Ski Canada Winter 2023 - Vol.51 #4

I read some parenting advice in The Globe and Mail decades ago that confirmed my thoughts on the subject: sometimes it's good to scare your children; it makes them more wary in life. Since we were heading to Revelstoke for Christmas this year, my wife Ray and I gave everyone an AST1 avalanche safety course from Stay Wild Backcountry. It was about time. Our three sprogs grew up playing in the trees instead of race course ruts; and the older they got, the bigger the mountains they played in. Last autumn, our No. 2 moved to Revy. Learning to use an avalanche transceiver came early in life at our house. The Easter bunny would sometimes leave the kids’ chocolate stash buried with a transmitting beacon under the snow or leaf…

For an eye-popping 10th season in a row, Whistler's Pan Pacific Mountainside topped the 2022 World Ski Awards’ list of Canada's Best Ski Hotels. Its sister, Pan Pacific Whistler Village Centre, scored Canada's Best Boutique Hotel, What gives? The two properties have personalities all their own. Turning 25 this season, Mountainside is situated at the handy juncture between Whistler's skiing-slash-shopping-and-après scene. Its front door is at the edge of the snow, near the base of the Blackcomb Gondola. With wobbly legs, skiers lug their equipment a mere 30 metres to the ski concierge. Just inside, music and laughter spill out of the Dubh Linn Gate Irish Pub. Whistler's Longhorn and Garibaldi Lift Co. pubs.-along with village shops-are not much farther away. Voted Canada's Best Boutique Hotel, the Pan Pacific Whistler…

First taking flight in Chamonix 17 years ago, Black Crows has grown to become the world's largest upstart ski brand. Sure, they build great skis, but they also know how to tell a funny story. Like the crows that jabber and squawk on your powerline, Black Crows wants its riders to engage and identify with fellow murderers of the mountains. To break the ice, each pair of Black Crows skis has a unique saying stamped onto the sidewall. Forget flex, sidecut radius or edge bevel specs. Imagine, instead, stringing the phrases together for Tinder-friendly chairlift chatter: Do you like my skis? I love your legs Don't you know who I am? Can I kiss your legs? You can kiss me Let's get out of here Let's taste exquisite pleasures Do…

SHORT TURNS For those of you using pseudomathematics and theorization techniques when choosing new skis-we know you're out there-the Effective Ski Float equation might be for you. A ski's tendency to float is determined by its surface area, which can be estimated using the ski's length and width at the waist (it's assumed that the sidecut arc is similar for most powder skis). The optimal Effective Ski Float for you is influenced by your weight. On the chart, find your weight on the horizontal axis and trace it up to the desired point between the lines indicating “more float” and “less float.” Remember, a skier in blower-dry Monashee pow will want more float than a skier deep in a dense East Kootenays dump. Then move left to the vertical axis…

Stories and scenes from higher elevations will fill theatre programs during the Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival (VIMFF). A widescreen view of life on high will be screening across the city from Feb. 24-March 5, but you don't have to be on the ground there to catch the latest offerings from alpine auteurs. Viewers the world over can enjoy more than 70 films with the purchase of a $90 pass that's good for a month of viewing. Or you could opt for a $15 pass to see either of the two curated, two-hour, snowsports-themed programs. Included in the 12 skispecific releases are Ascend, about adaptive skier Vasu Sojitra and To the Hills & Back, the latest offering from Sherpa Cinemas. vimff.org…

Reading John Irving's The Last Chairlift is a little like skiing that meandering run down the backside of an old hill like Tremblant or Red Mountain: It's long, too flat in places, too steep in others, and it's filled with tricky twists and turns. Yet every weekend we ski it anyway because, every time, we learn something about ourselves. Now based in Toronto, the author of The World According to Garp and A Prayer for Owen Meany raised his family around ski towns. Son Brendan is director of Winter Park's ski patrol in Colorado, grandson Birk is a freeskier for Team USA. From Aspen to Stowe and Wengen to North Conway, The Last Chairlift dips in and out of iconic ski spots, touching on special moments in skiing's history. Toni…