They hunch in swimsuits on cramped wooden benches, surrounded by firewood and snow-caked boots. Some steam, having just stepped from the sauna, sweat dripping from their noses.  others flush, having clambered up a four-meter snowpack from an icy river, their bodies glowing pink and eyes flashing like Christmas lights.

Leslie Anthony is a Whistler-based writer, editor, biologist and occasional filmmaker with too few fingers in too many pies. Former Managing Editor of Powder magazine, longtime Feature Editor of Canada’s SKIER magazine, architect and Editorial Director of the acclaimed Mountain Life Annual, his name resides on the masthead of a global litany of ski