The Millionaire’s Marathon

They used to call it the Millionaire’s Marathon: skiing, golfing and fishing on Canada’s Whistler Mountain in the same day. But with the economy in the tank – and the most favorable U.S./Canadian currency exchange rate in years – this once-exclusive sport is starting to look a lot more like a 5K.

“May and June are spectacular months to be in Whistler,” says Mary Zinck from Tourism Whistler. “It’s the tail end of the ski season and the start of golf, fishing and mountain biking, so there are lots of deals to be had.”

With the U.S. dollar nearly 30 percent stronger in Canada than just 18 months ago, Canada has become a terrific destination for value-thirsty American travelers.

“In the early summer, in May and June, it’s not unusual to start fishing before six in the morning and get to the lift or the golf course by noon,” says fishing guide Kevin Kish, the owner of local outfitter Whistler Fishing Guides.

Miles away from Texas’ summer heat and oppressive humidity, Kish says he knows a place in Whistler on a mountain lake so thick with rainbow trout that the old-timers say you could walk across the water on the backs of the fish.

Whistler looks out across the world from close to its top. You can almost feel the curve of the earth below your feet. It’s an international vacation spot known worldwide for its limitless outdoor adventures, its glacier-fed lakes and streams packed with fish, and as the 2010 Olympic skiing venue.

You get there by traveling along a highway known as the Sea to Sky, which begins at sea level in Vancouver and runs east, climbing up the mountains deep inside Canada’s British Columbia.

Some call the 80-mile trip between Vancouver International Airport and Whistler Mountain “Divorce Drive,” a start-and-stop maze of weaving highway peppered with heavy construction equipment, blasting zones, hairpin turns, and traffic lights that curves along the Coast Mountains until finally emptying the bulk of its payload at the front door of Whistler’s evergreen forest.

But that’s all about to change. The multi-year project is finally reaching completion, part of the region’s infrastructure improvement project as it prepares to host the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Nearby Whistler will host the alpine and Nordic events.

Most people know Whistler for its incredible winter skiing and the snow-globe beauty of its village, around which the ski lifts and hotels were built. As skiing gives way to golf and fishing, the village transforms into a virtual kids’ park. Mountain biking, bungee jumping, trapeze flying, miniature golf – even late season skiing – keep the kids busy. White water rafting, fly fishing, and top hotels like Four Seasons and Fairmont’s Chateau Whistler (and their pampering spas) are steps away.

This month, Whistler is at its gorgeous best. Melting snow and spring rains turn on the waterfalls. The grasses sparkle emerald green. The last few crusts of ice that once blanketed mineral-rich Green Lake have surrendered to warmer temperatures and long days of sun that, late in the summer, will begin before 5 a.m. and won’t retreat until 10 p.m.

How to best utilize all that sunshine? Three justifiably proud golf courses and fly-fishing on the areas lakes and streams will keep you plenty busy.

Whistler Golf Club

Whistler Mountain debuted as a ski resort in 1966. Its neighbor, Blackcomb Mountain, joined the mix in 1980. But the first golf course didn’t arrive until 1983, when Arnold Palmer and his design group had moved enough earth and scared off enough bears to open Whistler Golf Club.

A valley course with only a few elevation changes, Palmer forces you to conquer large, fast greens and swirls of microclimates that take you through mist, sun and wind. From the golf course’s location on the valley floor, you can easily spot skiers threading down lifts on Blackcomb as thick cables of the ski lifts stitch up steep mountain sides like dark, loose threads on rumpled, white bed sheets.

As an older design, Palmer’s course plays relatively short – 6,722 yards – yet it crosses the same mountain creek three times in 515 yards, all on the par-5 11th hole. If your ball doesn’t find its way into the stream, Palmer put nine lakes on the layout to finish the task.

Chateau Whistler Golf Club

Two excellent hotels, the Four Seasons and the Fairmont Chateau Whistler, stand sentry at the base of Whistler Mountain, a short walk up the mountain from Whistler Golf Club and the village valley. The Fairmont runs Whistler’s top golf course, the Chateau Whistler Golf Club, a Robert Trent Jones, Jr., design that opened in 1993.

While the course runs short – 6,635 yards – there’s nothing easy about its 142 slope rating. Views of the glacier-capped Coast Mountains pop into view from Douglas fir-lined fairways. As you chug up and down the mountainside, wrapping around and above the European-style Whistler Village, pause on hole Nos. 7 and 8: According to Director of Golf Gregg Lown, May and June are the best months to spot a well-known black bear that frequently sneaks onto the course from his nearby den.

RTJ II’s design feels seamlessly integrated into the mountain. Exposed rock faces, ravines, waterfalls, rocky streams and precarious ledges all stitch the fairways to the fabric of the mountain, which Jones adorned with bunkers shaped and filled to echo snowdrifts high in the mountains. Grab your camera and your walking stick – the course winds 400 feet up the side of Blackcomb Mountain.

Nicklaus North Golf Club

While the Fairmont Hotel calls the Chateau Whistler course its own, the Four Seasons stakes its claim on Nicklaus North. Opened three years after Chateau Whistler’s course, “Nick North” was quickly crowned the best new course in Canada and remains a local favorite. Fifteen of its 18 holes might as well be divining rods; each weaves water into its routing and occasionally into play. Glacier-fed lakes lie still as glass, colored a magical steely green by the minerals trapped the water. At 6,908 yards, Nick North is the longest course in Whistler.

Catch and Release

Sunrise comes late to the mountain valley, Kevin Kish, the fishing guide, is up well before dawn on a particularly chilly morning.

Kish meets me at daybreak, coffee in hand, wearing khaki cargo shorts, a fleece pullover, and a baseball cap that shields his thinning red hair. We climb into his dusty GMC Sierra, run the wiper blades across the muddy windshield a couple of times, then head down the road a few miles to fish for trout near the town of Pemberton.

Kish, who grew up plying these waters, knows where to take me. “We always catch fish out here,” Kish says.

“I’ve been here late in September when the sockeyes are so thick and heavy you have to step over them as they fight their way upstream to spawn,” Kish tells me as we cast flies into the cold, clear waters of Gates Creek, where it joins the mouth of Anderson Lake. “And I’ve also been here in May when the trout and char are heavy-bellied with salmon fry, and the only sounds you hear are the splash of the creek, a flop of a fish’s belly and the gulls flying overhead picking at the leftovers.”

After we catch a few trout, we head to a more challenging Birkenhead River, which feeds two large, glacier-fed lakes “like a large conveyor belt of nutrients for the fish,” Kish says. The water is cold and clear enough to drink.

Covered in rubber waders and now waist-deep in a fast-moving stream, Kish mentions, “it’s normal to see black bears on the river’s banks. Watch the sky, too. I bet we see a falcon or an eagle, too.”

He was right about everything – except the black bear part. “Yeah, we didn’t see a bear this time,” Kish admits, “but I’d bet they saw us.”

Just the Facts

Nicklaus North Golf Course

8080 Nicklaus North Blvd., Whistler, B.C.

604-938-9898 or 800-386-9898

www.nicklausnorth.com

Chateau Whistler Golf Club

4612 Blackcomb Way, Whistler, B.C.

800-684-6344, www.chateauwhistler.com

Whistler Golf Club

4001 Whistler Way, Whistler, B.C.

604-932-3280 or 800-376-1777

www.whistlergolf.com

Four Seasons Resort Whistler

4591 Blackcomb Way, Whistler, B.C.

604-966-2620, www.fourseasons.com

The Fairmont Chateau Whistler

4599 Chateau Blvd., Whistler, B.C.

604-983-8000, www.fairmont.com

Kevin Kish

Whistler Fishing Guides

604-932-4267, www.whistlerriver.com