There's always a funereal quality around ski resorts this time of year. Generally, it's danced to the dirge created by chairlifts grinding to a halt, staff vanishing like the winter's snow and the off-the-shoulder season showing pale, bleached skin to the warming sun.
This season, in most resorts, the funeral metaphor strikes a little too close to home. 2011-12 was the season that never was for too many ski resorts that still are... barely. They limped through an autumn with unrequited hope, put on a brave face for Christmas visitors relegated to skiing crowded runs of man-made snow, and finally tucked their tails between their legs and closed earlier than they ever feared they'd have to.
And then there was us... the uncommonly lucky. No gloating, no bravado, certainly no homage to good management. Whistler lucked out, period. The storms that plastered us with great snow from November until whenever they stop — hopefully sometime before June — could just as easily have tracked 30km south and left us sporting earthtones.
But they didn't and we've benefited from an influx of people that never had any intention of being here this season. It's been a year when the most frequently heard line has been, "I usually ski at (fill in the blank) but they don't have any snow this year so I thought I'd try Whistler."
Thanks. Y'all come back now, y'ear.
Now, the rituals of spring are being played out. Skis are being waxed and relegated to the space in closets recently abandoned by golf clubs. Roof racks that carried them are being swapped out for bike carriers and kayak holders. Light is replacing darkness just in time for sunglasses to carry the load goggles did all winter, and the thud of ski boots is giving way to the slap of flip-flops.
April has risen, Lent has passed and it's time to get down and party one more time before last November's instant locals take off for adventure, home, and the absolute certainty that life, wherever it plays out for them, won't play quite as hard as it has since they first hit town, livers and savings intact.
So with a base of more than three-and-a-half metres, days that bounce between frigid and wilting, bank accounts and immune systems drained of reserves, what's a Whistlerite to do? Hell, get down and party. It's Festival time.
Almost, but never, reaching maturity — a state all too familiar to the aging population of this town — the TELUS World Ski and Snowboard Festival is getting ready to rock Whistler for the 17th time, an accomplishment few thought it would reach given its shaky start.
The story's familiar by now, except to those celebrating their first installment of Festival Follies. Back in the dark ages, when Whistler pretty much celebrated April like most ski resorts, with a smattering of econotourists and hard-core locals who can never get too much of a good thing, Party Dude Doug Perry was desperate to find some way to make a living out of doing what he loved most: skiing.
Having come to the grim realization that he had the grace and skill of a pro skier and the knees of a pro curler, the Party Dude couldn't reconcile himself to the usual options available to post-competitive skiers: ski instructor, ski bum, sales rep, ski bum, ski coach, ski bum. He figured why die a slow death when he could blow his brains out with one Quixotic, ill-timed extravaganza. Thus was born the World Technical Skiing Championships... in April.
Boasting such, crowd-pleasing events as speed skiing, powder 8s, freestyle and something called the Bigfoot Challenge, the festival was about as successful as most people kept telling him it would be, which is to say the Second Annual World Technical Skiing Championships seemed like a very, very long shot.
But it happened. And it got bigger and better. It added music, film, photography, fashion, theatre and it grew, and grew, and grew into the best damn celebration of mountain culture the modern world has ever seen.
And now it stands on something of a precipice, staring into an unknown future, pondering the X factor. But that discussion is for another week, maybe next week. For now, it's enough that we get down, put on our party duds, make like we've never heard of hangovers, exhaustion, burn-out or, well, moderation and celebrate a freakin' great ski season we helped make even better just by being here, working hard, and showing people a good time. Take a bow, boys and girls; it's payback time.
So what's the Queen of the Festival, Sue Eckersley, and her crew at Watermark conjured up for us this year? Here's a hint: Don't miss any of it. Oops, chances are you already have. The events that usually sell out sold out almost before tickets went on sale. If you haven't gotten a ticket for Pro Filmmakers or Pro Photographers, best to polish your begging act, toady up to a scalper or prepare to mug someone who has. When will you learn?
But that's just tip of the berg, bro. There are still tickets for Intersection, last year's new hit. This time around, six teams are going head-to-head to shoot, edit and produce a 5-7 minute extreme, action sports film in seven days. With $15k on the line, they'll be knockin' themselves — and you — out.
New this year, the Mountain Culture Variety Show is promising sweaty palms and pounding hearts or, in other words, business as usual. Top local film and photo greats will entertain, Mitchell Scott will do a turn as MC and proceeds of the show and a tempting silent auction will go to the Spearhead Huts Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to finding a cure for the heartbreaking lack of backcountry huts on the Spearhead Traverse.
And if you haven't seen the mainstage music lineup, grab an extra case of energy drinks and get ready to shake it 'til it falls off. Just to hit some highlights, where else are you going to get to hear Swollen Members, Half Moon Run, The Sheepdogs, Michael Franti and Ash Grunwald play for free this year... all in the same week?
The action is nonstop, on the hills and off, from Friday until next Sunday. This is your festival. It has been for the last 16 years. From a ridiculous idea no one thought would survive to an event many have tried to duplicate, this is the little festival that could. With a future that's uncertain, there's all the more reason to get out and enjoy this year's extravaganza.
Who deserves it more than you?
