15 years of life (and mountains) in the Sea to Sky—and a magazine that caught some of it.

words :: Kieran Brownie

ML publisher Todd Lawson and Christina Tottle ride dirtbikes across Africa (south to north) distributing mosquito nets to help fight the malaria epidemic

WHISTLER PEAK2PEAK opens, Shane McConkey promptly base jumps off it

2008

SEA TO SKY Search & Rescue calls: 34

Costs to battle BC wildfires triple over the previous year; a sign of things to come

2006-2010

As the first issue of Mountain Liferolled off the press, the smokestacks of Squamish’s Woodfibre pulp mill hacked their last toxic coughs—a welcome breath of fresh air for some, but the end of a way of life for others. Meanwhile, the recent 2010 Winter Olympic announcement triggered a gold-rush style migration to the Sea to Sky Corridor. The “Killer Highway” 99 was finally upgraded and the incredible Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre was raised. Housing prices did a double cork, while ski bums raged against the contentious PEAK2PEAK gondola in Whistler. There was no shortage of stories to tell…

PEMBERTON The biggest landslide in recorded Canadian history lets go on Mount Meager, dumping 45,000,000 cubic metres of debris into Meager Creek

The 32-page, first issue of Mountain Life Coast Mountains features Mike Douglas on the cover and legend Rob Boyd inside PEMBERTON Population grows 33.5 percent over five years; Whistler and Squamish grow four to five percent in the same time period. Pemberton Arts Council forms UK newspaper The Guardian lists the Sea to Sky Corridor as the fifth best road trip worldwide

Sonnie Trotter frees Cobra Crack 5.14/8b+ WHISTLER Symphony Express Chair opens

PAUL BRIDE

SEA TO SKY Extreme rainfall in June puts Squamish and Mount Currie in state of emergency, one month later rockfall closes highway

2007

WHISTLER PEAK2PEAK gondola breaks ground in May

SEA TO SKY Search & Rescue calls: 52 SEA TO SKY Search & Rescue calls: 45 SQUAMISH Average price of a singlefamily home: $386,953

Aaron Marchant (Skwx̱wú7mesh) starts a First Nations Snowboard Association with funding from the Olympics

SQUAMISH Quest University opens Vancouver 2010 Organizing Committee releases three promo posters featuring Indigenous athletes

Skwx̱wú7mesh and Lil’wat Nations sign agreement on a Land and Resource Management Plan with the BC Government

SEA TO SKY Rockfall nearly crushes a bus just north of Porteau Cove in July SEA TO SKY Global recession hits, but Olympic money helps keep the Corridor afloat

RUNRAN ON FLICKR PEMBERTON Inaugural Pemberton Music Festival featuring Tom Petty, Jay Z and more: it rocks, but leaves a huge mess and a (slightly) bad taste

2009

SEA TO SKY Search & Rescue calls: 36 SQUAMISH “Pineapple Express” becomes a hot topic as 105 millimitres of rain falls from November 14-18

The First Nations Snowboard Team has 160 members (up from ten in its inaugural year)

2010

The third edition of John Baldwin’s Exploring the Coast Mountains on Skis is released, with a 34-page chapter on the Duffey Lake region

2010 Winter Olympic Games bring empty ski hills, big parties—and gold medals for Whistler rippers, Ashleigh McIvor (skicross) and Maelle Ricker (snowboardcross)—even the haters admit, “that was pretty fun”

1M

Instagram is downloaded 1 million times within two months of release: the seeds of influencing are planted LILLOOET Members of the First Nations Snowboard Team run with the Olympic torch SEA TO SKY Search & Rescue calls: 48

2011-2015

Post-Olympic afterglow sets in, and previously opposing factions of the Sea to Sky (skiers/snowboarders, loggers/ environmentalists, snowmobilers/self-propelled) realize we all need to paddle together. Grey whales, dolphins, and Orca are spotted in Howe Sound for the first time in decades. The transfer of Whistler’s Olympic Village into local housing stock coincides with a dip in real estate prices to create an opportunity for prescient Sea to Sky locals to maybe, perhaps somehow, purchase their own piece of mountain paradise. In May of 2014, the Sea to Sky Gondola opens to the public amidst an old-guard local grumble that the Shannon Basin would never be the quiet no-man’s land of yore—though, in the broad picture, the very idea of “noman’s land” was becoming antiquated.

2013

SQUAMISH Ongoing re-watering projects restore creek flow for critical salmon habitat in the Squamish Valley $588,985

SQUAMISH Average price of a single-family home

SEA TO SKY A car is destroyed by rockfall north of Horseshoe Bay

2012

As the Mayan Calendar ends, Mountain Life releases a commemorative “End of the World” issue in case existence ceases… it doesn’t SEA TO SKY Search & Rescue calls: 49

WHISTLER The May long weekend reaches peak madness, leaving thousands of dollars of damage, two stabbed and one fatality

SEA TO SKY Search & Rescue calls: 84

150M

150 million monthly users

SQUAMISH The Sea to Sky Gondola delivers its first customers to the sub-alpine SQUAMISH Squamish Valley Music Festival brings big acts and crowds to town

300M

300 million monthly users

2015

SQUAMISH Forest fire ravages the Elaho valley, punctuating BC’s worst fire season to date and killing the 1000+ year-old “Elaho Giant” Douglas fir tree WHISTLER Smoke from forest fires has air quality levels just behind Beijing for worst on the planet

SQUAMISH The District of Squamish sells the oceanfront Nexen Lands to Newport Beach Development SEA TO SKY Search & Rescue calls: 92

SEA TO SKY Search & Rescue calls: 48

5M

5 million monthly users Sherpas Cinema releases All.I.Can, ushering in a new era of high-production, story-driven ski films (JP Auclair’s street segment=instant classic)

SQUAMISH Xwalacktun (Rick Harry), a Skwx̱wú7mesh carver whose work can be found throughout the Corridor, is awarded the Order of British Columbia

50M

In March, the Lil’wat Nation and BC Parks sign three major conservancy management plans to protect more than 10,000 hectares of Lil’wat traditional territories in perpetuity SQUAMISH Rock climbing sees a surge in route development and interest 50 million monthly users

STEVE OGLE SQUAMISH Marc-André Leclerc solos the Grand Wall route of the Stawamus Chief in 57 minutes and shaves a few minutes off Alex Honnold’s Grand Wall fastest known time solo SQUAMISH Western Forest Products sells Woodfibre pulp mill to Pacific Oil and Gas Ltd

2014

WHISTLER Mountain Life launches Multiplicity, a multimedia/speaking adventure show at the World Ski & Snowboard Festival PEMBERTON The Pemberton Music Festival claws back from the grave and rocks the valley until 2016 (when every single person in the Sea to Sky seems to get backstage at Pearl Jam)

SEA TO SKY Search & Rescue calls: 79 SQUAMISH Alex Honnold climbs the Grand Wall of the Stawamus Chief in 38 minutes, a few days later he free-solos University Wall (5.12)

SQUAMISH First marijuana dispensary opens SQUAMISH 1,600 cubic metres of rock fall from the Stawamus Chief’s Zodiac Wall, no one is injured

SQUAMISH A rekindled plan for a resort on Brohm Ridge emerges

400M

400 million monthly users

WHISTLER Vail purchases Whistler Blackcomb SEA TO SKY Search & Rescue calls: 101

500+M

500 million+ monthly users

PEMBERTON Flood evacuations $724,362

SQUAMISH Average price of a single-family home

2017

SQUAMISH Paul McSorley, Tony Richardson, Jason Kruk and Jia Condon complete a bottom-to-top winter ascent of the Stawamus Chief via a continuous strip of ice

WHISTLER Resort Municipality of Whistler implements pay parking: pitchfork and torch sales surge SEA TO SKY Search & Rescue calls: 95

800+M

800 million+ monthly users SQUAMISH Local athlete Miranda Miller wins gold in UCI Mountain Bike World Championships in Cairns, Australia

WHISTLER Whistler Blackcomb secures rights to re-rename the “Saudan Couloir” from legendary French skier Sylvain Saudan, who is in town for the grand reopening and return of the Saudan Couloir Ski Race Extreme at the WSSF

First Nations Snowboard Team inducted into BC Sports Hall of Fame Canada legalizes cannabis

2016-2021

The Olympic hangover has ended and the Sea to Sky secret is officially out. Farming is thriving in Pemberton, Whistler is entrenched—again—in a housing crisis, and Squamish is now home to more bloggers than loggers. The good news: after a century of pollution due to rampant industrialization and colonialization, students of Aya7ayulh Chet (Cultural Journeys School) revive Tem Slhawt’ (herring time), a traditional celebration of the arrival the fish and the return of warmer weather. The winds of positive change continue to blow through each community in the Sea to Sky. Through hard times and smooth sailing, it’s clear this corridor creates people who care deeply about each other, the land, and how the children will inherit this place. Those who choose to live in the Coast Mountains are the true essence of our mountain lives, and this magazine is honoured to continue sharing their stories. We’re not sure where we’ll be in another 15 years, but as the mountains teach us: you don’t know till you go! Time’s fun when you’re having flies. –ML

LYTTON Wildfire obliterates the town, which recorded temperatures of 49.6 degrees Celcius, hotter than Las Vegas’ all-time high

SQUAMISH Átl’ka7tsem (Howe Sound ) receives UNESCO biosphere designation

$1,000,000+

SQUAMISH Average price of a single-family home

WHISTLER Whistler Blackcomb opens early (November 17) after 120 cm of snowfall in 48 hours

LASPORTIVA.COM SQUAMISH Ben Harnden completes the Squamish Trifecta: a 5.14 sport route, a 5.14 trad route and a V14 boulder

2018

1B

1 billion monthly users: peak influencing has arrived

SEA TO SKY Search & Rescue calls: 104 WHISTLER Whistler Bike Park expands to include Creekside

2019

SQUAMISH Sea to Sky Gondola cable is cut, widespread speculation ensues

SEA TO SKY Search & Rescue calls: 97 PYEONGCHANG, KOREA Canadian freeskier, Cassie Sharpe, wins the first-ever Olympic gold medal for women’s halfpipe skiing, an event that owes much to late Squamish resident and legend Sarah Burke

WHISTLER “2019’s headlines were mostly business as usual, perhaps in anticipation of something bigger.”

– Pique Newsmagazine

SEA TO SKY Myia Antone (Skwx̱wú7mesh), teams up with Lil’wat snowboarder Sandy Ward to establish Indigenous Women Outdoors

SQUAMISH Sea to Sky Gondola cable cut again! SEA TO SKY Search & Rescue calls: 124

2020

The First Nations Snowboard Team (FNST) is rebranded as the Indigenous Life Sport Academy (ILSA) and expands its scope to include year-round activities

MARCH COVID-19 pandemic hits BC, closing ski hills, BC Parks, everything APRIL “Two weeks to flatten the curve”

2021

$1,052,800

Heat dome causes temperatures to spike past 40 degrees Celsius in BC SQUAMISH Average price of a single-family home FAIRY CREEK Environmentalists, loggers and RCMP battle over the last remaining stand of old-growth forest on southern Vancouver Island

SEA TO SKY Search & Rescue calls: 165 as of mid-September (breaking a previous full-year record of 151)

1.074B

1.074 billion+ monthy users