What Part Does Fate Play
In Our Lives?

By: Joe and Irma Mac Millan

Fate. It’s what dictates our lives. What happens to a person one day may dictate what may happen sometime into the future. Often that future date may be many years away. 

Irma and I have been married almost 50 years. We now live in a city near Toronto, Canada. One day while surfing the net I came across a web site that led us to establish our own site. It’s called www.Whistler-Outdoors.com 

Let’s take a look at how Fate caused us to get to where we are. 

To do so we must go back over 20 years ago. We had lived on the Atlantic coast of Canada. We had a great little group of friends and loved the winters. Our little valley received about 20 feet of snow every winter. We spent countless hours on our cross country skies. 

Economic circumstances dictated that we should leave the valley. We decided upon the west coast (Pacific). Before we left, our friends told us we should make certain to visit Whistler as it was absolutely beautiful. They kidded us about our wish to ski Whistler Mountain as we hardly knew anything about Alpine skiing. 

We actually made our way to the northern city of Whitehorse in the Yukon Territory some 2,500 kilometers north of Whistler. After experiencing -53C weather that winter, we decided to do what the birds do and migrate south. 

We settled in the unbelievably beautiful city of Vancouver, British Columbia. Found work and settled down to enjoy the area. 

Fate came knocking on our door in the form of our daily newspaper. We came across a contest with the prize being a bus trip to Whistler Mountain for a day of skiing. We, along with 44 others won. We were thrilled to no end. 

If ever there was a place that fit the description of “Shangri-La” Whistler must be it. To get there you leave Vancouver and drive along the deep blue waters of Howe Sound for two hours. As you do you are encased within the beautiful majestic mountain peaks of the Coastal Mountain range. Fast flowing rivers carry the blur/green waters of the melting glaciers to the sea. 

Nearing whistler the rocky crags you see show signs of the ancient volcanic action that shaped this whole area. Huge Cedar and Douglas Fir trees fill the landscape. For almost an hour from the last town, Squamish, there isn’t a building to be seen. 

Soon, around a turn in the highway, you enter the valley of Whistler. The scene is gorgeous. Fantastic golf courses, beautiful hotels, two of the most spectacular ski mountains ever. Two villages with up plenty of up-scale shops and restaurants. A lake that looks like a glistening emerald. 

Our little family began our love affair with the mountains. Hiking, backpacking, river rafting. Most of all skiing. 

Yes, we rented skis and boots that first day after our bus arrived. We had a ball learning on the bunny hill and the novice ski runs. The two mountains have a ski area of over 8,000 acres. 200 ski runs are serviced by 34 ski lifts. Seven restaurants on the mountains feed thousands of hungry, happy skiers every day. Over a million visitors come every winter to ski because more than 30 feet of snow falls through the season. 

We couldn’t believe it the next summer when we discovered that more than a million more visitors arrive to enjoy the area. Camping and hiking in the 150 mile corridor is unparalleled anywhere. There is just so much to do. 

We finally retired and since our family are located all over Canada we decided to move to Toronto to be sort of in-between them all. 

So Fate had brought us to Whistler, and Whistler became the concept for our web site. With the Olympics, The World is coming to Whistler. 

We have been very busy writing the more than 100 pages of information we have put together on Whistler. All of the things that we wish we had known about years ago. But then again, it was a wonderful experience to have been part of the incredible area called Whistler, British Columbia, Canada.