WHISTLER IS ONE OF THE GREATEST DESTINATIONS FOR SKI HOLIDAYS

Whistler, as it is now increasingly marketed instead of Whistler-Blackcomb, has gone from being — quite literally — a municipal rubbish dump to one of the world’s leading ski resorts in just over 40 years. What is more, the development of new properties and the expansion of the ski area are still continuing at a fierce pace — if you have not been here for a decade or so then you will scarcely recognise the place. Whistler is buzzing with activity and new developments year round as it gears up to host the 2010 Winter Olympics. Contrary to popular belief, the Games will only affect 10% of the ski terrain for 4 weeks, leaving the slopes deserted for much of the rest of the season.

Readers of the American SKI Magazine consistently vote Whistler the Number One ski resort in North America and it is now the most popular transatlantic destination for British skiers, partly thanks to a relatively weak Canadian Dollar and the ready availability of non-stop flights from various UK airports to Vancouver. The spectacular two-hour drive up the Sea-to-Sky highway from Vancouver to the resort is one of the great incidental pleasures of visiting Whistler.

Historically Whistler and Blackcomb were two adjacent, but separate ski mountains, each with its own base village. Whistler is the earlier of the two settlements, which until recent years were independently owned and despite claiming to be cooperating with one another were actually competing in a way which was not very helpful to the visitor. Now that both Whistler and Blackcomb are both owned by the huge conglomerate Intrawest — one of the largest ski resort owners in the world, incidentally - the cooperation is real rather than imaginary. The two settlements still retain their individual personalities, but as development continues the two base villages, which are at the moment just a few minutes walk apart at night, are likely to merge into one another.

Work began on creating Whistler, named after the noise the marmot makes when it comes out of hibernation in the spring, in 1964 and the first lifts opened in February 1966. The initial base area was at what is today referred to as Creekside and is now used as an entry point into the lift system by day-trip visitors and canny locals.

In December 1980 Blackcomb Mountain first opened for business with five triple chairlifts and 1,240 vertical metres of skiing. In the same year Whistler Village was launched and the first new businesses began to appear on the site of the former garbage dump. Up until this time Whistler-Blackcomb had been just a day or weekend ski area, not a destination holiday resort.

In 1985 Blackcomb opened up the so-called high alpine ski area and with the installation of the Seventh Heaven T-bar was able to boast the greatest vertical drop in North America — 1,609 metres. The following year Whistler opened its own new high Alpine lift, Peak Chair, which gave it a creditable 1,530 metres of vertical. Suddenly Colorado was facing some serious competition when it came to large North American ski areas.

Development of both rival mountains and base areas continued apace, spurred on to some extent by competition, over the next ten or so years. However in March 1997 Intrawest, which was already running Blackcomb, became the parent company for both resorts and a full merger duly took place. Since that time however, there has been absolutely no sign of complacency on the part of Intrawest. On the contrary a massive programme of investment and expansion has been sustained.

The Catch. If Whistler is beginning to sound like the ski resort made in Heaven, then you need to remember that there is a catch. And the catch is the climate. Situated close to the Pacific seaboard and with a base altitude of just 675m, Whistler essentially has a maritime climate, as opposed to an alpine one. To put it simply: it does occasionally rain, especially at resort level. Of course you may be lucky enough to visit Whistler in perfect conditions with plenty of sunshine and dry, powdery snow, but it is best to go prepared to experience some rain, especially if you are travelling early or late season. But on the positive side, remember that rain at resort level can also mean light powder snow falling on the upper slopes.