Shot and chaser in Whistler

Too fracking funny

HO HO HO! Be careful of what you ask for….

Having skied the majority of major ski resorts in North America, Banff is my first choice. Being on the semi desert side of the Rockies it gets dry snow and the elevation is reasonable, mostly under 9000 feet except for the highest points at Sunshine. Whistler being only a half hour and 2500 vertical feet above the the ocean gets much wetter snow, especially on the lower half of the mountains. I still marvel at the ski industry folks who sign on to climate change. They are trying to sell condos and homes in the mountains while telling prospects the snow will be gone in a few years. There is even a group called POW (Protect Our Winters) on a fool’s errand that is supported by many in the industry. Not exactly bright.

Some 30 years ago I spoke in Whistler and the person running Blackcomb was worried about global warming because he was planning an expansion. I told him what would happen. He expanded and made a lot of money – never gave me a nickel. They can all go down hill as far was I am concerned. For me I don’t ski anymore , I don’t need to go to the mountains to go down hill.

I wonder how all the Whistler customers get to Whistler? The letter was part of a campaign organised by yet another outside-Canada environmental group West Coast Environmental Law trying to help us dumb Canadians do the ‘right’ thing.

The only reason oil companies produce their evil product is because of consumer demand, which would include the clueless mayor and his councillors, every person who lives in Whistler and every customer who travels there for conferences or recreation.

So if they’re really concerned about burning fossil fuels, they would ban the use of them entirely in Whistler before looking any farther for miscreants.

The mayor is even more brain dead than the average global warming doomsayer.

A few comments from a long-time [50+ years] Whistler-Blackcomb skier:

Despite W-B’s upscale image, its voting population of well under 10,000 is decidedly left-leaning and uber-green resulting in the unopposed acclamation of the current misguided mayor who has had to backtrack and apologize for his letter following the cancellation of the oil and gas portion of an investor’s conference at a scheduled conference in the resort. Like some other politicians, he was sucked in by a green NGO to send the letter.

The irony here is that virtually every skier, snow boarder and summer mountain biker or tourist who visits Whistler travels some 260 round-trip kilometres [160 miles] from Vancouver, BC to get there via mostly fossil-fuelled automobiles or buses because there is no local airport nor is there any passenger rail service. Also, of course, many of these visitors drive much further, primarily from the US Pacific Northwest, or travel thousands of miles by air from international locations via Vancouver’s YVR airport.

The only “global warming” issue faced by W-B has been occasional very early season WEATHER as was the case this year, with somewhat lower than normal precipitation and slightly higher temperatures which have limited lower elevation snow accumulation. However, the snow report for December 18, 2018, less than a month after this year’s opening day, states that the present mid-mountain, on the ground snow base is just under 7 feet and total daily snowfall for the season to date is 12 feet, so much for the mayor’s issues.

As noted in some other posts, the letter in question has nothing to do with Vail Resorts, the U.S. company that now owns and operates the resort. Following its acquisition of the resort for some $1.4 billion in 2016, Vail has made significant further investments, including $166 million in expanded lift facilities over the past year. Clearly, Vail doesn’t share the mayor’s concerns.

Apologies if this post repeats points already made, I’ve not had time to read all the comments.