Mission, BC Outdoor Activities

On September 9, 1979, more than 100,000 Whitecaps fans lined Robson Street to salute their hometown club. That day, the Whitecaps returned home after becoming Vancouver's first professional sports team to win a major North American championship: they had just defeated the Tampa Bay Rowdies to claim the North American Soccer League title.

Since that first one, the franchise has won six additional titles–including four in a row from 1988–1991 while playing as the 86ers in the Canadian Soccer League. In fact, the club competed under that 86ers moniker until 2000. That year, spurred by public support and an unexplainable 'Caps logo beamed into the night sky, it re-emerged under its original Whitecaps identity. Today, the 21st-century incarnation of the club continues to battle for its first championship as part of Major League Soccer, where it began play in 2011.

Since 2004, Snowbus’s fleet of 56 comfortable passenger coaches has shepherded skiers and snowboarders back and forth between Vancouver and Whistler Blackcomb. The route schedule allows mountaineers to hitch a ride out of Vancouver, schuss and slalom to their heart’s content at the world-renowned resort, and hop back aboard a bus for a movie and snack to accompanied their trip home. The service gives downhillers a way to circumvent the hassles of dealing with traffic and parking, and enables them to partake in après-ski revelry without fear of drinking and driving or drinking and cartwheeling back to Vancouver.

When it comes to winter sports, Mt. Seymour doesn’t discriminate. Skiers can speed down slopes that see more than 1,000cm of snow in an average year, then zip back to the top of the runs on a quad chair lift that reduces travel time from 12 minutes to 4 minutes. Elsewhere, Seymour Park dares snowboarders to tackle the 30 trick features of its well-lit terrain. Soar across two jumps and grind on a 30' single rail.

When Craig Schindle worked the front door of the Harrison Springs Resort & Spa, visitors would often ask him for suggestions of family-friendly activities to do on the lake. Inspired, Craig bought two motorized Sea-Doo watercrafts, and Harrison Watersports Inc. was born.

Today, Schindle's fleet has expanded to nine Sea-Doos, two high-end ski boats, and a variety of recreational bumper boats and banana tubes. These watercrafts glide across the pristine waters of Harrison Lake, known for its vistas of sandy shores, snow-capped mountains, and colonies of runaway middle-school history teachers. On an inflatable waterpark that floats atop another part of the lake, visitors can scamper across obstacle courses, careen down slides, and cannonball into cool waters.

The top minor-league affiliate of the Calgary Flames, the Abbotsford Heat joined the American Hockey League in 2009, when the team made a valiant entrance by reaching the Calder Cup playoffs in its maiden season. Having fostered a number of players who went on to don the NHL's iconic tuxedos, the Heat reigns over the ice at the Entertainment & Sports Centre, where up to 7,000 fans cheer on every thundering slapshot and board-rattling check.

With the propeller of a Cessna 180 whirring just above its glassy surface, the Fraser River appears to tremble in anticipation of the floatplane’s imminent takeoff. After launching off the aquatic runway, the roaring plane elevates above British Columbia’s wilderness as passengers peer out at the lakes and glacier valleys below.

This is just another day at work for Fort Langley Air, Ltd.’s experienced pilots, who regularly soar above the mountains and glaciers of Garibaldi Provincial Park and Pitt River valley on sightseeing tours, charter flights, and seaplane training courses. While manning the plane’s controls, pilots point out native wildlife, interesting rock formations, and ice sculptures carved by the mountains’ reclusive yetis. Their charter services allow passengers to easily bypass less scenic forms of public transportation, and their seaplane rating courses train pilots to safely land on water with 50 hours of flight time.