Whistler Blackcomb is under fire after introducing height restrictions for mountain users.
In a news release issued Friday morning, the company stated that guests shorter than 350 centimetres, the height of the current snow base, would be prohibited from accessing Whistler Blackcomb without a snorkel, shovel and periscope.
"The policy has come into effect after 315 centimetres of snow fell this past month," said a company spokesperson. "When we get a big dump of snow, not only do we encounter a lot of powder frenzy, many powder hounds adopt a 'no friends on a powder day' attitude, skiing or riding with only a select few, only reuniting with miffed boyfriends/girlfriends at Après."
The move drew immediate criticism from the B.C. Human Rights League, which announced in a subsequent news release that it would be filing a complaint against the company with the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal.
"The height restriction is an insult to short people everywhere," said League President Courtney MacLellan-Thorne, also an activist for pygmy people in Papua New Guinea. "It is bad enough that as full-grown adults, they can't go on the roller coaster at Playland, now this."
The Human Rights League plans to file its complaint on Monday at the Tribunal's office in downtown Vancouver.
The move was disappointing news for just about every Whistler resident. People abandon the real world to come here and play in the snow. And with a 350-centimetre height restriction, a threshold that not a single Whistler resident meets, that basically takes away the point of living here at all.
The news drew immediate action from local residents. The only beachwear shop in town was mobbed as people lined up to buy the few snorkel sets in stock.
Hundreds of others were seen milling about the gondola bases hoping Whistler Blackcomb would provide the new mandatory equipment.
Said one unhappy skier: " I've come half way around the world to ride in pow' and now this. I'm demanding that I get a snorkel!"
