Things to do
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Audain Art Museum
Michael Audain gave his collection of British Columbia art a home here, in a long dark building raised on stilts among the cedars, designed to shed snow and let floodwater pass beneath. Inside: a room of nineteenth century Northwest Coast masks, a wall of Emily Carr forests, photographs by Jeff Wall. Ninety quiet minutes, and the obvious plan for a rain day or an afternoon off the hill.
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Brandywine Falls
Seventy metres of free fall over a lava cliff into a green pool, in a provincial park beside the highway south of Whistler. The walk from the car park takes under ten minutes, crossing the railway on a footbridge to a caged platform at the lip. Daisy Lake and the spike of Black Tusk fill the view beyond. The lot is small and fills on summer afternoons, and winter access depends on snow clearing.
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Lost Lake Park
A short walk or a free shuttle from the village reaches a small lake with a sand beach, a dock and water warm enough to swim by midsummer. Trails loop the shore and climb into the trees, shared with mountain bikes. In winter the network is groomed for cross-country skiing, with one loop lit for evenings. A separate beach at the far end is given over to dogs.
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Peak 2 Peak Gondola
Linking the tops of the two mountains in about eleven minutes, a cabin lift whose central span hangs free for more than three kilometres, at times four hundred metres above the valley floor. Two cabins have glass floors and a separate queue. It carries skiers in winter and walkers through summer, reaching the alpine trails and the glacier viewpoint. Cloud can swallow the whole ride.
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Whistler Blackcomb
Two mountains stand over a purpose-built village, joined at the base and again at the top, and between them hold the largest ski area in North America: roughly thirty-three hundred hectares of piste, bowl and glade with a vertical drop over fifteen hundred metres. The season runs from late November into spring. Alpine races of the 2010 Olympics were held on the Creekside face. Queues are shorter on the Blackcomb side.