Crystal Klym’s efforts to rid Penticton’s Skaha Bluffs of invasive plant species has earned her the nickname “Noxious Weed”. That moniker might not suit everyone’s taste, especially a young woman’s, but during a tour of the bluffs last July, the South Okanagan Valley resident told the Georgia Straight that she proudly wore the handle.

From April 4 to 6, hundreds of brightly clad youngsters from 17 countries will take over Whistler's slopes to compete in North America's preeminent ski contest for their age group.

Whether your benchmarks pertain to the richness of coffee, the firmness of mattresses, or the crunchiness of fries, travellers have long used such standards to measure the pluses and minuses of an adventure away from home. The charm of travel benchmarks is that they can be applied to a universal range of tastes and expectations. There’s nothing necessarily snobbish or exclusive about personal litmus tests.

Winter travel has spawned innovations from dogsleds to snowmobiles, and nowhere more than in the True North.

Feeling pumped about the prospect of some spring bike action? The North Shore Mountain Bike Association has just the thing: the pump track. This freshly constructed wooden bike track debuted at the recent Outdoor Adventure and Travel Show at B.C. Place Stadium, where the NSMBA held its annual bike sale. Over the past five years, the swap has become the 3,400-member club’s major fundraiser, the biggest event of its kind in Canada.

Vancouver

With spring cleaning on the horizon, what kind of shape is your garage or storage shed in? If it’s anything like the 250-square-foot addition to adventure racer Dave Howells’s North Vancouver home, it’s jammed to the rafters with outdoors gear.

Travel has long been touted as enlightening, and truer words were never spoken. Especially these days in B.C. Whether your quest is to savour natural beauty or admire artistic expression inspired by the landscape, you don’t have to journey far from home to discover that fact. Even in the off-season, nowhere is that more apparent than in the Gulf Islands.

Grab your tuques. The wizards of the white world are on their way. In February, the best skiers in both the freestyle and alpine World Cup realms are set to race in West Vancouver and Whistler. These events will afford athletes and spectators alike their opportunity to raise the curtains on two 2010 Winter Olympic stages.

Winter is not a season, according to American author Sinclair Lewis, who considered these bleak months “an occupation”. And how are you occupying your time this year? Perhaps by taking short walks between weather systems? Or, throwing caution to the wind, storm-watching from a favourite beach or hilltop?

Even residents of the world’s most desirable city occasionally need to sneak out of town to a little hideaway. Summer or winter, Gibsons provides just that. When the weather report doesn’t sound promising, it stands to reason that if any place close to Vancouver might get a break from storms, it will be the Sunshine Coast.

Canada's only covered bike track plays host to the annual Burnaby Six Day Challenge, where participants and audiences alike can learn the benefits and intricacies of European-style track racing on fixed-gear bikes

Wildlife outnumbers humans by a wide margin in this land of knee-high powder

Bowen Island’s 11th annual Lighting Up the Cove celebrations bring lantern magic to the richly green oasis

The Straight recently paused to visit the weekly Saturday farmers market, held year-round in the square beside Duncan’s red-brick City Hall. At this time of year, stalls feature baked goods, preserves, locally raised lamb, knitwear, and handcrafted furniture, among other items. As the pulse of Christmas shopping picks up, expect to find the square packed with goodies much like a European Advent market. If your visit doesn’t coincide with the market, allow several hours, minimum, to stroll the downtown streets. The more you ramble, the more you’ll discover