Whistler-Blackcomb
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| Whistler Blackcomb Resort | |
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| Location: | British Columbia, Canada |
| Nearest city: | Whistler, Pemberton |
| Coordinates: | |
| Top elevation: | 2,284 m (7,493 ft) |
| Base elevation: | 675 m (2,215 ft) |
| Skiable area: | 19.3 km² (Whistler), 13.8 km² (Blackcomb) |
| Runs: | >200 |
| Longest run: | 11 km |
| Lift system: | 34 (3 gondolas, 19 chairs, 12 surface lifts) |
| Snow fall: | 9.14 m/year (360 in./yr) |
| Web page: | Whistler Blackcomb |
Whistler Blackcomb is a ski resort located in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada. It comprises a village with several large hotels, eateries and bars, condominiums, and vacation homes. The village is 675 metres (2,214 ft) above sea level, and is located approximately 126 kilometres (78 miles) from Vancouver, and Vancouver International Airport.
There are two mountains developed for skiing, Whistler Mountain and Blackcomb Mountain. The highest lift elevation, on Blackcomb, is 2240 metres (7,347 ft), and the terrain is accessed by 24 major lifts. The vertical drop of 1562 metres (5,123 feet, but often exaggerated to 5,280 feet or one mile for marketing purposes [citation needed]) at Blackcomb is the most of any ski resort in North America. Whistler Blackcomb, the largest ski area in North America, has a skiable area of 8,171 acres (3,307 hectares), over 50% larger than that of Vail, the runner-up, with 5,289 acres (2,140 hectares). Whistler Blackcomb will host events for the 2010 Winter Olympics, including the men's and women's slalom, giant slalom, bobsleigh, luge, and skeleton events.
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[edit] Whistler Mountain
Whistler Mountain opened for skiing in February, 1966, with a gondola lift, double chairlift (the Red Chair) and T-bar. 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.
The mountain soon expanded, adding the Blue and Green chairlifts in 1970, as well as a mountaintop lodge, the Roundhouse, which provided respite for cold skiers who had survived the long ride up on the Red Chair. After the Sea-to-Sky Highway was paved in 1969, more people than ever came to Whistler Mountain, which is located two hours north of Vancouver and four hours north of Seattle.
The mountain added the Olive and Orange chairlifts in 1972. A parallel lift to the Green Chair to alleviate crowds came in 1974, and the Little Red Chair came in 1978.
Because the number of visitors was rapidly increasing, the town in the valley had to expand as well to accommodate them. A plan was drawn up, and the village of Alta Lake was incorporated into the Resort Municipality of Whistler in 1975. The new municipal government, which had powers that enabled better management of the growing community, immediately initiated construction of Whistler Village.
Whistler Village opened in 1980. Along with it came a succession of three triple chairlifts, the Village, Olympic, and Black Chairs, that carried skiers from the Village to the Roundhouse in no less than 45 minutes.
The next major addition came in 1986, when the Peak Chair to the summit of Whistler Mountain was constructed. This lift revolutionized skiing on Whistler Mountain, allowing access to the largest alpine ski area in North America.
In response to Blackcomb Mountain’s construction of three high-speed quad chairlifts, Whistler Mountain undertook one of the biggest ski lift construction projects ever realized in Canada, the construction of the Whistler Express Gondola. Carrying passengers 1,157 metres vertically and 5 kilometres horizontally over 62 support towers, the lift opened on November 24, 1988.
In 1990 Whistler Mountain reached another milestone, the addition of its first high-speed quad chairlift. The Green Chair Express, which replaced the Green Chairs, was built by Lift Engineering (Yan), and substantially cut long lift queues in the Green area of the mountain.
A year later, in 1991, Whistler Mountain continued in its construction streak, replacing three double chairlifts and the original gondola with two high-speed quad chairlifts, the Quicksilver and Redline lifts, also built by Lift Engineering.
1994 saw the removal of the Blue Chair, and the construction of the Harmony Express, which started from the base of the former Blue Chair, but ran all the way to the top of Little Whistler Peak.
In 1995, tragedy struck. On December 23, 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[1] in one of the worst ski lift accidents in North America. The disaster ended up causing the bankruptcy of the lift’s manufacturer, Lift Engineering.
In 1996, the Whistler Mountain Ski Corporation was bought out by Intrawest, which had owned Blackcomb since 1986. As well, the Quicksilver lift was replaced with a gondola.
In 1997, big changes were made on Whistler Mountain. The Green Chair Express and Redline lifts were removed and replaced with modern Doppelmayr lifts. The original Roundhouse was demolished, and a new lodge was built in its place.
1998 saw the replacement of the Peak triple chair with a high-speed quad.
2000 brought more changes, as the Black Chair was replaced with a high-speed quad, and another was added, following the line of the long-gone Village Chair.
Summer 2006 has seen the installation of a new four person detachable chair that begins at the base of Flute Bowl and carriers riders to the top of Piccolo. It is scheduled to begin operation in December 2006. In August 2006, Whistler Blackbomb announced that this new lift will be called the Symphony Express and will provide access to the Symphony Amphitheatre, a name chosen to reflect the high alpine area's natural amphitheatre-like terrain.
Whistler mountain offers some of the most varied terrain of any North American resort. From the park and pipes, to glades, cliffs off of the peak chair, wide open harmony and symphony zone, beginner terrain at the base, and cruiser runs off of the gondola and Big Red chair.
[edit] Whistler Mountain Bike Park
Whistler Mountain also features a mountain bike park that uses the Fitzsimmons and Garbanzo quad chairlifts, as well as the Village Gondola to shuttle bikers to around midstation, at 1,200 m (4,800 ft). The park has 36 trails for all skill levels totalling 200 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.
The two high speed quad chairlifts used by the bike park have every second chair replaced with a bike rack during the summer. The rack fits 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. A smaller rider base, due to expert-only trails, necessitates that the Garbanzo Express only has one quarter of the Fitzsimmons' capacity for the time being.
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 advanced and expert riders can take the Garbanzo quad up further to the Garbanzo zone. Garbanzo riders can 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 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" is the collection of jumps visible from the base.
The park hosts two large, annual mountain biking competitions/festivals. Crankworx is held in the summer; Joyride 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.
[edit] Blackcomb Mountain
Blackcomb Mountain opened in 1980, under the partnership of Fortress Mountain Resorts, then a wholly owned subsidiary of Aspen Skiing Company, and the Federal Business Development Bank of Canada, with four triple chairlifts (later named Cruiser, Stoker, Catskinner and Fitzsimmons lifts) and one double chairlift supplied by Lift Engineering. The competition of this mountain was not initially appreciated by Whistler Mountain. Indeed, the mountain was considered “new kid on the block” into the early 1990s.
In 1982, Lift 6 (later named Jersey Cream) opened in the Horstman Creek drainage. 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, although somewhat less than the company's claim of 5,280 feet.
In 1986 the mountain's assets and real estate rights were bought by fledgling real estate developer Intrawest Corp which immediately installed three high-speed Doppelmayr detachable chairlifts, moved the 7th Heaven T-Bar to Horstman Glacier, and installed a second T-Bar on Horstman Glacier. The T-Bars were installed in anticipation of summer skiing and eventual access to Blackcomb Glacier (at that time completely within the boundaries of Garibaldi Provincial Park). The new Wizard and Solar Coaster quad lifts cut the lift ride time from base to alpine 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.
In 1989, Lift 6 (Jersey Cream) was replaced with a Doppelmayr high-speed quad and the Yan triple lift was moved to the newly opened Crystal Ridge area of the mountain.
In 1992, the Glacier Express was installed, running from the base of the Jersey Cream lift to the toe of Horstman Glacier. This lift's construction was followed by the building of the Glacier Creek Restaurant- the largest building on Blackcomb Mountain.
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-dubbed by some the "gondola to nowhere" since it doesn't connect with any restaurant or access additional terrain.
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. Blackcomb can also be accessed via the Excalibur Gondola, situated on Skier's Plaza beside the Fitzsimmons Express and Whistler Village Gondola.
[edit] Blackcomb Magic Bike Park
At the base of Blackcomb is Magic Park, three downhill trails designed to give beginners an introduction to downhill biking. The first of these trails, "Easy Rider" was open on June 18, 2005. The two trails are wide and smooth, forgiving for beginners. The park is accessed from the Magic Chair, a short triple chairlift that only gains 94m of vertical. Compare this to the 1,200 m of vertical in the Whistler Bike Park.
[edit] XXI Olympic Winter Games
During the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games, the resort will host the alpine skiing, biathlon, cross country skiing, ski jumping, bobsleigh, luge and skeleton. Whistler being the main focus of the 2010 Olympics, will undergo massive changes in order to create the sport venues and house the athletes and staff. Millions of dollars have been put aside to cut the drive from Vancouver to Whistler on the Sea to Sky highway down to about an hour or less. Other money will go towards upkeep of stadiums and renovations on local mountains in and around Vancouver.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Nixon, Emily Disaster and Emergency Management: The Quicksilver Chairlift Incident, Graduating Essay, University of Victoria, Geography Dept., April 2004
[edit] Trivia
The project codename for Windows XP was Whistler, where design retreats were held. The next version of Microsoft Windows is Windows Vista, which was codenamed Longhorn after the Longhorn Saloon, a popular après bar at base of the mountains. The successor to Windows Server 2003 was codenamed Blackcomb but changed to Vienna in January 2006 (see the other Microsoft codenames).
