title: Chika Fujiwara

text: Chika is a bubbly eccentric girl who almost always has a smile on her face. Always looking to have fun with her fellow student council members, she is often the one to come up with strange activities and ideas that entertain herself and the others. She is mostly oblivious to the atmosphere of the room, resulting in her being an unpredictable element that ruins many of Kaguya's and Miyuki's schemes to make the other confess. Because of her lax attitude and childish antics, many of the council members seem to view her as simple-minded, especially Kaguya. Ironically, Chika is actually quite talented in a variety of areas, being an accomplished pianist and also speaking five languages. There are several stories where Chika has intensively coached Miyuki in skills that he lacks, such as volleyball, singing, overcoming squeamishness, and traditional dancing. After each session, she vows not to teach him anymore, but succumbs to his pleas that call her a dependable friend or the only one who can help. She can also be quite devious and underhanded, often attempting to cheat in a lot of the games she comes up with, though is exposed every time. Chika is obsessed with anything that has to with love, professing herself as a "love detective" and giving relationship advice to others (despite having never had a boyfriend before). She can be oddly perceptive at times, regarding 's and 's respective feelings, but is simultaneously oblivious to Kaguya and Miyuki's relationship.


title: Chika Fujiwara

text: In the anime adaptation of the series, Konomi Kohara voices the character, while Jad Saxton plays her in the English dub. The ending theme song "Chikatto Chika Chika" by Kohara is used only in the third episode of the ; the song plays while the anime shows a dance performance by Chika. In the 2019 live action film "" and its 2021 sequel "Kaguya-sama: Love Is War 2", Chika is played by Japanese actress and former singer Nana Asakawa.


title: Chika Fujiwara

text: Chika has become an extremely popular and somewhat of a breakout character in anime and manga fandom. The popularity of Chika's character has made her a frequent subject of cosplay among female fan readers of the "Kaguya-sama: Love Is War" series. At the 2020 Crunchyroll Anime Awards, Chika was nominated for the Best Girl category in the awards. A 1/7th scale figure of Chika wearing a bikini was released in 2020 by Crunchyroll.


title: Chika Fujiwara

text: Reviewing "Kaguya-sama: Love Is War", Rebecca Silverman of Anime News Network said that part of the reason the story works is because of Chika, as she both lightens up the mood and tries to act as a good friend and "breath of sanity" for Kaguya and Miyuki. Faiyaz Chowdhury of Comic Book Resources commented that "Chika is the wildcard amidst the various mind games Kaguya and Shirogane attempt on each other in their battle of confession. Her aloof, goofball nature is used to serve as a humorous obstruction to the main characters' daily psychological battles, allowing for the comedy to evolve with layered twists and turns. Depending on the character interacting with her, Chika's character traits are used to produce different effects."


title: Chika Fujiwara

text: Marianne R. of "MANGA.TOKYO" praised Chika's character as "worth highlighting", saying she is very intelligent and able to emotionally manipulate Kaguya to make things go her way, which, according to Marianne, makes Chika "awesome yet kind of creepy at the same time". Kambole Campbell of "IGN" complimented the character's Japanese voice actress Kohara as "excelling in conveying a bubbly hyperactivity".


title: Richard Engel

text: Richard Engel (born September 16, 1973) is an American journalist and author who is the chief foreign correspondent for NBC News. He was assigned to that position on April 18, 2008 after serving as the network's Middle East correspondent and Beirut bureau chief. Before joining NBC in May 2003, Engel reported on the start of the 2003 war in Iraq for ABC News as a freelance journalist in Baghdad.


title: Richard Engel

text: Engel is known for having covered the Iraq War, the Arab Spring and the Syrian Civil War. He speaks and reads Arabic fluently and is fluent in Italian and Spanish. Engel received the Medill Medal for Courage in Journalism for his report "War Zone Diary".


title: Richard Engel

text: Engel wrote "A Fist in the Hornet's Nest", published in 2004, about his experience covering the Iraq War from Baghdad. His most recent book, "And Then All Hell Broke Loose", published in 2016, is about his two-decade career in the Middle East as a freelance reporter.


title: Richard Engel

text: Engel grew up on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, New York City. His older brother, David, is a cardiologist at New York–Presbyterian Hospital. His father, Peter, a former Goldman Sachs financier, and mother Nina, who ran an antiques store, feared for their son's future prospects because of his dyslexia. His father is Jewish, and his mother is Swedish.


title: Richard Engel

text: Engel attended the Riverdale Country School, a highly competitive college-prep school in New York City, where at first he struggled with his schoolwork and progress. At age 13, he joined a wilderness survival camp where he learned about leadership and how to be more independent. His schoolwork began to improve and he started to gain popularity with his peers. He then spent his junior year of high school in Italy and became fluent in Italian. Engel began to appreciate the difference in cultures and countries that influenced his future career choices.


title: Richard Engel

text: He later went to Stanford University, where he occasionally wrote for "The Stanford Daily". Engel spent one summer as an unpaid intern at CNN Business News in New York City. He graduated from Stanford in 1996 with a B.A. in international relations.


title: Richard Engel

text: After graduating from Stanford, Engel left for Cairo, feeling the region was where the next big story would erupt. He attributed his attraction to journalism as "the prospect of learning about new subjects and having the privilege of riding the train of history rather than watching it pass". He first lived in a ramshackle seven-story walk-up, learned Egyptian Arabic and worked as a freelance reporter in Cairo for four years.


title: Richard Engel

text: Engel worked as the Middle East correspondent for The World, a joint production of BBC World Service, Public Radio International (PRI) and WGBH from 2001–03. He also reported for "USA Today", Reuters, AFP and "Jane's Defence Weekly". Engel worked for ABC News as a freelance journalist during the initial invasion of Iraq by U.S. forces. Engel continued his coverage of the Iraq war in Baghdad as NBC's primary Iraq correspondent.


title: Richard Engel

text: In May 2006, he assumed his role as senior Middle East correspondent and Beirut bureau chief. During this time he covered the war between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon. He filed a number of reports from Lebanon during the 2006 Lebanon War.


title: Richard Engel

text: In April 2008, Engel became Chief Foreign Correspondent of NBC News. In May 2008, he interviewed U.S. President George W. Bush, largely about his speech to the Israeli Knesset. The interview also focused on Iran's empowerment as a result of the war in Iraq and how to counteract Iran's influence in the region.


title: Richard Engel

text: In 2009, Engel was stationed in Kabul, Afghanistan, covering the country's August presidential election.


title: Richard Engel

text: In 2011, Engel reported, at times through tear gas, on the Egyptian revolution. He also covered the Libyan Civil War, where he was nearly shot in Benghazi. The same year he toured and reported on the city of Mogadishu, Somalia, for a segment titled "The World's Most Dangerous City", for which he would receive a News and Documentary Emmy Award nomination.


title: Richard Engel

text: Engel reported on the Israel-Gaza conflict of 2012, the continued violence stemming from the revolution in Syria and its consequent civil war, and the political transition of Egypt following the election of President Mohamed Morsi in June 2012.


title: Richard Engel

text: Engel is the host of the MSNBC special series "On Assignment with Richard Engel", which won a 2019 Peabody Award. Engel's latest documentary, Ukraine: Freedom or Death aired on April 22, 2022 and covered the first two months of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.


title: Richard Engel

text: While many media outlets pulled their journalists out of Iraq shortly after shelling began in March 2003, Engel stayed, and was subsequently one of the only Western journalists in the country. He was the only American television correspondent to remain in Baghdad for the entire war. Engel covered all major milestones of the war, including the first free Iraqi election and the capture, trial, and execution of Saddam Hussein. Engel reported on events from different perspectives by gaining and maintaining frequent access to U.S. military commanders, Sunni insurgents, Shiite militias, and Iraqi families. He frequently traveled outside Iraq's Green Zone, the fortified international zone in central Baghdad, to report on the genuine state of Iraqi life.


title: Richard Engel

text: At times, Engel said found himself "dressed as a blue target" as a foreign journalist in Iraq. He survived kidnapping attempts, bombings, IED attacks, and ambushes. He spent years covering what he often describes as one of the most important stories of his generation, the Iraq War. He explains the conflict as occurring in six stages, or as six separate wars:


title: Richard Engel

text: Engel received a request from the Bush administration to meet with President George W. Bush at the White House to discuss Iraq and Mideast policy. Engel and Bush met privately in February 2007. In 2008, Engel interviewed U.S. Army General David Petraeus on the progress of the Iraq War and discussed the policies the general attributed to the recent successes in Iraq. Engel's award-winning documentary, "War Zone Diary", chronicled the everyday realities of covering the war in Iraq.


title: Richard Engel

text: Engel frequently traveled to Afghanistan to report on the situation between U.S. forces, the Afghani people, and the Taliban. He often traveled to the Korengal Valley, otherwise known as the "valley of death", one of the most dangerous outposts in Afghanistan.


title: Richard Engel

text: Engel reported on Firebase Restrepo and the soldiers of Viper Company stationed in the Korengal where he showed the fierce firefights taking place between U.S. soldiers and Taliban forces. Engel produced "Tip of the Spear", a series of NBC reports on the hardships and dangers faced by American soldiers, for which he won a 2008 George Foster Peabody Award. His coverage focused on the challenges of free elections in Afghanistan and the disruptions to democracy in the country.


title: Richard Engel

text: Engel reported extensively on the Arab Spring movement. He followed the uprisings in Egypt, Syria, Libya, Tunisia, Bahrain, and Yemen. In 2012, he was awarded the Alfred I. du-Pont-Columbia Award for his outstanding breaking news coverage of the uprisings.


title: Richard Engel

text: In Egypt, Engel often reported from Tahrir Square, interviewing protestors in Tahrir Square as President Hosni Mubarak surrendered power to the Egyptian military. His reporting helped expose the role Egyptian labor strikes and worker protests played in the coup against Mubarak.


title: Richard Engel

text: Engel reported on the revolution in Libya from the front lines, spending months traveling from rebel commanded areas in Benghazi to other rebel strongholds. In March 2011, Engel was caught in an artillery strike while interviewing fighters during a rebel advancement towards former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's forces outside the city of Ajdabiya.


title: Richard Engel

text: Engel traveled into Syria repeatedly with rebel militias and the Free Syrian Army. He reported on the advances made by rebel fighters within the country as well as the mass defections from Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government army.


title: Richard Engel

text: On December 13, 2012, Engel and his five crew members, Aziz Akyavaş, Ghazi Balkiz, John Kooistra, Ian Rivers and Ammar Cheikh Omar, were abducted in Syria. Having escaped after five days in captivity, Engel said he believed that a Shabiha group loyal to al-Assad was behind the abduction, and that the crew was freed by the Ahrar al-Sham group five days later. In April 2013, Engel recounted his experience in a "Vanity Fair" editorial, titled "The Hostage".


title: Richard Engel

text: Engel's account was however challenged from early on, with Jamie Dettmer of "The Daily Beast" citing unnamed sources, who believed Engel and his team had been kidnapped by rogue rebel groups opposed to Assad. In April 2015, NBC had to revise the kidnapping account, following further investigations by "The New York Times", who had conducted several dozen interviews, suggesting that the NBC team "was almost certainly taken by a Sunni criminal element affiliated with the Free Syrian Army," rather than by a loyalist Shia group.


title: Richard Engel

text: In May 2015, Engel married producer Mary Forrest. They have two sons: Henry, born in September 2015, and Theodore, born in August 2019. Henry Engel was born with Rett syndrome, a genetic disorder that is extremely rare in males; he died in August 2022 at age 6.


title: Whistler Blackcomb

text: Whistler Blackcomb is a ski resort located in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada. By many measures it is the largest ski resort in North America and has the greatest uphill lift capacity. It features the Peak 2 Peak Gondola for moving between Whistler and Blackcomb mountains at the top. With all of this capacity, Whistler Blackcomb is also often the busiest ski resort, often surpassing 2 million visitors a year.


title: Whistler Blackcomb

text: Whistler was originally conceived as part of a bid to win the 1968 Winter Olympics. Although the bid failed, construction started anyway and the resort opened for the first time in January 1966. Blackcomb mountain, originally a separate entity, opened for business in December 1980. The two resorts underwent a period of intense rivalry through the 1980s and 90s, with constant upgrades and improvements that were unseen at other resorts. By the mid-1990s the area was repeatedly named the best resort in many skiing magazines. Intrawest, the BC real estate firm that developed Blackcomb, purchased Whistler in 1997 and fully merged their operations in 2003.


title: Whistler Blackcomb

text: Whistler Blackcomb was the centrepiece of a renewed bid on the part of nearby Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Olympics, which they won in July 2003. Whistler Blackcomb hosted the alpine skiing events, including the men's and women's Olympic and Paralympic alpine skiing disciplines of downhill, Super-G, slalom, giant slalom and super combined. In contrast with Cypress Mountain – which hosted the freestyle skiing and all snowboard events, and was plagued with a lack of fresh, natural snow during the Olympics leading to many complaints about hill quality – Whistler Blackcomb had the second-highest snowfall on record with 1,432 cm (over 14 metres) by the end of the 2009/10 season.


title: Whistler Blackcomb

text: Over the next decade, Intrawest expanded by purchasing additional ski resorts across North America, before expanding into golf and other resorts as well. Whistler Village, widely recognized for its livable design, formed the basis of similar Tyrolian-inspired developments at their expanding series of resorts, as well as other resorts that hired Intrawest to build similar developments on their behalf. In 2010 Intrawest sold off much of its 75% interest in Whistler Blackcomb Resort via a public share offering.


title: Whistler Blackcomb

text: On August 8, 2016, American company Vail Resorts bought Whistler Blackcomb Holdings for C$1.39 billion. Nippon Cable's minority interest in Whistler Blackcomb resort has continued throughout the ownership changes, by way of ownership of a 25% interest of the Whistler and Blackcomb partnerships.


title: Whistler Blackcomb

text: The ski areas at Whistler and Blackcomb are situated on two ridge-lines running roughly northwest to southeast. The two are separated by a deep valley with Fitzsimmons Creek running along the valley floor. The main base area at Whistler Village is located on the northwest end of this valley, where Fitzsimmons Creek flows into the larger Green River, which forms a floodplain running north-south just to the west of the village area. The Sea-to-Sky Highway runs along the Green River valley. The ski runs generally run northwest towards the village area, or into the valley area between the two ridges. A small number of runs are located on the south side of the Whistler ridge, where they run to the Creekside Base area, some distance south of the main Whistler Village.


title: Whistler Blackcomb

text: Whistler Mountain is the basis of the southern of the two ridges, on the right when looking at the Whistler-Blackcomb ski area from Whistler Village. It has a summit elevation of . The total vertical drop is and skiable inbound terrain. Whistler is served by a total of 19 lifts; 2 gondolas, 5 high-speed detachable quad chair lifts, 2 high-speed detachable sixpack chair lifts, 2 fixed grip triple chair lifts, 1 T-bar (called T-bars but parallel T-Bar was removed however towers and stations still mostly stand) and 7 carpet lifts. It also hosts the drive station for the Peak 2 Peak Gondola connecting it with Blackcomb mountain to the north. There are 4 on-hill restaurants, as well as a children's ski school. It is served by two base areas: Whistler Creek also known as creekside, the original base on its southwest flank, and Whistler Village on its northwest flank.


title: Whistler Blackcomb

text: Blackcomb Mountain is the northern ridge, on the left when viewed from the village. It has a lift-serviced elevation of at the top of the 7th Heaven chair – Blackcomb Mountain itself is higher at , but unlike Whistler, the peak is not lift-served. Blackcomb has a higher skiable vertical, at , but less in-bound skiing area at . It is served by 15 lifts; 2 gondolas, 6 high-speed quads, 1 fixed-grip triple and 7 surface lifts (1 T-Bar and 5 carpet lifts), as well as the end-station for the Peak 2 Peak. Blackcomb is the location of the world-famous "Couloir Extreme" run, which is one of the top ten steep in-bounds runs in the world according to Skiing Magazine. Originally called the Saudan Couloir by local skiers even before it was part of the ski area, the company eventually had to drop the name when extreme skier Sylvain Saudan complained about the unauthorised use of his name.


title: Whistler Blackcomb

text: The two previously separate ski areas of Whistler and Blackcomb were integrated into one operation in 1997 after Intrawest merged with Whistler Mountain Ski Corporation. Ticketing, pass, and access control systems for the two ski areas were fully integrated in 2003. Together, Whistler and Blackcomb form the largest ski area in North America at . Either mountain alone would be in the top-five in terms of size.


title: Whistler Blackcomb

text: The mountains are accessed via four gondolas and one high-speed quads: Blackcomb Excalibur Gondola, Whistler Mountain Village Gondola, and Fitzsimmons Express in the village, the Blackcomb Gondola in Blackcomb Base/Upper Village, and the Whistler Creekside Gondola to the south in the Creekside area. The primary skiing terrain starts about one-third up the mountains. Ski-outs to the valley are usually possible during the months of December through April. The mid- and upper- areas are serviced by 10 high-speed detachable chairs and 5 fixed-grip lifts made by Lift Engineering, Doppelmayr and Poma. Two T-bars service the Horstman Glacier and the Whistler alpine regions and take skiers to the entrance to Blackcomb Glacier. The overall lift capacity, 65,507 skiers per hour, is the greatest in North America.


title: Whistler Blackcomb

text: Before 2008 the only connection between the two mountains was via the village. The opening of the Peak 2 Peak Gondola on 12 December 2008 connected the two mountains at approximately . The lift has a total length of and the longest unsupported span for a lift of its kind in the world at while also having the highest ground clearance for a lift of its kind, above the valley floor.


title: Whistler Blackcomb

text: Whistler Village, which is part of the Resort Municipality of Whistler, a geo-political entity not directly associated with the resort company's operation, is situated at the base of the Whistler Mountain Village Gondola and Blackcomb Excalibur Gondola. The village incorporates community services, shops, entertainment venues, restaurants, bars, hotels, condominiums and vacation properties. The village is above sea level, and is located from Vancouver International Airport.


title: Whistler Blackcomb

text: Microsoft Windows XP is codenamed "Whistler" after this ski resort, as many Microsoft employees skied at this resort during its development. According to the original release planning at Microsoft, the "Windows release after Whistler will be codenamed Blackcomb". However, so much work was planned into the "Blackcomb" release, and it was clear that it couldn’t all be done in one release cycle. So, selected portions and features were extracted and put into an interim release codenamed "Longhorn", which is the name of a bar situated between the Whistler and Blackcomb mountains and which finally released later as Windows Vista. "Longhorn" was originally planned to be released in 2003, as shown by multiple trailers and "Blackcomb" towards 2006. However in 2004, due to a development that no longer really had a clear direction, the Longhorn development have been reset with more reasonable visions and directions, putting aside a bunch of planned features and concentrating on the essential. In March 2006, When the Vista development was almost complete, the "Blackcomb" project was renamed to "Vienna". However, so many features have been postponed into it after the development reset in 2004 that its objectives became very unrealistic, which lead to its cancelation. A new project, codenamed "Windows 7" was set up in its place, which aimed to make minor improvements to the core Windows Vista experience and address the negative feedback Vista faced.


title: Whistler Blackcomb

text: The valley area between Whistler and Blackcomb was first surveyed and documented in 1858 by Hudson's Bay men looking for an alternate route into the Cariboo area further north. Although little-used at the time, the route would later become one of the many paths used during the Gold Rush at the turn of the century. Known as the Pemberton Trail, the route followed a path similar to the Sea-to-Sky Highway, leading past the Whistler area to the present day town of Pemberton. In the 1860s British Naval surveyors named the mountain "London Mountain," but it soon garnered the nickname "Whistler" because of the shrill whistle made by the Western Hoary Marmots who lived among the rocks. Four lakes paralleled the route of Trail, the highest then being known as Summit Lake. However, there was another Summit Lake in BC, and in 1910 the name was changed to its current form, Alta Lake.


title: Whistler Blackcomb

text: One of the first permanent residents in the Alta Lake area was trapper John Millar, who set up a cabin next to the trail just south of the base of the mountain. During a trip to sell furs in Vancouver in 1911, Millar stopped at the Horseshoe Bar & Grill for dinner. The cook was Alex Philip from Maine, and Millar invited Philip to join him for dinner. Millar was a storyteller, and during the conversations that followed, he invited Philip to visit the Alta area. Alex and his wife Myrtle visited what was then known as Summit Lake several times over the next few years, and in 1913 they purchased of land on the northwest corner of Alta Lake for $700.


title: Whistler Blackcomb

text: By 1914, the Philip's Rainbow Lodge fishing resort was completed with four bedrooms, a large living/dining area and a kitchen. The resort was named for the Rainbow trout that were the main attraction of the resort. That same year, the Pacific Great Eastern Railway (PGE) reached the lake, from Squamish. Executives of the PGE suggested the Lodge host fishermen from Vancouver, which was now less than two days away (from three or more) via steamship to Squamish and then the PGE to Alta Lake. A standard rate of $2 for a week was applied, and the very first group arrived with 25 people. The resort was a hit. Millar left when the railway arrived, looking to get further away from civilization.


title: Whistler Blackcomb

text: Building followed demand, and over time the lodge grew to include an additional 45 buildings (cabins, tennis courts, general store, post office) and could accommodate 100 people. It became the most popular west coast resort for 30 years. The Philips operated the Lodge until 1948 when they sold it to Alec and Audrey Greenwood. The main Lodge burnt down in 1977, but today the area has been preserved as Rainbow Park. The Philips both remained in the valley until their deaths. Alex died in 1968 at the age of 86, and Myrtle died in 1986 at the age of 95.


title: Whistler Blackcomb

text: Following the successful launch of Rainbow Lodge, several other tourist resorts set up in the valley. Russell Anderson Jordan opened the Alta Lake Hotel which burned down in 1930, and replaced it with Jordan's Lodge on nearby Nita Lake. Bert and Agnes Harrop built Harrop's Point in the 1920s. This became the Cypress Lodge in 1945 under its then-owner Dick Fairhurst, who built new cabins and a main lodge in the early 1960s. In 1972 the property was purchased by the Canadian Youth Hostel Association and it remained the Whistler Hostel until it was closed in 2010 when the association (now Hosteling International) opened a new, larger hostel. The original building is still standing today, home to the point artists centre and the Whistler sailing club. Cecilia and John Mansell moved to Alta Lake in 1945 and built the Hillcrest Lodge near today's Lakeside Park on Alta Lake. They sold it in 1965 to the Mason Family and others who operated it as Mount Whistler Lodge for skiers. The main lodge was burnt in a fire practice by the fire department in 1986.


title: Whistler Blackcomb

text: There was some commercial use of the London Mountain area as well. Logging had been carried out for some time, but the arrival of the railway in 1914 made this much more profitable and for several years there were a few sizable mills and lumber operations: The Barrs at Parkhurst Mill on Green Lake (to the north), and the Gebharts with the Rainbow Lumber Company on Alta Lake. The fur trade remained for some time, later supplanted by a mink and marten farm. Jimmy Fitzsimmons ran a prospecting support company, which led to mining surveys up Fitzsimmons Valley. The shafts can still be found on the Singing Pass trail.


title: Whistler Blackcomb

text: In 1960 the Canadian Olympic Association visited the west coast looking for potential sites for a future 1968 Winter Olympics. They initially looked at a site on Diamond Head just north of Squamish, which was already developed to the extent of a single chairlift. However, they concluded that the area simply couldn't be developed properly, "it just wasn't the right terrain for a world-class resort." Franz Wilhelmsen, a local businessman who had married into the Seagram family, had already come to the same conclusions when he had been scouting areas for a new ski resort. He met with the COA and convinced them to look further north in the London Mountain area, "And they were impressed."


title: Whistler Blackcomb

text: Encouraged by their positive reviews, Wilhelmsen organized the Garibaldi Olympic Development Association (GODA) to make a formal bid. At this time there was no road, no electricity, and no piped water or sewer in Alta Lake. Their bid for the Olympics was unsurprisingly rejected, and the Canadian bid was given to Calgary, who came in a close second place to Grenoble. Undaunted, Wilhelmsen decided to press ahead with development of a resort.


title: Whistler Blackcomb

text: In 1962 the Garibaldi Lifts Limited was formed with Franz Wilhelmsen as President. It had two main objectives, to finance and supervise required land/business studies, and to erect and operate ski lifts on London Mountain. The company had little experience in ski operations, so they hired Willy Schaeffler, a well known developer, to help them. Schaeffler proved as enthusiastic about London Mountain as COA and GODA had been. Schaeffler returned and wrote a good feasibility study about the Alta area, which had no mining claims.


title: Whistler Blackcomb

text: From 1962 to 1965 Garibaldi Lifts raised funds and began development of the ski area on the south side of the mountain. The government agreed that they would set aside a plot at the base of the mountain for Garibaldi Lifts to buy, and agreed to bring the highway to the base of the mountain if they could raise enough money. By 1965 they had reached their goal of raising $800,000 and started planning for development. However, they were not happy with the name, and on August 27, 1965 London Mountain officially became Whistler Mountain.


title: Whistler Blackcomb

text: By 1965 the Provincial Government had completed a narrow gravel road from Vancouver. Electricity arrived the same year with the installation of a substation along the lines from Bridge River. Everything was in place, and the Alta area became a hive of development. GODA made a bid for the 1972 Winter Olympics, but Banff won again and eventually lost to Japan.


title: Whistler Blackcomb

text: By the fall of 1965 the ski area featured a four-person gondola to the mountain's mid-station, a double chairlift to the alpine tree line (the Red Chair), and two T-bars, all provided by GMD Mueller. In addition, a day lodge was constructed and six ski runs cut into the hill. Whistler officially opened for skiing for the first time on January 15, 1966. The new mountain won instant acclaim for its vertical drop, good snow conditions, and huge alpine area. The only problem at the time was the road, it was a dirt logging track, which was only plowed on Saturday, to the detriment of Friday travelers.


title: Whistler Blackcomb

text: With real infrastructure in place, in 1968 GODA made another bid for the 1976 Winter Olympics, and this time the joint Vancouver/Garibaldi won the Canadian nomination. However, in 1970 when Montreal won the voting for the 1976 Summer Olympics, Vancouver/Garibaldi was removed from further consideration and the games eventually went to Denver, Colorado. In a stunning turn of events, Denver turned down the games after winning the bidding. The games were then offered to the other North American entry, Vancouver/Garibaldi, but political turmoil due to the recent change in government led to their bid being withdrawn as well, and in desperation the IOC returned the games to Innsbruck for a second time in a row.


title: Whistler Blackcomb

text: The gravel road was paved to Whistler in 1966, and on to Pemberton in 1969. The Blue and Green chairlifts were added in 1970, providing access to additional terrain. In 1972 these were joined by the Olive and Orange chairlifts. A parallel lift to the Green Chair to alleviate crowds came in 1974, and the Little Red Chair came in 1978. The Roundhouse, an on-mountain lodge and restaurant, was completed in 1980. This new lodge provided respite for cold skiers who had survived the long ride up on the Red Chair.


title: Whistler Blackcomb

text: In 1974 the provincial New Democratic Party of British Columbia was interested in developing tourism and took a number of steps affecting Whistler. At the time, the Alta Lake area was overdeveloped, so the government instituted a development freeze while they studied the problem. The only solution was to continue development in another location. They quickly decided to focus on the table between Whistler and Blackcomb, about 4 km to the north of the existing facilities on Alta Lake. At that time this was the site of the Alta Lake dump, and the remains of a Volkswagen Van are still buried under the modern village.


title: Whistler Blackcomb

text: In 1975 the Resort Municipality of Whistler (RMOW) was formed, the first Resort Municipality in Canada and also the first place in British Columbia since Canadian prohibition where bars were allowed to be open on Sunday. The act also created the Whistler Village Land Company who would oversee all development of the new Whistler Village. In 1977 the provincial government named Al Raine the Provincial Ski Area Co-ordinator, in charge of expanding BC's skiing capabilities. Raine was previously National Coach for the Canadian Women's Ski Team, and was married to famous Canadian skier Nancy Greene. Raine saw the potential in developing Blackcomb Mountain, then part of the Garibaldi Provincial Park, and joined the Whistler city council. The Blackcomb area was currently zoned for logging, but Raine and Greene successfully lobbied the government to remove the zoning and allow development as a ski area.


title: Whistler Blackcomb

text: In 1977 the Municipality hired Sutcliffe Griggs Moodie Development Consultants to design a layout for Whistler Village's development. However, their design was considered too conventional and allowed too much car traffic. Raine recommended Eldon Beck, who had been the primary designer at Vail, celebrated for its layout. Beck's designs included a pedestrian Main Street Village Stroll and an elevated covered walkway system, limiting all vehicles to the outside of the developed area. To this day the village retains this basic design in spite of dramatic expansions, and has won worldwide acclaim in architecture circles.


title: Whistler Blackcomb

text: In January 1978, of crown land were given to the Whistler municipality to develop the town centre. The first sod for the village was turned on August 18, 1978 by first Mayor Pat Carleton. By 1979 many amenities were in place, including Municipal Hall, Fire Hall, Health Care Centre, and Elementary School. Phase 1 expansion included 11 parcels in the modern Village Square area, including the Whistler Conference Centre, a variety of hotels, restaurants, grocery store, hardware store, etc. An enormous underground garage was built to support all of the buildings in the area, completed before any construction could start above it. The first hotel, the Blackcomb Lodge, anchors the Village Square area to this day.


title: Whistler Blackcomb

text: In 1978 a call for bids was issued to develop Blackcomb for skiing. The bidding to develop Blackcomb was contested by two companies, the Aspen Skiing Company, and the newly formed Blackcomb Skiing Enterprises (BSE). Aspen, having recently developed the Fortress Mountain Resort in Alberta, won the contest. A new company, Fortress Mountain Resorts, was formed with a 50–50 partnership between Aspen and the Business Development Bank of Canada. The new competition, paid for partially by tax dollars, was not initially appreciated by Whistler.


title: Whistler Blackcomb

text: Initial development of the mountain included four triple chairlifts (later named Cruiser, Stoker, Catskinner and Fitzsimmons) and one double chairlift, all supplied by Lift Engineering (Yan Lifts). The double chair was installed on the lower Gear Jammer run where the tube park is located today and was used as a beginner chair at a reduced speed. This area was also the first area to get permanent underground snow making pipes supplying snow making guns up the south side of the run. At the time the lifts were referred to only by number.


title: Whistler Blackcomb

text: Blackcomb opened for skiing on December 6, 1980, along with the newly constructed village. To ensure guests could continue to easily access Whistler from the new village, three triple chairlifts were added to Whistler for the same season; the Village, Olympic, and Black Chairs which met up with the top of the Orange chair at the top of the men's downhill course. Whistler's original base at Alta Lake began to be referred to as Whistler Creek, or Creekside, after the creek that runs through the area.


title: Whistler Blackcomb

text: Throughout the 1980s the two ski areas competed strongly for ticket sales among the village visitors, which led to a rapid buildout of new lifts that opened new areas and improved ride times.


title: Whistler Blackcomb

text: In 1982, "Chair 6" (later rebranded Jersey Cream) opened in the Horstman Creek drainage on Blackcomb. Whistler cut new trails along the northern flank of the mountain. In 1983 Blackcomb acquired a used T-Bar from Fortress Mountain and installed it on a south-facing slope, in full view of Whistler Mountain. This 7th lift was coined the Seventh Heaven T-Bar and gave access to high alpine and glaciated terrain. It also gave Blackcomb the highest lift-serviced vertical drop of any ski area in North America, with the top of the lift at . Blackcomb promoted themselves as the "Mile High Mountain".


title: Whistler Blackcomb

text: Whistler responded in 1986 with the opening of the Peak Chair to the summit of Whistler Mountain at , acquiring a Poma triple chairlift from the closed Pikes Peak ski area in Colorado. Although not as high as Seventh Heaven, this lift opened up Whistler Mountain's alpine terrain, and allowed access to the Harmony Bowl area. The new terrain made Whistler the largest alpine ski area in North America.


title: Whistler Blackcomb

text: Skiers could buy a Blackcomb pass, a Whistler pass, or a Dual Mountain pass. Locals loved when tourists would ask "Where is Dual Mountain?"


title: Whistler Blackcomb

text: In 1986, Blackcomb's assets and real estate rights were bought by fledgling real estate developer Intrawest. Intrawest was an early developer of timeshare listings, and saw the potential in developing the ski resort with condominium assets as a timeshare destination.


title: Whistler Blackcomb

text: Intrawest immediately carried out massive upgrades on Blackcomb. They started by moving the Seventh Heaven T-Bar across the ridge to the Horstman Glacier, still running up to the peak, and supplemented it with the Showcase T-Bar to service Blackcomb Glacier. Doppelmayr replaced Seventh Heaven in its original alignment with a high-speed quad chairlift, and built two additional high-speed quads, the Wizard and Solar Coaster lifts, which cut the ride time from the base area to Rendezvous from 45 minutes to 15. The Rendezvous Restaurant was redubbed Base 2 and the moniker moved to the restaurant at the top of the Solar Coaster lift.


title: Whistler Blackcomb

text: In response to Blackcomb Mountain's construction of three high-speed quads, Whistler Mountain undertook one of the biggest ski-lift construction projects ever realized in Canada at the time, the construction of the Whistler Express Gondola. Carrying passengers vertically and horizontally over 63 support towers, the lift opened on November 24, 1988. In 1990 Whistler began upgrading its aging fleet of fixed grip chairlifts with the addition of its first high-speed quad chairlift. The Green Chair Express, which replaced the two Green Chairs, was built by Lift Engineering (Yan), and substantially cut long lift queues in the Green area of the mountain. A year later, Whistler Mountain replaced three double chairlifts and the original Creekside gondola with two high-speed quad chairlifts, the Quicksilver Express and Redline Express lifts, also built by Lift Engineering. In 1994, the Blue Chair was removed and replaced with a Poma high speed quad named the Harmony Express, providing access to Little Whistler Peak.


title: Whistler Blackcomb

text: In 1994, Blackcomb made what would be its last major lift expansion until 2018 with the replacement of the lower mountain triple chairlifts. Stoker was replaced with a high speed quad in a longer alignment known as the Excelerator Express, while Fitzsimmons and Cruiser were replaced with the Excalibur Gondola. The second is dubbed by some as the "gondola to nowhere" since it does not connect with any restaurant or access additional terrain. However, it allowed rapid access to Blackcomb for Whistler Village traffic, who previously had to take three or four chairlifts to Rendezvous (Fitzsimmons, Stoker, Cruiser, and Jersey Cream, with 3 of those being slower chairs; or Fitzsimmons, Wizard and Solar Coaster). The Excelerator also opened up a vast area of intermediate-difficulty terrain to the left of Solar Coaster and below Jersey Cream that was previously neglected and under-utilized, because skiers who traveled those slopes frequently had to go all the way to the bottom of the mountain, which was over-skied and icy.


title: Whistler Blackcomb

text: This competition had driven development of the two mountains at a rate no other resorts could come close to matching. In 1992, "Snow Country Magazine" voted Whistler the Number One Ski Resort in North America. Similar No. 1 rankings quickly followed from other major magazines, and between 1992 and 2000 it won No. 1 ranking from one of the major magazines every year. In 1996, it became the only resort in history to be simultaneously named No. 1 by "Snow Country", "SKI" and "Skiing" magazines.


title: Whistler Blackcomb

text: Like their expansion on Blackcomb, Intrawest immediately started a major build-out on Whistler. The Quicksilver lift was replaced with a Poma gondola, the Creekside Gondola, while the Green Chair Express and Redline lifts were removed and replaced with Doppelmayr high-speed quad chair lifts, aptly named the Emerald Express and Big Red Express lifts. The original Roundhouse was demolished and a new lodge built in its place. Around this time Intrawest began marketing the two mountains as one large ski area under the name "Whistler-Blackcomb". On April 20, 1999, Whistler Blackcomb became the first North American ski resort to top 2 million skier visits in one season.


title: Whistler Blackcomb

text: 1998 saw the replacement of the Peak Chair with a high-speed quad. The original Peak Chair was renamed Franz's Chair and moved parallel to Big Red with a return station approximately halfway up Big Red's lift line. Franz's runs primarily in early and late season, when lower altitudes are not well covered. The Black Chair was replaced with a high-speed quad, the Garbanzo Express. The Fitzsimmons Express was added in 2000, following the line of the long-gone Village Chair and roughly paralleling the lower part of the gondola. The top of Fitzsimmons and the bottom of Garbanzo are co-located in the Village Gondola Olympic station area, providing extra lift capacity from the Whistler Village to the top of the mid-mountain zone in addition to the gondola itself. It is the second lift with the Fitszimmons name, the original lift being a triple chairlift replaced by Stage 1 of the Excalibur Gondola in 1994.


title: Whistler Blackcomb

text: Starting in 2000, Intrawest started redeveloping the Creekside area with new village layout. Throughout, Intrawest also extensively developed the summertime attractions, notably golf and mountain biking. Today, Whistler Blackcomb averages 2 million visitors during the ski season, but another 2.5 during the summer.


title: Whistler Blackcomb

text: Whistler Blackcomb's 2006/2007 season saw Doppelmayr construct the Symphony Express, a high speed quad that begins towards the bottom of the Symphony Amphitheater and carries riders to the top of Piccolo. One of the original names suggested for this lift was Piccolo Express.


title: Whistler Blackcomb

text: A more ambitious upgrade was the Peak 2 Peak Gondola, opened to provide a direct connection between the Roundhouse on Whistler and Rendezvous on Blackcomb. Peak-to-Peak opened for the first time on December 12, 2008, but low snowfall meant it was rockbound at the time. The first summer operation day was June 6, 2009.


title: Whistler Blackcomb

text: As Whistler Blackcomb continued to win awards – eight consecutive by 2000 – the resort formed the basis of a renewed Olympics bid, this time for the 2010 Winter Olympics. Calgary also bid for the Canadian entry, as their equipment from the 1988 Winter Olympics was already in place and allowed them to offer a low-cost bid, as did Quebec City, which lost the 2002 bid. Calgary was eliminated in close voting on November 21, 1998, and Vancouver-Whistler won the second round of voting on December 3. In IOC voting Pyeongchang, South Korea won the initial round, which eliminated Salzburg, but in the second round on July 2, 2003, they won every one of Salzburg's supporters and bested Pyeongchang 56-53.


title: Whistler Blackcomb

text: In 2006 Intrawest was purchased by the alternative asset management firm, Fortress Investment Group. Three weeks before the opening of the 2010 Olympics, Fortress failed to make payment on its loan used to buy out Intrawest. This caused its creditors to force Intrawest to divest itself of several of its resort holdings in 2009 and 2010 which included a partial sale of Whistler Blackcomb, in order to reduce its debt load. This was achieved through a public offering of shares of Whistler Blackcomb Holdings Inc on the Toronto Stock Exchange in 2010. The net outcome of the reorganization is that Whistler Blackcomb Holdings is the managing partner and controls 75% of the partnerships which own the assets of Whistler Blackcomb. The remaining 25% of the partnerships are owned by Nippon Cable. Intrawest sold its remaining 24% stake in Whistler Blackcomb to KSL Capital Partners in 2012.


title: Whistler Blackcomb

text: For the 2010 Winter Olympics, Whistler hosted the alpine skiing events. The men's skiing took place on the Dave Murray Downhill course, while women's skiing took place on a new course, which started on Wild Card, cut across Jimmy's Joker to Franz's Run and connected at the bottom of the Dave Murray Downhill. In order to serve the spectators and judges who needed to travel only to the timing area a short distance above the Creekside base, a temporary high-speed quad was built by Doppelmayr, known as the Timing Flats Express, in the Creekside base. This alleviated demand on the main gondola and other lifts that serve the starting areas, much higher up the mountain. After the Olympics, it was dismantled and sold to Sunshine Village, Alberta and replaced the Strawberry chair.


title: Whistler Blackcomb

text: Blackcomb hosted the bobsled, luge and skeleton events at The Whistler Sliding Centre. Whistler Olympic Park hosted Olympic and Paralympic biathlon, cross-country skiing, Nordic combined and ski jumping, some distance to the south of the Creekside area in the Callaghan Valley.


title: Whistler Blackcomb

text: The British Columbia government paid $600 million for major upgrades to the Sea-to-Sky Highway, which carried the majority of visitors to the alpine sites.


title: Whistler Blackcomb

text: Ski cross athlete Julia Murray, daughter of Dave Murray, competed in her first of likely many Olympic Games.


title: Whistler Blackcomb

text: Summer 2010 had two lift construction projects at Creekside Base. The Timing Flats Express, used for passenger transport for the games, was removed and rebuilt as the Strawberry Express at Sunshine Village, Alberta, Canada. The second project was the construction of the Kadenwood Gondola, providing access to the Kadenwood Estate Homes from the Creekside base. Built by Doppelmayr-CTEC, it is a pulse gondola with 8 passenger cabins in two groups of 2.


title: Whistler Blackcomb

text: Whistler Blackcomb announced plans on January 18, 2013 regarding plans for two high-speed detachable chairlift installations for the 2013–2014 Season. Ultimately, Doppelmayr constructed a new high speed six pack to replace the Harmony Express lift, upgrading its capacity from 2,400 to 3,600 persons per hour. The lift was installed ahead of the 2013–2014 winter season in the same location as the existing quad lift. Leitner-Poma reinstalled the original Harmony Express equipment in the Crystal Ridge zone of Blackcomb as the Crystal Ridge Express lift, replacing the shorter and slower Crystal triple chair lift. While the Crystal Ridge Express ends at the same location as that of the removed triple at Crystal Hut, it starts lower down the mountain just below the Blackcomb Glacier Road near the base of Rock n' Roll. The lift line for this lift had been cut many years prior in anticipation of construction, and allows for the runs in this area to be lapped without needing to return to the Excelerator Express.


title: Whistler Blackcomb

text: In 2014, new 8 person cabins were bought to upgrade the Village Gondola, the existing cabins having been in service since 1988. Sigma, a subsidiary of Leitner-Poma who originally installed the lift, were contracted to produce the new cabins.


title: Whistler Blackcomb

text: In May 2015, Whistler Blackcomb announced that both mountains would be declared smoke-free environments, President and CEO Dave Brownlie was quoted as saying "We have made the decision...to preserve the pristine alpine environment our guests come here for,". He continued to highlight a need for a safer workplace for employees and experience for guests, "We also recognize as a leader in the outdoor adventure and wellness industry and as the largest employer in the Whistler community, we have a responsibility to our guests and staff to provide a safe and healthy environment for work and play. We believe implementing this new policy aligns with this goal."


title: Whistler Blackcomb

text: In April 2016, a $345-million three-phase development plan, named 'Renaissance,' was announced by the mountain, described as the "largest and most exciting investment in the Company's history." On-mountain improvements to skiing and snowboard activities includes a replacement of the Magic Chair with a new high-speed lift and the addition of night skiing in the same area during phase one. Additionally, during phase two and three the Franz, Catskinner, and Olympic chairs will be replaced with new high-speed lifts, a new gondola will be constructed from Creekside Base on Whistler Mountain, two new chairlifts will be added in Bagel and Khyber Bowls, and two new high-speed lifts will replace Wizard and Solar Coaster. The Renaissance developments reflect many of the proposals included in the resort master plan updated at the end of 2013.


title: Whistler Blackcomb

text: Additional projects part of Renaissance include a 163,000-square-foot water park with water slides, a mountain roller coaster, a suspension bridge atop Whistler Mountain's peak, expansion of Whistler Mountain Bike Park, new parking facilities and housing developments, a new 'Blackcomb Grind' hiking trail, and a revitalization of Blackcomb's base. The start of this project will be subject to government approval and the renegotiation of the Company's master development agreements and negotiation of a proposed business partnership with local First Nations. Once approval is granted, Phase One projects and expansions will take two years to construct.


title: Whistler Blackcomb

text: On August 8, 2016, it was announced that Whistler Blackcomb Holdings, which owned 75% of the Whistler and Blackcomb partnerships, would be sold to Vail Resorts of Colorado for C$1.4 billion, which also saw the addition of the resort to the Epic Pass.


title: Whistler Blackcomb

text: For 2018, Doppelmayr carried out two major lift projects. On Blackcomb, a new two-stage ten passenger gondola replaced the Wizard Express and Solar Coaster chairlifts, with a midway turn station where the predecessor quads met. Like the Whistler Village and Excalibur Gondolas, it was built so that the two segments can be operated as one continuous lift or as two separate lifts. While this happened, the Emerald Express on Whistler was replaced with a high-speed six pack, and similar to Harmony five years earlier, the original lift was relocated to Blackcomb where it replaced the Catskinner lift. The Catskinner Express runs on a modified alignment compared to its predecessor, starting below the Magic Castle whereas the triple started at the base of the Nintendo Terrain Park.


title: Whistler Blackcomb

text: The Whistler Mountain Bike Park celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2008. Having consistently grown since its inception, it sees an average of 100,000 bikers each summer.


title: Whistler Blackcomb

text: The Whistler Mountain Bike Park uses the Fitzsimmons and Garbanzo quad chairlifts, as well as the Whistler Village Gondola and Creekside Gondola to shuttle bikers to around midstation, at . The park has 47+ trails for all skill levels totaling 250 km + of trails. There are smooth trails with gentle banked corners for beginners, steep twisty trails for intermediates, tight trails with jumps and stunts for advanced riders, and challenging trails with giant jumps, drops, and root-strewn terrain for the experts.


title: Whistler Blackcomb

text: During the summer, high speed quad chairlifts (Fitzsimmons and Garbanzo) used by the bike park have every second chair replaced with a bike rack. These racks fit four bikes, three in grooves and one on a hook on the side of the chair. The bikers then get on the next chair which is a normal passenger carrier.


title: Whistler Blackcomb

text: The bike park has three zones: the Fitzsimmons Zone (the lower zone), the Garbanzo Zone (the upper zone) and the Creekside Zone. All riders take either the Village Gondola or the Fitzsimmons quad to the Olympic Station area. Then intermediate and advanced riders can take the Garbanzo quad up further to the Garbanzo zone. Garbanzo riders can then return to midstation or Whistler Village, the base of the bike park. The Creekside Zone can be accessed via the Creekside Gondola or by riding through the Garbanzo Zone. From the top of Garbanzo to the village is an impressive vertical descent; eclipsed only by the descent from the top gondola station or the top of the Peak Chair, the highest accessible point on the mountain. "A-Line" is the most well-known track. The Boneyard Slopestyle Course is part of the Fitzsimmons Zone and is located at the very bottom of the bike park, visible from the base of Whistler Mountain. The Boneyard features a collection of high-intermediate and advanced slopestyle features, including drops, dirt jumps, and more.


title: Whistler Blackcomb

text: Each summer since 2004, the park hosts Crankworx, the largest annual freeride mountain biking competition in North America. Another major competition, Harvest Huckfest, was held there each fall from 2002 to 2008.


title: Whistler Blackcomb

text: For the 2005–06 ski season, Blackcomb Mountain opened the Tube Park to allow for recreational tubing at the resort. The tube park is located at Base II alongside the Village Run.


title: Whistler Blackcomb

text: The lift operator on the Quicksilver lift pressed the button to make a routine stop, to allow a fallen skier to get out of the way of the unloading ramp. Instead, the emergency brake activated, sending shockwaves down the cable. Grips on at least two of the chairs slipped, and caused chairs to slide down the cable and slam into each other. In all, eight were injured, and two were killed in one of the worst ski lift accidents in North America.


title: Whistler Blackcomb

text: The Excalibur gondola had a major malfunction on December 16, 2008, when the upper portion of one of the lift towers detached and collapsed, causing several of the gondola cabins to drop near to the ground, leaving 53 people trapped on the lower section of the lift line. Firefighters rescued passengers from a cabin dangling over Fitzsimmons Creek, and from another gondola that landed on a bus shelter. The third cabin had crashed into the trees, narrowly missing a condominium. Twelve people suffered minor injuries. According to Whistler-Blackcomb, a joint in the tower separated due to the buildup of ice from water that had seeped into the tower. The undamaged upper half of the lift running from Blackcomb's Base 2 was reopened on Saturday December 20. After repairs were made to the collapsed tower, the whole lift was back in service on Wednesday December 24.


title: Whistler Blackcomb

text: The lift operations team on Whistler's Harmony Express had been experiencing some problems with the lift during the day of Wednesday February 18, 2009. That night, a grooming machine operator found a chair had fallen from the lift at tower 11.


title: Whistler Blackcomb

text: At the tops of the lift towers are a series of wheels known as sheaves, or sheave trains as there are almost always more than one in a row. Towers typically have two sheave trains, one for the uphill-moving side of the cable loop, and one for the downhill side. Upon inspection the next morning, maintenance crews discovered that the sheave train on the downhill side of tower 11 had failed, and that the sheave had turned into the path of a chair and forced it off the cable. The cause was later determined to be a failed bolt, and all of the bolts were replaced.


title: Whistler Blackcomb

text: The lift reopened on Sunday, February 22, 2009. The affected chair No. 37 was temporarily removed from operation; it has since been replaced.


title: Whistler Blackcomb

text: On Monday, August 31, 2009, two Lift Maintenance employees were injured when the lift began to move, after being given the go-ahead while a maintenance person was safety-harnessed to the tower. The person remained attached to both the tower and the maintenance carrier while the second employee was secured to the carrier. The safety harness ended up pulling so hard on the maintenance carrier, the carrier became detached from the cable and dropped to the rocky ground below, severely injuring the worker in it. The employee hanging from the tower only received bruises.


title: Whistler Blackcomb

text: On Sunday, December 6, 2009, at 8:55 am, a passenger aboard the Big Red Express on Whistler Mountain noticed that a sheave train had broken off Tower 31 and had fallen to the ground. They immediately notified the lift operator at the top terminal (2 towers away) and Whistler Blackcomb Lift Maintenance department. After almost a 30-minute inspection, they determined the issue was not severe enough to evacuate the lift. The lift was run at low speed to evacuate all passengers. All passengers were finally off the lift just before 10 am. The lift was closed down for the day, repaired, and back in operation Monday, December 7.


title: Birdie Wing: Golf Girls' Story

text: Birdie Wing: Golf Girls' Story (stylized as BIRDIE WING -Golf Girls' Story-) is a Japanese original anime television series about golf produced by Bandai Namco Pictures and directed by Takayuki Inagaki. The series aired from April to June 2022. A second season is set to premiere in April 2023.


title: Birdie Wing: Golf Girls' Story

text: In the European state of Nafrece, a girl named Eve uses her crude yet effective golfing style to act as a ringer and take money from various challengers in unsanctioned golf games, hoping to earn enough to secure a future for her adopted family and their bar. However, one day after beating another challenger, Eve meets with Japanese golfing prodigy Aoi Amawashi, who manages to defeat her in a 1-hole match. After suffering that defeat, Eve becomes obsessed with her newfound purpose of challenging Aoi to a full 18-hole match and beating her, while Aoi finds herself infatuated with Eve's attitude and determination. However, Eve is forced to battle through various challenges thrown in front of her by the Nafrece mafia, while Aoi's mother and her personal assistant try to get her to focus on her budding golf career.


title: Birdie Wing: Golf Girls' Story

text: The original anime series was announced on October 28, 2021. It was produced by Bandai Namco Pictures and directed by Takayuki Inagaki, with scripts written by Yōsuke Kuroda, and music composed by Kōtarō Nakagawa and Hironori Anazawa. The series aired from April 6 to June 29, 2022, on TV Tokyo and other networks. The opening theme song is "Venus Line" by Kohmi Hirose, while the ending theme song is "Yodaka" by Tsukuyomi. Crunchyroll has licensed the series. Medialink licensed it in Southeast Asia and Oceania minus Australia and New Zealand; they streamed it on their Ani-One YouTube channel and Bilibili. On May 24, 2022, Bandai Namco teamed up with Jack Bunny!! to recreate and market the golf clothes used by Eve and Aoi in the ED sequence.


title: Birdie Wing: Golf Girls' Story

text: Following the conclusion of the series, a second season was announced to be in production. It was initially set to premiere in January 2023, but was later delayed to April 2023 due to "various circumstances".


title: Birdie Wing: Golf Girls' Story

text: The series was received positively. Briana Lawrence of The Mary Sue called the series "delightfully bonkers" and predicted future episodes would expand its "wacky, sapphic vibe". She later described the series as a "fantastically campy golf (love) story". Yuricon founder Erica Friedman argued that the series is similar to isekai like "I'm in Love with the Villainess" and argued it flaunts the rules of the sports anime genre. She also called it a "delightful romp" with openly yuri themes and said it is close to becoming the "greatest Yuri sports anime of all time".


title: Birdie Wing: Golf Girls' Story

text: Alex Henderson of "Anime Feminist", reviewing the first episode, criticized the series for its "questionable tropes" and tackling "touchy subjects with [fairly] wild abandon" but still argued it is entertaining and the most fun they "ever had watching golf". Vrai Kaiser of the same publication, reviewing the first four episodes, argued that the show's "extreme sports angle" wasn't as strong as it could be, and described the show as "flashy" and "weird" but said that the rivalry between Eve and Aoi gave the series "an unexpectedly solid core".


title: Birdie Wing: Golf Girls' Story

text: Reviewers for Anime News Network were more positive. They stated that they either loved the series, said it was cool with an "utterly ridiculous premise", were invested in seeing where the Aoi/Eve relationship went, described it as the best sports anime of the season, or otherwise praised the series. Nicholas Dupree and Steve Jones, writing for the same publication, said, in the "This Week in Anime" chatlog, that the series had a compelling angle when it came to the "rivalry/romance between Eve and Aoi" and praised the opening sequence.


title: Jacques Attali

text: Jacques José Mardoché Attali (; born 1 November 1943) is a French economic and social theorist, writer, political adviser and senior civil servant, who served as a counselor to President François Mitterrand from 1981 to 1991, and was the first head of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development from 1991 to 1993. In 1997, upon the request of education minister Claude Allègre, he proposed a reform of the higher education degrees system. From 2008 to 2010, he led the government committee on how to ignite the growth of the French economy, under President Nicolas Sarkozy.


title: Jacques Attali

text: Attali co-founded the European program EUREKA, dedicated to the development of new technologies. He also founded the non-profit organization PlaNet Finance, now called Positive Planet, and is the head of Attali & Associates (A&A), an international consultancy firm on strategy, corporate finance and venture capital. Interested in the arts, he has been nominated to serve on the board of the Musée d’Orsay. He has published more than fifty books, including "Verbatim" (1981), "" (1985), "Labyrinth in Culture and Society: Pathways to Wisdom" (1999), and "A Brief History of the Future" (2006).


title: Jacques Attali

text: Jacques Attali was born on 1 November 1943 in Algiers (Algeria), with his twin brother Bernard Attali, in a Jewish family. His father, Simon Attali, is a self-educated person who achieved success in perfumery ("Bib et Bab" shop) in Algiers. He married Fernande Abécassis on 27 January 1943. On 11 February 1954, his mother gave birth to his sister, Fabienne. In 1956, two years after the beginning of the Algerian independence war (1954–1962), his father decided to move to Paris with his family.


title: Jacques Attali

text: Jacques and Bernard studied at the Lycée Janson-de-Sailly, in the 16th arrondissement, where they met Jean-Louis Bianco and Laurent Fabius. In 1966, Jacques graduated from the École polytechnique (first of the class of 1963). He also graduated from the École des mines, Sciences Po and the École nationale d'administration (third of the class of 1970).


title: Jacques Attali

text: In 1968, while doing an internship at the prefecture of a French department (Nièvre), he met for the second time with François Mitterrand, then President of the department, whom he had met for the first time three years before.


title: Jacques Attali

text: in 1972, Attali received a PhD in economics from University Paris Dauphine, for a thesis written under the supervision of Alain Cotta. Michel Serres was among the jury of his PhD.


title: Jacques Attali

text: In 1970, when he was 27, he became a member of the Council of State. In 1972, aged 29, he published his first two books, "Analyse économique de la vie politique" and "Modèles politiques", for which he was awarded with a prize from the Academy of Sciences.


title: Jacques Attali

text: Jacques Attali taught economics from 1968 to 1985 at the Paris Dauphine University, at the École polytechnique and at the École des Ponts et chaussées.


title: Jacques Attali

text: In his laboratory in Dauphine, the IRIS, he gathered several young researchers Yves Stourdzé (who ran the European research program EUREKA co-founded by Jacques Attali), Jean-Hervé Lorenzi, and Érik Orsenna, but also leading figures in various fields (including journalism, mathematics, show business, financial analysis).


title: Jacques Attali

text: Attali's close collaboration with François Mitterrand started in December 1973. He directed his political campaign for the presidential elections in 1974. He then became his main chief of staff in the opposition. In 1981, François Mitterrand, after he was elected President, named Attali as his special adviser. From this moment on, Jacques Attali wrote notes every evening for the attention of the French President, which dealt with economics, culture, politics, or the last book he read. He also attended all the Cabinet meetings, the Defense Council, and all bilateral meetings between President François Mitterrand and foreign heads of States and governments. The President also entrusted him with the role of "sherpa" (personal representative of a head of State) for the European and G7 summits.


title: Jacques Attali

text: Attali then enlarged his circle of acquaintances to Raymond Barre, Jacques Delors, Philippe Séguin, Jean-Luc Lagardère, Antoine Riboud, Michel Serres, Coluche. He advised the President to get Jean-Louis Bianco, Alain Boublil and several young, promising graduates from the École nationale d’administration (like François Hollande and Ségolène Royal) to join his team.


title: Jacques Attali

text: In 1982, he pleaded for "economic rigour". As "sherpa" of Mitterrand during 10 years, he organised the Versailles G7 summit in 1982 and the G7 Summit of the Arch in 1989. He took an active part in the organization of the celebrations for the bicentenary of the French Revolution on 14 July 1989.


title: Jacques Attali

text: In 1997, upon the request of Claude Allègre, he proposed a reform of the tertiary education degree system which led to the implementation of the LMD model.


title: Jacques Attali

text: In 2008 and 2010, he was asked by then President Nicolas Sarkozy to chair a bipartisan commission aiming at proposing reforms to foster French economic growth. In 2013, Attali advocated the concept of positive economy in a report delivered to President François Hollande at his request. His ideas inspired some of the provisions of the law proposed by Emmanuel Macron, Minister of Economy.


title: Jacques Attali

text: In April 2011, in Washington, D.C., the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars of the United States' Smithsonian Institution presented the Woodrow Wilson Award for Public Service to Attali.


title: Jacques Attali

text: He is often credited with having spotted Emmanuel Macron and enabling him to become President of the French Republic. Indeed, he was the one who discovered him while he was an investment banker at Rotschild & Co., and then introduced him to François Hollande, proposing that he become Minister of Economy.


title: Jacques Attali

text: In 1984, he helped implement the European program EUREKA, dedicated to the "development of new technologies", the direction of which he entrusted to Yves Stourdzé.


title: Jacques Attali

text: In January 1989, he initiated a vast international plan of action against the disastrous flooding in Bangladesh.


title: Jacques Attali

text: In August 1989, during François Mitterrand's second mandate, Jacques Attali gave up politics and left the Elysée Palace. He founded the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), in London, and became its first president. He had initiated the idea of this institution in June 1989, before the fall of the Berlin Wall, in order to support the reconstruction of Eastern European countries. He chaired the Paris negotiating conference which led to the creation of the EBRD. Under his leadership, the EBRD promoted investments which aimed at protecting nuclear power plants, protecting the environment and, more generally, developing infrastructure, reinforcing private sector competitiveness and support transition to democracy.


title: Jacques Attali

text: In 1991, Attali invited Mikhail Gorbachev to the EBRD headquarters, in London, against the opinion of British Prime Minister John Major. By doing so, he compelled the heads of government of the G7, who were attending a summit in this town, to receive the Soviet head of state. After a stormy phone call between Jacques Attali and John Major, the British press started to criticize Attali and spread suspicions about his management of the institution. Uncontested details of the management of the EBRD – including of inefficiency and profligacy – were shocking. Some of these details were taken up by some French journalists. Attali explains his stance in a chapter of his book "C'était François Mitterrand", entitled "Verbatim and the EBRD": "the work in question had been done under the supervision of an international working group to which I did not belong". Indeed, when Attali left the EBRD (voluntarily) the board of governors gave him final discharge for the management of the institution. However, his reputation never recovered.


title: Jacques Attali

text: In 1993, Attali won a libel suit; he had been accused of having reproduced in his book "Verbatim", without François Mitterrand's authorization, secret archives and several sentences of the French head of State which were meant for another book. The "Herald Tribune" even published, on the front page, an article claiming (wrongly) that President Mitterrand had asked for the book to be withdrawn from sale. François Mitterrand confirmed in a long interview that he had asked Attali to write this book, and acknowledged that he had proofread it and had been given the possibility to make corrections.


title: Jacques Attali

text: In 1998, Attali founded Positive Planet, a non-profit organization which is active in more than 80 countries, employing over 500 staff, and provides funding, technical assistance and advisory services to microfinance players and stakeholders. Positive Planet is also active in France empoverished suburbs.


title: Jacques Attali

text: In 2001 Attali was subject to investigations on the charges of "concealment of company assets which have been misused and influence peddling". He was discharged on 27 October 2009 by the magistrate's court of Paris, "on the benefit of the doubt".


title: Jacques Attali

text: Attali advocates the establishment of a global rule of law, which will condition the survival of democracy through the creation of a new global order. He thinks the regulation of the economy by a global financial supervisory institution may be a solution to the financial crisis which started 2008. The financial institution is a first step towards the establishment of a democratic world government, of which the European Union can be a laboratory, which was all laid to bare in his 1981 book "Verbatim".


title: Jacques Attali

text: In 1994, he founded Attali & Associates (A&A), an international advisory firm which specializes in strategy consulting, corporate finance and venture capital to help companies' long-term development.


title: Jacques Attali

text: In 2012, Attali became a member of the supervisory board of Kepler Capital Markets, a Swiss broker based in Geneva. The same year, Crédit Agricole sold Cheuvreux, which employs about 700 people worldwide, to Kepler Capital Markets.


title: Jacques Attali

text: Attali has a passion for music: he plays the piano (he once played for the association Les Restos du Cœur), and wrote lyrics for Barbara. He is the author of the book "Bruits" (1977) (English: ""), an essay which deals with the economy of music and the importance of music in the evolution of our societies.


title: Jacques Attali

text: Since 2003, he directs the Grenoble University orchestra, open to amateurs, under Patrick Souillot. He performed very different pieces, which ranged from a symphony composed by Benda to Bach's violin concertos, a mass composed by Mozart, Barber's Adagio and Mendelssohn's double concerto for violin, piano and orchestra. In 2012, he conducted the "Musiques en scène orchestra", performing the opening of the Barber of Sevilla and co-directed the Lamoureux Orchestra with his friend, the geneticist Daniel Cohen, during the gala of Technion University, in Paris. He also directed the Lausanne Sinfonietta in August and Ravel's Concerto in G with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra in Jerusalem and then in Paris. He also directed orchestra in Shanghai, Bondy, Marseille, London and Astana.


title: Jacques Attali

text: With Patrick Souillot, he created in 2012 a national organization following the model of the Fabrique Opéra Grenoble, which aims at coordinating the production of cooperative operas with the participation of students from vocational highschools.


title: Jacques Attali

text: On 24 July 2007, Nicolas Sarkozy appointed Attali to chair a bipartisan commission charged with studying "the bottlenecks that constrain growth". It was composed of 42 members, freely appointed by Attali, mostly liberals and social democrats. Its unanimous report was handed over to the President on 23 January 2008. It contained various recommendations to radically transform the French economy and society in order to unlock economic growth.


title: Jacques Attali

text: In 2012, French President François Hollande ordered from Attali a report on the "positive economics" situation. The aim of this report was to put an end to the short-termism, to move from an individualistic economy based on the short-term to an economy based on public interest and the interest of future generations, to organize the transition from an old model based on the wealth economy to a model in which economic agents will have other obligations than profit maximization. This report, written by a wide-ranging commission, proposed 44 reforms.


title: Jacques Attali

text: The literary work of Attali covers a wide range of topics and almost every possible subject in the field of literature: mathematics, economic theory, essays, novels, biographies, memoirs, children's stories, and theater. It is probably difficult to find a common thread in his work.


title: Jacques Attali

text: All of his essays revolve around the daunting task of describing the future from a long-term analysis of the past. In order to accomplish this, he undertook the task of retelling the story of human activity and its various dimensions: music, time, property, France, nomadic life, health, the seas, modernity, global governance, love and death ("Bruits, Histoires du temps, La nouvelle économie française, Chemin de sagesse, Au propre et au figuré, l'ordre cannibale, Consolations, l’homme nomade, Amours, Histoire de la modernité, Demain qui gouvernera le monde , Histoires de la mer").


title: Jacques Attali

text: He has also put forward several readers ("Lignes d'horizon", "Brève histoire de l'avenir", "Vivement après demain") and several publications on analytical methods ("Analyse économique de la vie politique", "Modèles politiques", "Les trois mondes", "La figure de Fraser", "Peut-on prévoir l'avenir ?").


title: Jacques Attali

text: His work reveals a distinct vision of history and its successive stages, which are simultaneously ideological, technological and geopolitical. Furthermore, his work entails depicting the slow transformation of humanity into an artifact in which man becomes an object to escape death, and the geopolitical evolution toward chaos that accompanies such transformation; meanwhile, man is also waiting for an awakening leading to a new global governance, a sanctification of the essential makeup of mankind, taking into account the interest of future generations, and not letting prostheses invade it.


title: Jacques Attali

text: Attali has also, in books written during key events, tried to highlight particular moments of the present and the near future ("La crise et après ?", "Tous ruinés dans dix ans ?," "Économie de l'apocalypse") and he proposed reforms to implement, either in books he authored ("Candidats, répondez !, Urgences françaises") or in collective reports ("Rapport sur l'évolution de l'enseignement supérieur", "sur la libération de la croissance, sur l'économie positive, sur la francophonie").


title: Jacques Attali

text: Attali also reflected on the future of the concepts of socialism and altruism ("La voie humaine", "Fraternités") and advocated methods of personal growth ("Survivre aux crises", "Devenir soi").


title: Jacques Attali

text: Since his earliest books, Attali foresaw and announced signals of the future, albeit weak at the time, that later came true: In "La parole et l'outil" (1976), he announced and described the shift from an energy-based society to an information-based society. In "Bruits", in 1977, he announced what would later be the internet, YouTube, and the importance of musical practice; in "La nouvelle économie française", in 1978, he discussed the coming emergence of the personal computer, hyper-surveillance and self-surveillance. In "Les trois mondes", in 1980, he announced the shift of the centre of power around the Pacific. In "L'ordre Cannibale", in 1980, he announced the advent of a prosthetic society, now known as transhumanism. In "Histoires du temps", he announced the rapid pace of history and the growing immediacy of relationships. In "Amours", he announced the emergence of poly-romantic relationships. In "Au propre et au figuré", he announced the break-up of property and its use, and subsequently he invented the concept of the "nomadic object." In "Lignes d'horizons", in 1990, he predicted the relative decline of US power. In "Brève histoire de l'avenir", he announced a corporate power grab by health data and insurance companies. In "L'homme nomade", he described the great movement of populations whose sedentary life was only a temporary stage.


title: Jacques Attali

text: Attali has reflected on the many dimensions, as well as the place, of Jewish thought and the Jewish people in history ("1492", "Histoire économique du peuple juif", "Dictionnaire amoureux du judaïsme"); he also took on this subject at the theatre in "Du cristal à la fumée".


title: Jacques Attali

text: He also reflected on inter-religious dialogue ("La confrérie des Eveillés" and "Naissance de l'Occident").


title: Jacques Attali

text: The focus of his biographical publishing is on retelling the lives of characters who disrupted world history by the strength of their ideas: Warburg, Pascal, Marx, Gandhi, Diderot, and all those for whom he wrote a short biography in "Phares", such as Averroes, Aristotle, Maimonides, Thomas Aquinas, Giordano Bruno, Darwin.


title: Jacques Attali

text: Attali's novels, mostly categorized in fantasy genre, or at least in the slight dystopia subgenre, address the same themes. In particular, his novels revolve around the risks confronted by humanity, with characters anxious to hide, to disappear ("Nouvelles", "Les portes du ciel", "Le premier jour après moi", "Il viendra", "Notre vie disent- ils").


title: Jacques Attali

text: More recently, he has chosen to combine crime novels with dystopia, imagining a reappearing police chief, whilst the action takes place in a near future period.


title: Jacques Attali

text: Attali has narrated some of the major events in which he was involved in several memoirs: first, in "Verbatim 1, 2" and "3", he kept, at the request of François Mitterrand, the daily newspaper in the years during Mitterrand's presidency. He also recounted his memories of the creation of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in "Europe(s)" and drew a portrait of François Mitterrand in "C'était François Mitterrand", from the twenty years he spent at his side.


title: Northwest Territorial Imperative

text: The Northwest Territorial Imperative (often shortened to the Northwest Imperative or simply known as the Northwest Front) is a white separatist idea that has been popularized since the 1970s–80s by white nationalist, white supremacist, white separatist and neo-Nazi groups within the United States. According to it, members of these groups are encouraged to relocate to a region of the Northwestern United States—Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Western Montana—with the intention to eventually turn the region into an Aryan ethnostate. Depending on who defines the project, it can also include the entire states of Montana and Wyoming, plus Northern California.


title: Northwest Territorial Imperative

text: Several reasons have been given as to why activists have chosen to turn this area into a future white homeland: it is farther removed from Black, Jewish and other minority locations than other areas of the United States are; it is geographically remote, making it harder for the federal government to uproot activists; its "wide open spaces" appeal to those who believe in the right to hunt and fish without any government regulations; and it would also give them access to seaports and Canada.


title: Northwest Territorial Imperative

text: The formation of such a "White homeland" also involves the expulsion, euphemized as the "repatriation", of all non-Whites from the territory. The project is variously called "Northwest Imperative", "White American Bastion", "White Aryan Republic", "White Aryan Bastion", "White Christian Republic", or the "10% solution" by its promoters. White supremacist leaders Robert E. Miles, Robert Jay Mathews and Richard Butler were originally the main promoters of the idea.


title: Northwest Territorial Imperative

text: The territory which is proposed by the Northwest Territorial Imperative overlaps with the territory of the Cascadia independence movement, and the two movements share similar flags, but they have no ties to each other. Cascadian independence activists overwhelmingly reject the White supremacist ideology of the NTI movement.


title: Northwest Territorial Imperative

text: The Oregon black exclusion laws of 1844, an attempt to expel all African Americans from the state, are cited as an early example of such a racist project in the region. White supremacist journalist Derek Stenzel, the Portland-based editor of "Northwestern Initiative," emphasized that the 1859 constitution of Oregon explicitly stated that "no free negro, mulatto or Chinaman" could reside, vote, hold contract, or make business in the state. In his view, the Northwest Imperative project would be in line with the "high racist ideals" of the original settlers.


title: Northwest Territorial Imperative

text: The primary proponents of a separatist white homeland in America were Richard Butler (1918–2004), the leader of the Idaho-based Aryan Nations, and Robert E. Miles (1925–1992), a white supremacist theologian from Michigan. In the early 1980s, the latter introduced the idea of a territorial separation in the Northwest in his seminar "Birth of a Nation", where he urged whites to leave the American multicultural areas and "go in peace" to this region where they would remain a majority. In July 1986, the Aryan Nations Congress was organized around the theme of the "Northwest Territorial Imperative", and was attended by over 200 Klan and Neo-Nazi leaders, as well as 4,000–5,000 racist activists. During the Congress, Miles declared that the project could be achieved "by White nationalists moving to the area, buying land together or adjacent to each other and having families consisting of five or ten children [...] We will win the Northwest by out-breeding our opponents and keeping our children away from the insane and destructive values of the Establishment." His solution of setting aside the northwestern states (10% of the contiguous US territory) for a white nation was endorsed by the Knights of the KKK from Tuscumbia and key activists moved to the area. Different from fighting within a homeland like in the Deep South though, the imperative required a large migration of white supremacists from throughout the country, and it was generally rejected by Southern extremists. The project was also advertised by the Aryan Nations Church under the name "White Aryan Bastion".


title: Northwest Territorial Imperative

text: A secondary supporter was Robert Jay Mathews (1953–1984), who lived in Metaline Falls, Washington, and advocated further colonization of the area. Fearing the "extinction of the white race", he endorsed the creation of a "White American Bastion" in the Pacific Northwest. In 1983, he delivered a speech before the National Alliance, a white supremacist organization which was led by William Luther Pierce, calling the "yeoman farmers and independent truckers" to rally behind his project. Mathews received the only standing ovation at the conference.


title: Northwest Territorial Imperative

text: The idea has been endorsed by various organizations including White Aryan Resistance, Wotansvolk, the White Order of Thule, Aryan Nations and Northwestern Imperative.


title: Northwest Territorial Imperative

text: The defunct Oregon-based white power skinhead organization Volksfront advocated for the Imperative, and Harold Covington founded the Northwest Front to promote white migration to the region.


title: Northwest Territorial Imperative

text: The Northwest Territorial Imperative was the motivation for Randy Weaver and his family to move to Idaho in the early 1980s; they were later involved in the Ruby Ridge incident.


title: Northwest Territorial Imperative

text: David Lane, proponent of the Fourteen Words, endorsed a form of the Northwest Territorial Imperative advocating domestic terrorism to carve out "white living space" in the Mountain States.


title: Military of the Ottoman Empire

text: The military of the Ottoman Empire can be divided in five main periods. The foundation era covers the years between 1300 (Byzantine expedition) and 1453 (Conquest of Constantinople), the classical period covers the years between 1451 (second enthronement of Sultan Mehmed II) and 1606 (Peace of Zsitvatorok), the reformation period covers the years between 1606 and 1826 (Vaka-i Hayriye), the modernisation period covers the years between 1826 and 1858 and decline period covers the years between 1861 (enthronement of Sultan Abdülaziz) and 1918 (Armistice of Mudros). The Ottoman army is the forerunner of the Turkish Armed Forces.


title: Military of the Ottoman Empire

text: The earliest form of the Ottoman military was a steppe-nomadic cavalry force. This was centralized by Osman I from Turkoman tribesmen inhabiting western Anatolia in the late 13th century.


title: Military of the Ottoman Empire

text: These horsemen became an irregular force of raiders used as shock troops, armed with weapons like bows and spears. They were given fiefs called "timars" in the conquered lands, and were later called timariots. In addition they acquired wealth during campaigns.


title: Military of the Ottoman Empire

text: Orhan I organized a standing army paid by salary rather than looting or fiefs. The infantry were called yayas and the cavalry was known as "müsellem"s. The force was made up by foreign mercenaries for the most part, and only a few Turks were content to accept salaries in place of timars. Foreign mercenaries were not required to convert to Islam as long as they obeyed their Ottoman commanders.


title: Military of the Ottoman Empire

text: The Ottomans began using guns in the late 14th century. Following that, other troop types began to appear, such as the regular musketeers ("Piyade Topçu", literally "foot artillery"); regular cavalry armed with firearms ("Süvari Topçu Neferi", literally "mounted artillery soldier"), similar to the later European reiter or carabinier; and bombardiers ("Humbaracı"), consisting of grenadiers who threw explosives called khımbara and the soldiers who served the artillery with maintenance and powder supplies.


title: Military of the Ottoman Empire

text: The Ottoman Empire was the first of the three Islamic Gunpowder Empires, followed by Safavid Persia and Mughal India. By the 14th century, the Ottomans had adopted gunpowder artillery. The adoption of the gunpowder weapons by the Ottomans was so rapid that they "preceded both their European and Middle Eastern adversaries in establishing centralized and permanent troops specialized in the manufacturing and handling of firearms." But it was their use of artillery shocked their adversaries and impelled the other two Islamic Gunpowder Empires to accelerate their weapons program. The Ottomans had artillery at least by the reign of Bayezid I and used them in the sieges of Constantinople in 1399 and 1402. They finally proved their worth as siege engines in the successful siege of Salonica in 1430.


title: Military of the Ottoman Empire

text: The Ottoman military's regularized use of firearms proceeded ahead of the pace of their European counterparts. The Janissaries had initially been an infantry bodyguard using bows and arrows. By the time of Sultan Mehmed II, they had been drilled with firearms and became "perhaps the first standing infantry force equipped with firearms in the world." The Janissaries are thus considered the first modern standing armies. The combination of artillery and Janissary firepower proved decisive at Varna in 1444 against a force of Crusaders, and later Başkent and Chaldoran against the Aq Qoyunlu and Safavids.


title: Military of the Ottoman Empire

text: Ottoman Classical Army was the military structure and the founding and main army established by Mehmed II, during his reorganization of the state and the military efforts. This is the major reorganization following Orhan I which organized a standing army paid by salary rather than booty or fiefs. This army was the force during rise of the Ottoman Empire. The organization was twofold, central (Kapu Kulu) and peripheral (Eyalet). The classical Ottoman army was the most disciplined and feared military force of its time, mainly due to its high level of organization, logistical capabilities and its elite troops. Following a century long reform efforts, this Army was forced to disbandment by Sultan Mahmud II on 15 June 1826 by what is known as Auspicious Incident. By the reign of Mahmud the second, the elite janissaries had become corrupt and always stood in the way of modernization efforts meaning they were more of a liability than an asset.


title: Military of the Ottoman Empire

text: By the siege of Constantinople in 1453, the Ottomans had large enough cannons to batter the walls of the city, to the surprise of the defenders. The Dardanelles Gun was designed and cast in bronze in 1464 by Munir Ali. The Dardanelles Gun was still present for duty more than 340 years later in 1807, when a Royal Navy force appeared and commenced the Dardanelles Operation. Turkish forces loaded the ancient relics with propellant and projectiles, then fired them at the British ships. The British squadron suffered 28 casualties from this bombardment.


title: Military of the Ottoman Empire

text: The musket first appeared in the Ottoman Empire by 1465. Damascus steel was later used in the production of firearms such as the musket from the 16th century. At the Battle of Mohács in 1526, the Janissaries equipped with 2000 muskets "formed nine consecutive rows and they fired their weapons row by row," in a "kneeling or standing position without the need for additional support or rest." The Chinese later adopted the Ottoman kneeling position for firing. In 1598, Chinese writer Zhao Shizhen described Turkish muskets as being superior to European muskets.


title: Military of the Ottoman Empire

text: The marching band and military band both have their origins in the Ottoman military band, performed by the Janissary since the 16th century.


title: Military of the Ottoman Empire

text: The main theme of this period is reforming the Janissaries. The Janissary corps were originally made up of enslaved young Christian boys, generally from the western Balkans, who were forced to convert to Islam and were educated in military matters under the Ottoman Empire. During the 15th and 16th Centuries they became known as the most efficient and effective military unit in Europe..By 1570 born Muslims were accepted into the Janissaries corps and by the 17th century most would be born Muslims. According to Jason Goodwin in the 17th and 18th centuries most Janissaries were Muslim Albanians.


title: Military of the Ottoman Empire

text: Aside from the Janissary infantry, there was also the Sipahi Cavalry. They were, however, different from the Janissaries in that they had both military and administrative duties. The Janissaries were tied strictly to being able to perform military duties at any time, however the Sipahi were treated differently primarily in that they got their income from the land that was given to them from the Sultan under the timariot system. Within these agricultural lands, the Sipahi were in charge of collecting the taxes which would serve as their salary. At the same time they were responsible for maintaining peace and order there. They were also expected to be able to serve in the military whenever the Sultan deemed their service necessary.


title: Military of the Ottoman Empire

text: In 1621, the Chinese "Wu Pei Chih" described Ottoman muskets that used a rack-and-pinion mechanism, which was not known to have been used in any European or Chinese firearms at the time.


title: Military of the Ottoman Empire

text: The Ottoman Empire made numerous efforts to recruit French experts for its modernization. The French officer and adventurer Claude-Alexandre de Bonneval (1675–1747) went in the service of Sultan Mahmud I, converted to Islam, and endeavoured to modernize the Ottoman army, creating cannon foundries, powder and musket factories and a military engineering school. Another officer François Baron de Tott was involved in the reform efforts for the Ottoman military. He succeeded in having a new foundry built to make howitzers, and was instrumental in the creation of mobile artillery units. He built fortifications on the Bosphorus and started a naval science course that laid the foundation stone for the later Turkish Naval Academy.


title: Military of the Ottoman Empire

text: He could only achieve limited success, however. Unfortunately it was almost impossible for him to divert soldiers from the regular army into the new units. The new ships and guns that made it into service were too few to have much of an influence on the Ottoman army and de Tott returned home.


title: Military of the Ottoman Empire

text: When they had requested French help in 1795, young Napoleon Bonaparte was scheduled to be sent to Constantinople to help organize Ottoman artillery. He did not go, for just days before he was to embark for the Near East he proved himself useful to the Directory by putting down a Parisian mob at "13 Vendémiaire" and was kept in France.


title: Military of the Ottoman Empire

text: The supply of Ottoman forces operating in Moldavia and Wallachia was a major challenge that required well organized logistics. An army of 60,000 soldiers and 40,000 horses required a half-million kilograms of food per day. The Ottoman forces fared better than the Russians, but the expenses crippled both national treasuries. Supplies on both sides came using fixed prices, taxes, and confiscation.


title: Military of the Ottoman Empire

text: Sultan Selim III in 1789 to 1807 set up the "Nizam-i Cedid" [new order] army to replace the inefficient and outmoded imperial army. The old system depended on Janissaries, who had largely lost their military effectiveness. Selim closely followed Western military forms. It would be expensive for a new army, so a new treasury ['Irad-i Cedid'] was established . The result was the Porte now had an efficient, European-trained army equipped with modern weapons. However it had fewer than 10,000 soldiers in an era when Western armies were ten to fifty times larger. Furthermore, the Sultan was upsetting the well-established traditional political powers. As a result, it was rarely used, apart from its use against Napoleon's expeditionary force at Gaza and Rosetta. The new army was dissolved by reactionary elements with the overthrow of Selim in 1807, but it became the model of the new Ottoman Army created later in the 19th century.


title: Military of the Ottoman Empire

text: The main theme of this period is disbanding the Janissary, which happened in 1826, and changing the military culture. The major event is "Vaka-ı Hayriye" translated as Auspicious Incident. The military units formed were used in the Crimean War, Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878), and Greco-Turkish War (1897).


title: Military of the Ottoman Empire

text: The failed efforts of a new system dates before 1826. Sultan Selim III formed the Nizam-ı Cedid army (Nizam-ı Cedid meaning New Order) in the late 18th century and early 19th century. This was the first serious attempt to transform the Ottoman military forces into a modern army. However, the Nizam-ı Cedid was short lived, dissolving after the abdication of Selim III in 1807.