About WestCoast Alpine dot Com

As some of you have seen via Twitter I have been starting to post links to a blog called WestCoastAlpine.com. What some of you might not know is what this blog is about, hopefully I can help explain it in case you were curious. If you are into winter activities in British Columbia or just in general I recommend following our updates (you can subscribe to the RSS feed) as we hope to provide more information about the local ski conditions as well as some other interesting information as often as we can.

What Is WestCoast Alpine dot Com?

WestCoast Alpine is a project of Robyn’s and mine related to the ski and snowboard activities of British Columbia. Currently we have been reporting on our adventures at the ski resorts such as Cypress Mountain, Grouse Mountain as well as the infamous Whistler/Blackcomb.

We will also be writing about the various events on the ski resorts around British Columbia such as the Telus World Ski and Snowboard Festival at Whistler/Blackcomb or the Kokanee Winterfest at Mount Washington. We may not get out to them all but we will try and keep up to date on what’s happening with them.

Don’t forget when we do our ski/ride road trips that we have plans for throughout the winter season, we will be writing about our accommodations, conditions of the runs as well as anything else that we come across in our travels.

We will also be keeping tabs on the equipment manufacturers.  Reporting on new released gear from such companies as Solomon, Burton, Head, North Face, Heli Hanson and others. After all, the more I get into snowboarding the more the gear and equipment fascinates me and I might even become a gear whore! With that of course I am sure we will be writing reviews of various gear we purchase as well throughout the year.

This project of ours also introduces Robyn into the world of blogging. She so far really enjoys it as she does like to write. It was also a fun way of combining one of our common interests and introducing her into another aspect of my life, yes the online life.

Behind the Scenes

WestCoast Alpine is a WordPress blog theme of my own creation. I will also be tweaking it over time as we build it up with more content. I have always been a fan of using 2-column layouts which are centered. I find it easier to work with a variety of resolutions starting at the 1024×768 and up. If you are running less than that, well you should upgrade your monitor, video card and/or bump up your resolution to at least that.

The left column (main content) allows for up to 500px wide images/photos. This also allows for plenty of space for copy without having it looked squished or stretched too far. The right column (sidebar) is roughly 250px wide and will allow for up to two 125px wide button ads (if we see fit to use them) side by side but allows for some decent sized copy such as links or little blurbs too.

The layout itself was created in Adobe Illustrator and then sliced apart and glued back together using good ol’ CSS. I do try my best to keep everything XHTML and CSS valid as that is just good practice. I find that sometimes I do have to edit the output of other people’s WordPress plugins to ensure it is XHTML and CSS valid but that’s another story.

So come by, read a few posts and say hi to both Robyn and I over at WestCoastAlpine.com!