Skiing on Whistler and Blackcomb
Because I am such an unprepared traveller (I usually just go somewhere without doing a huge amount of research about the location beforehand), I don’t really have a clue about Whistler-Blackcomb (in short referred to as “Whistler”) when my friends from Alberta as well as my Vancouver-based friend Andy point out that it’s a must-do for skiing. I am actually a bit scared of the big mountains because I’m not that great a skier, but because I get most of my travel inspiration from word-of-mouth, I join Andy on a skiing trip up to Whistler on my last but one weekend in Vancouver.
Whistler is one of North America’s biggest and most popular ski resorts. It stretches over two mountains, Whistler and Blackcomb and is located only 125 km (78 mi) north of Vancouver. In contrast to the local mountains around Vancouver, where the skiing season usually is until around Easter, in Whistler you can sometimes ski until the end of May.
We’re on the 7 am Greyhound bus and just when I’m leaving home, it starts snowing again. By the time we’re on British Columbia Highway 99, also known as the “Sea-to-Sky highway”, up to Whistler, the usual Vancouver snow-related traffic chaos has come upon us again. The bus driver is repeatedly telling us that whilst he will try his best, he won’t be able to guarantee that we’ll actually be able to get through to Whistler because the roads might not be clear due to accidents, cars getting stuck or blizzards. I can’t believe it. This is my last chance to go there before I head back to London so I’m anxiously looking out of the window and into the white mugginess of the snow storm outside, as if by keeping an eye on it I could prevent us from having to turn around. The Sea-to-Sky highway is a famously scenic drive but needless to say, we don’t see any of it this time. In Squamish, which is more than half-way up to Whistler from Vancouver, the bus driver makes a few calls and confirms to my utter relief that we’ll continue our journey up to Whistler.
We’ve booked into the HI Whistler hostel in the Olympic Village (which is, as we find out upon our arrival, not to be confused with Whistler Village right at the bottom of Whistler and Blackcomb mountains). Just like most of the HI hostels, the place is quite functional but it is spacious, comfy and clean; the dorms are with only four beds each relatively small which is great in hostel-terms and there is a pool table in the common area. The only hostel in Whistler, it is completely booked out weeks in advance at this time of the year, especially over the weekend. With the snow-chaos related delay to our journey, it’s too late to ski today so we decide to spontaneously extend our stay for another night and luckily grab the two last beds in the entire place before we take the frequently running shuttle bus (2 CAD (1.22 GBP / 1.41 EUR) one way) to Whistler Village, one of the locations to access the mountain – the other one being Creekside – and also home to pubs, restaurants and clubs for après-ski. We have pre-booked EDGE cards online, which offer a reduction for both skiing and rental for a 3-; 5- or 10-day pass (3-day EDGE card 295 CAD (180 GBP / 207 EUR), 3-day rental 125.99 CAD (77 GBP / 89 EUR)) and whilst we pick up the cards from Guest Services, the friendly man behind the counter advises us to sort out the rental equipment in the evening for the coming days. It can be stored for free on-site overnight and this will save us a lot of time in the morning.
Despite a relatively short night which has to be blamed entirely on the good atmosphere in the Dubb Linnh Gate Irish Pub in Whistler Village, featuring an open fire place out front, frequent live music and their own Lager, we get up nice and early the next morning. In contrast to the local mountains near Vancouver, Whistler does not offer night skiing and the lifts stop running at 3 pm. I’m quite nervous now because it’s a big mountain and I don’t know the area. But we couldn’t be luckier. With all the snow in the last days, the slopes are beautifully powdery. The first day, we exclusively do green slopes. Some of those are more challenging, e.g. the “Olympic” run on Whistler mountain, whereas others such as the “Green Line” on Blackcomb are at least in parts almost flat which means a lot of pushing along instead of skiing. We quickly get fed up with this kind of skiing and make a vow to move onto blue slopes swiftly and to only ski every run once, which is not a problem at all during a long weekend in Whistler due to the sheer size of the resort – even doing green and blue runs only.
The second day, after a short warm up on a green run, we attempt the first blue runs on the trip. I’m feeling alright on the blue runs, aside from the “Blue Line” on Blackcomb, which is steep as well as bumpy and the bad visibility doesn’t really help matters. My favourite slopes are the ones a little lower on the mountains though, such as “Cruiser” or “Springboard” on Blackcomb, or the “Enchanted Forest” and “Franz’s” on Whistler, which we ski in the most beautiful sunshine and which make me rejoice out loud. It’s the perfect day for skiing and conditions couldn’t be any better for me – I have never skied in this kind of powder before and although my thighs are killing me due to a combination of the deeper snow, bumpy terrain and the steepness of the slopes, I couldn’t be enjoying myself any more.
I’m really glad that Andy is skiing with me all the time despite the fact that he’s a much more experienced skier. With the added confidence I’m getting from his company, I dare heading up to the peaks of the mountains on day three, and here I have my first really scary skiing experience for this trip when we embark on “The Saddle” – possibly the steepest blue run on Whistler, so steep in fact that I have to step down sideways rather than ski. Fortunately, the other blue runs from the top, such as the “Panorama”, are a lot less scary but with bad visibility, we soon decide it’s time to call it a day on the peak and move further down the mountain.
We conclude the day with some beautiful runs on Blackcomb such as the “Crystal Glide” and “Glacier Road” before we head back to Vancouver via the nightly Sea-to-Sky highway, with the lights of the houses at the waterfront glittering in the darkness, happy and exhausted from a brilliant weekend of skiing.
