Olympic flag raised in Vancouver

The Torino Winter Games have come and gone and now it's Vancouver's turn to bask in the Olympic spotlight.

The countdown to the Vancouver Winter Games officially got underway Tuesday when Mayor Sam Sullivan raised the Olympic flag during a ceremony at Vancouver City Hall.

The flag will stay at city hall until the Games begin in February of 2010.

"So now the world's eyes are on Vancouver," said John Furlong, the head of the Vancouver's Olympic organizing committee.

"And as we look up at this flag – as it looks down on our city – we will be reminded of the responsibility we have taken on. We will be reminded of the promises that we've made to stage truly great Games for the world."

The Olympic flag has been passed from host city to host city since the 1952 Winter Games in Oslo. But that flag that was raised on Tuesday isn't the same one Sullivan took from International Olympic Committee chief Jacques Rogge and proudly waved from his custom wheelchair during the closing ceremony.

There are three Olympic flags and the one flying on the lawn of city hall is bigger than the ceremonial flag.

A tired-looking Sullivan arrived in British Columbia with the flags on Monday. He said being at the Olympics was like nothing he's ever experienced before. He also admitted there were some anxious moments in the hours before the closing ceremony.

"I never had a billion people watch me do anything, and I also realized that I had to think what this was all about," Sullivan said.

"It was all about the athletes. It was about people striving to be their best."

Canadian athletes combined to win 24 medals at the Torino Games – Canada's best-ever medal haul.

Canada's previous best total was 17 medals. That plateau was reached in 2002 at the Salt Lake City Games.

Canadian Olympic officials are hoping to do even better at the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver. The goal is to win 35 medals and finish atop the medal standings.

Source: CBC Sports

Early Canadian spring - according to the Groundhog!

Canadians can look forward to an early spring, based on three groundhogs failing to see their shadows on 2nd February.

Groundhog Day legend began with a German superstition that suggests if a hibernating animal casts a shadow on the Christian holiday of Candlemas, which is Feb. 2, winter will last another six weeks. No shadow indicates an early spring.

Europeans used to watch for hedgehogs, but a hedgehog shortage in North America caused settlers to switch to woodchucks, also known as groundhogs.

Groundhog Day cheers erupted in Wiarton, Ontario, as Wiarton Willie's white-gloved, purple-robed handlers made the morning announcement that the rodent hadn't seen his shadow, indicating an early end to winter.

Organizers of the Wiarton Willie Festival claim the albino groundhog's track record over the past 50 years is "better than 90 per cent."

On the East Coast, Nova Scotia's best-known woodchuck also signalled an early spring. Shubenacadie Sam emerged from his heated home at the Shubenacadie Wildlife Park outside Halifax and failed to see his shadow.

In Manitoba, Manitoba Merv made his annual appearance at Oak Hammock Marsh, north of Winnipeg, and agreed with his fellow forecasters.

But Oak Hammock Marsh does things a little differently. Employees prefer to let their sleeping groundhogs lie.

"We find it a little cruel to wake up those poor rodents, who should technically be sleeping until the end of March at least," said Jacques Bourgeois with the interpretive centre at the marsh. "Just to wake them up for that one day, we found was a little tough on them. So we decided to personalize the spirit of Groundhog Day with a puppet."

The news comes as many Canadian cities reported their warmest January on record. Environmental officials believe a vortex of cold air that usually traverses the globe is parked over Russia, blanketing Europe with arctic weather. In contrast, North America is bathed in warmer air from the jet stream.

That fact isn't lost on Wiarton Willie, said his handler, Mack MacKenzie, who translated the groundhog's comments: "Fools, it is spring already. Why are you making these silly predictions?"
Handler Bill Deeley is about to plant a wet one on Punxsutawney Phil, Pennsylvania's weather-predicting groundhog, on Thursday.

South of the border, Punxsutawney Phil delivered some unwelcome news.

The large crowd, gathered in Gobbler's Knob, Penn., groaned loudly after learning the chunky critter saw his shadow, indicating six more weeks of winter.

So there you have it, spring 2006 is not too far away after all in Canada - according to the Groundhog or course!

Source: CBC News, 2nd Feb

Powder Alert!! - Western Canada

Snow is falling heavily across the whole of the west of Canada and plenty more is predicted over the next few days.

Now is a great time to get a last minute ski deal and make the most of the fresh!

Sunshine Village closed today, reopens tomorrow

One of the greatest snow seasons in two decades has reached its midpoint and the peak months of March, April and May will offer fantastic skiing and boarding to all visitors. Fresh powder has been bombarding the resort since Saturday (Feb 25th) night. Sunshine Village has been closed for one day today, for routine maintenance on its gondola. This means the fresh powder they have received over the last 24 hours has been untouched!
For more information on Sunshine Village visit canada-ski.com.

Rocky Mountaineer Vacations (RMV) honoured with 2006 BC Tourism Award.

Vancouver Rocky Mountaineer Vacations (RMV), owners and operators of the world-acclaimed Rocky Mountaineer train has won the 2006 ''Employees First Award'' at this year's B.C. Tourism Industry Conference in Penticton. Hundreds of industry members attended the 7th annual B.C. Tourism Awards ceremony, which was held on February 16, 2006. RMV executives were on hand to accept the award on behalf of the Vancouver based company. This latest accolade follows Rocky Mountaineer Vacations' recent win of the prestigious 2005 World Travel Award as the ''World's Leading Travel Experience by Train.''

Rocky Mountaineer Vacations, owned and operated by Armstrong Hospitality Group (AHG), offers year-round vacation packages to the most unique regions of Canada, including the world-acclaimed Rocky Mountaineer train, a two-day, all daylight rail journey between Canada's West and the Canadian Rockies.

In May 2006, RMV will premiere the highly anticipated Whistler Mountaineer train, a three-hour experience between Vancouver and Whistler, B.C. and the new Rocky Mountaineer Fraser Discovery Route, a two-day journey between Whistler and Jasper, with an overnight stop in Quesnel, B.C.

For further information on rail routes and booking, please contact:
rocky-peak Holidays - Rail Vacations
Tel: 403-609-0286 or 1-888-PH-ROCKY (toll free North America)
Website: www.rocky-peak.com

Source: CNW Group (20/06/02), & the web editors

Canadian Rockies or Alps - which is the best ski?

This is a question often asked, but there is no simple answer.

After skiing both areas, you will see immediate differences. The first being that most of the resorts in North America are actually situated away from the nearby towns you would stay in. Banff, for example, is situated near three main ski areas; Banff Norquay, Sunshine Village and Lake Louise at about 15, 25 and 40 minutes respectively. Sunshine Village does have a hotel at the top of the gondola, the Sunshine Inn, which is great for getting those first tracks. This is the only ski-in, ski-out accommodation out of the 3 resorts just mentioned.

The most well known of the ski hills in Canada is of course, Whistler (Whistler and Blackcomb). This resort has huge expanses of terrain for you to explore across two mountains - Whistler and Blackcomb. The two mountains do not link up. To get to one from to the other you need to ski to the base then catch the gondola up. Whistler Blackcomb has the greatest ski vertical in North America. However, due to its great vertical, often you will get soaked at the base with the rain before you catch the chair or gondola up the mountain, through the clouds to the powder at the top. One thing to note too is that Whistler is NOT in the Canadian Rockies, which is assumed by many. It is actually located in the Coastal Mountains in the west and so receives wetter snow compared to the resorts located further inland.

Kicking Horse, the newest resort in Canada, has the greatest vertical in the Canadian Rockies at 4,133 feet. These runs are steep and if you are lucky, you can experience one of their famed "champagne powder" days. The cold dry air of the Canadian Rockies means that the snow is light and fluffy. This light, dry snow means you will find it hard to make snowballs out of it. You can be in up to your waste in powder and still move easily.

In the Alps, the snow can be a little wetter and heavier on powder days. The resorts too, with some exceptions, are usually lower and milder. The higher resorts in the Canadian Rockies resorts tend to get quite cold particularly in January and February (temperatures sometimes down to the low minus twenties) although this winter 2005/06 in the Canadian Rockies, has disproved this yearly average with Mother Nature being gentle on us with way above average temperatures.

In the resorts in the Canadian Rockies, you do not get the Alpine Charm and history you get in the Alps. The best way to describe Canadian Rocky resorts are that they are designed to be easy. They're built so that you can always get back to one central point, the base, so it is hard to get lost. In the Alps, there is more opportunity to go exploring, visiting other countries, but your timing is everything, you miss the last lift up and you are looking at taxis or buses to get back to your starting point over in the other valley.

Resorts in the Canadian Rockies have wide valleys and plenty of steep and deep, terrain to challenge most. We have green, blue, black diamond and black double diamond runs. In the Alps, they have the additional red rated runs, which are between our blue and black runs. This means a blue run in the Canadian Rockies can be the equivalent of an easy blue or challenging red in the Alps. Resorts in the Canadian Rockies are a lot more open with wide open pistes.

The weather in the Canadian Rockies in Alberta and parts of British Columbia is mainly sunshine. Based on weather records this has been proved, due to us being located on the east side of the Continental Divide. The Continental Divide acts as a barrier for the weather. Whistler receives a lot of warm moist air from the Pacific, whereas east of the continental divide, the clouds have much less moisture creating the dry "champagne powder" we mentioned earlier.

So, to conclude, there is no better place to ski, the Alps give you the chance to explore and visit other countries in a day, and experience a wide variety of terrain. The resorts in the Canadian Rockies offer blue skies, dry air, fluffy snow and a less likely chance to get lost.

Why not see the differences for yourself? Visit www.white-peak.com for information on ski holidays in the Portes-du-Soleil in the French Alps or www.rocky-peak.com for ski holidays in the Canadian Rockies.