10,000 years ago: As the last Ice Age ends, the glaciers retreat, revealing BC and Alberta’s wild and vertically spectacular mountains.

1811: First Bigfoot sighting is made, near Jasper, Alberta.

1916: Nels Nelsen breaks the world ski-jumping record by jumping 183 feet at Revelstoke, BC.

1968: Legendary Austrian guide and CMH founder Hans Gmoser introduces heli-skiing to the world with the opening of CMH’s Bugaboo Lodge.

1971–72: Revelstoke sets the Canadian record for single snowiest winter since data collecting began—over 80 feet.

1973: Alan Drury starts the world’s first cat-ski operation, Selkirk Wilderness Skiing.

1980: Blackcomb opens, igniting an intermountain rivalry with Whistler. Seventeen years later they will join forces.

1989: Rob Boyd becomes the first Canadian male to win a World Cup downhill on Canadian soil, at Whistler, his home hill.

Late 1990s: New Canadian Air Force members Mike Douglas, JP Auclair, and JF Cusson start the freeskiing revolution. No biggie.

2010: Vancouver and Whistler host the Olympic Winter Games, which see more American medals than ever before.