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The No. 1 Ski Resort Is In Whistler
And we’re talking the number one ski resort not in Canada but in the world. Ski Magazine has consistently rated Whistler Blackcomb as number one due to its extensive terrain, good snow, and a highly-rated nightlife. The facilities and ski areas are so highly rated that the Village of Whistler will co-host the 2010 Winter Olympic Games with Vancouver.
The Whistler Blackcomb resort were two separate entities before but merged into a single resort ten years ago. The first to open was Whistler Mountain. The resort was a product of a group of Vancouver businessmen, led by Franz Wilhelmsen. The skiing resort opened its doors to the public in February, 1966.The skiing resort quickly earned a reputation due to its vertical drop, good snow conditions, and huge alpine area. The resort offered something new aside from the vertical drop being the biggest in North America, the ski season was also quite long. The season stretched from early November until late May.
Soon, the mountain expanded and along came Blackcomb Mountain in December 6, 1980. The new resort had 5 triple chairs and an additional 1,240 vertical meters (4067ft) of skiing. Being competitors back then, Whistler developed a whole new network of runs on its north flank.
At the almost the same time, Whistler Village sprang up between the two resorts. The Village opened in 1980 and along with the emergence of Hotels and restaurants.
Whistler Resort was the first mountain resort outside of the USA that received the distinction of being named #1 by a major American ski magazine. Then in 1996, it became the only resort in history to be simultaneously named #1 by Snow Country, SKI and Skiing Magazines.
In 1997, Intrawest Corp., the company that owned Blackcomb, bought the Whistler Mountain Ski Corporation.
The resulting merger was the biggest and most exciting mountain resort complexes in the world. The combined mountain resort have more than 200 runs and 33 ski lifts. It offers more than 28,000 hectares or 7,000 acres of skiable terrain in winter, and endless outdoor activities in the summer.More than two million visits Whistler Mountain every year. The mountain resort has the most ski-in and ski-out accommodation of any mountain recreation resort in North America. In fact, it is estimated that there are 15,200 pillows within 500 meters of the lifts and ski-in/ski-out accommodation represents more than 75% of all existing rental pillows.
Moreover, the resort features 12 massive Alpine bowls, and 3 glaciers. Whistler Mountain has an elevation or 2,182 meters (7,160 feet) and Blackcomb Mountain has an elevation of 2,284 meters (7,494 feet).
The resort is quite accessible. Located on Highway 99, 75 miles (120 km) north of Vancouver, Whistler can be reached by car, limousine, van, scheduled bus, train, or chartered helicopter or floatplane.
Posted in Outdoors
October 16th, 2007 / No Comments
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BC’s Britannia Beach
Just a forty-five minute drive up north of Vancouver is a place where you can totally unwind and enjoy year-round outdoor activities and visit various cultural, geological and historical landmarks. This is Britannia Beach, a small unincorporated community in the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District and lies on the Sea-to-Sky Highway on Howe Sound.
The town’s population is about 300. The village’s appeal lies not only in the stunning scenery of mountains and fjords but also in the sense of history and the different and unique arts and crafts of the area.This scenic town began as a mining community and remained so for almost seventy years. In the late 1890s, mining engineer George Robinson convinced several finance moguls that the areas was a good investment. The Britannia Mining and Smelting Company was then formed and mined that area for copper ores for almost seventy years.
In the 1920s and early 1930s, the mine was a huge success. It has become the largest producer of copper in the British Commonwealth. But by the 1940s the Britannia mines were unionized. They suffered a first union strike in 1949. Then in the next ten years, the mines entered a slump. Due to the low copper prices, the Britannia Mine Company was reduced to seven employees and in 1959 the company went into liquidation.
The Anaconda Mining Company took over in 1963. It continued operation for another eleven years until the mines were finally closed down on November 1, 1974 due to high operating costs and taxes.
A year later, the BC Museum of Mining opened in Britannia Beach. The site was named a National Historic Site in 1988 and was designated as a British Columbia Historic Landmark a year later.
Today, daily public tours and pre-scheduled group trips allow people to see and appreciate the fascinating mining history of British Columbia. Visitors can tour the old mine site where they can see a variety of displays and exhibits. There’s also an Underground Train which brings passengers into the real hard rock mine.
Being on the eastern shoreline of Howe Sound and between Lions Bay and Squamish is quite a great advantage to the tourism industry of Britannia Beach. Their location allow them to provide different outdoor activities that appeal to tourists.
For example, they can go to the Shannon Falls Provincial Park which is a very popular picnic spot. About three miles south of Britannia Beach is Porteau Cove Provincial Park which gives scuba divers a whole lot to see. There are about 100 marine species in the cove.
Meanwhile, Murrin Provincial Park is just about 2 miles north of Britannia Beach. The park is on the west side of Highway 99. Also, hiking is a popular outdoor activity with The Deeks Lake Trail waiting for willing explorers. The trail is an 8 mile/13 km return which can be accomplished 3-4 hours each way.
Britannia Beach is a unique industrial heritage site, offers a wonderful world class mining museum, and now is a major tourist attraction in British Columbia.
Posted in Travel
October 15th, 2007 / No Comments