A boarder takes flight from a tabletop jump at Whistler’s terrain park.
WHISTLER BLACKCOMB
RECOMMENDED BY Andrew Weibrecht
Andrew “Warhorse” Weibrecht arrived in British Columbia at Whistler Blackcomb in February 2010 with the goal of taking home a medal in the downhill or Super-G events. Instead, he got to ski … and ski, and ski.
“We’d arrived and gotten settled,” he recalled, “and had a chance to do several training runs on the downhill course. We got ready to do the race, but it started snowing. It snowed all that night, and the next day, and the next. The racing kept getting postponed, and there was nothing left to do but to go powder skiing. Eventually the snow stopped enough to get the race off, but only after four or five days of freeskiing—some of the best day-after-day skiing I’ve ever had.”
Incidentally, Andrew also achieved his initial objective, winning a bronze in the Super-G!
Whistler Blackcomb sits roughly seventy miles due north of Vancouver, in British Columbia’s Coast Mountains. The two mountains rise vertiginously, climbing nearly a mile from the floor of Pemberton Valley to heights of 7,160 feet (Whistler) and 7,494 feet (Blackcomb). If there’s a word to describe Whistler Blackcomb, it might be “vast.” The resort—North America’s largest—has a staggering 8,100 acres of terrain (including 1,100 acres of inbounds and out-of-bounds terrain and ninety-nine acres of terrain parks), two hundred marked trails (including two trails that stretch seven miles each), twelve bowls, an average snowfall of thirty feet, thirty-seven lifts (enough firepower to accommodate more than sixty thousand skiers/snowboarders an hour), and a mile of vertical drop.
And to think it all started with a humble fishing lodge!
The region was first recognized for its recreation potential by Alex and Myrtle Philip, two transplants from Maine, in 1911. By 1914, the Philips had established the Rainbow Lodge on the shores of Alta Lake; the lodge was named for the lake’s resident rainbow trout. (The town was originally named Alta Lake, but took the name Whistler in recognition of the high-pitched calls of hoary marmots, a species of ground squirrel endemic to the surrounding mountains.) With the Pacific Great Eastern Railway in place to convey visitors to the lake’s shores, the Rainbow Lodge soon became an acclaimed angling destination. By the 1920s, it was the most popular summer resort west of the Canadian Rockies. By 1960, plans were abreast to begin development of a ski resort in Whistler on London Mountain, in hopes of attracting the 1968 Olympics. Though that bid fell short, development continued, and the rechristened Whistler Mountain’s four-person gondola began rolling in February 1966. With North America’s greatest vertical, it was immediately on the map. When the adjoining Blackcomb Mountain opened in 1980, an alpine juggernaut was born. The two mountains operated independently until 1997, when they were officially merged. (Since 2008, the upper reaches of Whistler and Blackcomb have been connected by the PEAK 2 PEAK Gondola, an engineering marvel that conveys riders 2.5 miles at a height of more than 1,400 feet!)
And of course, Whistler Blackcomb was finally visited by the Winter Olympics and Paralympics … fifty years after the idea was initially hatched.
Whistler Blackcomb is known for its extensive intermediate terrain (more than 50 percent of the two mountains), with cruisers that seem to run forever. One favorite takes you nearly three miles down Blackcomb Glacier. Some of the terrain off the Harmony and Symphony quads will also prove inspiring to skiers/boarders of average ability; on a clear day, Highway 86 offers tremendous valley views. Want to enjoy your own Olympic moment? The Dave Murray Downhill is in the wheelhouse for intermediates, especially when it’s groomed. For experts, there’s something for everyone—big, beautiful bowls like Flute, Whistler, Ruby, and Sapphire; couloirs like Pakalolo and Extreme (once known as Saddam Couloir); and pretty much anything you can access from Spanky’s Ladder. With such terrain, it’s no wonder that Whistler Blackcomb has fostered many snow-sport heroes, including Eric Pehota, Shane Szocs, Ashleigh McIvor, and Steve Podborski.
Given its size and the number of visitors who make their way here (upwards of two million a season), it should come as no surprise that Whistler Village’s après-ski amenities are as alluring as the resort’s terrain. There are one hundred restaurants (give or take a few), ranging from pub grub to gastropub, to choose from, and some twenty bars and clubs. The village is pedestrian-only—a civilized touch typical of civilized British Columbia.
“I’ve skied at Whistler several times,” Andrew continued, “and every time there’s been great snow. The first time, I was there to participate in an international children’s race, the Whistler Cup. I skied all day every day during that visit; racing took a backseat. The second time was in 2010. Storms roll in off the Pacific, and there’s always fresh powder. The mountains rise so high and straight from sea level. There will be times when it may be too warm for good conditions on the bottom half of the mountains, but you know there will be great skiing at the top.
“One of my coaches used to be a ski instructor at Whistler, and when we were there for the Olympics, he had the skinny on the best spots to find fresh powder. Once something was skied out, we went elsewhere. At one point, we got up to a spot called Harmony Bowl. We were waiting in line, among the first thirty people to ski it that day. There was an awesome deep pitch and endless untracked snow. A high point of those freeskiing days was making big, high-speed powder turns all the way down that pitch.”
ANDREW WEIBRECHT is sibling no. 4 in a family of five and took up skiing after he begged his parents to let him join older brother Jonathan at Whiteface. Now one of the most exhilarating ski racers to watch kick out of the start gate, he was the 2010 Olympic Super-G bronze medalist. When he’s not on the slopes, Andrew enjoys fishing, golf, and mountain and road biking.
If You Go
Getting There: Most visitors fly into Vancouver, which is served by most major carriers. From Vancouver, Whistler is a two-hour drive; bus and train transfers are available.
Season: Whistler Blackcomb is generally open from late November through late April.
Lift Tickets: Adult three-day passes begin at around $200 (CAD), depending on when you visit.
Level of Difficulty: The largest ski area in North America, Whistler Blackcomb has terrain suited to skiers/boarders of all levels of ability.
Accommodations: Whistler has a broad variety of lodging options; visit www.whistlerblackcomb.com or call 866-218-9690 for details.
