economic conservatism, and Fulmer said he’s uniquely positioned to pull it off, with experience as chairman of the $6-billion global United Way Worldwide.
Fulmer ran as a BC Conservative candidate in West Vancouver-Sea to Sky in 2024, but lost to BC Green Jeremy Valeriote. He said the party needs to lure away voters from the Greens and New Democrats to win next time.
“So we need to have a tent that is situated right of centre, but to continue the analogy, where the tent flap is wide open,” he said. “So all are welcome here.” Well, almost all.
Fulmer’s message of unity comes with a notable carve-out.
He has a particular bone to pick with former BC United members, saying the party’s refusal to fold until barely two
months before the last election cost the BC Conservatives the win.
He focused that blame last week on rival leadership candidate Caroline Elliot, launching the first attack ad of the race, which focused on her history as vice-president of BC United under leader Kevin Falcon.
“After we came within a few hundred votes of forming government, she continued to donate to the BC United,” he said. “To me that is not the characteristic of somebody who wants the boss’s job.
“I would put a huge part of our election loss at the feet of Kevin and Caroline,” added Fulmer.
“When the BC United bus drove off the cliff, one had their hand on the map, and one had their hand on the steering wheel.”
Either way, according to Fulmer, both share the blame.
They are so far the most aggressive comments of the early stages in the BC Conservative race. And while Fulmer said he’d welcome BC United supporters, he admits he’s also skeptical of their motives.
“BC United withdrew every candidate, disappeared and has been gone ever since,” he said.
“So Conservatives see it as: that was not a successful plan of having a Liberal-United party. We almost won. And now we’ve got folks from the thing that failed coming to want to run the thing that almost won.”
He exempts leadership candidate Peter Milobar from this, despite his history as a BC United MLA, because Milobar ran for the BC Conservatives in 2024. Same for rival Iain Black, who ran for the federal Conservatives last year.
But on Elliott, Fulmer gives no quarter, saying she should have run as a BC Conservative in 2024.
“I ran and I donated to the party, and I continue to do that, and she didn’t,” he said.
“It’s not about a purity thing. It’s about what did you do to demonstrate your commitment to the party that you now want to lead.”
Ultimately, Fulmer said there’s a lot at stake.
“We need to be government. I have a firm belief that if the NDP gets four more years, we’ll have a province that none of us can live in anymore.”
Whether Fulmer’s leadership bid is successful may depend on whether Conservative members want to heed his advice about zipping it. Mainstream B.C. voters have seen plenty of anger from the Conservatives. But they’ve yet to see that kind of restraint.
Rob Shaw has spent more than 18 years covering B.C. politics, now reporting for CHEK News and writing for BIV. He is the co-author of the national bestselling book A Matter of Confidence, host of the weekly podcast Political Capital, and a regular guest on CBC Radio. rob@robshawnews.com. n
FROM SEA TO SKY TO OLYMPIC HIGHS
Olympians from Whistler, Squamish and Pemberton reflect on their journeys to Milano Cortina 2026
BY DAVID SONG
Milano Cortina 2026 is here, and a number of Sea to Sky-based athletes are outbound to represent Canada upon sport’s most vaunted stage.
Whistler’s very own Marielle Thompson has been named as a flagbearer, with fellow ski-crosser Brittany Phelan also qualifying for the Games. On Feb. 6, expect Thompson to accompany moguls savant Mikael Kingsbury as they escort the Maple Leaf into the Olympic Opening Ceremony.
There’s also Mark McMorris, an all-time snowboarding great hungry for a different colour of medal after three previous Olympic bronzes. He will be accompanied by local debutante Juliette Pelchat and four others from coast to coast.
Speaking of decorated names: Cassie Sharpe no doubt wants to add to her halfpipe ski gold medal from Pyeongchang 2018 and silver from Beijing four years later.
Whistler Mountain Ski Club’s (WMSC) alpine warriors are gunning to go, led by about-to-be three-time Olympian Jack Crawford. Brodie Seger, Cameron Alexander and Riley Seger are likewise on board.
Trinity Ellis is in for a second kick at the can, while her fellow luger EmbyrLee Susko is about to enjoy her first taste of the Games. Skeleton specialists Jane Channell, Hallie Clarke and Josip Brusic also train regularly out of the Whistler Sliding Centre (WSC).
After growing up and honing their skills together, Maia Schwinghammer and Jessica Linton are poised to face Italy’s moguls slopes as first-time Olympians.
Benita Peiffer and Jasper Fleming have their sights set on biathlon competition, with both making their inaugural Olympic appearance as well.
Not to be forgotten are the locals representing different nations. Pembertonian Joe
Davies cross-country skis for Great Britain, and Avery Krumme hails from Squamish but is part of Team USA’s freestyle skiing roster.
Some Canadians have fought an uphill battle just to remain in sport, let alone qualify for Milano Cortina. Gigantic funding pitfalls have become the new normal, while some national governing bodies have been fraught with dysfunction as well. For many athletes, competition itself is but the tip of a hulking iceberg of adversity.
‘TRYING TO CHASE OUR DREAMS’
It isn’t just expensive to be part of Team Canada—often it’s unsustainable.
Ellis’ team fees were $15,000 when she joined the national luge program in 2019, already a substantial number for someone who isn’t paid like Connor McDavid. This year it has risen to approximately $23,000, not including the price of summer gym and coaching sessions ($3,751) and training camps abroad ($3,000).
Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton (BCS) has been hit even harder, its fees absolutely skyrocketing to $25,000 from just $2,000 four years ago. Inflation has driven up prices across the board by more than 50 per cent in the last two decades, but core federal funding for sport has remained stagnant in that time.
The Canadian Athletes Now Fund (CAN Fund) supports 80 per cent of Canada’s Olympians, but it also reports that three out of five athletes who apply for their help are in debt.
“Being an athlete in Canada, especially in amateur and pretty niche sports, no one goes into it with the goal of getting rich or anything,” Ellis said. “Just the privilege of representing Canada and the joy of sport is a huge reason we’re all here. We’re all definitely passionate and trying to chase our dreams, so however we can make that happen, pretty much.”
Clarke echoed that sentiment in a press release: “As a child, I used to pretend to skate in front of the TV while watching the Olympics, saying that was going to be me one day. The sport changed, but the dream never did. I know little me would be so proud of all the hard work and sacrifice I’ve put in over the years to make this dream come true. It’s an honour to represent Canada, and even more special to be doing it with an amazing team. Qualifying with Jane [Channell], someone I have aspired to be like since I started the sport, means more than words can describe.”
Susko has emerged as arguably the nation’s top female singles luger, placing fourth at last year’s World Championships on home ice. She, too, acknowledged the funding problems while assessing her own situation and that of her peers.
“We put our whole heart and soul into what we do for sport and we really don’t get a whole lot of money out of it,” remarked the 20-year-old. “It’s a challenging thing to keep your head in the right space in an Olympic season. You’re competing against some of your best friends, people you’ve grown up with forever … but I think everyone is still very friendly and we still have that family aspect to our team, which is so important.
“[Trinity] is the only Olympian on our team, and we are truly such a young team. It’s helpful looking up to her to see how she’s handling herself, how she’s handling the nerves.”
Ellis admitted finishing 14th in Beijing made her feel down and disappointed, but realized eventually that just being at a Games is cause for gratitude. She hopes her younger teammates “really soak in the experience” and perform to their potential, no matter how the results turn out.
Meanwhile, Clarke describes the skeleton group as “a small-but-mighty program.” She is the youngest world champion in history (winning at 19 years old in 2024), and Channell brings excellent experience with two prior Olympics under her belt.
Former BCS president Sarah Storey and ex-high performance director Chris Le Bihan were both accused of institutional mismanagement during their tenures, but the organization seems to be rising from those ashes.
“These last four years have flown by with the ups and downs that come with any Olympic quadrennial, but this time it’s different. For the first time in my career, it truly feels like we did it together,” Channell said. “We established a plan. We executed. We competed. We qualified for a third Olympic Games with the full support of the national skeleton program. It takes a village, but most importantly it takes a strong, supportive program.”
‘STILL MORE TO DO’
While some are pursuing their dreams before a global audience, others are looking to cement their already-resplendent legacies.
Thompson’s four Crystal Globes, three World Championships medals and two Olympic podiums rank her among the very best ski-cross racers to have ever lived— but delivering Canada’s flag into Milan’s San Siro Stadium could become her proudest achievement yet.
“I’ve seen all these amazing athletes … carry the flag, and it’s kind of the highest honour, I’d say, in our Olympic journey,” Thompson commented in a release. “I’ll probably cry. I think back to when I won my gold medal in Sochi [2014] and how I just could not hold the emotions in. I think carrying the flag and thinking about Canada, I’m gonna be a mess, maybe, but I’ll try to hold it together.”
She also praised her fellow flagbearer: “Mik [Kingsbury] and I, we’ve been to each Olympics together and we’re the same age, so we’ve kind of come up together in this sport. I think we’ve definitely got some camaraderie and it’s kind of cool to be sharing each of our Olympics together. And he was no surprise. When they told me I thought: ‘well-deserved, amazing.’”
Because of Thompson’s runner-up effort at Beijing 2022, Canada’s Games podium streak in ladies’ ski cross dates back to 2010 when Ashleigh McIvor triumphed at the discipline’s Vancouver debut. Even returning from a knee injury sustained last February, Thompson must be viewed as the odds-on favourite to keep that streak alive.
Trinity Ellis
Marielle Thompson
PHOTO BY DAVE HOLLAND/LUGE CANADA
McMorris, too, has been a model of consistency and his Olympics resume is indicative of that fact. Yet what he’s done in other arenas vaults him into a peerless stratosphere: 25 X Games medals. His 12th victory came just weeks ago on Jan. 25, and it required him to be near-perfect on his third run.
If McMorris can punctuate any of his slopestyle runs in Italy with the same frontside triple cork 1800 he landed in Aspen (a new trick in his arsenal), one could envision him walking away with silver or gold. The three-time World Championships medallist loves to broaden his competitive horizons, and an Olympic title would be the final stone in his Infinity Gauntlet of snowboarding accolades.
He brims with gratitude to forge on with his older brother, analyst Craig McMorris, never too far away. Craig has been unveiled as a CBC primetime host after fulfilling a similar role during the Paris 2024 Summer Games.
“Such a privilege that we both got to find our path in sport because we both absolutely love sport,” said Mark. “We both started out snowboarding the very same day and wanted to pursue it, but have gone total separate routes, but ended up together in so many ways. It’s truly a dream, the life we get to lead and the fact that he gets to help people follow along with the sport—he’s so good at explaining it to someone that may not know the ins and outs of snowboarding.”
As for living in the Sea to Sky, McMorris commented: “The town of Whistler has always been this holy grail, a place I wanted to reach growing up in Saskatchewan. I’ll never forget my first time here, 2008 or 2009 and I was just like, ‘OK, this is where I need to be.’ It was 10 years later when I bought a home here and this is where I hang my hat. It’s an amazing place to access the backcountry and an amazing place for me to train with what I would do at the Olympics. I’m honoured to call Whistler home and I feel really grateful because it is a little bit like a fairytale land.”
Likewise, Crawford is a pioneer. He’s both the first Canadian man to notch an Olympic alpine combined medal (bronze) and the first since Todd Brooker in 1983 to win the vaunted Kitzbühel, Austria World Cup downhill. Throw in World Championship gold from three years ago and there’s no denying his status as Canada’s most decorated active alpine speed merchant.
Known for displaying poise under pressure, Crawford will surely swing for the fences again in Milano Cortina.
“It’s dangerous, yes,” he acknowledged about his profession in a video interview with Sportsnet. “Going 120, sometimes 150 kilometres an hour, anything can happen. It is an extreme sport. You’re risking your life every time you go out, so it’s figuring out how to get over that side and really trust yourself that your abilities are good enough.
“When it comes to the mental side of stuff, for me it’s about going silent. Everything kind of disappears … screw it, doesn’t matter what’s going around you, push at 100 per cent. I’ve accomplished a lot, but there’s still more to do.”
EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY
As Team Canada Chef de Mission Jennifer Heil noted during a Jan. 16 press conference in Whistler, Milano Cortina 2026 will be the most gender-balanced Winter Olympics ever as 47 per cent of all participating athletes are female. A quartet of new ladies’ disciplines are being introduced (doubles luge, dual moguls, large hill ski jumping and ski mountaineering sprint), with 12 out of 16 events reaching gender equilibrium. Women and men are also now racing over the same distances in cross-country skiing.
One glaring exception remains: Nordic combined, which since 1924 has been a male-only affair. Despite backlash, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) maintains that it’s a niche sport in which few nations are competitive and states that it will undergo “a full evaluation” after this year.
“That’s disappointing,” Peiffer remarked. “I think it’s something we still need to continue fighting for: being able to compete on the world stage as a female. It’s super empowering and I think as a female athlete, we need to represent ourselves and keep pushing for young girls to be doing sport because it’s important. It’s one of the most memorable things I’ve probably done to date. Equality in sport is extremely important and in biathlon, I think we see that, but in other sports we’re still pushing for it.”
Peiffer grew up cross-country skiing and in her mid-teens linked up with Whistler Nordic Development Centre (WNDC) head coach Etienne Letondeur. There she learned how to shoot, but remained on the cross-country pathway until an ACL tear six years ago, after which she dove fully into biathlon. The local athlete has represented Canada at two IBU Junior World Championships (2021, 2022) and two World Championships (2023, 2024).
Her cousin Arnd Peiffer boasts two Olympic golds for Germany, earned in Sochi
and Pyeongchang.
“Having somebody in your family who chases high-performance sport at that level and is also really successful, it’s quite inspiring,” said Peiffer. “As a young athlete, you always dream of [the Games] and it’s something you almost don’t let yourself fully think about because you want to achieve it so badly. For me, it’s being able to represent the community that supported me to do this … there’s so many Olympians in Whistler. I know Joe Davies, he’s also going.”
Not too far down the road lives Sharpe, a two-time Crystal Globe recipient and BC Sports Hall of Famer who balances family with athletic pursuit. She essentially went on maternity leave during this past quadrennial, but realized her first World Cup podium as a mom in December 2024. Now the Squamolian is aiming for a third Olympic medal in a deep field led by Chinese phenom Eileen Gu.
“When I made the decision to return to halfpipe after taking a 2.5-year break to have [Louella], I immediately had my sights set on Milano Cortina and am really proud to say I’ve done it! I definitely can’t guarantee any outcomes, but I can guarantee that I will be having the most fun with my family by my side and a smile on my face,” Sharpe wrote on Instagram. “My mom said to me in the middle of a [mental breakdown]: ‘no matter what happens, you know everyone is still going to raise their glass and celebrate when it’s done no matter what’ and I’ve been holding onto that since.
“Cheers to the tears, the injuries [seven surgeries], the little girl with big dreams, the supportive parents, the bullying brothers, the encouraging coaches, all the teammates past and present, the loving husband, the most perfect daughter and all the friends and family along the way … and to never giving up when it got tough. I can’t believe we’re doing it again!”
LOCALS ABROAD
Not every Sea to Sky denizen will wear the Maple Leaf in Italy.
Davies cut his teeth in Canada’s Nordic pipeline before switching allegiances to Britain in 2022, alluding to the resources offered by his new team as a key deciding factor. Now he’s on their squad alongside veteran Andrew Musgrave, who qualified for his fifth Olympics, and James Clugnet, going to his second.
Yet Davies has always held Pemberton and Whistler close to his heart, and that will not change anytime soon.
“Delores Los was running [Spud Valley Nordics] in Pemberton, so she’s the one who’s technically responsible for getting me into skiing and suggested that I look into the Whistler team,” said the first-time Olympian. “Then obviously everyone involved with the Whistler Nordics program: Brent Murdoch and Tony Peiffer put a lot of effort into the team. I grew up with [Tony’s daughter Benita] so I know her very well.
“The Sea to Sky has always been super supportive of our ski journeys. Even though I’m not representing [Canada], it still feels in a way like me and Benita are racing for the same people. I fully feel like I’m representing Great Britain … but those people I grew up with and all the people that have supported me along the way, all the volunteers with the Nordics programs, that is a huge part of me. It feels good to show that a skier from B.C. can go the distance.”
Krumme has a somewhat similar story on paper. The 17-year-old won slopestyle bronze at 2024’s Junior World Ski Championships as a Canadian, but since elected to take advantage of her dual citizenship to represent the United States. She began her season by making three out of four World Cup finals so far, with two fourthplace results.
“I’m really excited to head into my first Olympic Games as this has been a dream of mine since I started competitive freestyle skiing,” Krumme said. “This is my rookie season with Team USA, everyone has been really supportive and inclusive with me being new. Big thank you to my mom [Rachel], dad [Ray], coaches, trainers and everyone else who believes in me.”
As the American squad’s youngest woman, Krumme finds herself alongside a trio of 24-year-olds. Marin Hamill participated in the Beijing Olympics, while Grace Henderson and Rell Harwood are also debutantes.
“Going into the Games I’m not putting a lot of pressure on myself,” reflected Krumme. “I’m there to do the best I can and enjoy this experience … as well as being there to support my friends and teammates. I grew up in Squamish so there are many people here who have helped to shape me. I am proud to be able to represent my community as well as the U.S.”
The Milano Cortina Winter Olympics are scheduled from Feb. 6 to 22 at venues across Italy. n
Jack Crawford Avery Krumme
Benita Peiffer
Joe Davies
PHOTO BY GEPA PICTURES
PHOTO COURTESY OF AVERY KRUMME
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF UTAH
‘Everything there is about bobsleigh’
OLYMPIAN JUSTIN KRIPPS AND FILMMAKER TYSON HEPBURN DISCUSS REDEMPTION RUN , A THREE-PART CBC DOCUSERIES ABOUT CANADIAN BOBSLEDDERS
BY DAVID SONG
IN EPISODE NO. 1 of the new Tyson Media documentary Redemption Run, Justin Kripps promises bobsledding does not offer a comfortable ride.
With a pair of Olympic medals on his resume (two-man gold from Pyeongchang 2018 and four-man bronze at Beijing 2022), Kripps knows his stuff from a technical perspective. Yet he and other Canadians have also been impacted by the institutional decline of Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton (BCS).
Former president Sarah Storey and ex-high performance director Chris Le Bihan were both accused of poor governance and fostering a toxic culture by their athletes prior to Storey’s abrupt exit in November 2022. David Leuty is the current president, with three-time Olympian Jesse Lumsden supplanting Le Bihan in the high performance role. Unfortunately these changes do not alleviate the massive financial burdens upon all BCS athletes, with annual team fees ballooning from $2,000 to $25,000 over the last quadrennial.
Bobsleigh is indeed not a comfortable sport—and that’s why Canada’s road
to Milano Cortina 2026 can aptly be described as “redemption.”
Their story deserves to be told, and Tyson Media founder Tyson Hepburn was ecstatic to put it on camera. Kripps and Hepburn are old friends from Simon Fraser University who began discussing the notion of a bobsleigh movie 15 years ago.
“You could tell it was very much a passion project for Tyson,” Kripps said.
“He wanted to take on this challenging project and tell stories in the right way.
help people understand everything there is about bobsleigh. It was going to be just a one-off, then as we kept filming we realized ... this thing is bigger than one episode.’”
‘A CHALLENGING SEASON TO FILM’
The nuances of bobsleigh happen away from public viewership, arguably to a greater extent than most other sports.
Outside of physical training, athletes
“You could tell it was very much a passion project for Tyson.”
- JUSTIN KRIPPS
[His crew] found a really good balance of being around enough to capture what’s happening—and pushing us to let them capture more—but being respectful of the athletes’ space and letting them prepare for their performances.”
Hepburn added: “Four Olympic cycles later, it’s finally coming to fruition. Every team knows Justin Kripps because of what he was able to do. We wouldn’t have had anything without Justin, so I’m grateful to him. I love these athletes, I love the coaches … and I think the best way for us to help is to
spend countless hours managing their equipment: fixing sleds, keeping runner blades sharp, etc. Hours more are committed to film study, poring over previous outings to uncover miniscule mistakes and erase them. In bobsleigh, hundredths of a second could be the difference between gold and failing to medal.
All of that blood, sweat and tears is needed for competitive runs down icy tracks that last less than a minute each.
Seventy-five per cent of Redemption Run was filmed at the Whistler Sliding Centre (WSC), a vital BCS home base for
training and internal selection races to determine who makes the World Cup squad and who heads to the lower-ranked North American Cup (NAC). Next the docuseries follows Team Canada across multiple World Cup events in Europe and finally: the 2025 World Championships in Lake Placid, N.Y.
“They picked a challenging season to film us,” Kripps noted. “It was the first season where we were really starting to realize funding challenges … not just Bobsleigh Canada but the whole sports system outside of a few very popular sports. [The movie] gives the athletes an opportunity to showcase other benefits that go along with sport.
“This funding doesn’t just go to elite people getting to travel the world and represent their country. It’s going to schools, inspiring the community, sharing their stories and that leads to people getting into sport, being more healthy and inspired to face challenges. A lot of people don’t get to see [behind the scenes], they just see end results at the Games every four years.”
Hepburn and company tackled their own financial woes, investing in Redemption Run but not knowing if any network would buy their product. With no existing contract in place, they managed to woo CBC and the threeepisode documentary is now available for free on CBC Gem.
Visit gem.cbc.ca/redemption-run to watch. n
CHALLENGE ACCEPTED Left to right: Shaquille Murray-Lawrence, Yohan Eskrick-Parkinson, Mark Zanette and Taylor Austin in Whistler on Oct. 19, 2025.
PHOTO BY TODD KOROL
30th World Ski and Snowboard Festival promises a mix of new and returning events
KEY CHANGES INCLUDE A NEW MINI-PIPE INVITATIONAL AND THE PRO PHOTOGRAPHER SHOWCASE
BY DAVID SONG
LONGTIME LOCALS may find this hard to believe, but the World Ski and Snowboard Festival (WSSF) is turning 30.
The WSSF is no doubt a cornerstone of Whistler’s identity during spring months. It is a lively, multidisciplinary nexus of athletes, creatives and fans that kicks into high gear as temperatures rise and snow begins giving way to rain and sunshine.
“Reaching the 30-year mark is an opportunity to acknowledge that legacy and the many people who have contributed to it over time, from athletes and photographers to musicians, volunteers, and partners,” said Gibbons Whistler’s chief integrative officer Heather MacDonald. “As the current owner and producer, we see this anniversary as both a responsibility and a privilege. Our focus is on honouring what has made WSSF meaningful while creating space for people to gather, participate, and celebrate mountain culture today.
“At its core, WSSF has always been about shared experiences, and this year’s anniversary reflects that same spirit.”
In 2026, a handful of new offerings are on the schedule.
Key among them is The Pipe, an event designed to bring high-level athletes and laypeople together. On April 8 from noon until 2 p.m., members of the public are invited to a community ride at a 12-foot halfpipe on Blackcomb Mountain, playing with new tricks in a social, non-judged environment. An invitational contest will be held the following day from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m., featuring an exclusive field of skiers and snowboarders.
Meanwhile, the Pro Photographer Showdown is evolving into a Pro Photographer Showcase. Rather than a live slideshow, this event will feature a printed gallery of images representing photographers from across WSSF’s three decades. The exhibition will be freely viewable in the Whistler Conference Centre (WCC) foyer on April 7 and 8, with images put up via silent auction in support of Protect Our Winters Canada.
‘ROOTED IN WHISTLER’ New programming will coexist alongside festival favourites this year.
Both the 72-Hour Filmmaker Showdown (April 7) and Intersection (April 8) will be held in the WCC’s main ballroom. Kieran Kershaw grabbed both top prize and the People’s Choice Award in 2025’s Filmmaker Showdown, while Shmobb is the defending Intersection winner in both categories.
READY TO LAUNCH The World Ski and Snowboard Festival is launching a handful of new offerings in year 30.
PHOTO BY MITCH WINTON
The Grind is heading back to Skiers’ Plaza for a second time, with skiing competition planned for April 10 and snowboarding on April 11. Expect a bevy of talented riders to show up, attempting to dethrone reigning ski champs Luke Smart and Caoimhe Heavey as well as snowboard victors Truth Smith and Jackie Carlson in an authentic showcase of streetstyle flair.
It all leads to the beloved Slush Cup on April 12, inviting (or perhaps tempting) people to dash across an icy pond on skis or a snowboard just outside of Glacier Creek Lodge. Prizes are to be doled out for honours like Best Trick, Best Costume, Best Wipeout and more.
Launching in early March, WSSF’s AfterDark Series will build momentum leading up to the core festival by way of night entertainment across Whistler venues. Before that, look forward to the fest’s music roster to be unveiled at February’s end.
“Over three decades, WSSF has grown alongside Whistler, reflecting changes in sport, media, and mountain culture while maintaining its core identity. Like many festivals, recent years required adaptation across the events industry,” MacDonald said. “What has remained consistent is WSSF’s role as a gathering point bringing together athletes, artists, businesses, and community members who share a connection to mountain culture. For this anniversary year, the focus is on reinforcing that sense of connection and ensuring the festival continues to feel relevant, accessible, and rooted in Whistler.”
More details will be announced on wssf.com as they become finalized. n
PhotobyShane Roy
g Serving Whistler and Pemberton
Just when you want to bury your head under a blanket...
LOOK UP—IT MIGHT NOT BE AS BAD AS YOU THINK
ANOTHER RAGE-FUELLED move by another fascist, racist or extremist bastard on the rise. Take your pick or, better, make it easy on yourself and pick someone who’s all three.
Another war. Another threat. Another grim report of glaciers and polar ice caps melting into mush, while unprecedented drought and storms scour regions far and wide. And as those reports roll in, so do headlines about solid-science
BY GLENDA BARTOSH
climate and environmental agencies getting defunded, disenfranchised, or disappeared completely.
Hell’s bells, you don’t even have to read reliable news feeds. Just spend time with pals or loved ones trying to figure out how to make ends meet, or find a decent, affordable place to live. Or simply peer out the window before diving back into digital distraction, which only makes things worse so you take cover under a quilt rather than watch the rain pour down—in winter, in Whistler, when everything should be chill in the true sense of the word. Meanwhile, cousin Freddy back East had his roof caved in by that recent polar vortex, and the Artemis II moonshot was shanghaied by same.
Then just when you figure you can’t take it anymore, you stumble onto someone like The King of Data and Ranking Stuff, Justin McElroy, on CBC
Radio One (available online, too). His latest pondering—is everything really as bad as we think?
Justin is one of the finest dudes traversing the Wet Coast media landscape. He grew up in Victoria then went to UBC, where he cut his journalism teeth at The Ubyssey, the excellent student newspaper that’s “only” been around since 1918. Such longevity alone tells me things might not be as bad as we think.
Wannabe young journos take note: Long before Pique there was The Peak, another feisty, fearless student paper, this one serving SFU some 60 years. Also where Questionable alumnus, Stew Muir, cut his j-teeth before hopping aboard The Whistler Question, then moving on to wider horizons, including the deputy managing editor chair at the Vancouver Sun. And these aren’t just random notes or me tooting my own horn, or those of people and things I value. They’re basic examples most of us have in our lives of people and things we cross paths with whose goodness and worth we can lose sight of, especially in darkness.
In my case, I say thank god SFU, UBC and especially Langara (my alma mater, so I’m only a bit biased) offer excellent training opps for the next generation of professional journos who’ll know fact from inflammatory, rage-based fiction and deliver genuine news.
Justin also worked at the Sun and NBC covering the 2010 Winter Games. Remember those? Feels like only yesterday they filled us with electric excitement. Hope. And soon we’ll get another Olympic-sized boost from all the fine Team Canada athletes, including Whistler’s own Olympic ski-cross medallist and one of two flagbearers, Marielle Thompson, along with more alumni of the Whistler Mountain Ski Club
Gosh, so many bright spots so close
to home. But back to our data-driven trajectory, and some facts from Justin’s Blue Monday antidote on BC Today on CBC—Canada’s one and only, and very vital public broadcaster, especially these days of Trumpian madness. Blue Monday, BTW, is typically the third Monday in January, and considered the most depressing day of the year. Thank god at least that’s behind us.
So are things really as bad as we think? In a word, no. Justin’s deep dive into B.C. and Canada-wide data shows some things really are improving in society. As he points out, it’s all about weighing our gloomy perceptions (and social media feeds) against what the numbers really say.
For one, in 2024, B.C. hit a 40-year low in the per-capita number of homicides. Note the “per-capita” qualifier: There are more of us living here, so there are more homicides, but on a per-person basis, which really counts, those numbers are down more than 50 per cent compared to a couple of generations ago. Wow!
Also, incomes in B.C. have been rising at a rate higher than inflation. Over the last 25 years, in real dollars (dollars adjusted for inflation), the average weekly earnings for the industrial aggregate in B.C. rose from about $700 to $1,300. That’s more than the inflation rate by about $200 per week. And for the second straight year in Vancouver we’re seeing a year-over-year reduction in the price of homes. Sure they’re still high, but they’re coming down. And the list goes on.
Speaking of Vancouver and numbers, I loved Pique’s article about the survey by Mario Canseco—another reliable professional many of us can easily vouch for—that Vancouverites are ready for an upbeat, optimistic, collaborative Mamdani-type mayor, ready to take on challenges and make life more affordable. Yes! Bring him on, and I think
I just caught a glimpse of who it might be.
Longtime Vancouver city councillor and Green Party stalwart, Adriane Carr, was my B.C. geography instructor at Langara’s j-school program. We’ve stayed in touch all these years. Full disclosure: she roped me into helping with the 2018 election campaign when a record number of Greens were elected, including her and Pete Fry to city council. Another longtime Whistlerite with politics in her blood, and a good pal of mine, also helped: Katie Rodgers—the daughter of that dynamic, straight-forward couple who shaped Whistler in so many ways, Christine and Terry Rodgers, Whistler’s first doctor and longtime councillor and mayor, respectively.
Wasn’t I lucky enough to be in the room recently when Pete addressed a packed house of young, enthusiastic supporters about his candidacy to be Vancouver’s next mayor. If I could have bottled up that crowd’s energy and conviction and sold it, I’d be rich and you’d be more optimistic.
Here’s another booster: Soon, Artemis II will lift off on humanity’s first journey back to the moon since 1972. On board, Canada’s own Jeremy Hansen, a brilliant, calm, articulate fellow who’s also a physicist and fighter pilot. How can I add such adjectives? My goddaughter, Zara Faux, who grew up in Squamish, now helps run the education side of things at the Canadian Space Agency and works with Jeremy.
Who knew a kid from Squamish could end up there? Or on an Olympic team, or helping a next-door neighbour or a city? Think of the countless regular people in your life who are doing amazing things every day. Think of the real data.
Now don’t you feel a tiny bit better?
Glenda Bartosh is an award-winning journalist who hates Pollyannaism, but likes to balance unreasonable tilts. n
MEADOW PARK SPORTS CENTRE
Lost Lake Nordic Trails
Outdoor Skating Whistler Olympic Plaza Skate rentals are $6.50.
Meadow Park Sports Centre
are included with your price of admission for no extra charge.
Laugh Out LIVE! brings new dinner theatre show to Whistler Feb. 21
TROUPE FRONTMAN IRA PETTLE CHATS ‘A WHISTLER WEDDING’ AND OTHER UPCOMING PROGRAMS
BY DAVID SONG
TO IRA PETTLE’S knowledge, Whistler has never hosted any kind of dinner theatre show.
He and his peers at Laugh Out LIVE! are about to rectify that.
A Whistler Wedding is to be an immersive comedy experience brandnew to the Sea to Sky. Guests will attend the wedding of lead characters Shazza Lee and Doyle Sullivan, enjoying a full three-course sit-down dinner while seated at reception tables with others. A zany storyline unfolds throughout the night as this fictional wedding quickly veers off the rails, with lots of improv blended seamlessly into the script.
A press release elaborates: “From awkward wedding party speeches and unfiltered relatives to unexpected confessions and heartfelt moments that go completely off-piste, this is a night that blurs the line between audience and action.”
Inspired by Tony ‘n’ Tina’s Wedding, a long-running dinner theatre program, A Whistler Wedding emphasizes the
distinctive ins and outs of mountain humour. It is directed by local filmmaker Jonny Fleet and his fellow Laugh Out LIVE! cast member Emma Strong.
“I’m reluctant to use the words ‘murder mystery,’ but it has undertones of that kind of experience where you’re part of the show,” Pettle explains. “There’s going to be interaction and participation with the guests encouraged, but it’s not mandatory. If
the last two years has been empowering our team to take on more leadership roles. I feel like I have been minimally involved, and it’s so exciting for me to be able to say that because typically I’ve got a hand in everything.”
A Whistler Wedding is scheduled to debut on Feb. 21 and run weekly throughout the winter at the Hilton Resort and Spa’s newly renovated L’Apres Lounge.
“There’s going to be interaction and participation with the guests encouraged, but it’s not mandatory.”
- IRA PETTLE
you want to really get into it as an audience member … you’ll have the opportunity to do so, but if you just want to sit back, enjoy it and laugh at all the mayhem that ensues, you can do that as well.
“It’s a very pivotal moment in the evolution of Laugh Out LIVE! because our intention is to continue to grow the brand. While Jonny and Emma are focused on leading A Whistler Wedding, Rebecca [Mason] and I—who are part of that development—also have time to go focus on other things. An integral piece to
‘HEALING THROUGH LAUGHTER’
Laugh Out LIVE! has also been busy with various other recent endeavours.
The group’s first Pemberton outing was described as “a grand slam” by Pettle, with three shows on Jan. 23 and 24 sold out by audiences who came “ready to laugh.” Next up is a novel Marquee Variety Show (MVS) dubbed “Pocket Bacon” at the Maury Young Arts Centre on Feb. 7, followed by an inaugural Bowen Island show on Valentine’s Day
and another all-new MVS on Feb. 28 in Squamish’s Eagle Eye Theatre.
Fast forward to April 10 and you’ll catch the Laugh Out LIVE! crew in their biggest venue to date: the 667-seat Centennial Theatre in North Vancouver.
Pettle and company strive to keep their material fresh, especially for Sea to Sky audiences.
“Our holiday show in December, ‘The Chairlift Chronicles,’ was uniquely Whistler and with ‹Pocket Bacon› coming up less than two months after that, we wanted to make sure that for guests returning to see us again in Whistler ... they were given allnew material,» he says. «It›s pretty much become a standard for us: every time we do another show in any given town, we want to come back with new stuff. We have five years of content in our archives to draw on in addition to that new stuff.
At a recent strategic meeting, one topic that came up is healing through laughter, “creating opportunities for people to step away from the hardships of life,” Pettle adds.
“It feels like that is distilling down to what the essence of Laugh Out LIVE! is all about. We’re producing comedy shows, we’re doing corporate team-building, development workshops, and it’s all based in laughter as a pathway to self-betterment, to community, to wellness.”
Visit laughoutlive.com to discover more about Laugh Out LIVE! programming. n
BIG BABIES Emma Strong, Jonny Fleet and Brandon Barrett (left to right) performing at Laugh Out LIVE!
PHOTO COURTESY OF IRA PETTLE
‘It changes the space’: Whistler’s streets double as canvas in banner art series
RMOW OPENS CALL FOR NEXT ROUND OF LAMPPOST ART AS PAM STAPLES’ VIBRANT DIPTYCHS INVITE PUBLIC TO PAUSE, REFLECT, AND BELONG
BY LUKE FAULKS
LIKE MANY municipalities, Whistler’s lampposts are carrying more than just lights.
Last fall, the Resort Municipality of Whistler (RMOW) unveiled a striking new suite of public art banners by Saskatchewanbased illustrator Pam Staples. Her eight-panel diptych series now adorns streetscapes across the Village, Creekside and Meadow Park. The series—titled “Nature. Reflection. Belonging.”—spans fall and winter, blending bold colour with stylized depictions of Whistler’s landscapes, and aiming to evoke that elusive feeling of home.
The banners form part of Whistler’s ongoing Lamppost Banner Program, which transforms the town’s vertical infrastructure into seasonal open-air galleries. Funded through the Resort Municipality Initiative and managed by B.C.’s Ministry of Tourism, Arts, Culture and Sport, the program supports both creative expression and tourism enrichment. New banners are typically displayed over two seasons before being offered for public purchase.
Staples, a self-taught digital illustrator with more than two decades of experience, leaned into a personal sense of place when designing the series.
“I think the biggest thing for me, coming from the Thousand Islands and the St. Lawrence River areas, was to consider how these communities’ unique scenic views take up space in our imagination, and how it gives people so much pause,” Staples says. “Whistler just resonated with me, in that respect. I wanted to capture how that place makes people excited to be there.
The series plays out as a diptych—images designed to flow across paired banners, creating seamless, momentary panoramas. Staples says the images are meant to depict a sense of Whistler, rather than specific scenes from in and around the area.
“I worked with the [RMOW] on making sure people could look at the banners and see a place that they may have been,” she says. “Some of the mountains weren’t really local mountains, of course. The same for the trails. Sometimes the staff would push me towards a more recognizable formation. I was always like, ‘absolutely,’ because, really, you want people to see this place in these.”
You may notice a conspicuous absence in the frames on display: there are some unattended skis outside a cabin, but no skiers or snowboarders pictured. Staples wanted to illustrate the wider variety of activities that also draw people
BANNER YEAR Staples said the scenes aren’t meant to reference specific areas around town, but rather a “sense of Whistler.”
to visit and stay in Whistler.
“Everybody thinks of skiing, and that’s why I sort of stayed away from skiing. I didn’t want people to think, ‘That’s all there is to it,’” she says. “When we went up, we had so much fun exploring—camping, kayaking, canoeing, boating, hiking—you just lose yourself in all this stuff.”
It’s a natural extension of Staples’ philosophy around public art. She explains the form is about more than visibility. It’s about subtly altering perception.
“It’s always about changing the space for someone,” she says. “If someone walks by and looks at a banner or a mural, it’s made them stop and change their routine a bit. It changes the space.”
The RMOW is now inviting submissions for its next banner cycle. Artists interested in contributing summer-themed designs to be displayed in 2026 and 2027 have until Thursday, Feb. 12 at 2 p.m. to apply. Full application details are available in the municipality’s Call for Artists.
For Staples, seeing her work woven into Whistler’s fabric was both surreal and affirming.
“To have my work now as part of the scenery is very, very cool,” she says. “Whenever you’re walking through, you think, ‘What an honour to have that part of a community.’”
You can explore more of Pam Staples’ work on Instagram @ crackercrumbsstudios or on her website, crackercrumbsstudios.ca. n
NoticeofPublicHearing ElectoralAreaA
PublicNoticeisherebygiveninaccordancewithSection466ofthe Local GovernmentAct that asecondelectronicPublicHearingwillbeheldregardingthe followingbylaws:
Here’s a quick look at some events happening in Whistler this week and beyond. FIND MORE LOCAL EVENT LISTINGS (and submit your own for free!) at piquenewsmagazine.com/local-events
IN THE SNOW
BUILDING THE SPIRIT: WHISTLER’S VOLUNTEERS OF THE 2010 GAMES
The Whistler Museum is re-mounting the special exhibition, Building the Spirit, in honour of the vital role volunteers played in realizing the 2010 Whistler Olympic Games. The exhibit features stories and artifacts of the volunteers and community members who made the Games a unique experience in Whistler. Closed Wednesdays.
> Feb. 6 to March 29, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
> Whistler Museum
ALTA LAKE BIRD WALK
Join the Whistler Naturalists on the first Saturday of the month for a walk to Rainbow Park. Open to anyone interested in learning about birds and contributing as a citizen scientist. Connect with experienced birders who are happy to share their knowledge. More information at whistlernaturalists.ca/birding.
> February 7 at 9 a.m.
> Meet at the bottom of Lorimer Rd. by the catholic church.
> Free
SOUND BATH & MEDITATION CIRCLE
A cozy evening to relax and unwind in a soothing sound bath experience with singing sound bowls and chimes warmly blended with the expansive resonance of the gong, and soft waves of percussive rhythms. This session offers softly blended soundscapes and presents experiential depths of listening with the whole body. Explore the art of tuning into the harmony within.
> Feb. 7, 5:15 to 6:45 p.m.
> Yogacara Whistler
IN THE SNOW WITH VEUVE CLICQUOT
Embrace après-ski culture in a fresh way, tailored to the slopes, the sun, and meaningful moments of connection. Located steps from the piste at the Fairmont Chateau Whistler at the base of Blackcomb, In The Snow offers a seamless shift from slopes to celebration, as the Mallard Lounge’s outdoor deck transforms into a chic, snow beachfront terrace inspired by Veuve Clicquot’s vibrant art de vivre. Open every Friday and Saturday afternoon until the end of the ski season.
> Feb. 7 to May 19, 3 to 6 p.m.
> Mallard Lounge Terrace
MONDAY NIGHT SPECIAL AT WHISTLER OLYMPIC PARK
Take advantage of discounted tickets and rentals on Monday nights until March 2. Spend time on the well-lit trails or light up your journey with a headlamp. Explore under the beautiful starry skies of the Callaghan Valley and when you need a break, stop by the fully-licensed café in the Day Lodge and indulge in delicious specials.
> Feb. 9, 3 to 9 p.m.
> Whistler Olympic Park
YOGA AT THE AUDAIN
Revel in the stunning architecture as you work through a calming one-hour practice with rotating instructors. Classes emphasize breathing, alignment and ease as you stretch and strengthen your body and mind. Registration includes access to the galleries on the day of the yoga session from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Bring your mat (or borrow one from the AAM) and enjoy some mind and body wellness!
> Feb. 12, 9:30 to 10:30 a.m.
> Audain Art Museum
ANONYMOUS ART SHOW PAINT & SIP
A relaxed, creative evening designed to help you create a piece for Whistler’s most anticipated community art exhibition and fundraiser: the Anonymous Art Show. Whether you’re an experienced artist or simply looking to try something new, this event is the perfect way to unleash your creativity and prepare your entry for Whistler’s largest community art exhibit.
> Feb. 12, 4:30 or 7 p.m.
> Maury Young Arts Centre
KOKANEE VALLEY RACE SERIES
Come out and have some fun with your friends and coworkers. This race series is open to skiers, snowboarders, and telemarkers with different gender and age divisions. No racing experience is required to join the fun of recreational racing and everyone is eligible to win great prizes! Held on select Thursdays throughout the season.
> Feb. 12
> On-mountain
PHOTO COURTESY OF FAIRMONT CHATEAU WHISTLER
MUSEUM MUSINGS & ASTROLOGY
Early freestyle on Whistler
BY ALLYN PRINGLE
WHEN THE FIRST Toni Sailer Summer Ski Camp was held on Whistler Mountain during the summer of 1966, the camp focused mainly on racing and was motivated partly by the need for competitive skiers to stay in shape and improve their technique between competition seasons.
This focus changed as more recreational skiers began participating in the camps with an interest in improving their own skills under the guidance of skiers such as Toni Sailer, Nancy Greene and Alan White.
It wasn’t until the summer of 1973, however, that freestyle skiing was included in the Ski Camp programming and the legendary Wayne Wong began coaching on Whistler, reflecting a change in the sport of skiing.
At the time, freestyle skiing was still a relatively young sport. The first recorded freestyle skiing competitions in the United States were not held until the mid-1960s and it was not until 1969 that the first instructional program began at Waterville Valley in New Hampshire.
In 1971, Waterville Valley hosted the first Professional Freestyle Skiing
Competition, drawing together competitive skiers from across North America. These skiers included Wong, George Askevold and Floyd Wilkie, all of whom decided to stay at Waterville Valley as coaches of the first Freestyle Ski Team.
We don’t know when exactly the first freestyle skiing competition was held on Whistler Mountain, but by the spring of 1971, there was enough demand that Garibaldi Lifts Ltd. hosted the first annual Aerial Ski Acrobatic Championship and Hot Shot Contest. In 1973, freestyle skiing became part of the Toni Sailer Summer Ski Camp’s programming under the direction of Wong, Askevold and Wilkie, providing more formal training for skiers interested in the growing sport and “teaching youngsters to ski the ‘Wong Way.’”
In the spring of 1974, Whistler Mountain expanded its freestyle offerings with a spring Freestyle Skiing Camp for “youngsters who can ski parallel, but who want to master some of the popular new maneuvers of freestyle under competent coaching.”
According to Garibaldi’s Whistler News, the “newest tricks” such as skiing sideways, backwards or going upside down were becoming more common on Whistler but were also risky, especially without training or instruction. They decided to provide an opportunity to
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): I’m thrilled by your genius for initiating what others only dream about. I celebrate your holy impatience with fakery and your refusal to waste precious life-force on enterprises that have gone stale. I’m in awe of how you make fire your ally rather than your enemy, wielding it not to destroy but to forge new realities from the raw materials of possibility. Everything I just described will be in your wheelhouse during the coming weeks.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): How do I love you? Let me count some of the ways. 1. Your patience is masterful. You understand that some treasures can’t be rushed and that many beautiful things require slow nurturing through your devoted attention. 2. You have a knack for inducing the mundane world to reveal its small miracles and spiritual secrets. 3. You practise lucid loyalty without being in bondage to the past. You honour your history even as you make room for the future. 4. You know when to cling tightly to what needs to be protected and preserved, and you know when to gracefully loosen your grip to let everything breathe. In the coming weeks, all these superpowers of yours will be especially available to you and the people you care for.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): In carpentry, there’s a technique called “kerf bending.” It involves making a series of small cuts in wood so it can curve without breaking. The cuts weaken the material in one sense, but they make it flexible enough to create shapes that would otherwise be impossible. I suspect you’re being kerf-bent right now, Gemini. Life is making small nicks in your certainties, your plans, and your self-image. It might feel like you’re being diminished, but you’re actually being made flexible enough to bend into a new form. Don’t interpret the nicks as damage. They’re preparation for adjustments you can’t see yet. Let yourself be shaped.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): In Irish folklore, “thin
regulations and certifications were introduced.
The next year saw the first FIS Freestyle Skiing World Cup with events in moguls, aerials, and “acroski,” also known as ski ballet. To win the overall title, skiers had to compete in all three disciplines.
In 1986, the first FIS Freestyle World Ski Championships were held in Tignes, France and then demonstration events were held at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary. Over the next two decades, more and more freestyle skiing events joined the Olympic line-up, beginning with moguls in 1992, aerials in 1994, ski cross in 2010 and, most recently, halfpipe and slopestyle in 2014.
Unfortunately, ski ballet, though part of competitions and tours in the ’70s and ’80s, did not continue to grow with freestyle skiing in the same way and has not been recognized as an official freestyle discipline since 2000.
explore techniques and tricks under the tutelage of Michel Daigle, Tetsuo Fuji, and Bob Dufour.
While freestyle skiing was becoming increasingly popular through the ’70s, it was not officially recognized as a sport by the FIS until 1979, when international
WEEK OF FEBRUARY 6 BY ROB
places” are situations or areas where the material and spiritual worlds overlap. They aren’t always geographical. A thin place may be a moment: like the pre-dawn hour between sleeping and waking, or the silence after someone says “I love you” for the first time. I believe you’re living in a thin place right now, Cancer. The boundary between your inner world and outer circumstances is more porous than usual. This means your emotions may affect your environment more directly. Your intuitions will be even more accurate than usual, and your nightly dreams will provide you with practical clues. Be alert. Magic will be available if you notice it.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): In traditional Korean jogakbo, scraps of fabric too small to be useful alone are stitched together into a piece that’s both functional and beautiful. Every fragment contributes to the whole. I encourage you to treat your current life this way, Leo. Don’t dismiss iffy or unfinished experiences as “wasted time.” Instead, see if you can weave all the bits and scraps together into a valuable lesson or asset. Prediction: I foresee a lovely jogakbo in your future.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): The Maori people of New Zealand practice mirimiri, a form of healing that works not by fighting disease but by restoring flow. The technique involves removing blockages so life force can move freely again. I think you need the equivalent of mirimiri, Virgo. There’s a small but non-trivial obstruction in your life. The good news is that you now have the power to figure out where the flow got stuck and then gently coax it back into motion. Let the healing begin! Here’s a good way to begin: Vow that you won’t hold yourself back from enjoying your life to the max.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): In the coming weeks, I encourage you to prioritize mirth, revelry, and gratification. For starters, you could invite kindred spirits to join you in pursuing experimental forms of pleasure.
BREZSNY
Have fun riffing and brainstorming about feeling good in ways you’ve never tried or even imagined before. Seek out stories from other explorers of bliss and delight who can inspire you to expand your sense of wonder. Then, with your mind as open as your heart, give yourself the freedom to enjoy as many playful adventures and evocative amusements as you dare.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): In the Inuktitut language of the Intuit people, the word ajurnarmat is translated as “it can’t be helped.” It acknowledges forces at work beyond human control. Rather than pure resignation, it reflects an attitude of accepting what can’t be changed, which helps people conserve energy and adapt creatively to challenging circumstances. So for example, when hunters encounter impossible ice conditions, ajurnamat allows them to refrain from forcing the situation and notice what may actually be possible. I suspect you’re facing your own ajurnarmat, Scorpio Your breakthrough will emerge as soon as you admit the truth of what’s happening and allow your perception to shift. What looks unnavigable from one angle may reveal a solution if you approach it from another direction. Practice strategic surrender.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Your hunger for meaning is admirable! I love it. I never want you to mute your drive to discover what’s interesting and useful. But now and then, the hot intensity of your quest can make you feel that nothing is ever enough. You get into the habit of always looking past what’s actually here and being obsessed with what you imagine should be or could be there. In the coming days, dear Sagittarius, I invite you to avoid that tendency. Rather than compulsively pursuing high adventure and vast vistas, focus on the sweet, intimate details. The wisdom you yearn for might be embedded in ordinariness.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): In architecture, a “flying buttress” is an external support system that
Today, freestyle skiing looks a little different than it did in the early competition of the ’70s, but it can often be seen on Whistler and Blackcomb mountains and around the world.
This article originally appeared in the Feb. 8, 2021 Pique. n
allows a massive building like a cathedral to reach greater heights without collapsing under its own weight. Because the buttress is partly open to the air rather than solidly built against the wall from top to bottom, it appears to “fly,” which is where the name comes from. In the coming weeks, I encourage you Capricorns to acquire your own equivalent of at least one new flying buttress. Who or what could this be? A collaborator who shares the load? A new form of discipline that provides scaffolding? A truth you finally speak aloud that lets others help you? To get the process started, shed any belief you have that strength means carrying everything all by yourself.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): The coming weeks will challenge you to think with tenderness and feel with clarity. You’ll be called on to stay sharply alert even as you remain loose, kind, and at ease. Your good fortune will expand as you open your awareness wider, while also firming up the boundaries that keep mean people from bothering you. The really good news is that cosmic forces are lining up to guide you and coach you in exactly these skills. You are primed to explore intriguing paradoxes and contradictions that have valuable lessons.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): In alchemy, solve et coagula is a Latin phrase translated as “dissolve and coagulate.” It means transformation must begin with the process of breaking down before any building begins. You can’t skip over the dissolving phase and jump straight into creating the new structure. I mention this, dear Pisces, because I believe you’re now in the dissolving phase. It might feel destabilizing, even a bit unnerving, but I urge you to stick with it. When the moment comes to construct the beautiful new forms, you will know. But that time isn’t yet. Keep dissolving a while longer.
Homework: What small burden could you let go that will provide a rush of freedom? n
SEEING DOUBLE Michel Daigle (right) shows a front flip in tandem during a competition on Whistler Mountain.
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THERE’S LIKELY not a single person reading this who hasn’t contemplated how AI will impact their life. Watching the acrobatic dance moves of the Boston Dynamics robots on YouTube might be a fun demonstration of mechatronic engineering, but a video released on Jan. 19 by Chinese firm LimX Dynamics offered a far more dystopian glimpse into our future. In the video, 18 robots called “Oli”
BY VINCE SHULEY
climbed out of their own (open) packaging crates, extended their joints until they reached full height and took their first stride on two legs. The demonstration was captured in a concourse to show off the spatial awareness of the system. The robots oriented themselves without colliding with one another or their own packaging before marching out of the hallway in perfect formation. A second demonstration was filmed outside where the Olis emerged from their crates, then walked to stand in perfect triangle formation before performing a choreographed dance routine.
With the technology I’ve seen the last few years, this sounds like an easy enough motion to program into your robots and rehearse before you turn the
cameras on, but that’s the kicker here. No human was in control of those Olis, nor were the startup movements premapped. LimX’s COSA (Cognitive OS of Agents) system coordinated all 18 Oli humanoids, enabling shared decisionmaking, movement planning, and collective control, in what the Chinese firm described as the “world’s first scalable autonomous deployment.”
The basic idea is you drop a bunch of these crates on a factory floor and the robots get to work with no further human assistance. Whether you believe LimX’s promotional videos are 100-per-cent real or not, the truth is the technology won’t be that far away. The current consumer humanoid robots such as the Unitree G1 (available on Amazon for $24,000) are laughable by comparison, with clumsy
for you and even give you life advice. I’ll point out the effectiveness of those tasks varies when done by AI chatbots, but in each iteration of their updates they’ve gotten smarter, more adept at discerning nuanced information and, overall, are making fewer mistakes.
When I tell people I write for a living, a common question I get is “are you worried about AI taking your job?” I used to laugh off such alarmism, but having now integrated the enterprise version of ChatGPT into my workplace, I’m very thankful I’m not a junior copywriter starting out in my career. The paid version of ChatGPT gives you access to the latest models (currently 5.1) with mode options for “Instant” (answers straight away), “Thinking” (thinks longer for better answers) and “Pro”
When I tell people I write for a living, a common question I get is “are you worried about AI taking your job?”
movements whenever presented with an unfamiliar situation.
But the real AI threat isn’t robots—not yet, anyway. It’s Large Language Models (LLM) such as Open AI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, Claude by Anthropic and others. When ChatGPT launched in November of 2022, it was a turning point in our society. The software couldn’t perform physical tasks, but it could do your homework for you, apply for jobs
(what Open AI describes as “researchgrade intelligence” and can take up to 15 minutes to answer).
I began using ChatGPT at work as a fancy thesaurus, but it quickly became a handy brainstorming tool for advertising headlines. To be clear, never are all the answers worth using. But with some skill and experience in prompting I would sometimes get a nugget of an idea that led to a headline we used in a
global advertising campaign. When I’m concurrently working on four different campaigns for two different brands, each with its own brand voice and strategic direction, AI has made me far more efficient in my job. But ChatGPT can do so much more than that already. It can strategize the marketing and even come up with clever ideas for advertising stunts. And most of the time, most of the ideas are pretty good.
Could my colleagues and superiors get through their tasks with ChatGPT as my robotic replacement? Maybe in a pinch on some low-level writing tasks. But the reason I have the job I have isn’t just to come up with good writing, it’s deciding what works best for the marketing. That’s something I haven’t seen ChatGPT do well yet, but it’s probably not that far away, either.
Two of the occupational categories deemed safest from AI are health-care and skilled trades. Jobs that require empathy, human connection and complex, unpredictable care are safe. Think nurse practitioners, psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers. Jobs involving complex manual labour in unpredictable environments can’t be easily automated, either. This includes plumbers, electricians, HVAC technicians and specialized construction workers.
I don’t think the robot uprising will happen in our lifetime, but AI software and hardware are not slowing down. If you still have another 30 or 40 years left in the workforce, it’s worth considering how future-proof your current career path is.
Vince Shuley can assure his editor he did not use AI to write this column. n
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