Whistler-Blackcomb
Encyclopedia
Whistler Blackcomb is a major ski resort
located 125 km north of Vancouver
, in British Columbia
, Canada
. By many measures it is the largest ski resort in North America
; it is 50% larger than its nearest competitor in terms of size, has the greatest uphill lift capacity, and until 2009, had the highest vertical skiable distance by a wide margin. Whistler Blackcomb also features the Peak 2 Peak Gondola
for moving between Whistler and Blackcomb mountains at the top; Peak 2 Peak holds records for the highest and longest unsupported cable car span in the world. With all of this capacity, Whistler Blackcomb is also often the most-visited ski resort, often besting 2 million visitors a year.
Whistler was originally conceived as part of a bid to win the 1968 Winter Olympics
, but a series of events led to the bids being withdrawn or losing to other cities. Construction of the resort started in spite of this, and the resort first opened for business in February 1966. The resort expanded extensively in the 1980s and 90s, becoming the centrepiece of a renewed bid on the part of nearby Vancouver
. Vancouver/Whistler was selected as the winning bid for the 2010 Winter Olympics
in July 2003. Whistler Blackcomb hosted the alpine skiing events
, including the men's and women's Olympic and Paralympic alpine skiing disciplines of downhill
, Super-G, giant slalom, super combined and slalom
. The Dave Murray downhill course towards Whistler Creekside finally hosted an Olympic downhill event, 50 years after it was originally surveyed for this purpose.
Whistler and Blackcomb were originally separate resorts, until they merged in 1997. Intrawest
, the BC real estate firm that developed Blackcomb, purchased Whistler and merged the two operations. Over the next decade, the company expanded by purchasing additional ski resorts across North America, before expanding into golf and other resorts as well. Today, Intrawest owns ten ski resorts, another ten getaway resorts (mostly beachside) and two heliskiing
companies. Whistler Village, widely recognized for its livable design, formed the basis of similar Tyrolian-inspired developments at their expanding series of resorts, as well as other resorts that hired Intrawest to build similar developments on their behalf. Intrawest resorts share a common recognizable style.
In 2006 Intrawest was purchased by the alternative asset management firm, Fortress Investment Group
. Three weeks before the opening of the 2010 Olympics, Fortress failed to make payment on its loan used to buy out Intrawest. This caused its creditors to force Intrawest to divest itself of several of its resort holdings in 2009 and 2010 which includes Whistler Blackcomb, in order to reduce its debt load.
connecting it with Blackcomb mountain to the north. There are 4 on-hill restaurants, as well as a children's ski school facility and children can sign up for a five day lesson called "Adventure Camp". It is served by two base areas: Whistler Creek, the original base on its southwest flank, and Whistler Village on its northwest flank.
Blackcomb Mountain is the left-most (northern) mountain when looking at the Whistler-Blackcomb ski area from Whistler Village. It has a summit elevation of 2182 metres (7,494 ft) at the top of the 7th Heaven chair - Blackcomb Mountain itself is higher at 2440 meters (8000 ft), but unlike Whistler the peak is not lift-served. Blackcomb has a higher skiable vertical, at 1609 meters (5,280 ft), and less in-bound skiing area at 3414 acres (1,382 ha). It is served by 17 lifts; 1 gondola, 6 high-speed quads, 3 fixed-grip triples and 7 surface lifts, as well as the end-station for the Peak 2 Peak. Blackcomb is the location of the world famous "Couloir Extreme" run, which is one of the top ten steep in-bounds runs in the world according to Skiing Magazine. Originally called the Saudan Couloir by local skiers even before it was part of the ski area, the company eventually had to drop the name when extreme skier
Sylvain Saudan
complained about the unauthorised use of his name.
The two previously separate ski areas of Whistler and Blackcomb were integrated into one operation in 1997 after Intrawest
merged with Whistler Mountain Ski Corporation. Ticketing, pass, and access control systems for the two ski areas were fully integrated in 2003. Together, Whistler and Blackcomb form the largest ski area in North America at 8171 acres (33 km²), 54% larger than that of Vail
, the next largest, which has 5289 acres (21.4 km²). Either mountain alone would be in the top-five in terms of size.
The mountain
s are accessed primarily via three gondolas, Blackcomb Excalibur Gondola and Whistler Mountain Village Gondola in the Village, and the Whistler Creekside Gondola to the south in the Creekside area. Alternates include several high-speed quads. The primary skiing terrain starts about one-third up the mountains. Ski-outs to the valley are usually possible during the months of December through April. The mid- and upper- areas are serviced by 10 high-speed detachable chairs and 5 fixed-grip lifts made by Lift Engineering
, Doppelmayr
and Poma
. Four T-bars service the Horstman Glacier
and the Whistler alpine regions and take skiers to the entrance to Blackcomb Glacier. The overall lift capacity, 65,507 skiers per hour, is the greatest in North America.
Travelling from one mountain to the other, while staying in the ski area, was only possible at the valley elevation before 2008. It was only when Whistler Blackcomb connected the two mountains at approximately 1,800 m (6,000 ft) with the Peak 2 Peak Gondola
that visitors could then travel between mountains without skiing down and taking the regular lifts up. This lift opened on December 12, 2008. The lift has a total length of 4.4 km (2.7 mi) and the longest unsupported span for a lift of its kind in the world at 3.02 km (1.9 mi) while also having the highest ground clearance for a lift of its kind, 436 m (1,427 ft) above the valley floor.
Whistler Village, which is part of the Resort Municipality of Whistler, a geo-political entity not directly associated with Intrawest's operation, is situated at the base of the Whistler Mountain Village Gondola and Blackcomb Excalibur Gondola. The Village incorporates community services, shops, entertainment venues, restaurants, bars, hotels, condominiums and vacation properties. The Village is 675 m (2,214 ft) above sea level, and is located 137 km (85.1 mi) from Vancouver International Airport
.
. In the 1860s British Naval surveyors named the mountain "London Mountain," but it soon garnered the nickname "Whistler" because of the shrill whistle made by the Western Hoary Marmots who lived among the rocks. Four lakes paralleled the route of Trail, the highest then being known as Summit Lake. However, there was another Summit Lake in BC, and in 1910 the name was changed to its current form, Alta Lake.
One of the first permanent residents in the Alta Lake area was trapper John Millar, who set up a cabin next to the trail just south of the base of the mountain. During a trip to sell furs in Vancouver in 1911, Millar stopped at the Horseshoe Bar & Grill for dinner. The cook was Alex Philip from Maine, and Millar invited Philip to join him for dinner. Millar was a storyteller, and during the conversations that followed, he invited Philip to visit the Alta area. Alex and his wife Myrtle visited what was then known as Summit Lake several times over the next few years, and in 1913 they purchased 10 acres (40,468.6 m²) of land on the northwest corner of Alta Lake for $700.
that were the main attraction of the resort. That same year, the Pacific Great Eastern Railway (PGE) reached the lake, from Squamish. Executives of the PGE suggested the Lodge host fishermen from Vancouver, which was now less than two days away (from three or more) via steamship to Squamish and then the PGE to Alta Lake. A standard rate of $2 for a week was applied, and the very first group arrived with 25 people. The resort was a hit. Millar left when the railway arrived, looking to get further away from civilization.
Building followed demand, and over time the lodge grew to include an additional 45 buildings (cabins, tennis courts, general store, post office) and could accommodate 100 people. It became the most popular west coast resort for 30 years. The Philips operated the Lodge until 1948 when they sold it to Alec and Audrey Greenwood. The main Lodge burnt down in 1977, but today the area has been preserved as Rainbow Park. The Philips both remained in the valley until their deaths. Alex died in 1968 at the age of 86, and Myrtle died in 1986 at the age of 95.
Following the successful launch of the Rainbow Lodge, several other camps set up on the lake. Russ Jordan opened the Alta Lake Hotel which burned down in 1930, and replaced it with Jordan’s Lodge on nearby Nita Lake. Bert and Agnes Harrop built Harrop’s Point in the 1920s. This became the Cypress Lodge in 1945 under its then-owner Dick Fairhurst, who built new cabins and a main lodge in the early 1960s. In 1972 the property was purchased by the Canadian Youth Hostel Association and it remained the Whistler Hostel until it was closed in 2010 when the association (now Hostelling International) opened a new, larger hostel. Cecilia and John Mansell moved to Alta Lake in 1945 and built the Hillcrest Lodge near today’s Lakeside Park on Alta Lake. They sold it in 1965 to the Mason Family and others who operated it as Mount Whistler Lodge for skiers. The main lodge was burnt in a fire practice by the fire department in 1986.
There was some commercial use of the London Mountain area as well. Logging had been carried out for some time, but the arrival of the railway in 1914 made this much more profitable and for several years there were a few sizable mills and lumber operations: The Barrs at Parkhurst Mill on Green Lake (to the north), and the Gebharts with the Rainbow Lumber Company on Alta Lake. The fur trade remained for some time, later supplanted by a mink and marten farm. Jimmy Fitzsimmons ran a prospecting support company, which led to mining surveys up Fitzsimmons Valley. The shafts can still be found on the Singing Pass trail.
. They initially looked at a site on Diamond Head just north of Squamish, which was already developed to the extent of a single chairlift. However, they concluded that the area simply couldn't be developed properly, "it just wasn’t the right terrain for a world-class resort.” Franz Wilhelmsen, a local businessman who had married into the Seagram family
, had already come to the same conclusions when he had been scouting areas for a new ski resort. He met with the COA and convinced them to look further north in the London Mountain area, “And they were impressed.”
Encouraged by their positive reviews, Wilhelmsen organized the Garibaldi Olympic Development Association (GODA) to make a formal bid. At this time there was no road, no electricity, and no piped water or sewer in Alta Lake. Their bid for the Olympics was unsurprisingly rejected, and the Canadian bid was given to Calgary
, who came in a close second place to Grenoble
. Undaunted, Wilhelmsen decided to press ahead with development of a resort.
In 1962 the Garibaldi Lifts Limited was formed with Franz Wilhelmsen as President. It had two main objectives, to finance and supervise required land/business studies, and to erect and operate ski lifts on London Mountain. The company had little experience in ski operations, so they hired Willy Schaeffler
, a well known developer, to help them. Schaeffler proved as enthusiastic about London Mountain as COA and GODA had been. Schaeffler returned and wrote a good feasibility study about the Alta area, which had no mining claims.
From 1962 to 1965 Garibaldi Lifts raised funds and began development of the ski area on the south side of the mountain. The government agreed that they would set aside a 56 acres (226,624.2 m²) plot at the base of the mountain for Garibaldi Lifts Limited to buy, and agreed to bring the highway to the base of the mountain if they could raise enough money. By 1965 they had reached their goal of raising $800,000 and started planning for development. However, they were not happy with the name, and on 27 August 1965 London Mountain officially became Whistler Mountain.
By 1965 the Provincial Government had completed a narrow gravel road from Vancouver. Electricity arrived the same year with the installation of a substation along the lines from Bridge River. Everything was in place, and the Alta area became a hive of development. GODA made a bid for the 1972 Winter Olympics
, but Banff won again and eventually lost to Japan.
. In addition a day lodge was constructed and six ski runs cut into the hill. Whistler officially opened for skiing for the first time on 15 February 1966. The new mountain won instant acclaim for its vertical drop, good snow conditions, and huge alpine area. The only problem at the time was the road—it was a dirt logging track, which was only plowed on Saturday, to the detriment of Friday travellers.
With real infrastructure in place, in 1968 GODA made another bid for the 1976 Winter Olympics
, and this time the joint Vancouver/Garibaldi won the Canadian nomination. However, in 1970 when Montreal
won the voting for the 1976 Summer Olympics
, Vancouver/Garibaldi was removed from further consideration and the games eventually went to Denver, Colorado
. In a stunning turn of events, Denver turned down the games after winning the bidding. The games were then offered to the other North American entry, Vancouver/Garibaldi, but political turmoil due to the recent change in government
led to their bid being withdrawn as well, and in desperation the IOC returned the games to Innsbruck for a second time in a row.
The gravel road was paved to Whistler in 1966, and to Pemberton in 1969. The Blue and Green chairlifts were added in 1970, providing access to additional terrain. In 1972 these were joined by the Olive and Orange chairlifts. A parallel lift to the Green Chair to alleviate crowds came in 1974, and the Little Red Chair came in 1978. The Roundhouse, an on-mountain lodge and restaurant, was completed in 1980. This new lodge provided respite for cold skiers who had survived the long ride up on the Red Chair.
was interested in developing tourism and took a number of steps affecting Whistler. At the time, the Alta Lake area was overdeveloped, so the government instituted a development freeze while they studied the problem. The only solution was to continue development in another location. They quickly decided to focus on the table between Whistler and Blackcomb, about 4 km to the north of the existing facilities on Alta Lake. At that time this was the site of the Alta Lake dump, and the remains of a Volkswagen Van are still buried under the modern village.
In 1975 the Resort Municipality of Whistler (RMOW) was formed, the first Resort Municipality in Canada and also the first place in British Columbia since Canadian prohibition
where bars were allowed to be open on Sunday. The act also created the Whistler Village Land Company who would oversee all development of the new Whistler Village. In 1977 the provincial government named Al Raine the Provincial Ski Area Co-ordinator, in charge of expanding BC's skiing capabilities. Raine was previously National Coach for the Canadian Women’s Ski Team, and was married to famous Canadian skier Nancy Greene
. Raine saw the potential in developing Blackcomb Mountain, then part of the Garibaldi Provincial Park
, and joined the Whistler city council. The Blackcomb area was currently zoned for logging, but Raine and Greene successfully lobbied the government to remove the zoning and allow development as a ski area.
In 1977 the Municipality hired Sutcliffe Griggs Moodie Development Consultants to design a layout for Whistler Village's
development. However, their design was considered too conventional and allowed too much car traffic. Raine recommended Eldon Beck, who had been the primary designer at Vail, celebrated for its layout. Beck’s designs included a pedestrian Main Street Village Stroll and an elevated covered walkway system, limiting all vehicles to the outside of the developed area. To this day the Village retains this basic design in spite of dramatic expansions, and has won worldwide acclaim in architecture circles.
In January 1978, 53 acres (214,483.6 m²) of crown land
were given to the Whistler municipality to develop the town centre. The first sod for the village was turned on 18 August 1978 by first Mayor Pat Carleton. By 1979 lots of amenities were in place, including Municipal Hall, Fire Hall, Health Care Centre, and Elementary School. Phase 1 expansion included 11 parcels in the modern Village Square area, including the Whistler Conference Centre, a variety of hotels, restaurants, grocery store, hardware store, etc. An enormous underground garage was built to support all of the buildings in the area, completed before any construction could start above it. The first hotel, the Blackcomb Lodge, anchors the Village Square area to this day.
, won the contest. A new company, Fortress Mountain Resorts, was formed with a 50-50 partnership between Aspen and the Federal Business Development Bank of Canada. The new competition, paid for partially by tax dollars, was not initially appreciated by Whistler. Initial development of the mountain included four triple chairlifts (later named Cruiser, Stoker, Catskinner and Fitzsimmons) and one double chairlift supplied by Lift Engineering
. At the time the lifts were referred to only by number.
Blackcomb opened for skiing on 6 December 1980, along with the newly constructed Village. To ensure guests could continue to easily access Whistler from the new Village, three triple chairlift
s were added to Whistler for the same season; the Village, Olympic, and Black Chairs, used in succession, took skiers to the Roundhouse Lodge. Whistler's original base began to be referred to as Whistler Creek, or Creekside, after the creek that runs through the area.
In 1982, "Chair 6" (later rebranded Jersey Cream) opened in the Horstman Creek drainage on Blackcomb. Whistler cut new trails along the northern flank of the mountain. In 1983 Blackcomb acquired a used T-Bar from Fortress Mountain and installed it on a south-facing slope, in full view of Whistler Mountain. This 7th lift was coined 7th Heaven T-Bar and gave access to high alpine and glaciated terrain. It also gave Blackcomb the highest lift-serviced vertical drop of any ski area in North America, with the top of the lift at 7494 feet (2,284.2 m). Blackcomb promoted themselves as the “Mile High Mountain".
Whistler responded in 1986 with the Peak Chair to the summit of Whistler Mountain at 7160 feet (2,182.4 m). Although not as high as 7th Heaven, this lift opened up Whistler Mountain's alpine terrain, and allowed access to the Harmony Bowl area. The new terrain made Whistler the largest alpine ski area in North America
.
Skiers could buy a Blackcomb pass, a Whistler pass, or a Dual Mountain pass. Locals loved when tourists would ask “Where is Dual Mountain?”
. Intrawest was an early developer of timeshare
listings, and saw the potential in developing the ski resort with condominium
assets as a timeshare destination.
Intrawest immediately carried out massive upgrades on Blackcomb. They started by moving the 7th Heaven T-Bar to Horstman Glacier, and adding the Showcase T-Bar running up the back of the Glacier to the 7th Heaven peak. The original 7th Heaven T-Bar was replaced by a new Doppelmayr
high-speed quad chairlift. Two additional Doppelmayr detachable quads were added as the Wizard and Solar Coaster lifts, cutting the ride time from base to the alpine area from 45 minutes to 15. The Rendezvous Restaurant was re-dubbed Base 2 and the moniker moved to the restaurant at the top of the Solar Coaster lift.
(Yan), and substantially cut long lift queues in the Green area of the mountain. A year later, Whistler Mountain replaced three double chairlifts and the original Creekside gondola with two high-speed quad chairlifts, the Quicksilver Express and Redline Express lifts, also built by Lift Engineering
. 1994 saw the removal of the Blue Chair, and the construction of the Harmony Express to Little Whistler Peak, built by Poma
.
In 1994, Blackcomb made its last major lift expansion with the replacement of the Stoker, Cruiser, and Fitzsimmons lifts with the high-speed Excelerator quad chair and Excalibur Gondola. The second is dubbed by some as the "gondola to nowhere" since it doesn't connect with any restaurant or access additional terrain. However, it allowed rapid alpine access for skiers in Whistler Village, who previously had to take 4 chairlifts to Rendezvous (Fitzsimmons, Stoker, Cruiser, and Jersey Cream, with 3 of those being slower chairs). The Excelerator also opened up a vast area of intermediate-difficulty terrain to the left of Solar Coaster and below Jersey Cream that was previously neglected and under-utilized, because skiers who travel those slopes frequently had to go all the way to the bottom of the mountain, which is over-skied and icy.
This competition had driven development of the two mountains at a rate no other resorts could come close to matching. In 1992, Snow Country Magazine voted Whistler the Number One Ski Resort in North America. Similar #1 rankings quickly followed from other major magazines, and between 1992 and 2000 it won #1 ranking from one of the major magazines every year. In 1996, it became the only resort in history to be simultaneously named #1 by Snow Country, SKI and Skiing Magazines.
.
Like their expansion on Blackcomb, Intrawest immediately started a major build-out on Whistler. The Quicksilver lift was replaced with a Poma
gondola, the Creekside Gondola, while the Green Chair Express and Redline lifts were removed and replaced with Doppelmayr
high speed quad chair lifts, aptly named the Emerald Express and Big Red Express lifts. The original Roundhouse was demolished and a new lodge built in its place. Around this time Intrawest began marketing the two mountains as one large ski area under the name "Whistler-Blackcomb". On 20 April 1999, Whistler Blackcomb became the first North American ski resort to top 2 million skier visits in one season.
1998 saw the replacement of the Peak Chair with a high-speed quad. The original Peak Chair was renamed to Franz's Chair and moved parallel to the Big Red Express chair with a return station approximately half way up the Big Red Express lift line. Franz's Chair runs primarily in early and late season, when lower altitudes are not well covered. The Black Chair was replaced with a high-speed quad (Garbanzo Express Chair), and another was added (the Fitzsimmons Express Chair) in 2000, following the line of the long-gone Village Chair. The top of the Fitzsimmons and the bottom of the Garbanzo are co-located in the Village Gondola Olympic station area, providing extra lift capacity from the Whistler Village to the top of the mid-mountain zone in addition to the gondola itself.
Starting in 2000, Intrawest started re-developing the Creekside area with new village layout. Throughout, Intrawest also extensively developed the summertime attractions, notably golf
and mountain biking
. Today, Whistler Blackcomb averages 2 million visitors during the ski season, but another 2.5 during the summer.
Whistler Blackcomb's 2006/2007 season saw the construction and opening of the Symphony Express, a high speed quad that begins towards the bottom of the Symphony Amphitheater and carries riders to the top of Piccolo. One of the original names suggested for this lift was Piccolo Express.
A more ambitious upgrade is the Peak 2 Peak Gondola
, which connects Whistler and Blackcomb's mid-station restaurants, about 2/3 of the way up the mountain. Peak-to-Peak opened for the first time on 12 December 2008, but low snowfall meant it was rockbound at the time. The first summer operation day was June 6, 2009.
As Whistler Blackcomb continued to win awards - eight consecutive by 2000 - the resort formed the basis of a renewed Olympics bid, this time for the 2010 Winter Olympics
. Calgary
also bid for the Canadian entry, as their equipment from the 1988 Winter Olympics
was already in place and allowed them to offer a low-cost bid, as did Quebec City
, which lost the 2002 bid. Calgary was eliminated in close voting on 21 November 1998, and Vancouver-Whistler won the second round of voting on 3 December. In IOC voting Pyeongchang, South Korea
won the initial round, which eliminated Salzburg
, but in the second round on 2 July 2003, they won every one of Salzburg's supporters and bested Pyeongchang 56-53.
Whistler Mountain hosted the alpine skiing
events. The men's skiing took place on the Dave Murray
Downhill course, while women's skiing took place on a new course, which starts on Wild Card, cuts across Jimmy’s Joker to Franz's Run and connects at the bottom of the Dave Murray Downhill. In order to serve the spectators and judges who need to travel only to the timing area a short distance above the Creekside area, the Timing Flats Express, a Doppelmayr high-speed quad, was added to the Creekside base. This alleviates demand on the main Gondola and other lifts that serve the starting areas, much higher up the mountain. The lift is only temporary and in the summer of 2010, it was dismantled and trucked to Sunshine Village
, Alberta and replaced the Strawberry chair.
Blackcomb Mountain hosted the bobsleigh
, luge
and skeleton
events at The Whistler Sliding Centre. Whistler Olympic Park
hosted Olympic and Paralympic biathlon
, cross-country skiing
, Nordic combined
and ski jumping
, some distance to the south of the Creekside area in the Callaghan Valley
. Whistler Blackcomb says the mountains will remain 90% open to the public during the 2010 Winter Games.
The British Columbia government paid $600 million for major upgrades to the Sea-to-Sky Highway, which would carry the majority of visitors to the alpine sites.
Summer 2010 had two lift construction projects at Creekside Base, site of skiing at Vancouver 2010. The Timing Flats Express, used for passenger transport for the games, was removed and re-built as the Strawberry Express at Sunshine Village, Alberta, Canada. The second project is the construction of the long-awaited Kadenwood Gondola, providing access to the Kadenwood Estate Homes. Built by Doppelmayr-CTEC, the pulse gondola with 8 passenger cabins in two groups of 2 will be technologically advanced, with no staff needed to operate. Homeowners will simply walk up to the lift, swipe a card (similar to one used to access a hotel room), and the lift will begin operation, completing a half-rotation (bottom > top or top > bottom). This will mean the lift can run 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, for most of the year, but will only operate when needed, including the summer, with only a maintenance shutdown, most likely in the fall.
The Whistler Mountain Bike Park uses the Fitzsimmons and Garbanzo quad chairlifts, as well as the Whistler Village Gondola
to shuttle bikers to around midstation, at 1,200 m (4,000 ft). The park has 47+ trails for all skill levels totaling 250 km + of trails. There are smooth trails with gentle banked corners for beginners, steep twisty trails for intermediates, tight trails with jumps and stunts for advanced riders, and challenging trails with giant jumps, drops, and root-strewn terrain for the experts.
During the summer, high speed quad chairlifts (Fitzimmons and Garbanzo) used by the bike park have every second chair replaced with a bike rack. These racks fit four bikes, three in grooves and one on a hook on the side of the chair. The bikers then get on the next chair which is a normal passenger carrier.
The bike park has two zones: the Fitzsimmons Zone (the lower zone) and the Garbanzo Zone (the upper zone). All riders take either the Village Gondola
or the Fitzsimmions quad to the Olympic Station area. Then intermediate and advanced riders can take the Garbanzo quad up further to the Garbanzo zone. Garbanzo riders can then return to midstation or Whistler Village, the base of the bike park. From the top of Garbanzo to the village is an impressive 1100 m (3,600 ft) vertical descent; eclipsed only by the more expensive guided descents from the top gondola station or the top of the Peak Chair, the highest accessible point on the mountain. "A-Line" is the most well-known track. The Boneyard Slopestyle Course is part of the Fitzsimmons Zone and is located at the very bottom of the bike park, visible from the base of Whistler Mountain. The Boneyard features a collection of high-intermediate and advanced slopestyle features, including drops, dirt jumps, and more.
The park hosts two large, annual mountain biking competitions/festivals: Crankworx
is held in the summer; Harvest Huckfest is held in the fall. The mountain is frequented by professional mountain bikers such as Wade Simmons
, Andrew Shandro
, Richie Schley, Francis Hopcraft, and Anne-Caroline Chausson
.
at the resort. The tube park is located at Base II alongside the Village Run.
.
The lift's manufacturer, Lift Engineering/Yan
, entered bankruptcy after the incident in July 1996. The cause was found to be a design fault in the Yan detachable grip. The Quicksilver lift was removed and replaced by the Creekside Gondola.
The lift re-opened on Sunday, February 22, 2009. The affected chair #37 has been permanently removed from operation.
Ski resort
A ski resort is a resort developed for skiing and other winter sports. In Europe a ski resort is a town or village in a ski area - a mountainous area, where there are ski trails and supporting services such as hotels and other accommodation, restaurants, equipment rental and a ski lift system...
located 125 km north of Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
, in British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. By many measures it is the largest ski resort in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
; it is 50% larger than its nearest competitor in terms of size, has the greatest uphill lift capacity, and until 2009, had the highest vertical skiable distance by a wide margin. Whistler Blackcomb also features the Peak 2 Peak Gondola
Peak 2 Peak Gondola
The Peak 2 Peak Gondola is a tri-cable gondola lift located in Whistler, British Columbia that links Whistler Mountain's Roundhouse Lodge with Blackcomb Mountain's Rendezvous Restaurant. It is the first lift to join the two side-by-side mountains...
for moving between Whistler and Blackcomb mountains at the top; Peak 2 Peak holds records for the highest and longest unsupported cable car span in the world. With all of this capacity, Whistler Blackcomb is also often the most-visited ski resort, often besting 2 million visitors a year.
Whistler was originally conceived as part of a bid to win the 1968 Winter Olympics
1968 Winter Olympics
The 1968 Winter Olympics, officially known as the X Olympic Winter Games, were a winter multi-sport event which was celebrated in 1968 in Grenoble, France and opened on 6 February. Thirty-seven countries participated...
, but a series of events led to the bids being withdrawn or losing to other cities. Construction of the resort started in spite of this, and the resort first opened for business in February 1966. The resort expanded extensively in the 1980s and 90s, becoming the centrepiece of a renewed bid on the part of nearby Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
. Vancouver/Whistler was selected as the winning bid for the 2010 Winter Olympics
2010 Winter Olympics
The 2010 Winter Olympics, officially the XXI Olympic Winter Games or the 21st Winter Olympics, were a major international multi-sport event held from February 12–28, 2010, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, with some events held in the suburbs of Richmond, West Vancouver and the University...
in July 2003. Whistler Blackcomb hosted the alpine skiing events
Alpine skiing at the 2010 Winter Olympics
Alpine skiing at the 2010 Winter Olympics was held at Whistler Creekside in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada. The ten events were scheduled for February 13–27, 2010; weather delayed the first event, the men's downhill, two days until Monday, February 15....
, including the men's and women's Olympic and Paralympic alpine skiing disciplines of downhill
Downhill
Downhill is an alpine skiing discipline. The rules for the Downhill were originally developed by Sir Arnold Lunn for the 1921 British National Ski Championships....
, Super-G, giant slalom, super combined and slalom
Slalom skiing
Slalom is an alpine skiing discipline, involving skiing between poles spaced much closer together than in Giant Slalom, Super-G or Downhill, thereby causing quicker and shorter turns.- Origins :...
. The Dave Murray downhill course towards Whistler Creekside finally hosted an Olympic downhill event, 50 years after it was originally surveyed for this purpose.
Whistler and Blackcomb were originally separate resorts, until they merged in 1997. Intrawest
Intrawest
Intrawest ULC is a developer and operator of destination resorts and a luxury adventure travel company. The company was founded in 1976 as a privately funded real estate development company...
, the BC real estate firm that developed Blackcomb, purchased Whistler and merged the two operations. Over the next decade, the company expanded by purchasing additional ski resorts across North America, before expanding into golf and other resorts as well. Today, Intrawest owns ten ski resorts, another ten getaway resorts (mostly beachside) and two heliskiing
Heliskiing
Heliskiing is off-trail, downhill skiing that is accessed by a helicopter, not a ski lift. Heliskiing is essentially about skiing in a natural—albeit highly selected—environment without the effort or gear compromise required for hiking into these areas as in ski touring or ski mountaineering.Most...
companies. Whistler Village, widely recognized for its livable design, formed the basis of similar Tyrolian-inspired developments at their expanding series of resorts, as well as other resorts that hired Intrawest to build similar developments on their behalf. Intrawest resorts share a common recognizable style.
In 2006 Intrawest was purchased by the alternative asset management firm, Fortress Investment Group
Fortress Investment Group
Fortress Investment Group LLC is an investment management firm based in New York, New York. The company went public on February 9, 2007.-History:...
. Three weeks before the opening of the 2010 Olympics, Fortress failed to make payment on its loan used to buy out Intrawest. This caused its creditors to force Intrawest to divest itself of several of its resort holdings in 2009 and 2010 which includes Whistler Blackcomb, in order to reduce its debt load.
Description
Whistler Mountain is the right-most (southern) mountain when looking at the Whistler-Blackcomb ski area from Whistler Village. It has a summit elevation of 2284 meters (7,160 ft). The total vertical drop is 1530 meters (5,020 ft) and 4757 acres (1,925 ha) skiable inbound terrain. Whistler is served by a total of 20 lifts; 2 gondolas, 7 high-speed detachable quad chair lifts, 2 fixed grip chair lifts, 2 T-bars. and the drive station for the Peak 2 Peak GondolaPeak 2 Peak Gondola
The Peak 2 Peak Gondola is a tri-cable gondola lift located in Whistler, British Columbia that links Whistler Mountain's Roundhouse Lodge with Blackcomb Mountain's Rendezvous Restaurant. It is the first lift to join the two side-by-side mountains...
connecting it with Blackcomb mountain to the north. There are 4 on-hill restaurants, as well as a children's ski school facility and children can sign up for a five day lesson called "Adventure Camp". It is served by two base areas: Whistler Creek, the original base on its southwest flank, and Whistler Village on its northwest flank.
Blackcomb Mountain is the left-most (northern) mountain when looking at the Whistler-Blackcomb ski area from Whistler Village. It has a summit elevation of 2182 metres (7,494 ft) at the top of the 7th Heaven chair - Blackcomb Mountain itself is higher at 2440 meters (8000 ft), but unlike Whistler the peak is not lift-served. Blackcomb has a higher skiable vertical, at 1609 meters (5,280 ft), and less in-bound skiing area at 3414 acres (1,382 ha). It is served by 17 lifts; 1 gondola, 6 high-speed quads, 3 fixed-grip triples and 7 surface lifts, as well as the end-station for the Peak 2 Peak. Blackcomb is the location of the world famous "Couloir Extreme" run, which is one of the top ten steep in-bounds runs in the world according to Skiing Magazine. Originally called the Saudan Couloir by local skiers even before it was part of the ski area, the company eventually had to drop the name when extreme skier
Extreme skiing
Extreme skiing is skiing performed on long, steep slopes in dangerous terrain. The sport is performed off-piste.The French coined the term 'Le Ski Extreme' in the 1970s...
Sylvain Saudan
Sylvain Saudan
Sylvain Saudan is an extreme skier, dubbed "skier of the impossible." He is noted for skiing down large and steep mountains, including those in the Himalayas. In 2007 he survived a helicopter crash in Kashmir....
complained about the unauthorised use of his name.
The two previously separate ski areas of Whistler and Blackcomb were integrated into one operation in 1997 after Intrawest
Intrawest
Intrawest ULC is a developer and operator of destination resorts and a luxury adventure travel company. The company was founded in 1976 as a privately funded real estate development company...
merged with Whistler Mountain Ski Corporation. Ticketing, pass, and access control systems for the two ski areas were fully integrated in 2003. Together, Whistler and Blackcomb form the largest ski area in North America at 8171 acres (33 km²), 54% larger than that of Vail
Vail Ski Resort
Vail Ski Resort is located in Eagle County, Colorado, next to the town of Vail. Vail Mountain, at , is the largest single mountain ski resort in the United States, featuring seven bowls and intermediate gladed terrain in Blue Sky Basin...
, the next largest, which has 5289 acres (21.4 km²). Either mountain alone would be in the top-five in terms of size.
The mountain
Mountain
Image:Himalaya_annotated.jpg|thumb|right|The Himalayan mountain range with Mount Everestrect 58 14 160 49 Chomo Lonzorect 200 28 335 52 Makalurect 378 24 566 45 Mount Everestrect 188 581 920 656 Tibetan Plateaurect 250 406 340 427 Rong River...
s are accessed primarily via three gondolas, Blackcomb Excalibur Gondola and Whistler Mountain Village Gondola in the Village, and the Whistler Creekside Gondola to the south in the Creekside area. Alternates include several high-speed quads. The primary skiing terrain starts about one-third up the mountains. Ski-outs to the valley are usually possible during the months of December through April. The mid- and upper- areas are serviced by 10 high-speed detachable chairs and 5 fixed-grip lifts made by Lift Engineering
Lift Engineering
Lift Engineering, more commonly known as Yan Lifts, was a major ski lift manufacturer in North America. Founded in 1965 and based in Carson City, Nevada, the firm came under scrutiny by state safety officials after a fatal accident in 1985, and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in July...
, Doppelmayr
Doppelmayr
The Doppelmayr Garaventa Group is an Austrian-Swiss company that manufactures chairlifts, cable cars, gondolas, surface tows for ski and amusement parks as well as urban people movers and material handling systems. To date, Doppelmayr and Garaventa have produced over 13,700 installations in 78...
and Poma
Poma
Poma, also known as Pomagalski S.A. is a French company, specialising in construction of cable-driven lift systems, including fixed and detachable chairlifts, gondola lifts, funiculars, aerial tramways, people movers, and surface lifts. Poma has installed more than 7800 devices on five continents,...
. Four T-bars service the Horstman Glacier
Horstman Glacier
The Hortsman Glacier is a glacier located on Blackcomb Peak in Garibaldi Provincial Park. During the ski season at Whistler Blackcomb Ski Resort, it is used for skiing and riding on. During the summer ski season on Blackcomb Peak, it is used for Glacier Skiing And Riding....
and the Whistler alpine regions and take skiers to the entrance to Blackcomb Glacier. The overall lift capacity, 65,507 skiers per hour, is the greatest in North America.
Travelling from one mountain to the other, while staying in the ski area, was only possible at the valley elevation before 2008. It was only when Whistler Blackcomb connected the two mountains at approximately 1,800 m (6,000 ft) with the Peak 2 Peak Gondola
Peak 2 Peak Gondola
The Peak 2 Peak Gondola is a tri-cable gondola lift located in Whistler, British Columbia that links Whistler Mountain's Roundhouse Lodge with Blackcomb Mountain's Rendezvous Restaurant. It is the first lift to join the two side-by-side mountains...
that visitors could then travel between mountains without skiing down and taking the regular lifts up. This lift opened on December 12, 2008. The lift has a total length of 4.4 km (2.7 mi) and the longest unsupported span for a lift of its kind in the world at 3.02 km (1.9 mi) while also having the highest ground clearance for a lift of its kind, 436 m (1,427 ft) above the valley floor.
Whistler Village, which is part of the Resort Municipality of Whistler, a geo-political entity not directly associated with Intrawest's operation, is situated at the base of the Whistler Mountain Village Gondola and Blackcomb Excalibur Gondola. The Village incorporates community services, shops, entertainment venues, restaurants, bars, hotels, condominiums and vacation properties. The Village is 675 m (2,214 ft) above sea level, and is located 137 km (85.1 mi) from Vancouver International Airport
Vancouver International Airport
Vancouver International Airport is located on Sea Island in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada, about from Downtown Vancouver. In 2010 it was the second busiest airport in Canada by aircraft movements and passengers , behind Toronto Pearson International Airport, with non-stop flights daily to...
.
Early visitors
The valley area between Whistler and Blackcomb was first surveyed and documented in 1858 by Hudson’s Bay men looking for an alternate route into the Cariboo area further north. Although little-used at the time, the route would later become one of the many paths used during the Gold Rush at the turn of the century. Known as the Pemberton Trail, the route followed a path similar to the Sea-to-Sky Highway, leading past the Whistler area to the present day town of PembertonPemberton, British Columbia
Pemberton is a village north of Whistler in the Pemberton Valley of British Columbia in Canada, with a population of 2,192. Until the 1960s the village could be accessed only by train but that changed when Highway 99 was built through Whistler and Pemberton.-Climate:The climate of Pemberton is...
. In the 1860s British Naval surveyors named the mountain "London Mountain," but it soon garnered the nickname "Whistler" because of the shrill whistle made by the Western Hoary Marmots who lived among the rocks. Four lakes paralleled the route of Trail, the highest then being known as Summit Lake. However, there was another Summit Lake in BC, and in 1910 the name was changed to its current form, Alta Lake.
One of the first permanent residents in the Alta Lake area was trapper John Millar, who set up a cabin next to the trail just south of the base of the mountain. During a trip to sell furs in Vancouver in 1911, Millar stopped at the Horseshoe Bar & Grill for dinner. The cook was Alex Philip from Maine, and Millar invited Philip to join him for dinner. Millar was a storyteller, and during the conversations that followed, he invited Philip to visit the Alta area. Alex and his wife Myrtle visited what was then known as Summit Lake several times over the next few years, and in 1913 they purchased 10 acres (40,468.6 m²) of land on the northwest corner of Alta Lake for $700.
Rainbow Lodge
By 1914, their Rainbow Lodge fishing resort was completed with four bedrooms, a large living/dining area and a kitchen. The resort was named for the Rainbow troutRainbow trout
The rainbow trout is a species of salmonid native to tributaries of the Pacific Ocean in Asia and North America. The steelhead is a sea run rainbow trout usually returning to freshwater to spawn after 2 to 3 years at sea. In other words, rainbow trout and steelhead trout are the same species....
that were the main attraction of the resort. That same year, the Pacific Great Eastern Railway (PGE) reached the lake, from Squamish. Executives of the PGE suggested the Lodge host fishermen from Vancouver, which was now less than two days away (from three or more) via steamship to Squamish and then the PGE to Alta Lake. A standard rate of $2 for a week was applied, and the very first group arrived with 25 people. The resort was a hit. Millar left when the railway arrived, looking to get further away from civilization.
Building followed demand, and over time the lodge grew to include an additional 45 buildings (cabins, tennis courts, general store, post office) and could accommodate 100 people. It became the most popular west coast resort for 30 years. The Philips operated the Lodge until 1948 when they sold it to Alec and Audrey Greenwood. The main Lodge burnt down in 1977, but today the area has been preserved as Rainbow Park. The Philips both remained in the valley until their deaths. Alex died in 1968 at the age of 86, and Myrtle died in 1986 at the age of 95.
Following the successful launch of the Rainbow Lodge, several other camps set up on the lake. Russ Jordan opened the Alta Lake Hotel which burned down in 1930, and replaced it with Jordan’s Lodge on nearby Nita Lake. Bert and Agnes Harrop built Harrop’s Point in the 1920s. This became the Cypress Lodge in 1945 under its then-owner Dick Fairhurst, who built new cabins and a main lodge in the early 1960s. In 1972 the property was purchased by the Canadian Youth Hostel Association and it remained the Whistler Hostel until it was closed in 2010 when the association (now Hostelling International) opened a new, larger hostel. Cecilia and John Mansell moved to Alta Lake in 1945 and built the Hillcrest Lodge near today’s Lakeside Park on Alta Lake. They sold it in 1965 to the Mason Family and others who operated it as Mount Whistler Lodge for skiers. The main lodge was burnt in a fire practice by the fire department in 1986.
There was some commercial use of the London Mountain area as well. Logging had been carried out for some time, but the arrival of the railway in 1914 made this much more profitable and for several years there were a few sizable mills and lumber operations: The Barrs at Parkhurst Mill on Green Lake (to the north), and the Gebharts with the Rainbow Lumber Company on Alta Lake. The fur trade remained for some time, later supplanted by a mink and marten farm. Jimmy Fitzsimmons ran a prospecting support company, which led to mining surveys up Fitzsimmons Valley. The shafts can still be found on the Singing Pass trail.
Olympic dreams
In 1960 the Canadian Olympic Association visited the west coast looking for potential sites for a future 1968 Winter Olympics1968 Winter Olympics
The 1968 Winter Olympics, officially known as the X Olympic Winter Games, were a winter multi-sport event which was celebrated in 1968 in Grenoble, France and opened on 6 February. Thirty-seven countries participated...
. They initially looked at a site on Diamond Head just north of Squamish, which was already developed to the extent of a single chairlift. However, they concluded that the area simply couldn't be developed properly, "it just wasn’t the right terrain for a world-class resort.” Franz Wilhelmsen, a local businessman who had married into the Seagram family
Seagram
The Seagram Company Ltd. was a large corporation headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, Canada that was the largest distiller of alcoholic beverages in the world. Toward the end of its independent existence it also controlled various entertainment and other business ventures...
, had already come to the same conclusions when he had been scouting areas for a new ski resort. He met with the COA and convinced them to look further north in the London Mountain area, “And they were impressed.”
Encouraged by their positive reviews, Wilhelmsen organized the Garibaldi Olympic Development Association (GODA) to make a formal bid. At this time there was no road, no electricity, and no piped water or sewer in Alta Lake. Their bid for the Olympics was unsurprisingly rejected, and the Canadian bid was given to Calgary
Calgary
Calgary is a city in the Province of Alberta, Canada. It is located in the south of the province, in an area of foothills and prairie, approximately east of the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies...
, who came in a close second place to Grenoble
Grenoble
Grenoble is a city in southeastern France, at the foot of the French Alps where the river Drac joins the Isère. Located in the Rhône-Alpes region, Grenoble is the capital of the department of Isère...
. Undaunted, Wilhelmsen decided to press ahead with development of a resort.
In 1962 the Garibaldi Lifts Limited was formed with Franz Wilhelmsen as President. It had two main objectives, to finance and supervise required land/business studies, and to erect and operate ski lifts on London Mountain. The company had little experience in ski operations, so they hired Willy Schaeffler
Willy Schaeffler
Wilhelm Josef "Willy" Schaeffler was a German-American skiing champion, winning coach and ski resort developer. He is best known to the public for his intensive training programs that led the US ski team to gold and bronze medals in the 1972 Winter Olympics...
, a well known developer, to help them. Schaeffler proved as enthusiastic about London Mountain as COA and GODA had been. Schaeffler returned and wrote a good feasibility study about the Alta area, which had no mining claims.
From 1962 to 1965 Garibaldi Lifts raised funds and began development of the ski area on the south side of the mountain. The government agreed that they would set aside a 56 acres (226,624.2 m²) plot at the base of the mountain for Garibaldi Lifts Limited to buy, and agreed to bring the highway to the base of the mountain if they could raise enough money. By 1965 they had reached their goal of raising $800,000 and started planning for development. However, they were not happy with the name, and on 27 August 1965 London Mountain officially became Whistler Mountain.
By 1965 the Provincial Government had completed a narrow gravel road from Vancouver. Electricity arrived the same year with the installation of a substation along the lines from Bridge River. Everything was in place, and the Alta area became a hive of development. GODA made a bid for the 1972 Winter Olympics
1972 Winter Olympics
The 1972 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XI Olympic Winter Games, were a winter multi-sport event which was celebrated from February 3 to February 13, 1972 in Sapporo, Hokkaidō, Japan...
, but Banff won again and eventually lost to Japan.
Whistler opens
By the fall of 1965 the ski area featured a four person gondola to the mountain’s mid-station, a double chairlift to the alpine tree line (the Red Chair), and two T-bars, all provided by GMD MuellerGMD Mueller
GMD Mueller Lifts AG was a Swiss aerial lift manufacturing firm.GMD stands for Gerhard Mueller Dietlikon.Founded in 1947 by engineer Gerhard Mueller, who is credited with the invention of the modern detachable chairlift in the late 1940s, it was one of the most prolific and respected aerial lift...
. In addition a day lodge was constructed and six ski runs cut into the hill. Whistler officially opened for skiing for the first time on 15 February 1966. The new mountain won instant acclaim for its vertical drop, good snow conditions, and huge alpine area. The only problem at the time was the road—it was a dirt logging track, which was only plowed on Saturday, to the detriment of Friday travellers.
With real infrastructure in place, in 1968 GODA made another bid for the 1976 Winter Olympics
1976 Winter Olympics
The 1976 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XII Olympic Winter Games, were a winter multi-sport event which was celebrated February 4–15, 1976 in Innsbruck, Austria...
, and this time the joint Vancouver/Garibaldi won the Canadian nomination. However, in 1970 when Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
won the voting for the 1976 Summer Olympics
1976 Summer Olympics
The 1976 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXI Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event celebrated in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, in 1976. Montreal was awarded the rights to the 1976 Games on May 12, 1970, at the 69th IOC Session in Amsterdam, over the bids of Moscow and...
, Vancouver/Garibaldi was removed from further consideration and the games eventually went to Denver, Colorado
Denver, Colorado
The City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Denver is a consolidated city-county, located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...
. In a stunning turn of events, Denver turned down the games after winning the bidding. The games were then offered to the other North American entry, Vancouver/Garibaldi, but political turmoil due to the recent change in government
British Columbia general election, 1972
The 30th general election for the Canadian province of British Columbia was held to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia. The election was called on July 24, 1972, and held on August 30, 1972...
led to their bid being withdrawn as well, and in desperation the IOC returned the games to Innsbruck for a second time in a row.
The gravel road was paved to Whistler in 1966, and to Pemberton in 1969. The Blue and Green chairlifts were added in 1970, providing access to additional terrain. In 1972 these were joined by the Olive and Orange chairlifts. A parallel lift to the Green Chair to alleviate crowds came in 1974, and the Little Red Chair came in 1978. The Roundhouse, an on-mountain lodge and restaurant, was completed in 1980. This new lodge provided respite for cold skiers who had survived the long ride up on the Red Chair.
Whistler Village
In 1974 the provincial New Democratic Party of British ColumbiaNew Democratic Party of British Columbia
The New Democratic Party of British Columbia is a social-democratic political party in British Columbia, Canada. The party currently forms the official opposition to the governing British Columbia Liberal Party following the 2009 provincial election in British Columbia.The BC NDP is the provincial...
was interested in developing tourism and took a number of steps affecting Whistler. At the time, the Alta Lake area was overdeveloped, so the government instituted a development freeze while they studied the problem. The only solution was to continue development in another location. They quickly decided to focus on the table between Whistler and Blackcomb, about 4 km to the north of the existing facilities on Alta Lake. At that time this was the site of the Alta Lake dump, and the remains of a Volkswagen Van are still buried under the modern village.
In 1975 the Resort Municipality of Whistler (RMOW) was formed, the first Resort Municipality in Canada and also the first place in British Columbia since Canadian prohibition
Prohibition
Prohibition of alcohol, often referred to simply as prohibition, is the practice of prohibiting the manufacture, transportation, import, export, sale, and consumption of alcohol and alcoholic beverages. The term can also apply to the periods in the histories of the countries during which the...
where bars were allowed to be open on Sunday. The act also created the Whistler Village Land Company who would oversee all development of the new Whistler Village. In 1977 the provincial government named Al Raine the Provincial Ski Area Co-ordinator, in charge of expanding BC's skiing capabilities. Raine was previously National Coach for the Canadian Women’s Ski Team, and was married to famous Canadian skier Nancy Greene
Nancy Greene
Nancy Catherine Greene, OC, OBC, OD is a Canadian Senator for British Columbia and a champion alpine skier voted as Canada's Female Athlete of the 20th Century...
. Raine saw the potential in developing Blackcomb Mountain, then part of the Garibaldi Provincial Park
Garibaldi Provincial Park
Garibaldi Provincial Park, also called Garibaldi Park, is a wilderness park located in British Columbia, Canada, about 70 kilometres north of Vancouver. The park is located to the east of the Sea to Sky Highway between Squamish and Whistler and covers an area of over 1,950 square kilometres...
, and joined the Whistler city council. The Blackcomb area was currently zoned for logging, but Raine and Greene successfully lobbied the government to remove the zoning and allow development as a ski area.
In 1977 the Municipality hired Sutcliffe Griggs Moodie Development Consultants to design a layout for Whistler Village's
Whistler, British Columbia
Whistler is a Canadian resort town in the southern Pacific Ranges of the Coast Mountains in the province of British Columbia, Canada, approximately north of Vancouver...
development. However, their design was considered too conventional and allowed too much car traffic. Raine recommended Eldon Beck, who had been the primary designer at Vail, celebrated for its layout. Beck’s designs included a pedestrian Main Street Village Stroll and an elevated covered walkway system, limiting all vehicles to the outside of the developed area. To this day the Village retains this basic design in spite of dramatic expansions, and has won worldwide acclaim in architecture circles.
In January 1978, 53 acres (214,483.6 m²) of crown land
Crown land
In Commonwealth realms, Crown land is an area belonging to the monarch , the equivalent of an entailed estate that passed with the monarchy and could not be alienated from it....
were given to the Whistler municipality to develop the town centre. The first sod for the village was turned on 18 August 1978 by first Mayor Pat Carleton. By 1979 lots of amenities were in place, including Municipal Hall, Fire Hall, Health Care Centre, and Elementary School. Phase 1 expansion included 11 parcels in the modern Village Square area, including the Whistler Conference Centre, a variety of hotels, restaurants, grocery store, hardware store, etc. An enormous underground garage was built to support all of the buildings in the area, completed before any construction could start above it. The first hotel, the Blackcomb Lodge, anchors the Village Square area to this day.
Blackcomb opens
In 1978 a call for bids was issued to develop Blackcomb for skiing. The bidding to develop Blackcomb was contested by two companies, the Aspen Ski Company, and the newly-formed Blackcomb Ski Company. Aspen, having recently developed the Fortress Mountain Resort in AlbertaAlberta
Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...
, won the contest. A new company, Fortress Mountain Resorts, was formed with a 50-50 partnership between Aspen and the Federal Business Development Bank of Canada. The new competition, paid for partially by tax dollars, was not initially appreciated by Whistler. Initial development of the mountain included four triple chairlifts (later named Cruiser, Stoker, Catskinner and Fitzsimmons) and one double chairlift supplied by Lift Engineering
Lift Engineering
Lift Engineering, more commonly known as Yan Lifts, was a major ski lift manufacturer in North America. Founded in 1965 and based in Carson City, Nevada, the firm came under scrutiny by state safety officials after a fatal accident in 1985, and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in July...
. At the time the lifts were referred to only by number.
Blackcomb opened for skiing on 6 December 1980, along with the newly constructed Village. To ensure guests could continue to easily access Whistler from the new Village, three triple chairlift
Chairlift
An elevated passenger ropeway, or chairlift, is a type of aerial lift, which consists of a continuously circulating steel cable loop strung between two end terminals and usually over intermediate towers, carrying a series of chairs...
s were added to Whistler for the same season; the Village, Olympic, and Black Chairs, used in succession, took skiers to the Roundhouse Lodge. Whistler's original base began to be referred to as Whistler Creek, or Creekside, after the creek that runs through the area.
Competition and buildout
Throughout the 1980s the two ski areas competed strongly for ticket sales among the Village visitors, which led to a rapid buildout of new lifts that opened new areas and improved ride times.In 1982, "Chair 6" (later rebranded Jersey Cream) opened in the Horstman Creek drainage on Blackcomb. Whistler cut new trails along the northern flank of the mountain. In 1983 Blackcomb acquired a used T-Bar from Fortress Mountain and installed it on a south-facing slope, in full view of Whistler Mountain. This 7th lift was coined 7th Heaven T-Bar and gave access to high alpine and glaciated terrain. It also gave Blackcomb the highest lift-serviced vertical drop of any ski area in North America, with the top of the lift at 7494 feet (2,284.2 m). Blackcomb promoted themselves as the “Mile High Mountain".
Whistler responded in 1986 with the Peak Chair to the summit of Whistler Mountain at 7160 feet (2,182.4 m). Although not as high as 7th Heaven, this lift opened up Whistler Mountain's alpine terrain, and allowed access to the Harmony Bowl area. The new terrain made Whistler the largest alpine ski area in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
.
Skiers could buy a Blackcomb pass, a Whistler pass, or a Dual Mountain pass. Locals loved when tourists would ask “Where is Dual Mountain?”
Intrawest buys Blackcomb
In 1986, Blackcomb's assets and real estate rights were bought by fledgling real estate developer IntrawestIntrawest
Intrawest ULC is a developer and operator of destination resorts and a luxury adventure travel company. The company was founded in 1976 as a privately funded real estate development company...
. Intrawest was an early developer of timeshare
Timeshare
A timeshare is a form of ownership or right to the use of a property, or the term used to describe such properties. These properties are typically resort condominium units, in which multiple parties hold rights to use the property, and each sharer is allotted a period of time in which they may use...
listings, and saw the potential in developing the ski resort with condominium
Condominium
A condominium, or condo, is the form of housing tenure and other real property where a specified part of a piece of real estate is individually owned while use of and access to common facilities in the piece such as hallways, heating system, elevators, exterior areas is executed under legal rights...
assets as a timeshare destination.
Intrawest immediately carried out massive upgrades on Blackcomb. They started by moving the 7th Heaven T-Bar to Horstman Glacier, and adding the Showcase T-Bar running up the back of the Glacier to the 7th Heaven peak. The original 7th Heaven T-Bar was replaced by a new Doppelmayr
Doppelmayr
The Doppelmayr Garaventa Group is an Austrian-Swiss company that manufactures chairlifts, cable cars, gondolas, surface tows for ski and amusement parks as well as urban people movers and material handling systems. To date, Doppelmayr and Garaventa have produced over 13,700 installations in 78...
high-speed quad chairlift. Two additional Doppelmayr detachable quads were added as the Wizard and Solar Coaster lifts, cutting the ride time from base to the alpine area from 45 minutes to 15. The Rendezvous Restaurant was re-dubbed Base 2 and the moniker moved to the restaurant at the top of the Solar Coaster lift.
Renewed competition
In response to Blackcomb Mountain's construction of three high-speed quads, Whistler Mountain undertook one of the biggest ski-lift construction projects ever realized in Canada at the time, the construction of the Whistler Express Gondola. Carrying passengers 1157 m (3,795.9 ft) vertically and 5 km (3.1 mi) horizontally over 63 support towers, the lift opened on 24 November 1988. In 1990 Whistler began upgrading its aging fleet of fixed grip chairlifts with the addition of its first high-speed quad chairlift. The Green Chair Express, which replaced the two Green Chairs, was built by Lift EngineeringLift Engineering
Lift Engineering, more commonly known as Yan Lifts, was a major ski lift manufacturer in North America. Founded in 1965 and based in Carson City, Nevada, the firm came under scrutiny by state safety officials after a fatal accident in 1985, and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in July...
(Yan), and substantially cut long lift queues in the Green area of the mountain. A year later, Whistler Mountain replaced three double chairlifts and the original Creekside gondola with two high-speed quad chairlifts, the Quicksilver Express and Redline Express lifts, also built by Lift Engineering
Lift Engineering
Lift Engineering, more commonly known as Yan Lifts, was a major ski lift manufacturer in North America. Founded in 1965 and based in Carson City, Nevada, the firm came under scrutiny by state safety officials after a fatal accident in 1985, and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in July...
. 1994 saw the removal of the Blue Chair, and the construction of the Harmony Express to Little Whistler Peak, built by Poma
Poma
Poma, also known as Pomagalski S.A. is a French company, specialising in construction of cable-driven lift systems, including fixed and detachable chairlifts, gondola lifts, funiculars, aerial tramways, people movers, and surface lifts. Poma has installed more than 7800 devices on five continents,...
.
In 1994, Blackcomb made its last major lift expansion with the replacement of the Stoker, Cruiser, and Fitzsimmons lifts with the high-speed Excelerator quad chair and Excalibur Gondola. The second is dubbed by some as the "gondola to nowhere" since it doesn't connect with any restaurant or access additional terrain. However, it allowed rapid alpine access for skiers in Whistler Village, who previously had to take 4 chairlifts to Rendezvous (Fitzsimmons, Stoker, Cruiser, and Jersey Cream, with 3 of those being slower chairs). The Excelerator also opened up a vast area of intermediate-difficulty terrain to the left of Solar Coaster and below Jersey Cream that was previously neglected and under-utilized, because skiers who travel those slopes frequently had to go all the way to the bottom of the mountain, which is over-skied and icy.
This competition had driven development of the two mountains at a rate no other resorts could come close to matching. In 1992, Snow Country Magazine voted Whistler the Number One Ski Resort in North America. Similar #1 rankings quickly followed from other major magazines, and between 1992 and 2000 it won #1 ranking from one of the major magazines every year. In 1996, it became the only resort in history to be simultaneously named #1 by Snow Country, SKI and Skiing Magazines.
Intrawest buys Whistler
In 1997, the Whistler Mountain Ski Corporation was also bought out by IntrawestIntrawest
Intrawest ULC is a developer and operator of destination resorts and a luxury adventure travel company. The company was founded in 1976 as a privately funded real estate development company...
.
Like their expansion on Blackcomb, Intrawest immediately started a major build-out on Whistler. The Quicksilver lift was replaced with a Poma
Poma
Poma, also known as Pomagalski S.A. is a French company, specialising in construction of cable-driven lift systems, including fixed and detachable chairlifts, gondola lifts, funiculars, aerial tramways, people movers, and surface lifts. Poma has installed more than 7800 devices on five continents,...
gondola, the Creekside Gondola, while the Green Chair Express and Redline lifts were removed and replaced with Doppelmayr
Doppelmayr
The Doppelmayr Garaventa Group is an Austrian-Swiss company that manufactures chairlifts, cable cars, gondolas, surface tows for ski and amusement parks as well as urban people movers and material handling systems. To date, Doppelmayr and Garaventa have produced over 13,700 installations in 78...
high speed quad chair lifts, aptly named the Emerald Express and Big Red Express lifts. The original Roundhouse was demolished and a new lodge built in its place. Around this time Intrawest began marketing the two mountains as one large ski area under the name "Whistler-Blackcomb". On 20 April 1999, Whistler Blackcomb became the first North American ski resort to top 2 million skier visits in one season.
1998 saw the replacement of the Peak Chair with a high-speed quad. The original Peak Chair was renamed to Franz's Chair and moved parallel to the Big Red Express chair with a return station approximately half way up the Big Red Express lift line. Franz's Chair runs primarily in early and late season, when lower altitudes are not well covered. The Black Chair was replaced with a high-speed quad (Garbanzo Express Chair), and another was added (the Fitzsimmons Express Chair) in 2000, following the line of the long-gone Village Chair. The top of the Fitzsimmons and the bottom of the Garbanzo are co-located in the Village Gondola Olympic station area, providing extra lift capacity from the Whistler Village to the top of the mid-mountain zone in addition to the gondola itself.
Starting in 2000, Intrawest started re-developing the Creekside area with new village layout. Throughout, Intrawest also extensively developed the summertime attractions, notably golf
Golf
Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....
and mountain biking
Mountain biking
Mountain biking is a sport which consists of riding bicycles off-road, often over rough terrain, using specially adapted mountain bikes. Mountain bikes share similarities with other bikes, but incorporate features designed to enhance durability and performance in rough terrain.Mountain biking can...
. Today, Whistler Blackcomb averages 2 million visitors during the ski season, but another 2.5 during the summer.
Whistler Blackcomb's 2006/2007 season saw the construction and opening of the Symphony Express, a high speed quad that begins towards the bottom of the Symphony Amphitheater and carries riders to the top of Piccolo. One of the original names suggested for this lift was Piccolo Express.
A more ambitious upgrade is the Peak 2 Peak Gondola
Peak 2 Peak Gondola
The Peak 2 Peak Gondola is a tri-cable gondola lift located in Whistler, British Columbia that links Whistler Mountain's Roundhouse Lodge with Blackcomb Mountain's Rendezvous Restaurant. It is the first lift to join the two side-by-side mountains...
, which connects Whistler and Blackcomb's mid-station restaurants, about 2/3 of the way up the mountain. Peak-to-Peak opened for the first time on 12 December 2008, but low snowfall meant it was rockbound at the time. The first summer operation day was June 6, 2009.
Renewed Olympic bid
2010 Winter Olympics
The 2010 Winter Olympics, officially the XXI Olympic Winter Games or the 21st Winter Olympics, were a major international multi-sport event held from February 12–28, 2010, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, with some events held in the suburbs of Richmond, West Vancouver and the University...
. Calgary
Calgary
Calgary is a city in the Province of Alberta, Canada. It is located in the south of the province, in an area of foothills and prairie, approximately east of the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies...
also bid for the Canadian entry, as their equipment from the 1988 Winter Olympics
1988 Winter Olympics
The 1988 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XV Olympic Winter Games, were a winter multi-sport event celebrated in and around Calgary, Alberta, Canada from 13 to 28 February 1988. The host was selected in 1981 after having beat Falun, Sweden and Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy...
was already in place and allowed them to offer a low-cost bid, as did Quebec City
Quebec City
Quebec , also Québec, Quebec City or Québec City is the capital of the Canadian province of Quebec and is located within the Capitale-Nationale region. It is the second most populous city in Quebec after Montreal, which is about to the southwest...
, which lost the 2002 bid. Calgary was eliminated in close voting on 21 November 1998, and Vancouver-Whistler won the second round of voting on 3 December. In IOC voting Pyeongchang, South Korea
Pyeongchang County
Pyeongchang is a county in Gangwon province, South Korea located in the Taebaek Mountains region. It is also home to several Buddhist temples, including Woljeongsa. It is located approximately east of Seoul, the capital of South Korea...
won the initial round, which eliminated Salzburg
Salzburg
-Population development:In 1935, the population significantly increased when Salzburg absorbed adjacent municipalities. After World War II, numerous refugees found a new home in the city. New residential space was created for American soldiers of the postwar Occupation, and could be used for...
, but in the second round on 2 July 2003, they won every one of Salzburg's supporters and bested Pyeongchang 56-53.
Whistler Mountain hosted the alpine skiing
Alpine skiing at the 2010 Winter Olympics
Alpine skiing at the 2010 Winter Olympics was held at Whistler Creekside in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada. The ten events were scheduled for February 13–27, 2010; weather delayed the first event, the men's downhill, two days until Monday, February 15....
events. The men's skiing took place on the Dave Murray
Dave Murray (skier)
Dave Murray was an alpine ski racer. He was noted for being a member of the Crazy Canucks, the Canadian downhill racers of the late 1970s and early 1980s known for their fearless racing style...
Downhill course, while women's skiing took place on a new course, which starts on Wild Card, cuts across Jimmy’s Joker to Franz's Run and connects at the bottom of the Dave Murray Downhill. In order to serve the spectators and judges who need to travel only to the timing area a short distance above the Creekside area, the Timing Flats Express, a Doppelmayr high-speed quad, was added to the Creekside base. This alleviates demand on the main Gondola and other lifts that serve the starting areas, much higher up the mountain. The lift is only temporary and in the summer of 2010, it was dismantled and trucked to Sunshine Village
Sunshine Village
Sunshine Village is a Canadian ski resort, located within Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada. It is one of three major ski resorts located in the Banff National Park. The Sunshine base area is located Southwest of the town of Banff, Alberta. By car, it is about one hour and thirty minute drive...
, Alberta and replaced the Strawberry chair.
Blackcomb Mountain hosted the bobsleigh
Bobsleigh at the 2010 Winter Olympics
The bobsleigh competition of the Vancouver 2010 Olympics was held at the Whistler Sliding Centre between 20 and 27 February 2010.-Medal table:-Events:Three bobsleigh events were held at Vancouver 2010:- Competition schedule :...
, luge
Luge at the 2010 Winter Olympics
The luge competition events of the 2010 Winter Olympics were held between 13 and 17 February 2010 at the Whistler Sliding Centre in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada.- Medal table :- Events :Three luge events were held at the games:...
and skeleton
Skeleton at the 2010 Winter Olympics
The skeleton competition of the Vancouver 2010 Olympics was held at Whistler Sliding Centre. The events were held between the 18 and 19 February 2010...
events at The Whistler Sliding Centre. Whistler Olympic Park
Whistler Olympic Park
The Whistler Olympic Park is the location of the Nordic events facilities for the 2010 Winter Olympics and is located in the Madeley Creek basin in the Callaghan Valley, west of Whistler, British Columbia, Canada. The facility hosted the biathlon, cross-country skiing, nordic combined, and ski...
hosted Olympic and Paralympic biathlon
Biathlon at the 2010 Winter Olympics
The biathlon competition at the 2010 Winter Olympics were held at Whistler Olympic Park in Whistler, British Columbia. The events were held between the 13th and 26 February 2010....
, cross-country skiing
Cross-country skiing at the 2010 Winter Olympics
The cross-country skiing competition of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver were held at Whistler Olympic Park. The events were held between 15 and 28 February 2010.- Medal table :- Men's events :- Women's events :- Competition schedule :...
, Nordic combined
Nordic combined at the 2010 Winter Olympics
The nordic combined competition of the 2010 Winter Olympics was held at Whistler Olympic Park. The events were held between 14 and 25 February 2010. Sprint and individual Gundersen events of 7.5 km and 15 km events were replaced by two 10 km individual events with one jump each from...
and ski jumping
Ski jumping at the 2010 Winter Olympics
The ski jumping competition of the Vancouver 2010 Olympics was held at Whistler Olympic Park between 12 and 22 February 2010.- Medal table :- Events :Three ski jumping events was held at Vancouver 2010 :- Competition schedule :...
, some distance to the south of the Creekside area in the Callaghan Valley
Callaghan Valley
The Callaghan Valley is a wilderness recreation area in the Sea to Sky Country of southwestern, British Columbia, located in the Pacific Ranges of the Coast Mountains 90 km north of Vancouver...
. Whistler Blackcomb says the mountains will remain 90% open to the public during the 2010 Winter Games.
The British Columbia government paid $600 million for major upgrades to the Sea-to-Sky Highway, which would carry the majority of visitors to the alpine sites.
Summer 2010 had two lift construction projects at Creekside Base, site of skiing at Vancouver 2010. The Timing Flats Express, used for passenger transport for the games, was removed and re-built as the Strawberry Express at Sunshine Village, Alberta, Canada. The second project is the construction of the long-awaited Kadenwood Gondola, providing access to the Kadenwood Estate Homes. Built by Doppelmayr-CTEC, the pulse gondola with 8 passenger cabins in two groups of 2 will be technologically advanced, with no staff needed to operate. Homeowners will simply walk up to the lift, swipe a card (similar to one used to access a hotel room), and the lift will begin operation, completing a half-rotation (bottom > top or top > bottom). This will mean the lift can run 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, for most of the year, but will only operate when needed, including the summer, with only a maintenance shutdown, most likely in the fall.
Lifts
| Lift Name | Length | Vertical | Type | Ride Time | Hourly Capacity |
Make | Year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Peak 2 Peak Peak 2 Peak Gondola The Peak 2 Peak Gondola is a tri-cable gondola lift located in Whistler, British Columbia that links Whistler Mountain's Roundhouse Lodge with Blackcomb Mountain's Rendezvous Restaurant. It is the first lift to join the two side-by-side mountains... |
4,400 m | 36 m | 28 Person 3S Gondola Gondola lift A gondola lift is a type of aerial lift, normally called a cable car, which is supported and propelled by cables from above. It consists of a loop of steel cable that is strung between two stations, sometimes over intermediate supporting towers. The cable is driven by a bullwheel in a terminal,... |
11 min | 4,100 | Doppelmayr Doppelmayr The Doppelmayr Garaventa Group is an Austrian-Swiss company that manufactures chairlifts, cable cars, gondolas, surface tows for ski and amusement parks as well as urban people movers and material handling systems. To date, Doppelmayr and Garaventa have produced over 13,700 installations in 78... |
2008 |
| Whistler Village Gondola | 5,000 m | 1,157 m | 10 Person Gondola | 25 min | Poma | 1988 | |
| Creekside Gondola | 644 m | 6 Person Gondola | 7 min. | Poma Poma Poma, also known as Pomagalski S.A. is a French company, specialising in construction of cable-driven lift systems, including fixed and detachable chairlifts, gondola lifts, funiculars, aerial tramways, people movers, and surface lifts. Poma has installed more than 7800 devices on five continents,... |
1996 | ||
| Excalibur Gondola | 367 m | 8 Person Gondola | Doppelmayr | 1994 | |||
| Kadenwood Gondola | 925 m | 228 m | 8x2x2 Fixed Grip Pulse Gondola | 6.1 min | 160 | Doppelmayr-CTEC | 2010 |
| Harmony Express | 524 m | High Speed Quad Detachable chairlift A detachable chairlift or high-speed chairlift is a type of passenger aerial lift, which, like a fixed-grip chairlift, consists of numerous chairs attached to a constantly moving wire rope that is strung between two terminals over intermediate towers. They are now commonplace at all but the... |
Poma | 1994 | |||
| Big Red Express | 555 m | High Speed Quad | 15 min | Doppelmayr | 1997 | ||
| Emerald Express | 425 m | High Speed Quad | 7 min | Doppelmayr | 1997 | ||
| Fitzsimmons Express | 347 m | High Speed Quad | Doppelmayr | 2000 | |||
| Symphony Express | 509 m | High Speed Quad | 8 min | Doppelmayr | 2006 | ||
| Garbanzo Express | 660 m | High Speed Quad | Doppelmayr | 2002 | |||
| Excelerator Express | 509 m | High Speed Quad | Doppelmayr | 1994 | |||
| Wizard Express | 565 m | High Speed Quad | Doppelmayr | 1986 | |||
| Solar Coaster Express | 623 m | High Speed Quad | Doppelmayr | 1986 | |||
| Jersey Cream Express | 375 m | High Speed Quad | Doppelmayr | 1989 | |||
| 7th Heaven Express | 588 m | High Speed Quad | Doppelmayr | 1986 | |||
| Glacier Express | 599 m | High Speed Quad | Doppelmayr | 1992 | |||
| The Peak | 401 m | High Speed Quad | Doppelmayr | 1998 | |||
| Crystal Chair | 367 m | Triple Chairlift | Lift Engineering Lift Engineering Lift Engineering, more commonly known as Yan Lifts, was a major ski lift manufacturer in North America. Founded in 1965 and based in Carson City, Nevada, the firm came under scrutiny by state safety officials after a fatal accident in 1985, and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in July... |
||||
| Franz's Chair | 272 m | Triple Chairlift | Poma | 1998 | |||
| Catskinner | 364 m | Triple Chairlift | Yan/Lift Engineering | ||||
| Olympic Chair | 123 m | Triple Chairlift | Yan/Lift Engineering | ||||
| Magic Chair | 94 m | Triple Chairlift | Yan/Lift Engineering | ||||
| Showcase | 148 m | T-bar T-bar lift A T-bar lift, also called T-bar, is a mechanised system for transporting skiers and snowboarders uphill, along the surface of the slope... |
Doppelmayr | 1986 | |||
| Horstman | 206 m | T-bar | Doppelmayr | 1986 | |||
| Glacier Bowl 1 | 188 m | T-bar | |||||
| Glacier Bowl 2 | 188 m | T-bar | |||||
| Tube Park | Magic Carpet Magic carpet (ski lift) A magic carpet is a type of surface lift installed at ski areas to transport skiers and snowboarders up the hill... |
||||||
| Creekside | Magic Carpet | ||||||
| Yellow Brick Road | Magic Carpet | ||||||
| Merlin's | Magic Carpet | ||||||
| Expressway | Magic Carpet |
Whistler Mountain Bike Park
The Whistler Mountain Bike Park celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2008. Having consistently grown since its inception, it sees an average of 100,000 bikers each summer.The Whistler Mountain Bike Park uses the Fitzsimmons and Garbanzo quad chairlifts, as well as the Whistler Village Gondola
Gondola lift
A gondola lift is a type of aerial lift, normally called a cable car, which is supported and propelled by cables from above. It consists of a loop of steel cable that is strung between two stations, sometimes over intermediate supporting towers. The cable is driven by a bullwheel in a terminal,...
to shuttle bikers to around midstation, at 1,200 m (4,000 ft). The park has 47+ trails for all skill levels totaling 250 km + of trails. There are smooth trails with gentle banked corners for beginners, steep twisty trails for intermediates, tight trails with jumps and stunts for advanced riders, and challenging trails with giant jumps, drops, and root-strewn terrain for the experts.
During the summer, high speed quad chairlifts (Fitzimmons and Garbanzo) used by the bike park have every second chair replaced with a bike rack. These racks fit four bikes, three in grooves and one on a hook on the side of the chair. The bikers then get on the next chair which is a normal passenger carrier.
The bike park has two zones: the Fitzsimmons Zone (the lower zone) and the Garbanzo Zone (the upper zone). All riders take either the Village Gondola
Gondola
The gondola is a traditional, flat-bottomed Venetian rowing boat, well suited to the conditions of the Venetian Lagoon. For centuries gondolas were the chief means of transportation and most common watercraft within Venice. In modern times the iconic boats still have a role in public transport in...
or the Fitzsimmions quad to the Olympic Station area. Then intermediate and advanced riders can take the Garbanzo quad up further to the Garbanzo zone. Garbanzo riders can then return to midstation or Whistler Village, the base of the bike park. From the top of Garbanzo to the village is an impressive 1100 m (3,600 ft) vertical descent; eclipsed only by the more expensive guided descents from the top gondola station or the top of the Peak Chair, the highest accessible point on the mountain. "A-Line" is the most well-known track. The Boneyard Slopestyle Course is part of the Fitzsimmons Zone and is located at the very bottom of the bike park, visible from the base of Whistler Mountain. The Boneyard features a collection of high-intermediate and advanced slopestyle features, including drops, dirt jumps, and more.
The park hosts two large, annual mountain biking competitions/festivals: Crankworx
Crankworx
Kokanee Crankworx is a week-long celebration of mountain biking held each summer at Whistler-Blackcomb in Whistler, British Columbia at Whistler Mountain Bike Park. In the six years since its inception Kokanee Crankworx has become one of Whistler’s biggest annual events.-Festival:A central aspect...
is held in the summer; Harvest Huckfest is held in the fall. The mountain is frequented by professional mountain bikers such as Wade Simmons
Wade Simmons
Wade Simmons is a mountain biker from Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada who has won the Red Bull Rampage Utah 2001 and placed second in the same year in the Red Bull Rampage Australia...
, Andrew Shandro
Andrew Shandro
Andrew Shandro is a professional mountain biker. Shandro has starred in many films and featured in mountain bike magazines worldwide. The majority of Shandro's pictures are taken by his close friend Sterling Lawrence. Andrew was born and raised on the North Shore, British Columbia...
, Richie Schley, Francis Hopcraft, and Anne-Caroline Chausson
Anne-Caroline Chausson
Anne-Caroline Chausson is a French Olympic gold medalist in BMX, and downhill time trial and cross-country mass start, dual, and four-cross mountain bicycle racer, best known for having won thirteen Union Cycliste Internationale senior world championship rainbow jerseys, fourteen continental...
.
Whistler Blackcomb's Tube Park
For the 2005-06 ski season, Blackcomb Mountain opened the Tube Park to allow for recreational tubingTubing (recreation)
Tubing is a recreational activity where an individual rides on top of an inner tube, either on water, snow, or through the air. The tubes themselves are also known as "donuts" or "biscuits" due to their shape.-Water:Tubing on water generally consists of two forms: towed and free-floating, also...
at the resort. The tube park is located at Base II alongside the Village Run.
Quicksilver Express grip failure, December 23, 1995
The lift operator on the Quicksilver lift pressed the button to make a routine stop, to allow a fallen skier to get out of the way of the unloading ramp. Instead, the emergency brake activated, sending shockwaves down the cable. Grips on at least two of the chairs slipped, and caused chairs to slide down the cable and slam into each other. In all, eight were injured, and two were killed in one of the worst ski lift accidents in North AmericaNorth America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
.
The lift's manufacturer, Lift Engineering/Yan
Lift Engineering
Lift Engineering, more commonly known as Yan Lifts, was a major ski lift manufacturer in North America. Founded in 1965 and based in Carson City, Nevada, the firm came under scrutiny by state safety officials after a fatal accident in 1985, and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in July...
, entered bankruptcy after the incident in July 1996. The cause was found to be a design fault in the Yan detachable grip. The Quicksilver lift was removed and replaced by the Creekside Gondola.
Excalibur Gondola Collapse, December 16, 2008
The Excalibur gondola had a major malfunction on December 16, 2008, when the upper portion of one of the lift towers detached and collapsed, causing several of the gondola cabins to drop near to the ground, leaving 53 people trapped on the lower section of the lift line. Firefighters rescued passengers from a cabin dangling over Fitzsimmons Creek, and from another gondola that landed on a bus shelter. The third cabin had crashed into the trees, narrowly missing a condominium. Twelve people suffered minor injuries. According to Whistler-Blackcomb, a joint in the tower separated due to the buildup of ice from water that had seeped into the tower. The undamaged upper half of the lift running from Blackcomb's Base 2 was reopened on Saturday 20 December. After repairs were made to the collapsed tower, the whole lift was back in service on Wednesday 24 December.Harmony Express grip failure, February 18, 2009
A single grip on Whistler's Harmony Express failed and fell off the haul rope overnight on Wednesday, Feb. 18/Thursday, Feb. 19. The lift operations team was experiencing some problems with the lift during the day on Wednesday. The fallen chair was found overnight by a grooming machine operator at Tower 11. Upon inspection the next morning, maintenance crews discovered that a sheave train component on the downhill side had failed. This caused a compression sheave train arm to deflect into the path of a carrier, ultimately resulting in the release of the carrier from the cable. Further investigation revealed that the failed component was the 'articulation arm mounting bolt'.The lift has been inspected since the accident. All similar bolts on the Harmony chair have since been replaced. All terrain in the Harmony Zone was still accessible while the lift was closed, via the Peak chair with a small hike from the top of the Saddle Run. Symphony Bowl was open with a ski out all the way to either the Emerald or Garbanzo Express Chairlifts, past the base of the closed Harmony Lift.The lift re-opened on Sunday, February 22, 2009. The affected chair #37 has been permanently removed from operation.
Whistler T-Bars summer maintenance incident, August 31, 2009
On Monday, August 31, 2009, two Lift Maintenance employees were injured when the lift began to move, after being given the go-ahead while a maintenance person was safety-harnessed to the tower. The person remained attached to both the tower and the maintenance carrier while the second employee was secured to the carrier. The safety harness ended up pulling so hard on the maintenance carrier, the carrier became detached from the cable and dropped to the rocky ground below, severely injuring the worker in it. The employee hanging from the tower only received bruises.Big Red Express Bolt Failure, December 6, 2009
On Sunday, December 6, 2009, at 8:55am, a passenger aboard the Big Red Express on Whistler Mountain noticed that a sheave train had broken off Tower 31 and had fallen to the ground. They immediately notified the lift operator at the top terminal (2 towers away) and Whistler Blackcomb Lift Maintenance department. After almost a 30 minute inspection, they determined the issue was not severe enough to evacuate the lift. The lift was run at low speed to evacuate all passengers. All passengers were finally off the lift just before 10 am. The lift was closed down for the day, repaired, and back in operation Monday, Dec. 7. This issue arose almost a year after the Excalibur Gondola tower collapse, and 9 months after the Harmony Express incident (which is very similar to this incident, excluding the fact the chair fell off on Harmony)See also
- Whistler, British ColumbiaWhistler, British ColumbiaWhistler is a Canadian resort town in the southern Pacific Ranges of the Coast Mountains in the province of British Columbia, Canada, approximately north of Vancouver...
(the Resort Municipality of Whistler) - Whistler MountainWhistler MountainWhistler Mountain is a mountain in the Fitzsimmons Range of the Pacific Ranges of the Coast Mountains, located on the northwestern edge of Garibaldi Provincial Park. It is the location of the Whistler-Blackcomb ski resort and the town of Whistler, British Columbia.The original name of the mountain...
(the geographical feature) - Blackcomb PeakBlackcomb PeakBlackcomb Peak is a mountain located east of Whistler, British Columbia and forms the boundary between the Whistler Blackcomb ski resort and Garibaldi Provincial Park...
(the geographical feature) - Garibaldi Provincial ParkGaribaldi Provincial ParkGaribaldi Provincial Park, also called Garibaldi Park, is a wilderness park located in British Columbia, Canada, about 70 kilometres north of Vancouver. The park is located to the east of the Sea to Sky Highway between Squamish and Whistler and covers an area of over 1,950 square kilometres...
- Peak 2 Peak GondolaPeak 2 Peak GondolaThe Peak 2 Peak Gondola is a tri-cable gondola lift located in Whistler, British Columbia that links Whistler Mountain's Roundhouse Lodge with Blackcomb Mountain's Rendezvous Restaurant. It is the first lift to join the two side-by-side mountains...
- IntrawestIntrawestIntrawest ULC is a developer and operator of destination resorts and a luxury adventure travel company. The company was founded in 1976 as a privately funded real estate development company...