Whistler/Blackcomb

Skiing the 2010 Olympic mountains

By Seth Masia

This is North America’s biggest lift-served ski complex, in extent and variety of terrain, lift capacity and night life. A modern, cosmopolitan village, two hours north of Vancouver, it rivals the great European resorts for sophistication and scenic grandeur. The mountain surpasses everything on the continent for sheer leg-burning scale and challenge.

Stand between the base stations of the Whistler Village gondola and Blackcomb’s Excalibur gondola: they’re only a few yards apart, and between them they can take you to more contiguous lift-served terrain than you’ll find anywhere else in the Western Hemisphere.

Whistle and Blackcomb Mountains, together, provide over 7,000 acres of skiing; an even mile (5,280 feet) of vertical, a third of it above timberline; 33 lifts, half of them high-speed chairs and gondolas; four glaciers; and runs up to seven miles long. Most of the lower mountain trails are laid out as endless intermediate cruisers. Up top, experts can find everything from hairball chutes and cliff bands to broad, gentle powder bowls. The complex is simply bigger than anything outside Europe. On the lunch deck you’ll hear French, Japanese, German, Italian, Chinese and Korean, and forms of English from across the Commonwealth. The ski terrain is so vast that even a very good skier isn’t going to see all of it in a week.

Whistler/Blackcomb is also one of the cleanest, most efficient, most pleasant places to ski on the planet. Part of the appeal is that it’s relatively new. The first lifts went in at Whistler Mountain in 1966, but construction really got rolling in 1980, when Blackcomb opened. By 2003, the village boasted over 115 hotel/condominium lodges, small pensions, and B&Bs, plus more than 93 restaurants and a dozen discos.

Most skiers get to Whistler by driving up Canada’s Highway 99, the Sea-to-Sky Highway from Vancouver. It’s a 75-mile, two-hour trip (about five hours from Seattle counting traffic delays at the border), on good broad pavement with no mountain passes to cross. In good weather, the wonderful views across Georgia Strait toward Vancouver Island are distracting. Try to keep your eyes on the winding road. In bad weather, the road will be wet and possibly snowpacked and, as everywhere in the Northwest, invisibly treacherous black ice is a possibility. Mind your speed or the Mounties will. Canada posts speed limits in kilometers. 80 kph is 50 mph. If driving sounds like a hassle, there’s hourly bus service from the Vancouver airport.

Whistler Village sits at 2,000 feet above sea level, which is great for folks who haven’t been doing their aerobic exercises. It means you sleep drenched in oxygen: none of those sleepless nights that distress sea-level lungs at 8,000 and 9,000 feet in the Rockies. By the same token, winter storms often bring rain to the village. Don’t panic: this means snow a few hundred feet up the mountain. The summits get more than 350 inches of snow a year – good dense Gulf of Alaska snow that lasts through May. At this latitude, 52º north, winter days are short, so the lifts close at 3:30 pm. Your legs will have given up by then. In March, hours extend to 4 pm.

Convenient lodging

Find ski-in/ski-out lodging at Woodrun, Greystone, Chateau Whistler (Blackcomb), Delta Whistler, Powder’s Edge and Westbrook (Whistler Village).

Best eats

I’ve had great meals at La Rua (continental), Thai One On (Thai) and Monk’s Grill (steak and seafood). But there are dozens of good restaurants including a lot of good cheap pizza joints.

Whistler Mountain

Whistler Mountain has two base areas, each a village in its own right. The mountain shares Whistler Village with Blackcomb Mountain, and it has Whistler Creekside all to itself about four kilometers south down Highway 99 toward Vancouver. Day skiers from the city can avoid city traffic hassles by parking at Creekside.

From Whistler Village, ride the Fitzsimmons Express chair, or take the Whistler Village gondola, rising 3,800 feet to Roundhouse Lodge, a 50,000-square-foot midstation with gourmet foot and more than 1,700 seats. The gondola is one of the tallest lifts in North America but it goes only to timberline, two-thirds of the way up the hill.

Reach Roundhouse from Creekside via the Creekside gondola to midstation (at about 4,300 feet elevation) and then the Big Red Express.

Best bet for a newcomer to Whistler is to join one of the guided 40-minute tours offered daily at 11:30 am. Tours meet at the Guest Satisfaction Centre near the Alpine lightboard.

Most of the terrain below Roundhouse (and timberline) consists of broad, rolling intermediate cruising trails. You’d expect to find wonderful tree skiing here, but in fact it’s a temperate rain forest, with trees so tightly packed as to make the woods impenetrable.

A favorite high-speed cruiser for strong locals is Franz’s, usually groomed like an undulating superslab for more than three miles back to Creekside. Less ambitious skiers head for Jolly Green Giant, half a long, then cycle back to the top via the Emerald Express. There are even a couple of impossibly long beginner trails from Roundhouse Lodge – the easiest way down is via Upper Whiskey Jack past the Green Express to Olympic Run – all the way to Whistler Village.

Above lies the High Alpine, a huge expanse of terrain served by the Harmony Express quad and the Peak quad. The High Alpine consists of seven immense bowls. In general, only experts should ride the Peak into Whistler and West bowls. In good weather, Symphony bowl offers plenty of gentle terrain for new skiers and is easily accessible off Harmony Express. Harmoney and Glacier bowls supply a good mix of intermediate piste skiing and spectacularly varied natural-snow steeps. This part of the world contains many cliff bands, so ski with a level-headed friend.

Best beginner skiing

Most new skiers will train on Olympic chair near the Village gondola’s Olympic station. But easy trails wind all the way from the top of Little Whistler Peak (6,900 feet), off Harmony Express. In good weather an athletic novice should be able to make the seven-mile run from the top via Burnt Stew and Sidewinder – it’s an adventure. Beginners can also descend from Roundhouse via Ego Bound, Whiskey Jack or Pony Trail.

Best intermediate skiing

Ski up top on Harmony Ridge and the Glades, both off Harmony Express. Below Roundhouse, try Bear Paw and Franz’s. For an incredibly long run, ride the Peak to the summit (7,160 feet) and pick up Highway 86. It’s about three miles back to Franz’s, and then another couple to Creekside or the Village.

Best expert skiing

For challenge, explore the couloirs at the top of Glacier and West bowls, the short steep chutes on Harmony Horseshoes and (especially in powder) Waterfall.

For powder and bumps, ski the sheltered Boomer Bowl, a huge funnel necking down into the trees; you get there from Harmony Ridge. Seppo’s, a consistent fall-line shot under Garbanzo Express, is nicely sheltered, so the powder drifts deep for good storm skiing.

For high-speed cruising, blast down Franz’s. Beginning at the top of Orange chair and Garbanzo Express, accelerate down the Dave Murray Downhill and Bear Paw.

Best eats

If driving up from Vancouver in the morning, grab breakfast on the mountain at Creekside. Lunch at Roundhouse or at the Raven’s Nest (top of the Creekside gondola) or descend to the Garibaldi Lift Company Bar & Grill at the Village gondola base. The Chic Pea serves lunch at the top of Garbanzo chair. My favorite breakfast: the Fresh Tracks program puts you on the Whistler Village gondola before dawn for an all-you-can-eat feed at Roundhouse, and you hit the groomers before the crowd.

When the lifts close, check out Dusty’s Bar & BBQ, serving up cold beer and hot music since 1965.

Blackcomb Mountain

Newer and bit taller than Whistler, Blackcomb offers a trail layout that lies more consistently in the fall line. The fastest way up starts at Blackcomb Base: take the Wizard Express to Solar Coaster Express. Between them the two chairs rise 3,900 feet to Rendezvous at timberline.

The other gateway is at Whistler Village. Here, the Excalibur gondola rises only 1,600 vertical feet to the bottom of Excelerator chair. From the top of Excelerator, ski rolling cruisers down to Solar Coaster, but mind the high-speed traffic merging from Black Magic and Sorcerer.

Blackcomb has its own daily mountain tour, departing the top of Solar Coaster at 11:30 am. From here, you’ll find some of the best rolling cruiser trails in the world. One of the finest is named simply Cruiser; it drops off the Rendezvous ridge and pours three miles back to the base lodge. Another niftily rhythmic groomer is Choker. Exit to Slingshot or Gear Jammer for the rush back to base, or rest while riding back to Rendezvous aboard Catskinner chair.

On sunny days, follow the Expressway or 7th Avenue cat track around to the base of Blackcomb Peak, where 7th Heaven Express chair serves a broad powderfield leading into half a dozen broad swaths through the thin woods at timberline. The skiing here is deluxe in springtime corn.

At the top of 7th Heaven, Horstman Hut perches on the spine of the mountain overlooking Horstmann Glacier. Descend to the glacier via Blueline. The upper half of Horstmann, served by two T-bars, is of consistently intermediate pitch, and it presents no special challenge except in flat light. Below Horstmann T-bar though, the routes grown narrow and steep. You’ll ski to one side or the other of the impressive cliff band called the Great Pyramid, then dive between the trees at timberline and pound bumps down to Glacier Creek. From here, pick up Glacier Express and ride 2,000 vertical feet back to the glacier, or ride Jersey Cream Express back to Rendezvous. Or ride Crystal chair into a secluded network of intermediate and advanced runs below the Crystal Hut restaurant.

The longest run on the mountain – some seven miles long – is Blackcomb Glacier. To get there, ride the Showcase T-bar at the head of Horstmann Glacier and pop over the back. Blackcomb Glacier beckons, half a mile wide. Descend a couple of thousand feet of easy intermediate skiing, then a short bit of steeper stuff at the foot of the glacier. At timberline, all the lines converge into an endless easy runout through the woods, looping for miles back to Excelerator Express and the base.

Best beginner skiing

New skiers train on Magic chair at Blackcomb Base and can graduate to Green Line off Catskinner chair (Green Line is actually an easy cat track winding all the way from Horstmann Hut to the bottom of the mountain).

Best intermediate skiing

Find this on the dozen long, rolling groomers alongside Solar Coaster, Excelerator and Wizard chairs; Southern Comfort, Panorama and Cloud Nine on 7th Heaven; or Blackcomb Glacier.

Best expert skiing

Blackcomb has its share of hairball experts-only terrain. Most famous is the Couloir Extreme, better known to locals by its original name, Saudan Couloir. It starts at an honest 50º pitch and “flattens” after 50 meters to a more rational 40 to 45º. You’ll drop about 1,000 feet before the terrain rounds out at the bottom of Jersey Cream bowl. Between storms the couloir bumps out nicely. To get there, follow the ridge from Horstmann Hut. The couloir will open on your left. Can’t miss it.

Skip the couloir and follow the right side of the ridge, and you come to Secret bowl, ending in the chutes call Pakalolo. This is terrain for expert who’ve left their brains at home.

More terrain you mother warned you to avoid: At the top of Horstmann Glacier, traverse below the cliffs overhanging Glacier Express lift and cross the ridgeline via Spanky’s Ladder into Garnet, Diamond and Ruby bowls. These are steep routes funneling among cliff bands for about 1,500 vertical feet of exhilarating descent to Blackcomb Glacier.

For high-speed cruising, try anything groomed along 7th Heaven, Catskinner or Solar Coaster, right down to the village.

For bumps and powder, ski the broad stretch below Horstmann Glacier and the Heavenly Basin.

Special traffic precaution

At the end of the day, the entire skier and snowboarder population exits to Blackcomb Base via Lower Merlin’s or to Whistler Village via Village Run. If you’re nervous about being rear-ended, consider downloading on Wizard Express or Excalibur.

Best eats

On the mountain, lunch at the Wizard Grill in the Blackcomb Day Lodge, or use the cafeterias at Glacier Creek and Rendezvous. Rendezvous also has a nice sit-down restaurant called Christine’s. Good hot soups are served at Horstmann Hut. Crystal Hut serves a 1950s-style menu including roasted veggies, meat loaf, salmon or trout fillets and fresh-baked fruit pies.

A version of this article first appeared in The Unofficial Guide to Skiing and Snowboarding in the West (Frommer: 2003). Also see Fernie Alpine Resort.

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