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Where are the snowplows?

Coming from the Northeast in U.S.A., my friends and family always find it crazy that I choose a life in the "frozen tundra" of Canada where I live in my "igloo.
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Coming from the Northeast in U.S.A., my friends and family always find it crazy that I choose a life in the "frozen tundra" of Canada where I live in my "igloo." They can't believe my joy when my Facebook status raves about the recent 20 centimetres of snow we received overnight. They all hate the snow (and the cold). I try and tell them that I only "play" in the snow and if I have to drive, the roads in Whistler are maintained meticulously!

This leads me to my question: What the hell is happening with our roads this season?

Has clearing the roads also suffered cutbacks due to the muni's lack of being able to balance budgets? I'm hoping the muni just wasn't prepared for the huge amount of snow we have received the last couple of weeks (though I find that highly unlikely). Thank goodness I've been forced to use the bus this season (pay parking) as the snowy roads seem ever so dangerous to be driving on.

Ronia Nash

Whistler

More glades please

I have always lived by the laws of the Kansas City shuffle, when everyone looks left, I go right. Since the beginning of time in the department of ski resort ratings, we have always suffered the poor weather ratings amongst the magazines.

As locals we all know where to ski when the weather is storming — in the trees! Would it not be advisable to "environmentally" create more glades?

Yeah the weather sucks, but we could win the award for best tree skiing in the world. Hmmm. Just my two-cents.

Ryan McKeeman

Whistler

Forever grateful

Last Friday at 8:30 a.m. as I was riding up the Big Red Express Chair I had a pain in my chest. Fortunately I was riding with three pals, one was old ski patroller Bruce Watt, (another was) local commercial realtor Bob Hamilton and (the third was) Bill Kunzwieler.

They recognized the symptoms of a heart attack and managed to get me into the ski patrol shack at the top. The WB "A" team took over and descended on me like a horde of locusts. I might as well have been in the Mayo Clinic as these guys were fantastic, preventing a life threatening blood clot, administering medication and bundling me into a helicopter for my trip to the Whistler clinic.

There the excellent staff took over and quickly sent me again by helicopter to St. Paul's Hospital in Vancouver. I am now awaiting open-heart surgery and without the Whistler Blackcomb safety crew's intervention my cardiologist tells me I would not be alive.

What a fantastic group of people the WB safety crew truly is.

Too often we take these folks for granted but the excellent training they have and the importance the management places on this training exemplifies why Whistler is the best ski resort in the world.

The Allan family is forever grateful.

Peter Allan

Squamish 

Museum offers thanks

As our collective focus shifts to the upcoming holidays, the Whistler Museum can finally reflect on our busy lineup of fall programming. We were thrilled by the turnout of our events, and are especially grateful to the many businesses, locals, and visitors who contributed to their success.

For one, we resumed our monthly Speaker Series with compelling presentations by Bruce Watt of CARDA and ski mountaineer Johnny "Foon" Chilton. After a pause for December madness, the Speaker Series will resume in January with more speakers chosen to feed your stoke for winter fun and adventure. The Whistler Roasting Company will continue to complement these engaging evenings by donating java to keep the audience abuzz.

Our showcase event was the fifth annual Icon Gone, held the evening of November 6. Thanks to amazing performances from the many competitors, judges, and long-time emcee Mo Douglas, the evening was at times educational, ridiculous, heartwarming, but always entertaining. Angie Nolan (with the assistance of Cathie Coyle) claimed top honours for her theatrical ode to the beloved Boot Pub. The GLC, a Whistler icon in its own right, proved the perfect venue, and prize donations from Whistler Foto Source, Araxi, and Sushi Village helped up the competitive ante.

As part of Welcome Week the museum, Village Hosts, and WAG organized the second annual Volunteer Fair, hosted by the SLCC. Volunteers make an incredible contribution to Whistler's cultural and community fabric so we were delighted by the interest expressed in the various non-profit organizations.

Finally, wrapping up Welcome Week with Feeding the Spirit, we were ecstatic to have 160 people pour through the museum in less than two hours to enjoy free food, countless prizes, and the opportunity to mingle among the diverse crowd. Creekside Market donated a huge amount of food, and prizes came courtesy of Whistler-Blackcomb, Nibz Bandanaz, The Lift Coffee Company, Splitz Grill, Misty Mountain Pizza, Prior Snowboards, Celebrate Whistler, Farfalla Hair & Esthetics, and Isobel MacLaurin.

Have a safe and happy holidays everyone, we hope to see you all again in the New Year!

Jeff Slack

Whistler Museum Programming Coordinator

Spring Creek bus schedule not working?

I've been living in Spring Creek for over two years now, and I thought I (was) used to having the bus schedule changed about six times a year (not always necessarily for the better). But the last one leaves me thinking that someone doesn't even know that Spring Creek exists, or that there are people living here!

When I noticed that the bus (no matter if #1 or #2) goes to Cheakamus and to Function again, which for people from Spring Creek means about a 20-minute detour, my first thought was to walk from Tamarisk.

I doubt that even the warning from the government on every single bus (that there are 1,800 people in B.C. hit by vehicles at night every year) will stop people from walking on the highway.

And yes, only three days into the new schedule and I've already seen people on the highway on two separate occasions!

After my recent experience, I might be the next one. I'm glad that the driver, who got way behind his schedule, and therefore didn't continued to the Function Junction and Spring Creek afterwards, was so nice and called the other driver to wait for me. Otherwise I would have been standing in the rain for another 20 minutes — or probably walking on the highway.

Don't think that I wouldn't appreciate it if the change was good — like having the chance to go straight to Meadow Park Sports Centre (it is brilliant not to get a cold every time you go swimming), and if you need help with the schedule, I will gladly help you write it next time.

Someone might say that I should use the "brand-new" trail of ours — well, there are obviously more people who don't know that Spring Creek exists — or they don't want to know. I'm guessing that in trying to save some money the municipality decided that this part of the Valley Trail shouldn't be plowed and we should walk in knee-deep snow.

Since there is no bus service from Spring Creek to Function Junction or Cheakamus, we have no other choice but to walk. Not funny let me tell you — I tried this 30-minute torture the other day.

This makes me the fourth person whom I know personally, to walk down there on the highway. Not to mention that the numerous housemates we will no doubt have in the future will be alienated (the one who moved in a week ago already is) by the lack of travel options and I'm sure we will lose more than a few housemates — very helpful for paying the mortgage each month.

So my question to rational people is: Do you really need another number for the statistics (of people killed while walking on the highway) before this changes?

I heard about all the possible excuses why there can't be a bus stop on the way to Function Junction. And I understand them (sort of), but why doesn't the bus turn into the Spring Creek on the way down? Like it does to the Tamarisk or to Alpine? And I understand that there is no extra money, but there wasn't a bus service to the Cheakamus two years ago and now there is quite a few.

Or are we going to learn the hard way?

Mirka Gajdosova

Whistler

Visionary community

I moved to Whistler with my family this summer for the same reasons that most of you did – we wanted to play in the lakes, to see the stars at night, and to ski our hearts out. But we didn't really know if there was much of a local community — it's just not something that people talk much about when they talk about Whistler.

After a couple months of meeting friendly neighbours and fun family events, I hit the jackpot last week. On November 22, the Whistler Centre for Sustainability hosted an incredibly inspiring night about transforming the Impossible 2 Possible with Ray Zahab.

It was the kind of talk that makes you want to race out the door and write up your personal manifesto — or at least go for a long run. And then the next night, on November 23, the Women of Whistler proved that the glass ceiling is officially shattered in this town by bringing together an amazing group of local entrepreneurs to share knowledge.

I am thrilled to be living in a place that values visionary collaboration, and I'm excited to see how our new mayor and council will promote the principles of sustainability and community leadership. Let me know how I can help!

Randi Kruse

Whistler

Don't feed the wildlife

We recently visited our daughter in Squamish after our return from an African wild life safari. I was saddened to read in the October 27 Pique that yet more bears had been put down because of the human/bear interface problems.

We live in Cranbrook and there are similar problems here with bears, deer and other wildlife.

After our safari I can't help but think that if we did what we were told, that is, "DO NOT feed the bears," we would not have this problem of destroying our magnificent creatures.

During our trip we spent one-hour with a gorilla family in Rwanda. We were within six feet of a family of 18 gorillas in the wild. We were told not to feed them under any circumstances. For the most part they ignored us.

In Tanzania we were on a 10-day safari and were in a vehicle within 10 feet or less of lions, leopards, elephants and many other animals. The same rule applied, Do Not Feed the Wildlife.

The wildlife for the most part expressed little or no interest in us. What a joy it would be in Canada if we could interact similarly with our wildlife!!

Allister Pedersen

Cranbrook B.C.

Forks over knives

We were absolutely thrilled at the turnout and response to the Forks Over Knives Movie screening at the library recently and would like to thank everyone again for coming.

It was great to see that so many Whistlerites care about their health and the impacts of their food choices.

We would like to sincerely apologize to those who were unable to get into the screening due to the room being at capacity.

Due to the popularity of the movie we will be partnering with Whistler Public Library again for a second screening, which will take place on Monday, December 12th at 7 p.m. We would like to thank the library for donating the room again and making this possible. Please arrive early, as seating is limited to 50 people. More details can be found at earthsavewhistler.com/events.  

Hayley Ingman, Jennie Small

Earthsave Whistler

Wanna Hear A Secret?

Living in Canada, it is likely that someone you know has Crohn's Disease or Ulcerative colitis — and is suffering! That isn't good news. But there is something that you can do to help the tens of thousands who suffer in silence — become aware. Read on — we have made it easy for you here; in 60 seconds it is likely that you will know more than when you started out.

What is Crohn's and Colitis? These are Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBD), which affects over 200,000 Canadians, and the number is growing rapidly.

How can it be that a family of diseases which represent a greater number of patients in Canada than MS and HIV combined is still so unknown by so many people? The reasons for low awareness may be due to the fact that the symptoms and effects of IBD are not pleasant ones to discuss around the dinner table or in the coffee shop. Who wants to hear about stomach pain, diarrhea, gas and bloody stool when you are digging into a nice savory entree — right? Well for those 200,000 people, their families and loved ones, these effects of IBD are the subjects of dinnertime conversation.

November was IBD awareness month — learn more at www.ccfc.ca.

Be aware and share (talk about it if you have it — ask about it if you don't). The cures are out there — and they will be found, but not until there is greater awareness. Canada leads the world in the fight to find the cures; and we will find a cure. But in the meantime we dare you to make IBD and its effects dinnertime conversation in your house. It truly will make the world a better place.

If you or someone you love suffers from IBD and needs someone to talk to locally for support — drop us a line, and we will help anyway that we can.

Dave and Wendy Clark

Founders, Whistler Friends

End old growth logging

Old growth logging could end in 20 years, Community Forest chair says. Yes, it will end when all the old-growth forests have been logged.

These are shocking comments, which just show that the logging company called Whistler and the B.C. government will just keep logging these rare forests through out B.C. These forests are worth more standing than logged.

With 1,900 endangered species in B.C. and no law to protect them, it is time in this day-and-age to stop logging the old-growth forest and start selective logging of second growth. Community Forests are heavily subsidized and need to be shut down. Vote out the Liberals and any government that won't protect these forests!

Paul Morgan

Vancouver