Olympic transportation plan has met its goal of reducing traffic volumes 30 percent

Hosting the 2010 Winter Games presents more than a few transportation challenges: how do you move thousands of people to various venues, ensure locals can get to where they need to go and make sure businesses are not negatively impacted? The answer for these games has been public transit and getting people out of their cars.

Well, Sea to Sky residents, guests and businesses you’ve done it. Together we’ve reduced automobile traffic by 30%, deliveries are taking place in off-hours and thousands of you are using the bus, exploring the Valley Trail and re-thinking your commute.

In February, Whistler Transit is offering five times more service than during a normal winter. The bus fleet has expanded from 39 to 135 buses to serve the estimated 2.1 million customers projected for February. Existing Whistler routes run more often, eight new routes have been introduced and many routes, including connectors to Squamish and Pemberton, run 24 hours a day. More than 250 additional drivers have come from as far away as Prince Edward Island to drive these buses.

In addition to VANOC’s Olympic Bus Network (for spectators), several private bus companies are also providing transportation between Vancouver and Whistler.

The sunshine has made using the Valley Trail a treat with many locals and guest choosing to walk or cycle or cross country ski.

“The transportation choices being made by Whistler residents and visitors are contributing to the success of the Games,” said Whistler’s Executive Director of 2010 Games Operations, Jan Jansen.

We need your continued cooperation in March when we co-host the 2010 Paralympic Winter Games. There will be increased parking, but still not ‘normal’ levels. Carpooling and taking transit will remain key during March 2010.Stay tuned for more transportation details for the 2010 Paralympic Winter Games.

Mitch Sulkers

Whistler’s off-piste guru

If you are travelling in the backcountry, you might just run into Mitch Sulkers, Whistler’s off-piste guru.

Sulkers is also a well-loved teacher and long-time Whistler resident whose spent several decades changing the lives of his students.

Sulkers visited Whistler several times as a child and he never forgot those trips. After graduating from high school, he searched for a place that was wild with four seasons, not too far from the ocean but definitely in the mountains. He found Whistler.

“I was looking to a place that doesn’t feel the pressures of encroaching urbanization and attendant social issues. Whistler seemed to be that place for me,” Sulkers said.

Next to the heat of a tiny wood burning stove in an old cabin, Sulkers and his buddies figured out how to fix their university schedules so the commute wouldn’t take them out of the mountains for too many days at a time. In between skiing, hiking and climbing, Sulkers earned an honours degree in History and English and eventually pursued his teaching certification.

Sulkers began his teaching career at Whistler Secondary School and started the Outdoor Recreational Leadership Program for the school district.

A Whistler Alpine Club member, Sulkers is a well known outdoor enthusiast who continues to enjoy, climbing, telemarking and cross-country skiing in the winter, and mountain biking and paddling in the summers.
“It’s the freedom to get out into the mountains, into a place where one’s tracks would quickly disappear so that someone else could have the same experience,” Sulkers said.

Pick Me! By Kevin Damaskie

It’s 6:30 a.m. on a glorious, slightly grey Whistler morning as Frank Savage and I embark onto one of the most important tasks of this day – we’re picking garbage.

“You know it puts a whole different light on this place,” Savage says, eyes on the ground. “I have a much harder time enjoying the ambience… sometimes I can only see garbage.”

With that, Savage, a planner with the Resort Municipality of Whistler (RMOW) and myself, RMOW Sustainability Coordinator, are among the legion of happy Whistler workers being re-deployed to different roles to help our town host the best Winter Olympic Games ever.

Reployment means simply we got another job for a short time in support of these Games and the world which has come here to enjoy them. Savage is spending half his time picker in hand and the other half in communications. Myself, I’m part picker, part public information officer. Early this week I watched Rob McSkimming, a Whistler Blackcomb vice president, sort recycling in front of Merlins. Whistler, we are all going above and beyond. We are all in this together.

Whistler workers know and love this place. We are happy to take time away from trash to give directions or answer questions. And when Whistler gal Ashleigh McIvor won ski cross Olympic gold yesterday on Cypress, I raised my picker and screamed a Whistler scream. Pick me!

Share your innovative stories of life during the Games in Whistler at kdamaskie@whistler.ca

The Whistler Sliding Centre is one of several Olympic venues that recovers waste heat for reuse

The environmental footprint of Olympic venues cannot be entirely avoided, but many of these facilities were built to showcase innovation and minimize impact.

The Whistler Sliding Centre was designed with sustainability in mind. Built on the shared traditional territories of the Squamish and Lil’wat First Nations, the Whistler Sliding Centre is home to the bobsleigh, luge and skeleton runs and an innovative waste heat recapturing system.

The centre has several buildings, including: event-start houses, a control-and-timing building, a track-operations building, a lodge and a refrigeration plant, all of these are heated thanks to waste heat.

How does recapturing waste heat work? The system uses heat recovery ventilators, which redirect otherwise wasted heat back into auxiliary buildings. The Whistler Sliding Centre only operates on a seasonal basis and will use about 20% of the heat captured from its refrigeration plant to heat the plant and guest services building.

One challenge of the Sliding Centre is its location, meaning there is no immediate use for the rest of the recaptured heat.
In the future, as the Resort Municipality of Whistler implements its Sustainable Energy Strategy, this heat source has been designed to be connected to a district heating and cooling system.

In addition to waste heat recovery, the design of the Whistler Sliding Centre also includes energy-efficient initiatives: trees were retained throughout the site to cast shade; a shading system covers the track; and the track itself is painted white to minimize heat absorption. These modifications maintain track ice temperatures while minimizing energy demand on the refrigeration system.

These innovations began with a goal. As part of the 2010 Winter Games’ sustainability objectives, all venue design teams were guided by LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design); the venue design teams were charged with creating energy efficiencies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and electrical energy use.