Whistler Blackcomb

Geography and Mountain Terrain

Whistler Blackcomb occupies two parallel ridge lines running northwest to southeast, separated by the deep valley of Fitzsimmons Creek which flows along the valley floor. The primary base area is at Whistler Village, situated at the northwest end of this valley where Fitzsimmons Creek flows into the larger Green River, forming a north south floodplain just west of the village. The Sea to Sky Highway runs along this Green River valley, providing the main road access to the resort. The ski runs generally descend northwest towards the village or into the valley between the two ridges, with a small number of runs on Whistler's south side leading to the separate Creekside Base area.

Whistler Mountain, the southern ridge, has a summit elevation of 2,184 metres and offers 4,757 acres of inbound skiable terrain with a vertical drop of 1,530 metres. It is serviced by a total of 19 lifts, including two gondolas, five high speed detachable quad chairs, four high speed six pack chairs, two fixed grip triple chairs, one T bar and seven carpet lifts. The mountain is served by two base areas, the main Whistler Village on its northwest flank and the original Whistler Creek, or Creekside, on its southwest flank. It also hosts the drive station for the Peak 2 Peak Gondola and contains four on hill restaurants as well as a children's ski school.

Blackcomb Mountain forms the northern ridge with a lift serviced elevation of 2,240 metres at the top of the 7th Heaven chairlift, though its true peak reaches 2,440 metres and is not served by a lift. It features a higher skiable vertical of 1,565 metres but a smaller inbound area of 3,414 acres. Blackcomb is served by 15 lifts, including two gondolas, six high speed quads, one fixed grip triple, one T bar and five carpet lifts, plus the end station for the Peak 2 Peak. The mountain is famous for the Couloir Extreme run, ranked among the top ten steepest in bounds runs globally, which was originally called the Saudan Couloir by local skiers before the resort had to drop the name due to a complaint from extreme skier Sylvain Saudan.

Lift System and the Peak 2 Peak Gondola

The resort's extensive lift network provides the greatest uphill capacity in North America, moving 65,507 skiers per hour. Primary access from the valley is provided by four gondolas and one high speed eight passenger chairlift located in Whistler Village, Upper Village, and Creekside, specifically the Blackcomb Excalibur Gondola, Whistler Mountain Village Gondola, Fitzsimmons Express, Blackcomb Gondola, and Whistler Creekside Gondola. The primary skiing terrain starts about one third up the mountains, with ski outs to the valley usually possible from December through April. The mid and upper mountain areas are served by ten high speed detachable chairs and five fixed grip lifts manufactured by companies like Lift Engineering, Doppelmayr and Poma, with two T bars servicing the Horstman Glacier and Whistler alpine regions to reach the entrance to Blackcomb Glacier.

A landmark engineering achievement, the Peak 2 Peak Gondola opened on December 12, 2008, connecting the two mountains at an altitude of approximately 1,800 metres. The gondola spans 4.4 kilometres between the ridges, featuring the world's longest unsupported span for a lift of its kind at 3.02 kilometres. It also holds the record for the highest ground clearance, travelling 436 metres above the valley floor. Before its opening, the only connection between Whistler and Blackcomb was via the village base areas, requiring skiers to descend completely. This connection fundamentally changed the resort's layout, allowing skiers to traverse between the mountains' high alpine areas in minutes, vastly improving terrain access and visitor experience.

Early History and Resort Beginnings

The area's modern history began with surveyors from the Hudson's Bay Company in 1858, who documented a route later used during the Gold Rush and known as the Pemberton Trail. British Naval surveyors in the 1860s named the peak London Mountain, but local Western hoary marmots' shrill whistling calls led to the lasting nickname Whistler. The first permanent resident was trapper John Millar, who built a cabin near the trail, and during a 1911 trip to Vancouver he invited cook Alex Philip to visit the area. Alex and his wife Myrtle Philip purchased 10 acres on Alta Lake for 700 dollars in 1913 and opened Rainbow Lodge, a fishing resort named for the rainbow trout, in 1914 just as the Pacific Great Eastern Railway reached the lake, cutting travel time from Vancouver to less than two days.

Rainbow Lodge grew to include 45 additional buildings like cabins and a general store, accommodating 100 people and operating as the most popular west coast resort for 30 years until the Philips sold it in 1948. Other early tourist resorts included the Alta Lake Hotel, Jordan's Lodge on Nita Lake, Harrop's Point which became Cypress Lodge, and the Hillcrest Lodge later known as Mount Whistler Lodge. Commercial logging also expanded with the railway's arrival, with operations like the Parkhurst Mill on Green Lake and the Rainbow Lumber Company on Alta Lake, while Jimmy Fitzsimmons ran a prospecting support company up Fitzsimmons Valley. The vision for a major ski resort emerged in 1960 when the Canadian Olympic Association visited the coast seeking a site for a future Winter Games, initially considering Diamond Head near Squamish before being directed to London Mountain by local businessman Franz Wilhelmsen.

Olympic Dreams and Whistler's Opening

Encouraged by positive reviews from Olympic officials, Franz Wilhelmsen organized the Garibaldi Olympic Development Association (GODA) to make a formal bid for the 1968 Winter Olympics, despite the Alta Lake area having no road, electricity, or piped water. The bid was rejected in favour of Calgary, but Wilhelmsen pressed ahead, forming Garibaldi Lifts Limited in 1962 to finance studies and erect ski lifts, hiring well known developer Willy Schaeffler who wrote a favourable feasibility study. From 1962 to 1965 the company raised 800,000 dollars, secured a 56 acre plot from the government, and saw the completion of a narrow gravel road from Vancouver and the arrival of electricity, with London Mountain officially renamed Whistler Mountain on August 27, 1965. By the fall of 1965 the ski area featured a four person gondola to the mid station, a double chairlift called the Red Chair, two T bars, a day lodge, and six cut runs, opening for skiing on January 15, 1966, and winning instant acclaim for its vertical drop and alpine area despite the poor road conditions.

GODA made further bids for the 1972 and 1976 Winter Olympics, with the Vancouver Garibaldi bid winning the Canadian nomination for 1976 before being withdrawn due to political turmoil after Denver turned down the games. Infrastructure improved with the gravel road paved to Whistler in 1966 and to Pemberton in 1969, while new lifts were added, including the Blue and Green chairs in 1970, the Olive and Orange chairs in 1972, a parallel lift to the Green Chair in 1974, and the Little Red Chair in 1978. The Roundhouse, an on mountain lodge and restaurant, was completed in 1980 to provide respite for skiers after the long ride up the Red Chair. This period of development established Whistler Mountain as a significant destination even before its rival, Blackcomb Mountain, opened for business in December 1980.

Rivalry, Merger and Olympic Realization

A period of intense rivalry began when Blackcomb Mountain opened as a separate entity in December 1980. Through the 1980s and 1990s, the two resorts competed aggressively with constant upgrades and terrain expansion, driving innovation and improving the region's facilities in ways unseen at other North American resorts. By the mid 1990s, the area was consistently ranked as the top North American ski resort in many industry publications. The rivalry ended when Intrawest, the British Columbia real estate firm that developed Blackcomb, purchased Whistler Mountain in 1997 and fully merged the ticketing and operations in 2003, creating the unified Whistler Blackcomb resort.

The merged resort became the centrepiece of Vancouver's successful bid for the 2010 Winter Olympics, which was awarded in July 2003. Whistler Blackcomb hosted all alpine skiing events for both the Olympic and Paralympic Games, including downhill, Super G, slalom, giant slalom, and super combined. The venue experienced excellent conditions with the second highest snowfall on record during the 2009 10 season, totalling 1,432 centimetres, a stark contrast to the lack of natural snow that plagued the freestyle and snowboard events at Cypress Mountain. This global event demonstrated the resort's capacity for hosting world class competitions and significantly increased its international profile.

Development of Whistler Village and Municipality

In 1974, the provincial New Democratic Party government instituted a development freeze on the overdeveloped Alta Lake area and decided to focus new growth on a table of land between Whistler and Blackcomb mountains, the site of the old Alta Lake dump. To manage this planned growth, the Resort Municipality of Whistler (RMOW) was formed in 1975 as Canada's first resort municipality, an act which also created the Whistler Village Land Company to oversee all development. The RMOW was also the first place in British Columbia since prohibition where bars were allowed to be open on Sunday. Whistler Village was constructed on this former dump site, featuring a pedestrian focused, Tyrolean inspired design that later formed the basis for similar developments at other Intrawest resorts and was widely recognized for its livable design.

A key figure in the resort's expansion was Al Raine, appointed Provincial Ski Area Co ordinator in 1977 after serving as National Coach for the Canadian Women's Ski Team. Married to champion skier Nancy Greene, Raine joined the Whistler council and saw the potential in developing Blackcomb Mountain, which was then part of Garibaldi Provincial Park and zoned for logging. Raine and Greene successfully lobbied the government to remove the logging zoning and allow development as a ski area, paving the way for Blackcomb's opening. The village incorporates community services, shops, entertainment venues, restaurants, bars, hotels, condominiums and vacation properties at an elevation of 675 metres, located 137 kilometres from Vancouver International Airport.

Ownership Changes and Contemporary Operations

Following the merger, Intrawest expanded by purchasing additional ski resorts across North America before diversifying into golf and other resorts. In 2010, Intrawest sold off much of its 75 percent interest in Whistler Blackcomb Resort through a public share offering. Throughout these ownership changes, Nippon Cable of Japan maintained a continuous 25 percent minority interest in the resort partnerships by way of ownership in the Whistler and Blackcomb partnerships. In a major shift, American company Vail Resorts purchased Whistler Blackcomb Holdings in August 2016 for 1.39 billion dollars, bringing the resort into the Epic Pass network which provides skiers access to a large consortium of destinations.

The resort operates on a seasonal basis, with a targeted opening for the 2026/27 winter season set for November 20, 2026. Summer operations include mountain biking and sightseeing, while the adjacent Whistler Sliding Centre offers summer bobsleigh from June 12 to September 20, 2026. Whistler Blackcomb also hosts major events like the World Ski and Snowboard Festival, which returns for its 30th anniversary from April 6 to 12, 2026, and will host the UCI Mountain Bike World Series. These events and consistent infrastructure investments ensure its operation as a leading four season mountain resort with a strong events calendar.

Related Olympic Venues and Year Round Attractions

The 2010 Winter Olympics left a lasting legacy of world class sports facilities in the Whistler area. The Whistler Sliding Centre, located just south of the ski resort, is a non profit venue that hosted bobsleigh, luge, and skeleton events. It offers public sliding programs, including summer bobsleigh, with all proceeds from public programs going directly towards growing sport and supporting athletes in those disciplines. The centre provides free sightseeing and self guided interpretive tours from Wednesday to Sunday during the summer months from 10 am to 5 pm, allowing visitors to learn about the sports, athletes, and venue history without an entrance fee.

Other nearby Olympic venues include Whistler Olympic Park in the Callaghan Valley, which hosted Nordic events and continues to host public programs and events. The Whistler Conference Centre is another event hub, hosting activations for festivals like the World Ski and Snowboard Festival. The Whistler Sliding Centre is also promoted as a unique wedding venue with mountain and valley views. Together with Whistler Blackcomb, these facilities form a comprehensive destination for both elite athletes and recreational visitors, sustaining the Olympic spirit and promoting sport development long after the 2010 Games concluded.

Questions about Whistler Blackcomb

When does Whistler Blackcomb open for the ski season?

Whistler Blackcomb operates on a seasonal schedule, with the targeted opening date for the 2026/27 winter season set for November 20, 2026. The resort closes in the spring to prepare for the next winter season, with exact closing dates varying annually based on snow conditions. Summer operations for activities like mountain biking and sightseeing typically run through the warmer months. Visitors should always check the resort's official website for the most current opening and closing dates before planning their trip.

What is the Peak 2 Peak Gondola?

The Peak 2 Peak Gondola is a groundbreaking aerial lift that connects Whistler and Blackcomb mountains at an altitude of roughly 1,800 metres. It opened on December 12, 2008, and spans 4.4 kilometres between the two ridges. The gondola holds two world records for a lift of its kind, the longest unsupported span at 3.02 kilometres and the highest ground clearance at 436 metres above the valley floor. This engineering marvel allows skiers to move between the two mountains' high alpine areas without having to ski down to the base, greatly enhancing the resort's interconnected terrain.

Did Whistler Blackcomb host the Olympics?

Yes, Whistler Blackcomb was the host venue for all alpine skiing events during the 2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games held in Vancouver and Whistler. The resort staged the men's and women's competitions in downhill, Super G, slalom, giant slalom, and super combined. The venue experienced excellent snow conditions, with the second highest seasonal snowfall on record during the Games period. This global event significantly raised the resort's international profile and demonstrated its capacity for hosting world class competitions on its extensive and challenging terrain.

Which mountain is bigger, Whistler or Blackcomb?

The two mountains have different strengths. Whistler Mountain has a larger skiable inbound area at 4,757 acres compared to Blackcomb's 3,414 acres. However, Blackcomb Mountain has a higher skiable vertical drop of 1,565 metres versus Whistler's 1,530 metres. Whistler's summit is lift serviced at 2,184 metres, while Blackcomb's true peak is higher at 2,440 metres but is not directly served by a lift. Together, they form the largest ski area in North America at 8,171 acres, with either mountain alone ranking among the continent's top five in size.

What is there to do in Whistler in the summer?

Whistler offers numerous summer activities beyond the ski resort's mountain biking and sightseeing gondolas. The Whistler Sliding Centre provides summer bobsleigh rides from June to September. Visitors can also enjoy free sightseeing and self guided tours at the sliding centre on most days. The resort area hosts events like the World Ski and Snowboard Festival's spring edition and the UCI Mountain Bike World Series. Other attractions include hiking, golf, zip lining, and exploring the pedestrian friendly Whistler Village with its shops, restaurants, and cultural venues.

Who owns Whistler Blackcomb?

Whistler Blackcomb is currently owned by Vail Resorts, an American company that purchased Whistler Blackcomb Holdings in August 2016 for 1.39 billion dollars. Prior to that, the resort was developed and merged by the Canadian real estate firm Intrawest, which sold most of its stake in 2010. Throughout these ownership changes, Nippon Cable of Japan has maintained a continuous 25 percent minority interest in the resort partnerships. Under Vail Resorts, Whistler Blackcomb is part of the Epic Pass network, providing pass holders access to numerous ski areas across North America and internationally.

Sources: Wikipedia and current public reporting, checked by the Garbutt Disposal desk. Last updated 2026-10-20.