Best Adreneline Rush

PEAK EXPERIENCE

Eleven minutes can be a lifetime: in that span American Sonya “The Black Widow” Thomas tamped down 48 chicken tacos, and Yakefujiang Maimitili tightroped a kilometre across Seoul’s Han River. Channel your own Evel Knievel with the just-opened Peak 2 Peak gondola; spanning three miles between Whistler and Blackcomb, it tags the highest tram point on Earth (1,427 feet) while whizzing 28 people along at 27 kph. 660 seconds of whoosh! Peak2peakgondola.com

KILLER SUSHI

Kick your sushi up a notch. Fugu, blowfish, pufferfish—call it what you will, but get past the maki and go for the blow. Technically illegal (what fun things aren’t?), fugu sushi can be found here—if you’re persistent. And it can be eaten, if you’re trusting. Key question: did chef neutralize the neurotoxins that zombify
and then kill you?

LEAP OF FAITH

Anyone can climb the Grouse Grind—it’s just one damn foot in front of the other. It’s heading back down that hurts. First Flight Paragliding won’t let you soar to Ambleside, but you can toodle around, with a pilot behind you, above the Capilano Watershed, landing, after 20 Jonathan Seagull minutes, by the Cleveland Dam. Uninterrupted vistas, heart-thumping euphoria, and zero stress on your shins for less than $200. First-flight.ca

CRASH TEST

You listened to the “Don’t be a gas-hole!” Vespa ad and you’re rocking a retro-’70s S model (max speed: 95 kph). Now brave our fave junction of hurt: Knight Street from Marine to 49th. Runners-up: the Lions Gate Bridge, Boundary from Kingsway to Grandview, Granville from 41st to 16th, and Pacific at Burrard. Survivor!

ROCK BOTTOM

4×4 through the region’s top mud pits with a thousand drunken yahoos. Stave Lake (north of Mission) is host to nights of flame-belching ATVs, death metal, and bottomless kegs. Not to mention unsupervised high-speed crashes in bogs of uncertain depth.

TOWERING INFERNO

There’s no rush like rocketing the wrong way up an off-ramp. In today’s market, that means buying a condo on spec. Caught-short developers are yellow-taping buildings across the region. Witness the many headstones at the graveyard of dreams: Elyse, Evelyn, Garden City Condominiums, H+H, Hills Condos, Infinity Surrey Montgomery Estates, Ritz-Carlton, Riverbend Coquitlam, and Sophia.