Travel: Hit The Heights Across Canada From Spectacular Peak-To-Peak
January 6, 2009
No matter where you travel in Canada you’ll discover record-breaking natural wonders, feats of engineering wizardry and marvels of man-made ingenuity. Explore Canada on a cross-country peak-to-peak tour that includes the world’s most extraordinary gondola, Canada’s highest mountain, its tallest tower and its most powerful tides.
The new Peak 2 Peak Gondola – world’s highest and longest unsupported lift span
Officials are calling this phenomenal $50-million smooth-gliding ride on the new Peak 2 Peak Gondola- opening December 12 at Whistler Blackcomb, BC – “a record-breaking engineering feat that will amaze the world.” Picture 28 sky cabins running along giant rope spools between four towers covering 4.4 km (2.73) miles. The distance between the two towers that are the farthest apart is a staggering 3.024 km (1.88) miles – the highest and longest unsupported cable car span in the world. One sky cabin will depart every 49 seconds and the Peak 2 Peak Gondola can whisk skiers between Whistler and Blackcomb in 11 minutes, carrying up to 2050 people per hour each way. Dreaming of skiing both Symphony and 7th Heaven in short order? After December 12, you can do both before lunch! www.peak2peakgondola.com
Longest peak ski season in North America
Whistler Blackcomb is also home of North America’s longest ski season, from November to June – (June 3rd is traditionally the last day of winter operations) – and boasts the largest skiiable terrain in North America at 3.307 ha (8,100 acres). Add to that one vertical mile, three glaciers, 12 alpine bowls, and North America’s longest intermediate ski run at 5.5 kilometers in length with a 5,000 vertical feet drop, and maybe its time to set your own records for speeding to Whistler Blackcomb this season. www.whistlerblackcomb.com
Canada’s highest peak has the largest base circumference on earth
In southwestern Yukon in the pure pristine spectacle of Kluane National Park, Mount Logan, Canada’s highest peak and the second highest mountain in North America (after Mount McKinley), rises an estimated 5,959 metres (19,551 feet) into the sky. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, Mount Logan’s exact height is hard to pinpoint, since it is still rising in elevation due to tectonic uplifting. With its massive multiple peaks – almost a dozen spire above its 20 km long and 5 km wide summit plateau – Mount Logan has the largest base circumference of any mountain on Earth. A charter flightseeing tour will take you over the vast expanse of Logan’s unclimbed peaks, clear lakes, awe-inspiring icefields, and the wild and wooly grizzly and black bear habitat in Kluane National Park. www.summitsofcanada.ca
Canadian mountaineer reaches seven peaks in world’s first “grand slam”
It was another Canadian record-breaker, Invermere, BC-born Patrick Morrow, who on August 5, 1986 became the first person in the world to complete mountaineering’s “grand slam,” climbing the highest peak on each of seven continents. His 14-year quest to scale the world’s Seven Summits eventually brought him back home to settle near the Canadian Rockies, where the adrenalin-pumping sport of ice climbing reigns supreme. www.rockies-ice.com

