Whistler Blackcomb

Whistler Blackcomb has enough terrain to make it suitable for a one week or even two week vacation without getting bored by repeating the same runs continually. The village also has enough nightlife and eating establishments to also avoid the same. And all this is without further need of a vehicle once you arrive. There is a reason why it is rated number one in North America.   

Any place this popular also has the potential for crowds on holiday and weekends. But it is pretty easy to avoid the line ups with some planning or local knowledge.

1: as usual do not join the 9:30 skier hordes  get on the hill as soon as the lifts open and you can get in 3-4 runs often in powder before any crowds arrive.

2: take an early lunch then get back on the hill by 11 eating areas can be packed at noon. 

3: watch for the illuminated signboards indicating open and wait times before you off load on the chairs

    and plan your route accordingly.

4: both mountains do have some flat sections  Keep that speed up if you ever find yourself on a trail don't waste your time walking .   

for good skiers

The area also gets lots of snow resulting in some bad light days when its best to avoid the alpine

On Whistler try skiing the garbonzo lift line or zeppo's never any crowds and good tree skiing with a nice pitch Blackcomb the top of 7th heaven can be flat light but it is often only at the very top. Once below that

it will lighten up. Glacier bowl is rarely bad for light. 

powder days 

on whistler when you hear the snow bombs finally stop get to the closest of either harmony or the peak chair asap. 

Blackcomb ride the Glacier chair and watch for the gate to Spanky's to open.  

Skiouts if your heading down before 3:00 there are no crowds

For skiouts best side on Whistler is Peak to Creek via Big Timber or Homerun 

Blackcomb take Gearjammer and carry on.

Our experience is chronicled in this TR, link is below:

http://www.epicski.com/t/103559/an-8-year-old-finds-the-biggest-ski-area-in-the-americas-whistler-blackcomb-10-full-days

Simply put this is the best place we have skied all things considered. The terrain just has runs that go on forever, so I saw another review which says otherwise, well, lets put it this way, for continuous vertical, with minimal low incline terrain, I do not know of anyplace that we have been to that matches WB. Note we were there April 14 through April 23, 2011 so very late in the season.

Our experience was marked by snowfall, and the "utah kind" and hence our view is inclined highly positively:

1. Snowed 8 nights out of 9 in the village and of course in the alpine. Of those 5 were pretty heavy, dry utah powder, ice cream surfaces in the alpine. Snowed 9 days out of 10 in the alpine, again 5 of those days a lot of snow.

2. For the powder hounds amongst us: we found fresh tracks in so many places its hard to list them, I just recall Sapphire Bowl, Gloom and Doom, symphony bowl etc. 

3. The groomers are steep, long, and get your adrenalin pumping. Alta, Snowbird and DV are nowhere near this place in terms of corduroy and most of them have some serious pitches, so great for intermediates or experts to rip.

4(a) The steeps are for the uber-experts and even they will be challenged by the intimidation factor, it's a long way down and some of the vertical is "Vertical"!

4(b) Someone talked about long traverses, now in our TR thread, I point out a traverse we did over Blackcomb Glacier, only tracks where we were above no-fall zones was us, and does not compare to the hordes lining up to climb Baldy in Alta or the huge lineups to enter the gates into Ballroom or the even more complex lineups on the high or low traverse into the west and high rustler areas. Whistler crowds were minimal and their lift system is fine. Gondolas are old, yes, but that Peak to Peak, 11 minutes and rapid changes, incredible how it connects you to both W and B. All the lifts are fast, very fast. Yes, in the morning, you could wait 10 to 15 mins around 9am or 930am at Gondola Base, or perhaps if you are trying to grab first tracks on Peak Chair on Whistler, but I assure you that is about it. Blackcomb there is no waiting to speak of, and the Peak to Peak wait is 2 to 5 minutes max, unless you want the cab with the transparent bottom (kids like it).

4(c) There is no inbounds terrain in my humble view like Blackcomb Glacier, Seventh Heaven or the Whistler/West Cirque/West/Bagel Bowl to the powder fields below. 

5. for the freeriders, the terrain park is bigger and more varied than anything we have ever seen anywhere.

6. ski school is big so have to get lucky, we go lucky and got opportunity to ski with the instructor of the instructors, a class act. kid's ski school is good though i would still give alta, dv, snowbasin higher marks for kids skiing. Could be a function of sheer size. Though one thing, they put a gps device on the child to track them which is good. Funnily, gps device(flaik) fails in Blackcomb Glacier! Tracking goes haywire.

Ski school costs are at the higher end of the scale, i.e. DV scale if not a touch more is what I felt. Best deal in the world is skiing with instructors group or private in Austria (less than 50% of the cost than in the USofA)

7. True bigger and direct access bowls do get tracked out but there was so much snow that it did'nt make that much of a difference.

8. One observation another reviewer noted is definitely true, mealtimes on the mountain can get very, very busy, folks are nice and polite, and the offerings are good, and they cater to gluten-free diets, vegan diets etc but finding seating at the Roundhouse is hard, Rendezvous easier (the latter is the Blackcomb hub). 

9. Village is very nice, convenient, and yes its not cheap but this is Canada, nothing is cheap. 3-Below was in my view the coolest spot, chill, gracious owners, who were great with kids, and it is the locals spot. Lots of clubs and all that and other sorts of bars and restaurants.

10. Great physical therapist in the village - recommend "back in action", solved my day 1 issuse in an hour.

11. smart bootfitters too.

12. merchandise sold is actually not of the highest quality, and the prices are of the highest quality of course ! i would'nt think of shopping in WB unless i had to.

13. accommodations vary, pretty good pricing for the time of the year, and with food, babysitter etc, about the same as end-of-season alta lodge, dv cost. Austria far more expensive. With relative strength of CAD and also that ridiculous multi-percent charge by American cc companies for FX expenses, hurts but not that bad.

14. transit from vancouver is rent-a-car (though would'nt drive sea to sky in the dead of night if not familiar as conditions can change in a hurry as one gets closer to WB), coach service or hire a car service.

15. for east coasters, highly recommend flying direct on cathay pacific from jfk to vancouver, and back, its direct and allows you to replicate utah experience and do it a bit better, you can get the entire first day to ski and of course ski at least half of return day.

16. Again, caveat remains we got tremendous conditions and hence our view is naturally even more positively inclined.