Whistler Montain owes its name to the whistling sounds of the marmots which live there. Whistler Village, initially known as ‘Alta Lake’, owes its name to the mountain. This small town of around 10,000 residents is host every year to more than 1.1 million visitors thanks to its fantastic ski and snowboard resort, the Whistler-Blackcomb, which has been consistently ranked as the #1 ski resort in the world by Ski Magazine during the last few years and which will host several events for the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Other than the ski resort, the town consists of little more than a few shops, hotels and restaurants, all of them targeting well-off snow lovers that frequent the place. After my arrival on Thursday night, I decided to go for a walk along the main street and found some nicely decorated Christmas trees on every other corner:

This morning, the weather was beautiful and invited to go out. After an early workshop session at the conference hotel, I put on my winter gloves and hat and headed up to the top of the mountain, via Gondola lift, of course.

Once at the top, the sights were amazing, the landscape incredibly beautiful.

I don’t remember ever seeing so much snow, such long slopes and so many people skiing in my entire life, although I must confess that I have never been much interested in winter sports (sorry, I just find the whole thing way too cold!!!).

Anyway, I must have made a rather funny sight on the top of the mountain, with my black “everyday coat”, while all the other people wore the fanciest items of ski equipment that you can imagine.

The fact that I was one of the very few people walking around and not sliding probably didn’t help either… I must have stuck out like a sore thumb!!

Still, I had a great time up there. My hands almost froze while taking the pictures that you see in this post, but in the end it was well worth it: I can now legitimately say that Whistler is one of the coolest places that I’ve ever visited (pun intended! ;-).

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