MyWestworld

The Yukon Quest: Interview + Video

Posted on 07. Feb, 2010 by Kerry Banks.

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I’d read Adam Killick’s book Racing the White Silence and became interested in the race. Even before then though, all the Jack London and Farley Mowat stories I’d read growing up put the bug in me to find an excuse to go up north. Then I got an assignment with the newspaper 24Hours to cover the race, and ended up covering the Inuit Games, as well. But spending some time out on the trails with Frank Turner’s kennel was a real highlight. Watching from the sidelines had its moments, but it’s hard to beat getting out onto the trail.

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Monster Mush: Celebrating 2010’s 1,635-Km Yukon Quest Sled Dog Race

Posted on 07. Feb, 2010 by BCAA.

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The Quest racers – both human and canine – are doubtlessly losing weight. I can’t even imagine the toll the physical effort must be taking as they tackle Eagle Summit. The 1,100-metre peak is infamous for wind-scoured conditions and a particularly steep climb followed by an even steeper drop, a place more than any other – on a course filled with open water, overflows (water running over river ice), glare ice and side hills – where mushers and dogs are in danger. As a CBC correspondent quoted one race official as saying, “It’s where dreams are lost and promises to God made.”

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Vancouver Island’s Mount Cain: The Soul of Skiing

Posted on 07. Feb, 2010 by Andrew Findlay.

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Somewhere in the primordial recesses of a skier’s mind is the memory of a ramshackle operation where the lifts barely limp from one day to the next. There are no double de-caf lattes whipped up by young baristas with Australian accents; instead, hearty bowls of chile con carne are served by a swarthy woman in a white apron who looks like she fells old-growth Douglas firs in her spare time. In other words: this place hasn’t been branded into some generic, four-season destination of over-inflated real estate with slick high-speed lifts whisking skiers to the top of runs as manicured as pressed corduroy slacks. And believe it or not, it exists.

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Vancouver: Low-Car Diet Gets a Boost

Posted on 05. Feb, 2010 by Anne Rose.

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“In fact, it was the cost-breakdown of car ownership on the AutoObesity website that eventually convinced me to give up my car altogether and start biking and taking transit. The average car costs between $8,000 and $10,000 per year to own – and anything that saves me that much money is worth looking into.”