Elsewhere, rafters take on glacier-fed rivers that boil through canyons strewn with granite boulders. It was deep powder that first made Whistler famous and still draws the likes of H.R.H. Prince Charles and his sons to the glaciers and glades of the Coast Range. But you don t have to strap on skis to get a taste for high altitude superlatives. From the village, snowcoaches ferry guests up to pleasant candle-lit dinner parties high on the slopes. Helicopter guides offer nail-biting tours of nearby icefields.
Professional mushers drive teams of sled dogs into the backcountry.
Snowmobile tour guides suit up their clients in moonboots and windproof suits for half-day rides into the mountains. This is a resort with a taste for the unusual, and the mountain media are writing home about all of it. Rise before dawn. Catch the first gondola. Then carve fresh tracks through Burnt Stew Basin as the morning light touches Whistler s vast back bowls.