by There is a rather vocal mammal that lives in the mountains of British Columbia called the hoary marmot, which, when threatened by predators, lets out a shrill whistle. Whistler Blackcomb – the largest and busiest ski resort in North America – owes its name to this furry animal.
The shrill of marmots was replaced by clicking camera shutters this week, as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex visited the resort to mark the countdown to the next Invictus Games, which it will co-host with Vancouver. It is not the first time that this corner of British Columbia, 75 miles from the city, has attracted global attention – it has long been one of the most aspirational destinations on the continent.
Big draw and Olympic stardom
It was mid-December when I arrived in Whistler (as the resort’s name is usually shortened to) and, by that stage of the year, most of the mammals had sensibly retreated underground, and they are hibernating. Only the two-legged types on skis and snowboards were braving the elements.
With more than 200 pistes and 8,000 acres of ski terrain, the resort spans two massive mountain ridges in the Coast Mountains in Canada’s westernmost province, British Columbia. Whistler, which first opened in 1966, is to the south, and Blackcomb, which opened in 1980, is to the north. In the deep valley between them is the base of the resort, Whistler Village, and extending between the two mountains is the 2.7-mile long Peak 2 Gondola – a crossing with views that induce vertigo in all but the strongest constitutions.
By 2003, the two mountains had merged to form Whistler Blackcomb, and seven years later the resort cemented its international reputation when it hosted alpine, Nordic and toboggan events for the 2010 Winter Olympics. It hasn’t looked back since shin.
I visited Whistler for the first time in 2014. Even then, I was impressed by the large number of pistes available to me, and the fine food in the car-free village, in a wine cellar in one of the best restaurants. an invitation to saber the top from a bottle of sparkling wine. I was also scared to death of an Olympic sheet at Whistler Sliding Center. Pat Brown, former coach of the Jamaican Olympic bobsleigh team was one of my fellow skaters then, as portrayed by John Candy in the 1993 comedy film Run Cool.
Record investment and controversy
Since then, the resort has transformed itself after American mountain resort company Vail Resorts bought it for CAD$1.39 billion (£820 million) in 2016. Improvements followed quickly, including wheelchair upgrades aging and installation of high capacity gondolas. The Blackcomb Gondola, the Emerald Express and the Catskinner Express were there in 2018; then the Creekside Gondola and the Big Red Express in 2022. The most recent upgrade was the Fitzsimmons Express.
It was at the opening of this latest eight-seater chair lift that I found myself early on my first morning at the resort. After the first skiers boarded the car lift to the top, Doug MacFarlane, vice president of mountain operations at the resort, waxed lyrical about the Vail Resorts buyout. “They run ski resorts – that’s all Vail Resorts does,” he told me. “They are not a real estate company or a hedge fund. They are focused on building and operating ski resorts in an efficient way.”
MacFarlane argued that the main benefit of the purchase for skiers is the Epic Pass – a multi-option lift pass (currently priced at $969/£772) that provides unlimited access to Whistler Blackcomb, as well as many other winter resorts all over the world.
It’s not all good news for skiers who decide to turn up on the spur of the moment, however, as one-day lift passes cost up to CAN$269 (£158) during peak times.
In fact, many locals are opposed to the Vail Resorts purchase, citing price increases, longer lift lines, lower quality piste grooming and a lack of employee accommodation. Even details like US spelling on websites and apps, and imperial rather than metric measurements, angered Canadians.
GD Maxwell is a local magazine columnist Pique News Magazine. He suggests that Vail Resorts made some mistakes when they first took over the resort. “They didn’t seem to respect the customer service culture that the town had built and thrived on. That phased a lot of people,” he said.
But Maxwell emphasized how improvements are now coming to fruition. Employee housing is second to none, he says, and the quality and quantity of piste grooming is improving. Under the resort’s new chief executive Belinda Trembath, communication with local people has increased significantly. Even the price increases Vail Resorts implemented were due to inflation rather than anything.
Unrivaled skiing and hospitality
I personally found the ski facilities to be excellent. For two days I enjoyed the company of Canadian Olympic skier Julia Murray. Now 35 and retired from competitive skiing, she was born and raised in Whistler. Her parents were skiers here in the 1970s – her mother, Stephanie Sloan, a three-time world champion in freestyle skiing and her father, Dave Murray, a founding member of the Crazy Canucks, a well-known Canadian group. the barrier of downhill skiing in Europe was broken in the 1970s and 1980s. The downhill course at Whistler is named after Dave, who died of cancer when Julia was just a baby.
Despite living most of her life in Whistler, Julia still has an infectious enthusiasm for the resort. We started on easy blues, progressing to red rhino through fantastic spruce forests, as well as more testing blacks. With the season yet to fully warm up, we were blessed with sparsely populated piste and mercifully short, sometimes non-existent queues for the lifts.
Without exception, the lift staff were all friendly in that delightful Canadian way. Signs were posted everywhere reminding visitors that smoking and “foul language” would not be tolerated. At one point a local ticked off another skier for playing loud music on his phone in the lift queue. The culprit turned the volume down appropriately. I later realized he was an Englishman.
On my last day, I joined the resort’s Dawn Patrol Experience. Before sunrise, I joined two ski guides and went to the top of the mountain for some virgin snow.
It had snowed the night before so we enjoyed the most beautiful, creamiest and ankle deep powder, before anyone else was allowed on the lifts. Zigzagging between the spruce trees, just as the sun was coming up behind the mountain peaks, it felt like my own private mountain.
That alone made the trip to British Columbia worthwhile.
Fundamentals
Crystal Ski Holidays offers seven nights at the four-star Aava Whistler Hotel, from £1,600 per person, one room, including flights with Air Canada from London Heathrow to Vancouver and transfers, departing from 18 March 2024. day lift passes cost from CAD$183 to CAD$269. Day lift passes cost from Can$183 to Can$269. For information on Whistler Blackcomb and British Columbia, visit whistler.com and hellobc.com.
Plan the perfect ski vacation in Whistler with our expert guide.
Dominic was a guest of Whistler Tourism and Destination British Columbia.
