Hiking in Canada

To winter sports enthusiasts, Whistler means one thing: skiing, and lots of it. But what is less well known is that the resort, in the mountains of British Columbia, is even more spectacular in the summer, says Edward Marriott in the Sunday Telegraph. For while the Alps, in overpopulated Europe, can feel like a "high-altitude suburb of Marseilles" in August, with traffic jams of hikers on even the most out-of-the-way trails, these

mountains are gloriously unpopulated, "their forests pristine", and teeming with wildlife.

Whistler is just 75 miles from Vancouver, yet tourists only began arriving here in the early 20th century, to fish on Lake Alta. The area remained a summer destination until the 1960s, when a couple of entrepreneurs began to exploit its appeal to skiers. But it seems that even now, those who come for the snow find it hard to tear themselves away in spring, and, as one local puts it, "before they know it they're 35 and wondering why they never went to college".

The result is that Whistler is every bit as busy in the summer, with golf courses, superb mountain bike trails (200km of them) as well as rock-climbing, white-water rafting and