The Marmot

“It’s amazing what one quick, seemingly innocent glance out of a car window can set in motion.”

It’s the sound of snow crunching beneath your ski boots as you slough your way up the hill to grab your skies, slap them on and then zip down the hill like a blur.

A new business at Mount Washington Alpine Resort is offering a “Pizza Italy” for visitors this winter. Pizza Mogul is open in the old Nordic Lodge on Henry Road, and is offering sit-down, take-out and delivery service.

So much so, that resort Public Affairs Director Dave Hampshire hopes they can host a B.C. Cup mountain bike series race next summer. And they’ve expanded their terrain to open up the sport to novice and intermediate riders.

Policing will have a higher profile on Mount Washington when the Alpine Resort opens for the snow season. The Courtenay RCMP Detachment has dedicated two members – Constable Dennis Flint and Const. Scott McLennan — to policing on the mountain this winter.

Mount Washington is getting out of the transportation business. The Alpine Resort has handed over responsibility for its ski bus to Rob Smith of Smith Transportation, who has offered his own service from Nanaimo for the past 22 years.

So, you have decided to spend your vacation on Mount Washington, and you don’t know where to stay.

A petition to tax property owners at Mount Washington in order to pay for an emergency services building, has failed. But one of the people behind the petition says they may be down, but they’re definitely not out.

The resort is progressing with its plans of becoming a training centre for Olympic-calibre and emerging Nordic athletes in the years and months ahead of the actual competitions.

Canada Post has given the Alpine Resort its own post office. The low volume postal area will start operation in January 2004, from Altitude Sport and Gifts in the Alpine Lodge, and offer regular postal service.