How many of us actually hung on to any of that electrically charged gear? In fairness, back in the day, skiers and snowboarders didn’t know any better. Neon, like shredding on a board, was the newest rage. You’d think that time would have taught an important lesson: if it glows, out it goes. Except this year that should read: glow big or go home.

What sparked the neon renaissance? Charles Bedard, designer with Whistler-based SMS Clothing, attributes the trend to the popularity of videos in which marquee skiers and snowboarders soar skyward to such exalted heights that they become increasingly hard to see. Brightly bedecked aerialists are more likely to stand out when framed against the magic-hour sunsets favoured by action-sport videographers. For example, check Matchstick Productions‘ latest effort, Claim, to see for yourself. SMS’s T. J. Schiller, garbed in blinding blue and yellow, steals the show in more ways than one.

SMS Clothing is the offshoot of two-time Olympian and Canadian Ski Hall of Famer John Smart’s freestyle-ski-camp business. Since 1992, the Lions Bay native has run a summer program on Blackcomb’s Horstmann Glacier, largely focused on young mogul and freeride skiers. Drawn by Smart’s dream to see freestyle, or freeride, skiing evolve to higher ground, coaches like Vernon-based Schiller and Olympic gold medallist Jean-Luc Brassard were attracted to Momentum Ski Camp. They’ve helped spawn the careers of future podium toppers such as Alberta’s Jennifer Heil, who won top honours in moguls competition at the 2006 Turin Winter Games. Just as importantly, Momentum camps were the crucible for what has become known as the new-school style. Pioneered by coach Mike Douglas aboard a pair of revolutionary twin-tip skis, over the past decade new-school has swept skiing out from snowboarding’s shadow and back into the realm of global cool.

Every revolution calls for a new wardrobe, whether it’s freeriding or skiing’s newest rising star, alpine touring. Smart and Bedard recognized the need to draw attention to freestyle’s new technical skills with eye-catching outfits. “You want to impress and be loud,” explained Bedard when reached by phone on his way to Vancouver. From his Whistler office, Smart agreed. “We’re far more cool fashion than, say, Arc’teryx,” he said in reference to the North Shore–based adventure-gear company, for which product performance trumps all other considerations. Whereas Bedard treats fabric as his canvas, Arc’teryx’s director of new technologies development, Mike Blenkarn, is far more caught up in biomechanics-like minimizing the impact of water vapour on outerwear in extreme winter conditions.

When reached at Arc’teryx’s North Vancouver headquarters, Blenkarn told the Georgia Straight: “If we solve vapour-permeability fundamentals to get our jackets to dry out more quickly at the back end of a snow cave, we can then transfer those improvements into apparel that works better for everyone, right up to guests at heli-ski lodges. This makes the guides at CMH [Canadian Mountain Holidays] happy, the guides at Rogers Pass and North Shore Rescue happy, and the 56 guys who do avalanche control on the Duffey Lake Road happy too.” The 49-year-old then pointed out that a decade of such research has made his company the dominant player in the jacket category today.

Not that Bedard doesn’t know a thing or two about product testing. The 28-year-old is just as crazy about getting out into the backcountry as Blenkarn. The difference is, like many of his youthful Sea to Sky cohorts, he not only carves on skis, he also does R & D atop a snowmobile. “Because you’re in the elements all day without the benefit of ducking into a lodge like a lot of our customers,” he said, “the backcountry influences design by testing our garments.” Both designers’ textile of choice is three-ply Gore-Tex. “We’re advancing towards perfection in fabric to operate like skin: waterproof and breathable,” Bedard said.

Over at Arc’teryx, Blenkarn, a self-admitted “fun hog”, said that when it comes to field-testing, he far prefers to stretch climbing skins over the bottom of his skis and self-propel his way up a 2,000-metre slope in the Cayoosh Range between Pemberton and Lillooet. If he has concern about the rise in popularity of alpine touring, it’s that parking is now at a premium along the Duffey Lake Road, where he estimates there are as many as 15 backcountry communal cabins. “My playground is getting congested,” he joked, “and now I need to wait my turn on the swing.”

In the early 1990s, on one such backcountry “sweat fest” in the Diamond Head region of Garibaldi Provincial Park, Blenkarn came up with an idea that eventually led to one of Arc’teryx’s patented breakthroughs: urethane-coated waterproof zippers. “I did a lot of work to put chemicals on zippers to keep moisture from getting in between layers and destroying the fabric. I want my buddies to be happy. Longer life span of clothing is what drives me.”

Whether that ambition extends to neon-hued garb is a moot point, at least for Arc’teryx, whose products, unlike SMS Clothing’s, feature less exuberant colour choices. Certainly, neon’s upside is that it makes finding your companions in whiteout conditions much easier. When it comes to survival, as in the global marketplace, bright and shiny concepts help both companies stand out in the crowd.

Original Article
Text CR Jack Christie

Riding a rope, or ski tow, was once one of the cardinal rites of passage when learning to downhill-ski on the North Shore. By the time snowboarding came along in the 1980s, chair lifts had long since replaced most of them. Still, examples of this brutish technology persisted.

This winter marks the centennial of the invention of the rope tow. Those who’ve put their snow mitts around a whirling rope and had their arms wrenched from their sockets know it’s a terrible irony that this most challenging manner of motorized ascent remained on bunny slopes such as the Paradise Bowl on Grouse Mountain and Mount Seymour’s Goldie Lake runs. Initiation rituals don’t come much crueler.

There’s also priceless entertainment in watching a newbie’s first attempts to latch onto a thick coil of twine as it spools past. Much like learning to smoothly operate the clutch of a standard-transmission car, mastering the technique of slowly easing yourself into motion as you gingerly clung to the rope took more than a few tries. Just as if you’d popped the clutch, if you grasped on too quickly you’d find yourself violently lurching forward, often stalling in the process.

On skis, this meant being flung sideways onto the slope. Woe betide those who persisted in clinging to the rope as they were hauled ingloriously uphill before finally giving up the fight, relinquishing the rope, then quickly hauling themselves out of the path of the person behind.

Over the summer, Grouse Mountain replaced its last remaining rope tow with the new Greenway quad chair lift. On the phone with the Georgia Straight, William Mbaho, Grouse’s communications manager, confirmed that the old tow has been mothballed, at least temporarily. “We would like to use it in some capacity,” he said. “Reinstalling it in the terrain park is one option. That decision will be made in early 2009.”

How fitting. Terrain parks are where young skiers and snowboarders spend hours executing off-axis manoeuvers. Rather than freeride the groomed runs, they much prefer to huck themselves off boxes, kink rails, rollers, and step-ups in a corner of the mountain fenced off for their enjoyment. Given the myriad challenges, clinging to a rope tow would offer yet another opportunity for creative self-expression.

That leaves the Goldie tow on Mount Seymour as the last remaining one in the Lower Mainland. Jikke Stegeman, sales and marketing manager at Mount Seymour, told the Straight that this rare double rope tow was installed in the 1950s as state-of-the-art technology. Originally powered by a diesel engine, it was more recently converted to electricity.

“I grew up in Blackstrap, Saskatchewan,” she recalled, “where riding a rope tow was a new experience on slippery, noodle-y skis while trying to hang on for dear life.” With Playland closed for the season, the Goldie tow offers the most thrilling ride in town.

If you’ve got room, consider installing a DIY rope tow in your back yard. The made-in-Canada technology is available from Toronto-based Motorsport Engineering. Given that North America’s first rope tow fired up in 1933 in the Laurentians near Montreal, you’ll help keep a long-standing winter tradition alive—and your physiotherapist gainfully employed.

Original Article
Text CR Jack Christie

When you’re looking for a little sanctuary, a wilderness hot spring does it every time. And there’s nothing like bathing in the most geologically active corner of Canada to up the adventure ante.

Such is the case at Meager Creek, where raincoast weather often adds even more frisson to the hot springs north of Pemberton. In October 2003, heavy rains triggered massive flooding in the Pemberton Valley. Fed by swollen tributaries such as Meager Creek, the Lillooet River, which charts a crooked course through the heart of the valley, jumped its banks. From the air, the scene looked more like the Gulf Islands than prime agricultural land.

The force of rapidly flowing water overwhelmed a 70-metre-long wooden bridge that spanned Meager Creek, cutting off road access to the hot springs located a short distance upstream on the west side of the creek. Thanks to an injection of $900,000 from the Provincial Emergency Program, which covers damage to high-value recreation sites such as the hot springs, a new steel-and-concrete structure was eventually installed. On August 1, the Meager Creek hot springs officially reopened, to the acclaim of local residents and Pemberton tourism officials alike.

In early September, I visited the springs to assess changes in the frequently volatile region. The bridge washout was only the most recent in a long history of cataclysmic events there that stretches back to 400 BC, the date of Mount Meager’s most recent volcanic eruption. That earth-shattering episode spewed ash as far as the Alberta-Saskatchewan border. An inventory of similar incidents includes an avalanche on Mount Meager’s companion, Pylon Peak, that covered a glacier over which Pylon Creek continues to bubble. Nearby stands the jagged remnant of another volcano, Devastator Peak. In 1975, a substantial rockslide on Devastator buried a party of geologists and partly blocked the flow of Meager Creek. The creek’s waters backed up, creating a small lake that took several years to drain. Geologists predict that a resumption of volcanic activity is likely to occur within the next several centuries. With these events in mind, sobering roadside markers were just installed along the Meager Creek Forestry Road. They direct travelers to refuge areas in case of emergency.

The sweeping grandeur of the peaks is enough to momentarily take a visitor’s mind off the prospect of suddenly finding oneself in the midst of chaos. The upside of all this geothermal activity is the presence of B.C.’s hottest and most voluminous hot springs, which percolate on an open terrace above Meager Creek’s silt-grey waters.

“Creek” doesn’t do justice to Meager. Even at its lowest annual level, this is not a stream to be trifled with. Still, as you soak beside it in a near-scalding thermal pool with the wild sounds of cascading white water in your ears, there’s no more relaxing place to be. Just ask Dave Edgington, chief administrative officer of the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District. On the telephone from his office in Pemberton, Edgington said that having bathed in the springs himself, he believes there is no finer restorative, holistic experience to be found within the SLRD’s purview. He was quick to credit not only financing from PEP for the restoration but also the Ministry of Forests crews who rebuilt the bridge, as well as funds from the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and the Arts that paid for a complete cleanup of the pools, change house, and pathways at the recreation site.

Although the hot springs are situated on provincial land, the site and nearby campground are managed by the local Lil’wat Nation, with the Lil’wat Business Corporation’s Creekside Resources in partnership with the Tourism Ministry. When contacted by telephone at his office in Mount Currie, the corporation’s general manager, Larry Miller, said that work crews spent months rehabbing the site prior to its reopening. “We cleared blow-downs and installed picnic tables as well as put in culverts and ditches to prevent Hot Springs Creek from undermining the access trail.”

Creekside Resources, which manages a network of recreation sites within Lil’wat traditional territory, has no elaborate plans to develop the hot springs beyond their current “rustic” status, but Miller hopes that a series of interpretive signs will be installed next year to explain the site’s geological and cultural history. “The Lil’wat have millennia of legends about the use of the springs, from poaching fish in the hot water to revering the springs for their natural healing qualities. We look after the place to demonstrate our ownership.”

Over the decades since a road to Meager Creek was built by B.C. Hydro in pursuit of geothermal-power production, the springs have been a magnet for both families and party animals. To preserve the peace and ensure that yahoos and dogs are kept away from the springs, a Creekside Resources caretaker monitors activity, including weather conditions, at the site. With good reason, “if in doubt, bail out” is the operative motto there.

Access: The Meager Creek hot springs lie 205 kilometres north of Vancouver via 52 kilometres of paved and gravel roads from Pemberton. Opening hours are 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. A day-use fee of $5 is collected at the springs from those 12 or older; a night at the pleasant campground on the Lillooet River Forestry Road is $10 per site. The hot springs officially close for the season on October 31. From then until snowfall shuts the Lillooet River Road, access to the springs is on foot or by bike from the gated entrance to the Meager Creek road, seven kilometres west.

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Text CR Jack Christie

Photo CR Louise Christie

View Original Article here.

Tranquility follows Britta and Willie Gerdes as they ease down the Nicomekl River, one of the Lower Mainland’s great paddling spots.

Text CR Jack Christie
Photo CR Louise Christie

What do Jericho Beach, the Nicomekl River, False Creek, and Deep Cove have in common? When you’re looking to get out on the water around Vancouver, these just happen to be the top places to head for a paddle.

Wait a minute… Who could overlook Boundary Bay, Ladner Slough, or Grant Narrows? And what about Buntzen and Alouette lakes? There’s no doubt that when it comes to choosing the best place to dip your oar or paddle, Vancouver offers an embarrassment of watery riches, and of both the salty and sweet kinds. But at this point on the calendar, several launch spots stand out from the rest. Here are the Georgia Straight’s best of the best picks.

Nowhere around the city—maybe the entire country—offers more paddling opportunities than the Jericho Sailing Centre (1300 Discovery Street, www.jsca.bc.ca/). Despite its name, Jericho’s sandy beach and boat ramp provide quick access to Burrard Inlet for all types of watercraft, wind-powered or otherwise.

Whether you own or rent a kayak or harbour loftier ambitions to paddle an outrigger canoe or a surf ski, this is the place to head for either a short outing to Kits or a longer workout to a picnic spot on one of the beaches at Pacific Spirit Regional Park. An annual membership in Vancouver’s most unusual community centre is affordable—$39 for those under 18; $72 for singles; and $103 for a family of four. Whether you’re a member or not, there is no launch fee.

Similar carte blanche extends to paddlers at South Surrey’s Elgin Heritage Park (www.greatervancouverparks.com/ElginHeritagePark01.html). A dock and boat ramp on the Nicomekl River front the 1894 Stewart farmhouse. One of the rewards of journeying there in fall is crisp fruit from heirloom apple trees. Gather some that’s fallen to savour while floating on the Nicomekl’s gentle current.

Only a few kilometres from its confluence with the ocean at Mud Bay, the intertidal stream is sheltered on the north side by banks of silt washed down from the Nicomekl’s headwaters in Langley. Above the south shore, a dense forest robes the steep slopes with leafy grandeur, already emblazoned with early signs of autumn’s colourful cavalcade. Bring your binos. Herons stalk the shoreline; kingfishers and owls perch on cottonwood limbs.

Unlike the potentially troubled waters off Jericho, the Nicomekl’s abiding tranquility is transfixing as one paddle stroke after another dips into the river’s mirrored surface. Rail traffic on the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway’s wooden trestle bridge livens up the mellow ambiance. Hundreds of creosoted columns straddle the river mouth as Mud Bay and the North Shore Mountains glisten in the distance. Freight cars rumble by high above.

Even more entertaining is the stylish Amtrak Cascades passenger train, which rolls past midmorning and, at this time of year, near sundown, when there’s always a light show on offer. Elgin Heritage Park lies two kilometres west of the White Rock–Crescent Beach turnoff (Exit 10) from Highway 99 on Crescent Road.

Frustrated by living next to the ocean and not being able to float on it? Want to make your inner-city paddle dream come true? If you’re tired of just gazing at False Creek from the sea wall, there are a growing number of creekside sites to hand-launch a kayak, canoe, or even a rowboat. Since the mid-1980s, the dock on Granville Island’s Alder Bay has been the best place to accomplish this.

A far less utilized spot lies at the end of Spyglass Place on the southwest side of the Cambie Bridge. Concord Pacific founder Li Ka-Shing built a dock there in 1989 for both his boating enjoyment and public use. That was the first evidence of changes on the sheltered inlet over the following two decades.

The most recent redevelopment in the neighbourhood has been the rapid rise of the Southeast False Creek and Olympic Village. Paddle east of the dock, under the Cambie Bridge, to check it out. Along the way, test the span’s acoustic qualities with a high note or two and then size up the waterfront’s new design, including a landscaped “island” fenced off to landlubbers on the sea wall. The opening date for the unnamed area hasn’t been announced; don’t let that stop you from visiting it by sea right now.

No kayak? Sign up for the False Creek Community Centre’s fall paddling courses, which include use of the centre’s fleet, at $27 for a single drop-in (two hours), $53.50 monthly, or $214 per season (vancouver.ca/parks/cc/falsecreek/website/index.cfm). You must take an introductory sea-kayaking course before you can pay these rates and take out kayaks on your own. At the west end of the island, EcoMarine Ocean Kayak Centre (ecomarine.com/) also rents kayaks.

Deep Cove is by far the best place around Vancouver to explore the ocean and leave the city behind in either your own or a rented craft (Deep Cove Canoe and Kayak Centre; deepcovekayak.com/). On weekends, colourful ranks of stiletto kayaks and cigar-tube canoes line the pebbled beach beside the North Vancouver village’s pier. Weekdays, you’ll have the waterfront to yourself.

What boosts a Deep Cove paddling experience above the rest is packing along a yummy treat to enjoy when you go ashore in Say Nuth Khaw Yum Heritage Park/Indian Arm Provincial Park (bcparks.ca/) or Cates/Whey-ah-Wichen Park, both comfortable distances from the centre. Deep Cove lies 10 kilometres northeast of the Ironworkers Memorial (Second Narrows) Crossing.

Tune in this November for the new winter Snowcast, presented by TELUS. Opening day is November 27, 2008, so start dusting off your gear.

Friday September 5, 9-10 a.m., The Bill Good Show

Join Jack and Bill as they chat about how they spent their summer vacations while fielding calls from listeners on the best day trips and weekend getaways ideas this fall.

Call the Open Line: 604-280-9898; Toll Free 1-877-399-9898; Mobile *9898

What a great summer to celebrate British Columbia’s 150^th anniversary. Whether you opt for a day trip or weekend getaway around southwestern B.C., there are more ways to explore this “Super Natural” province than anywhere else on earth. This only stands to reason. After all, with enough room to squeeze Washington State, Oregon, California and Hawaii within its borders, British Columbia offers major-league attractions for those eager to adventure beyond their backyards.

The rewards? Labour Day to Thanksgiving is one of the best times to explore B.C.: sunny skies; bountiful local produce; grape harvests; fall festivals; and no bugs!

A big note of thanks to all the readers who helped put the Christie’s latest guide book, “Best Weekend Getaways from Vancouver,” on the B.C. best-seller list over the past three months.

Well-written guidebooks are worth their weight in time—as in, time well spent consulting one in advance of an adventure. That’s particularly true here in B.C., where, from one year to the next, roads are washed out by monsoon rains and new trails appear under the aegis of local stewardship groups.

At the same time, new parks mushroom in urban regions and, on a larger scale, within the vast wilderness that lies beyond sidewalk’s end. Whether you’re looking for an afternoon bike ride or a weeklong backcountry traverse, two recently published outdoor guides make ideal companions for summer exploration.

Gordon White originally published Stein Valley Wilderness Guidebook in 1991. In 1995, a 107,191-hectare provincial park was created, during the waning months of Mike Harcourt’s NDP government. The Stein Valley Nlaka’pamux Heritage Park, west of Lytton, came about after two decades of hard-fought lobbying by a coalition of conservation groups and First Nations. Interviewed at his North Vancouver home, White spoke with the Georgia Straight about the significance of that achievement.

“In terms of First Nations’ rights and wilderness protection on a grassroots level, the Stein is one of the great success stories in Canadian history,” White affirmed. “The park’s creation came from a kaleidoscope of groups working together.”

Indeed, one of the major themes that echo through the freshly updated edition is that the Stein Valley would not have received official protection without massive public support. White devotes an entire chapter in his exhaustively researched Stein Valley Wilderness Guidebook (Selcouth Publishing, $24.95, http://www.sandhillbooks.com/cgi-bin/sandhillbooks/00084.html) to the larger topic of the politics of wilderness protection in this decade, as focused through that lens. Suffice it to say that what was achieved in the Stein has come to serve as a template for future successes.

“In part, I used the first edition as a soapbox to make the case for preserving the entire Stein watershed,” he said. “The new edition addresses the threat of underfunding. Between the Glen Clark and Gordon Campbell governments, funding to B.C. provincial parks has been reduced by 40 percent over the past decade.”

During the same time, White observed that public apathy replaced activism. “There’s more cynicism about the political process now than in the 1980s and ’90s. People have to get reconnected.” How is that going to happen? “By getting out and experiencing wilderness paradises like the Stein, and more especially in northern B.C. in places like the Chilcotin, the Taku, the Skeena, and the Stikine headwaters. There are some big wilderness issues up there.”

White noted that, to B.C. Parks’ credit, since the establishment of the Stein Valley Nlaka’pamux Heritage Park, river crossings have been improved in the protected area, bear-proof food lockers have been installed from the lower valley to the alpine, and much of the trail network damaged or obliterated by forest fires in the upper canyon in 1996 has recently been brushed out.

Despite washouts in 2003 on the Lizzie Lake Forest Service Road, which once allowed trekkers to drive to the park’s western approach near Mount Currie, a new 12-kilometre trail now leads around the worst-affected areas. “Sure it adds an extra day to a visit, but I’m trying to let people know how very pleasant the new trail is,” White said with obvious delight.

The same enthusiasm for exploring new routes infuses Whistler Mountain Bike Guide, by Brian Finestone and Kevin Hodder (Quickdraw Publications, $23.25, http://www.quickdrawpublications.com/index.htm). Finestone spoke with the Georgia Straight from the cab of his truck while inspecting trails in the Whistler Mountain Bike Park, which he manages.

“Despite the fact that there are several detailed maps to bike trails around the valley, we saw a void in the self-guided–book market,” he explained. Finestone and Hodder previously identified a similar need among skiers and snowboarders: their two-volume trail guide to Whistler and Blackcomb grew out of experiences gained when the two worked as patrollers on the twin mountains during winter.

The latest project came when Finestone took up mountain biking after a hiatus of several years. “I had so many bikes stolen that I stopped riding for a while,” he said. “When I decided to get back into the saddle, I found it hard to find the trails I was hearing about. There’s been a meteoric rise in trail construction, but for many of them it’s sort of like lore. You have to find the right guy at the right bike shop, then follow his cryptic directions.”

In that respect alone, Whistler Mountain Bike Guide’s detailed descriptions, including photos and an easily understood profile of the rise and fall of each trail, represent a welcome change. “From die-hard to family trails, we covered 131 of the best bike routes on offer in Whistler, plus dirt jumps, and trials and skateboard parks. We even suggest linkups of various trails for those looking for ultra-savage, epic rides,” Finestone said.

The Whistler Valley has an interlacing network of municipal, commercial, and rogue bike trails that run the gamut from paved greenways to rocks-and-roots single track, but Finestone and Hodder’s guide achieves the feat of turning the mysterious into the familiar at a glance. Icons indicate things like sections of slippery rock and man-made stunts, which proves enormously helpful when you’re planning a ride, as does the inclusion of GPS data.

With Whistler Mountain Bike Guide at hand, there’s no excuse for getting lost in the woods or hung out to dry on Comfortably Numb, Finestone’s favourite new trail. Now if he can just keep light-fingered thieves away from his bike, all that research will have been worthwhile.

Plain and simple, my idea of camping is no room service.

Now I know that sounds like something a spoiled princess would say, but really, it’s just something someone who doesn’t like to carry heavy things on her back and be dirty would say.

But just because I have no desire to zip myself into a sleeping bag doesn’t mean that nature is out of the question. I am a fond sampler of the great outdoors — I just like to do it one day at a time and have a roof over my head when I am finished.

So that in mind, the Vancouver area is the perfect place for low-impact adventurers like myself to enjoy recreation-based day trips.

“You can do everything year round,” says Jack Christie, a Vancouver-based recreation and travel journalist. “I don’t think there is a better place than Vancouver.”

Christie, the author of 52 Best Daytrips from Vancouver, says the day-trip opportunities are growing every day.

“I think it’s a sign of our times,” says Christie. “It’s kind of like the slow-food movement. You know, eating food from nearby. It’s a slow-travel movement. People want to explore closer to home.”

Christie and his photographer wife, Louise, travel every week of the year. Sometimes they go far, but most of the time it’s day trips such as the one they took to Squamish recently.

“We kept going from one thing to another and really thought this town was far out,” says Christie about rediscovering his old Howe Sound friend.

The pair hiked, paddled, swam and walked the Squamish Estuary.

“We did all this and didn’t even do some of our favourite things, like riding our bikes,” says Christie, who suggests people check out the Squamish Adventure Centre (www.adventurecentre.ca). “I couldn’t believe the choices — that’s what is great.”

A favourite choice of Christie’s is even closer to home.

“The great thing about living here is the number of regional parks,” Christie says of the 24 parks in and around the Lower Mainland.

“Everyone really has a regional park almost right out their back door.”

Like Christie, Brian Jones, the director of the Squamish-based Canada West Mountain School (www.themountainschool.com) — who this past spring reached the summit of Mount Everest, giving him No. 7 in his seven-highest-summits-on- seven-continents quest — loves the day-trip possibilities our location presents.

“I like the region because of the access to mountains, other recreation and that there are still relatively few people out there, even in the popular areas,” says Jones, whose favourite climb of the seven was the 4,884-metre-high Carstensz Pyramid in Papua Indonesia.

“[This area] is so much better than other parts of the world, especially Europe. I have been on every continent in the world and I haven’t found another place like this.”

Jones, who averages three international trips a year, says that, when he’s home, he’s “out locally all the time.”

“I haven’t discovered what my threshold for cabin fever is yet because I’m always out.”

For a list of day trips, product guides and safety tips, go to www.theprovince.com/doitbetter.

© The Vancouver Province 2008

In the episode, “Alpine Experiences”, Meredith explores Whistler Blackcomb’s summer alpine adventures, from a mountain top BBQ at 6,000 feet, to hiking in Whistler’s high alpine and finding out why the snow is pink. She also checks in with Rick Temple for an update on the new PEAK 2 PEAK Gondola, which is scheduled to open in December 2008.

Tune in next month as we preview one of the world’s premier mountain bike festivals, Kokanee Crankworx.

ClearTwo owner Darryl Yung has high hopes for the future of badminton, and student Clement Chow.

Text CR Jack Christie

Photo CR Louise Christie

Original Article

Here’s a familiar summer scene: a family arrives at a neighbourhood park, unpacks for a day of picnicking, and out pops the sports gear. It’s practically a given that along with a soccer ball and a Frisbee will be a handful of badminton racquets.

For all the hoopla that surrounds ball or disk sports in Metro Vancouver, swatting a feathered shuttlecock, or birdie, over a net doesn’t garner anywhere near the same respect. With the advent of this summer’s Olympic Games in Beijing, that perception may change.

The first two events to sell out there were the opening ceremonies and, wait for it, badminton. Once the Vancouver 2010 winter games wrap up, badminton is poised to reap a huge boost locally as its courts will become one of the anchor tenants at the almost-complete Richmond Oval on River Road.

Just upstream from the Oval on the opposite side of the Fraser River’s Middle Arm sits the new Sport B.C. building on Cessna Drive. That’s where the Georgia Straight recently met with Badminton B.C. executive director Brock Turner.

“I firmly believe there’s a world champion in B.C.,” he said. “We just haven’t found them yet.” Turner asserted that now that Vancouver is truly an international city, there’s a prime opportunity for this. “Southeast Asia is the hotbed of world badminton and those people are coming here to Richmond.” Badminton B.C. estimates that 40,000 to 60,000 people play the sport in the province. “We think 100,000 kids in school have some exposure to badminton,” Turner said.

Don’t wait for 2010 to confirm that. Look no further than No. 3 Road, the heart of Lulu Island’s commercial district, where former Canadian national badminton team member Darryl Yung and his wife, Michelle, operate two public badminton facilities.

The six-court ClearOne (www.clearonebadminton.com) opened in 2003; two years later, the Yungs added a second 12-court facility, ClearTwo, a block away. “We teach as many as 500 students per week,” said the effervescent Darryl, who played in the mixed and men’s doubles at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, an event he described as the most exhilarating point of his life.

“We’re reaching a lot of people, including coaching provincial- and national-team players. When the 24 courts open at the Richmond Oval, badminton will be prominent in Vancouver like never before.”

To meet current demand, this year Yung hired two coaches from Indonesia, the former coach of the Chinese women’s team, plus a coach from Taipei. “Badminton is the second most-played sport in the world next to soccer,” he pointed out. “There’s incredible motivation for young players to get involved.

The speed of the game is so fast-paced. It really appeals to kids, and it’s becoming one of those trends. People like the exercise and excitement, the quick response, the agility and hand-eye coordination required to keep up with the birdie flying back and forth at over 300 kilometres an hour.” (The maximum recorded speed of a smashed shuttlecock is 332 kilometres per hour, faster than any other racquet sport.)

Smashing and driving. Lifting and blocking. Welcome to this not-so-delicate sport that made its Canadian debut in Vancouver in the late 1890s. Badminton B.C. came about in 1925, making it one of the oldest provincial sports organizations in the Dominion. Canada was one of the nine founding nations of the Badminton World Federation (www.worldbadminton.net) in 1934. Today there are 170 members.

Although Canada has never ranked higher than 10th place internationally, Turner pointed out that, locally, the Vancouver Racquets Club, adjacent Nat Bailey Stadium, has nurtured more players from novice-to-Olympic status than any other facility in the country.

“Claire Backhouse-Sharpe is arguably the best player ever produced in Canada,” he said, in reference to the two-time world champion and 1997 B.C. Sports Hall of Fame inductee. “There’s 1,400 people playing on seven [VRC] courts from 6 a.m. to 2 a.m., with lineups during prime time. The business model is that you open a facility and it immediately fills up and usage never ends.”

Turner noted not only the Yungs’ success but also that of other indoor facilities, like Richmond Pro (www.richmondprobadminton.com), whose 15 courts make it the largest such centre in North America, and Yumo (Chinese for shuttlecock)(www.yumo.ca), whose six Olympic-size courts were funded by a group of Lulu Islanders.

Internationally, badminton matches fill arenas throughout Asia. Surprisingly, though, Denmark hosts the world’s most prestigious professional league, where matches attract upward of 3,000 fans and a countrywide television audience that watches as four matches take place simultaneously. Although Indonesia, South Korea, and Malaysia consistently produce world-class players, in recent times China has emerged as the dominant country.

This summer’s Olympics will provide a real challenge for Canadian athletes such as North Vancouver’s Anna Rice. The Georgia Straight first spoke with the 27-year-old during the Canadian National Championships held at ClearTwo in January, where she defended her women’s singles title.

When contacted recently by phone in Copenhagen, where she plays for top division Team Aarhus, Rice said she’s enjoyed a good year. Currently ranked 23rd in the world, she’s approaching the Beijing games with a sense of seasoned optimism.

“I’ve beaten three of the top 10 women and been close in matches with the top five. I’m hoping to cause some upsets among the Koreans, Chinese, and Indonesians this summer.”

Faced by what Darryl Yung sees as the real possibility of Chinese players sweeping all five badminton gold medals, Rice remains even more upbeat now than when she decided at 16 to ditch Highland dancing and volleyball and make swatting a birdie her principal passion.

“Badminton is such a complete and complex sport,” Rice said. “It combines an aerobic workout with the anaerobics of explosive muscle power. Strategy and tactics guarantee a mental as well as a physical challenge. And you develop spectacular fitness.”

She credited coach Julia Chen with introducing a new tactical perspective into her training when the former Chinese national team member came to Vancouver in the 1990s. Rice likened Chen’s move to a Canadian hockey coach going to Asia.

Given his sport’s renaissance locally, Turner feels in his bones that Canada’s badminton chances are rosier now than they’ve been since the 1970s. Look no further than nine-year-old Clement Chow for evidence of that.

When the Georgia Straight dropped by ClearTwo in early June, Yung was gently encouraging the young prodigy, who responded with one killer shot after another, alternating smashes with soft push strokes while his mother, Yvonne, looked on.

She recalled that on a recent family holiday in Shanghai, Clement and his older brother, Calvin, who won top singles honours in the under-14 division at the 2008 B.C. Winter Games in Cranbrook, joined their Chinese counterparts for a practice. “It was so hot and there was no air con,” Yvonne recalled. “The sweat was pouring off them. It was a good lesson. They got to see how hard those kids have to practise compared to us.”

A short time later, Clement wiped his brow after 30 minutes of hitting birdie after birdie while perfecting lunging and leaping techniques that resembled fencing. On adjacent courts, a kids’ group lesson was wrapping up while pairs and quartets of young professionals shared laughs as they rallied back and forth. A constant stream of children and adults filed in and out. The call of summer wafted in on the breeze: badminton, anyone?

For information on badminton-related activities throughout Metro Vancouver, visit www.badmintonbc.com.