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Fire at The Keg

While cataloguing the Griffith Collection (a collection of roughly 50,000 images donated by photographer Greg Griffith), our assistant archivist Stephanie recently came across slides of a fire at The Keg building that we had previously only seen in black and white. The first Keg in the Whistler Valley opened at Adventures West on Alta Lake in 1974, but when construction of Whistler Village began in 1979 plans were made to open a new Keg restaurant in the Whistler Village Inn.…

Many failing to heed physical-distancing practices in Whistler and beyond

Recent parties, large gatherings causing concern

Winston Partridge had just finished enjoying some warm, slushy snow just above the Coca-Cola Tube Park during a quick post-work snowboard session when he heard the chatter. Any other time, it wouldn’t have raised an eyebrow, but on St. Patrick’s Day (March 17), in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and with near-constant reminders from health officials on the importance of practising physical distancing, the party at Base II around 6:30 p.m. that night was a shocking sight to behold.…

Whistler Half Marathon cancelled

Virtual race being offered in its place

The 2020 Whistler Half Marathon will not go on. The race, originally scheduled for June 6, will be cancelled as a precaution related to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, race founder Dave Clark announced on March 24.…

Avalanche Canada ending forecasting for the season

Not wanting to encourage backcountry recreation, organization will issue final forecast of the season on March 28

Canada’s largest non-profit dedicated to public avalanche safety will issue its final forecast of the season this week. In a release, Avalanche Canada said it was ending its forecasting about a month earlier than usual with the COVID-19 pandemic forcing the closure of backcountry operations across Western Canada.…

Squamish resident making Arctic history

Local Sunniva Sorby soon to be one of two women to overwinter in the far north

While on a satellite phone call from the Arctic, Squamish’s Sunniva Sorby sounds far away. “I almost postponed our call today, because we had a mother polar bear and her two cubs just down a little way from Bamsebu here,” she told The Chief in early March.…

Whistler Valley Snowboard Club claims junior national golds

Legault, Pelchat come away from Calgary on top

Whistler Valley Snowboard Club slopestylers went two-for-two atop the podium at the Air Nation Freestyle Junior Nationals in Calgary on March 10. In what turned out to be the last contest of the season before the rest of the national championships were cancelled to prevent the spread of COVID-19, club members Jacob Legault and Juliette Pelchat stood atop the podium.…

Construction work can continue under COVID-19 restrictions

B.C. Building Trades concerned about worker safety at large projects like Site C

One of the questions reporters asked public health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry during the daily briefing on COVID-19 March 23, was whether construction projects could or should be shut down. Under a provincial state of emergency declaration, restaurants, bars, hair salons and tattoo parlours have been ordered shut down.…

On hold: Tokyo Olympics postponed to 2021

TOKYO — The IOC announced a first-of-its-kind postponement of the Summer Olympics on Tuesday, bowing to the realities of a coronavirus pandemic that is shutting down daily life around the globe and making planning for a massive worldwide gathering in July a virtual impossibility. The International Olympic Committee said the Tokyo Games “must be rescheduled to a date beyond 2020, but not later than summer 2021, to safeguard the health of the athletes, everybody involved in the Olympic Games and the international community.”…

If you have spare masks, gloves — share them with healthcare workers

Operation Protect seeks to collect supplies of personal protective equipment to give to frontline workers in the fight against the novel coronavirus

Are you a dentist, an aesthetician or other business that has a stock of masks, hand sanitizer, eye protection, gloves or other personal protective equipment that you can donate for the safety of health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic? If so, you can answer the call by donating your supplies to Operation Protect, which is collecting supplies to ensure this critical equipment is available to health care workers who are on the frontline of dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.…

Local distilleries to produce hand sanitizer

Montis Distilling will donate proceeds to Whistler Community Services Society

The owners of Function Junction’s Montis Distilling didn’t anticipate that they’d be making hand sanitizer when they opened for business in June of last year. The plan, rather, was to focus on the vodka and gin that the start-up is known for.…

Whistler doctors urge public to stay away from healthcare centre unless for urgent care

Patients can still access primary care through family doctor or new virtual clinic

Stay away from the Whistler Health Care Centre unless it’s for urgent care—and phone ahead before you arrive, when possible. That’s the message from the medical director of the Whistler Health Care Centre (WHCC) and the lead family physician at the Whistler Medical Clinic as the two facilities seek to look after Sea to Sky patients in the most effective way possible.…

COVID-19 a ‘devastating blow’ to mountain towns that rely on tourism

Some businesses may never re-open says CEO of Banff-Lake Louise Tourism

The COVID-19 pandemic has walloped tourism-dependent mountain towns by cutting short what had been shaping up to be a great ski season in Western Canada. At the same time, there are concerns too many people are heading to wilderness trails and that regional hospitals can’t cope with a potential surge in novel coronavirus cases among outsiders.…

Provincial parks closed to camping

Most parks open to day-visits, but prohibit overnight stays

While the provincial government is at this time continuing to allow the public to visit most parks while practicing physical distancing, it has decided to shut down camping opportunities until at least April 30. “Nature provides the perfect environment to promote health and well-being,” said George Heyman, Minister of Environment and Climate Change Strategy, in a March 20 release.…

B.C. introduces $5-billion COVID-19 economic response plan

The B.C. government has introduced a $5-billion COVID-19 action plan to address immediate needs in the B.C. economy. The response includes $2.8 billion to support individuals and services, and $2.2 billion to support businesses and the province’s economic recovery.…

Emotions last 90 seconds so why am I still freaking out?!

Here’s the phenomenal nugget of information that dropped into my lap last week (the original source was Thich Nhat Hanh’s book Peace is Every Step; neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor also writes about it in her book My Stroke of Insight): emotions last about 90 seconds. After 90 seconds, the feeling has been metabolized.…