Equilibrium and the Whistler Sabbatical Winner
Posted by: Feet Banks
“Nature abhors a vacuum.”
That famous line has nothing to do with tidying up the house and more to do with the concept of equilibrium—the idea that the universe strives for everything to be stable and balanced. Hot objects tend to cool, areas of concentration slowly dilute, popular fads fade then re-emerge. It snows, we rip it up, it snows again and all is well. This is equilibrium.
Skiing’s intrinsic equilibrium may explain why, out of tens of thousands of entrants, Luke Dillon, a 23-year-old skier from London, England, just won the ultimate, best-ever, month-of-a-lifetime grand prize in the Whistler Sabbatical Project.
“I didn’t think I was going to get any skiing in this winter,” Luke explained when I spoke with him on the phone just moments after learning he had won. “I didn’t think I was going to be able to afford it.”
That tragic lack of sliding on snow in Luke’s winter plans must have caused a minor tear in the fabric of the overall global ski-equilibrium. Nature corrected the issue by providing Luke with an opportunity to get 30 days of riding in, while also experiencing Whistler like no other person in history ever has.
“This is brilliant,” Luke said, still a bit a-flutter with the news. “I’m really all… excited.”
As he should be. Imagine dropping into a fully-funded month of living the dream that includes an on-mountain home, new ski gear, a lift pass, a transit pass, a salary and a chance to partake in each of the fifteen “Would You Do It?” Whistler Sabbatical Experiences including Heliskiing, bobsleighing, ziplining, as well as chances to meet and learn with some of Whistler’s most talented locals, chefs, performers and personalities, including a private ski day with Olympic gold medalist and homegrown Whistler girl Ashleigh McIvor.
Fresh out of university living, this will be Luke’s first foray into a world of five-star meals, champagne, free bar tabs and days at the spa, all of it tied together by some of the most majestic mountains on the planet.
“A month is so much longer than I have ever had to ski before,” Luke said. “It will be amazing to get that time and learn off the people I ski with and the people I meet.”
And so, sometime this March and April, the scales of the ski-equilibrium will be balanced. Or will they? How is your winter shaping up? Perhaps you ought to take a shot at recalibrating nature’s precipitous balance by entering the Fan Choice Contest portion of the Whistler Sabbatical Project and winning your own ski week in Whistler. Why not? What else are you gonna do? Stay home and vacuum?
check out this video that includes the moment Luke learned he was the winner as well as a look at some of the good times he has coming in his one-month Whistler Sabbatical.
Article source: http://www.whistler.com/blog/post/2012/02/20/Whistler-Sabbatical-Winner.aspx