“For anyone who hasn’t ventured across the ‘pond’ to Whistler, it is located on Canada’s west coast, some 2 hours drive north of Vancouver. It is blessed with an above average snowfall of over 10 meters each year, in part, because of it’s proximity to the coast and mountain ranges. Surprising to some, but it is actually a rainforest area or ‘wetland’ depending on where in the valley you find yourself. This is even more surprising at times when you realise that during the Whistler summers, the land can be extremely dry and arid and as recent as this year, we experienced some forest fires in the region.

Anyway, hopefully by now, some of you will know that Whistler & Vancouver are hosting the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. This should prove to be a very exciting and yet challenging time to the community of Whistler. Personally I can’t wait for all the hype to ‘land’ and for the formalities to begin. As a year round ‘resort’ (it’s actually a municipality as any local will tell you..) the winter and summer seasons present a real buzz around the main village area with as many as 2.1 million visitors passing through. These figures are expected to grow exponentially this winter as visitors descend to ski / board, eat and drink (Whistler has many famously superb dining and drinking establishments. Did anyone see the recent ‘Hells Kitchen’ where the winner landed a contract to work for Araxi – one of our finest..??) and of course, spectate some of the number of Olympic events taking place right here. The world’s focus will firmly be upon us, highlighting us to those who were not already aware of Whistler as a beautiful mountain playground.”

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