{"history":[{"id":"73368816-be5e-413a-ba5b-c6dccff974d4","wordChanged":"Mountain,\"","newWord":":::summary\n![Panorama of Whistler Blackcomb](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/WhistlerBlackcomb///Logo.svg)\n**Name:** Whistler Blackcomb \n**Location:** [Whistler Mountain](https://bliptext.com/articles/whistler-mountain) and [Blackcomb Mountain](https://bliptext.com/articles/blackcomb-mountain) \n**Nearest City:** [Vancouver](https://bliptext.com/articles/vancouver) \n**Coordinates:** 50.10833°N, -122.9425°W \n**Status:** Operating \n**Owner:** [Vail Resorts](https://bliptext.com/articles/vail-resorts) \n**Vertical:** Whistler: 1,530 m (5,020 ft) · Blackcomb: 1,565 m (5,133 ft) \n**Top Elevation:** Whistler: 2,182 m (7,160 ft) · Blackcomb: 2,240 m (7,347 ft) \n**Base Elevation:** Creekside: 653 m (2,140 ft) · Village: 675 m (2,214 ft) \n**Skiable Area:** 8171 Whistler: 4757 acre · Blackcomb: 3414 acre \n**Number Trails:** 241 · [[Image:Ski trail rating symbol-green circle.svg|13px]] 35 – Easiest · [[Image:Ski trail rating symbol-blue square.svg|13px]] 110 – More Difficult · [[Image:Ski trail rating symbol-black diamond.svg|13px]] 35 – Most Difficult · [[Image:Ski trail rating symbol-double black diamond.svg|13px]] 20 – Expert \n**Longest Run:** Peak To Creek (Whistler), Green Road (Blackcomb): Both are 11 km \n**Liftsystem:** 34 (Whistler 19)(Blackcomb 17) · 5 [gondolas](https://bliptext.com/articles/gondola-lift) · 1 [high-speed eight-pack chairlift](https://bliptext.com/articles/detachable-chairlift) · 3 [high-speed six-pack chairlifts](https://bliptext.com/articles/detachable-chairlift) · 9 [high-speed quad chairlifts](https://bliptext.com/articles/detachable-chairlift) · 3 triple [chairlifts](https://bliptext.com/articles/chairlifts) · 15 [surface lifts](https://bliptext.com/articles/surface-lifts) \n**Lift Capacity:** 69,939 skiers/hr

Whistler: 36,148
Blackcomb: 33,791

Whistler: 36,148
Blackcomb: 33,791

Whistler: 36,148
Blackcomb: 33,791

\n**Snowfall:** 11.7m/year ( 415 in.) \n**Snowmaking:** Whistler: 325 acres · (131 hectares), 6.8% · Blackcomb: 382 acres · (154 hectares), 11.1% \n**External Link:** https://www.whistlerblackcomb.com/ \n:::\n\n# \n**Whistler Blackcomb** is a [ski resort](https://bliptext.com/articles/ski-resort) located in [Whistler, British Columbia](https://bliptext.com/articles/whistler-british-columbia), Canada.\nBy many measures, it is the largest ski resort in [North America](https://bliptext.com/articles/north-america) and has the greatest uphill lift capacity.\nIt features the [Peak 2 Peak Gondola](https://bliptext.com/articles/peak-2-peak-gondola) for moving between [Whistler](https://bliptext.com/articles/whistler-mountain) and [Blackcomb](https://bliptext.com/articles/blackcomb-peak) mountains at the top.\nWith its capacity, Whistler Blackcomb is a busy ski resort, often surpassing two million visitors a year.\nWhistler was originally conceived as part of a bid to win the [1968 Winter Olympics](https://bliptext.com/articles/1968-winter-olympics).\nAlthough the bid failed, construction started anyway and the resort opened for the first time in January 1966.\nBlackcomb Mountain, originally a separate entity, opened for business in December 1980.\nThe two resorts underwent a period of intense rivalry through the 1980s and 1990s, with constant upgrades and improvements that were unseen at other resorts.\nBy the mid-1990s, the area was repeatedly named the best resort in many skiing magazines.\n[Intrawest](https://bliptext.com/articles/intrawest), the BC real estate firm that developed Blackcomb, purchased Whistler in 1997 and fully merged operations in 2003.\nWhistler Blackcomb was the centrepiece of a renewed bid on the part of nearby Vancouver for the [2010 Winter Olympics](https://bliptext.com/articles/2010-winter-olympics), which they won in July 2003.\nWhistler Blackcomb hosted the [alpine skiing events](https://bliptext.com/articles/alpine-skiing-at-the-2010-winter-olympics), including the men's and women's Olympic and Paralympic alpine skiing disciplines of [downhill](https://bliptext.com/articles/downhill-ski-competition), [Super-G](https://bliptext.com/articles/super-g), [slalom](https://bliptext.com/articles/slalom-skiing), giant [slalom](https://bliptext.com/articles/slalom-skiing) and [super combined](https://bliptext.com/articles/super-combined).\nIn contrast with Cypress Mountain—which hosted the freestyle skiing and all snowboard events, and was plagued with a lack of fresh, natural snow during the Olympics—Whistler Blackcomb had the second-highest snowfall on record with 1,432 cm (over 14 metres) by the end of the 2009-10 season.\nOver the next decade, Intrawest expanded by purchasing additional ski resorts across North America, before expanding into golf and other resorts as well.\nWhistler Village, widely recognized for its livable design, formed the basis of similar [Tyrolian](https://bliptext.com/articles/tyrol)-inspired developments at their expanding series of resorts, as well as other resorts that hired Intrawest to build similar developments on their behalf.\nIn 2010, Intrawest sold off much of its 75% interest in Whistler Blackcomb Resort via a public share offering.\nIn August 2016, the American company [Vail Resorts](https://bliptext.com/articles/vail-resorts) bought Whistler Blackcomb Holdings for $1.39 billion.\n[Nippon Cable](https://bliptext.com/articles/nippon-cable)'s minority interest in Whistler Blackcomb Resort has continued throughout the ownership changes, by way of ownership of a 25% interest of the Whistler and Blackcomb partnerships.\n\n# Description\nThe ski areas at Whistler and Blackcomb are situated on two ridge-lines running roughly northwest to southeast.\nThe two are separated by a deep valley with Fitzsimmons Creek running along the valley floor.\nThe main base area at Whistler Village is located on the northwest end of this valley, where Fitzsimmons Creek flows into the larger Green River, which forms a floodplain running north–south just to the west of the village area.\nThe Sea-to-Sky Highway runs along the Green River valley.\nThe ski runs generally run northwest towards the village area, or into the valley area between the two ridges.\nA small number of runs are located on the south side of the Whistler ridge, where they run to the Creekside Base area, some distance south of the main Whistler Village.\nWhistler Mountain is the basis of the southern of the two ridges, on the right when looking at the Whistler-Blackcomb ski area from Whistler Village.\nIt has a summit elevation of 2184 m. The total vertical drop is 1530 m and 4757 acre skiable inbound terrain.\nWhistler is served by a total of 19 lifts; 2 gondolas, 5 high-speed detachable quad chair lifts, 4 high-speed detachable sixpack chair lifts, 2 fixed grip triple chair lifts, 1 T-bar (called T-bars but parallel T-Bar was removed however towers and stations still mostly stand) and 7 carpet lifts.\nIt also hosts the drive station for the [Peak 2 Peak Gondola](https://bliptext.com/articles/peak-2-peak-gondola) connecting it with Blackcomb mountain to the north.\nThere are 4 on-hill restaurants, as well as a children's ski school.\nIt is served by two base areas: Whistler Creek also known as creekside, the original base on its southwest flank, and Whistler Village on its northwest flank.\nBlackcomb Mountain is the northern ridge, on the left when viewed from the village.\nIt has a lift-serviced elevation of 2240 m at the top of the 7th Heaven chair – Blackcomb Mountain itself is higher at 2440 m, but unlike Whistler, the peak is not lift-served.\nBlackcomb has a higher skiable vertical, at 1565 m, but less in-bound skiing area at 3414 acre.\nIt is served by 15 lifts; 2 gondolas, 6 high-speed quads, 1 fixed-grip triple and 7 surface lifts (1 T-Bar and 5 carpet lifts), as well as the end-station for the Peak 2 Peak.\nBlackcomb is the location of the world-famous \"Couloir Extreme\" run, which is one of the top ten steep in-bound runs in the world, according to [Skiing Magazine](https://bliptext.com/articles/skiing-magazine).\nOriginally 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](https://bliptext.com/articles/extreme-skiing) [Sylvain Saudan](https://bliptext.com/articles/sylvain-saudan) complained about the unauthorised use of his name.\nThe two previously separate ski areas of Whistler and Blackcomb were integrated into one operation in 1997 after [Intrawest](https://bliptext.com/articles/intrawest) merged with Whistler Mountain Ski Corporation.\nTicketing, pass, and access control systems for the two ski areas were fully integrated in 2003.\nTogether, Whistler and Blackcomb form the largest ski area in North America at 8171 acre.\nEither mountain alone would be in the top-five in terms of size.\nThe mountains are accessed via four gondolas and one high-speed eight pack: Blackcomb Excalibur Gondola, Whistler Mountain Village Gondola, and Fitzsimmons Express in the village; the Blackcomb Gondola in Blackcomb Base/Upper Village; and the Whistler Creekside Gondola to the south in the Creekside area.\nThe primary skiing terrain starts about one-third up the mountains.\nSki-outs to the valley are usually possible during the months of December through April.\nThe mid- and upper- areas are serviced by 10 high-speed detachable chairs and 5 fixed-grip lifts made by [Lift Engineering](https://bliptext.com/articles/lift-engineering), [Doppelmayr](https://bliptext.com/articles/doppelmayr-north-america) and [Poma](https://bliptext.com/articles/poma).\nTwo [T-bars](https://bliptext.com/articles/t-bar-lift) service the [Horstman Glacier](https://bliptext.com/articles/horstman-glacier) and the Whistler alpine regions and take skiers to the entrance to Blackcomb Glacier.\nThe overall lift capacity, 65,507 skiers per hour, is the greatest in North America.\nBefore 2008 the only connection between the two mountains was via the village.\nThe opening of the [Peak 2 Peak Gondola](https://bliptext.com/articles/peak-2-peak-gondola) on 12 December 2008 connected the two mountains at approximately 1,800 m. The lift has a total length of 4.4 km and the longest unsupported span for a lift of its kind in the world at 3.02 km while also having the highest ground clearance for a lift of its kind, 436 m above the valley floor.\nWhistler Village, which is part of the Resort Municipality of Whistler, a geo-political entity not directly associated with the resort company's operation, is situated at the base of the Whistler Mountain Village Gondola and Blackcomb Excalibur Gondola.\nThe village incorporates community services, shops, entertainment venues, restaurants, bars, hotels, condominiums and vacation properties.\nThe village is 675 m above sea level, and is located 137 km from [Vancouver International Airport](https://bliptext.com/articles/vancouver-international-airport).\n\n# History\n\n## Early visitors\nThe valley area between Whistler and Blackcomb was first surveyed and documented in 1858 by [Hudson's Bay](https://bliptext.com/articles/hudson-s-bay-company) men looking for an alternate route into the Cariboo area further north.\nAlthough 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.\nKnown as the [Pemberton Trail](https://bliptext.com/articles/pemberton-trail), the route followed a path similar to the [Sea-to-Sky Highway](https://bliptext.com/articles/british-columbia-highway-99), leading past the Whistler area to the present day town of [Pemberton](https://bliptext.com/articles/pemberton-british-columbia).\nIn the 1860s British Naval surveyors named the mountain Frog Hill, but it soon garnered the nickname \"Whistler\" because of the shrill whistle made by the [Western Hoary Marmots](https://bliptext.com/articles/western-hoary-marmot) who lived among the rocks.\nFour lakes paralleled the route of Trail, the highest then being known as Summit Lake.\nHowever, there was another Summit Lake in BC, and in 1910 the name was changed to its current form, Alta Lake.\nOne 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.\nDuring a trip to sell furs in Vancouver in 1911, Millar stopped at the Horseshoe Bar & Grill for dinner.\nThe cook was Alex Philip from Maine, and Millar invited Philip to join him for dinner.\nMillar was a storyteller, and during the conversations that followed, he invited Philip to visit the Alta area.\nAlex 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 acre of land on the northwest corner of Alta Lake for $700.\n\n## Rainbow Lodge and other early resorts\nBy 1914, the Philip's [Rainbow Lodge](https://bliptext.com/articles/rainbow-lodge) fishing resort was completed with four bedrooms, a large living/dining area and a kitchen.\nThe resort was named for the [Rainbow trout](https://bliptext.com/articles/rainbow-trout) that were the main attraction of the resort.\nThat same year, the [Pacific Great Eastern Railway](https://bliptext.com/articles/pacific-great-eastern-railway) (PGE) reached the lake, from [Squamish](https://bliptext.com/articles/squamish-british-columbia).\nExecutives 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.\nA standard rate of $2 for a week was applied, and the very first group arrived with 25 people.\nThe resort was a hit.\nMillar left when the railway arrived, looking to get further away from civilization.\nBuilding 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.\nIt became the most popular west coast resort for 30 years.\nThe Philips operated the Lodge until 1948 when they sold it to Alec and Audrey Greenwood.\nThe main Lodge burnt down in 1977, but today the area has been preserved as Rainbow Park.\nThe Philips both remained in the valley until their deaths.\nAlex died in 1968 at the age of 86, and Myrtle died in 1986 at the age of 95.\nFollowing the successful launch of Rainbow Lodge, several other tourist resorts set up in the valley.\nRussell Anderson Jordan opened the Alta Lake Hotel which burned down in 1930, and replaced it with Jordan's Lodge on nearby Nita Lake.\nBert and Agnes Harrop built Harrop's Point in the 1920s.\nThis became the Cypress Lodge in 1945 under its then-owner Dick Fairhurst, who built new cabins and a main lodge in the early 1960s.\nIn 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 Hosteling International) opened a new, larger hostel.\nThe original building is still standing today, home to the point artists centre and the Whistler sailing club.\nCecilia and John Mansell moved to Alta Lake in 1945 and built the Hillcrest Lodge near today's Lakeside Park on Alta Lake.\nThey sold it in 1965 to the Mason Family and others who operated it as Mount Whistler Lodge for skiers.\nThe main lodge was burnt in a fire practice by the fire department in 1986.\nThere was some commercial use of the London Mountain area as well.\nLogging 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.\nThe fur trade remained for some time, later supplanted by a mink and marten farm.\nJimmy Fitzsimmons ran a prospecting support company, which led to mining surveys up Fitzsimmons Valley.\nThe shafts can still be found on the Singing Pass trail.\n\n## Olympic dreams\nIn 1960 the Canadian Olympic Association visited the west coast looking for potential sites for a future [1968 Winter Olympics](https://bliptext.com/articles/1968-winter-olympics).\nThey initially looked at a site on [Diamond Head](https://bliptext.com/articles/diamond-head-canada) just north of [Squamish](https://bliptext.com/articles/squamish-bc), which was already developed to the extent of a single chairlift.\nHowever, they concluded that the area simply couldn't be developed properly, \"it just wasn't the right terrain for a world-class resort.\"\nFranz Wilhelmsen, a local businessman who had married into the [Seagram family](https://bliptext.com/articles/seagram), had already come to the same conclusions when he had been scouting areas for a new ski resort.\nHe met with the COA and convinced them to look further north in the London Mountain area, \"And they were impressed.\"\nEncouraged by their positive reviews, Wilhelmsen organized the Garibaldi Olympic Development Association (GODA) to make a formal bid.\nAt this time there was no road, no electricity, and no piped water or sewer in Alta Lake.\nTheir bid for the Olympics was unsurprisingly rejected, and the Canadian bid was given to [Calgary](https://bliptext.com/articles/calgary), who came in a close second place to [Grenoble](https://bliptext.com/articles/grenoble).\nUndaunted, Wilhelmsen decided to press ahead with development of a resort.\nIn 1962 the Garibaldi Lifts Limited was formed with Franz Wilhelmsen as president.\nIt had two main objectives, to finance and supervise required land/business studies, and to erect and operate ski lifts on London Mountain.\nThe company had little experience in ski operations, so they hired [Willy Schaeffler](https://bliptext.com/articles/willy-schaeffler), a well known developer, to help them.\nSchaeffler proved as enthusiastic about London Mountain as COA and GODA had been.\nSchaeffler returned and wrote a good feasibility study about the Alta area, which had no mining claims.\nFrom 1962 to 1965 Garibaldi Lifts raised funds and began development of the ski area on the south side of the mountain.\nThe government agreed that they would set aside a 56 acre plot at the base of the mountain for Garibaldi Lifts to buy, and agreed to bring the highway to the base of the mountain if they could raise enough money.\nBy 1965 they had reached their goal of raising $800,000 and started planning for development.\nHowever, they were not happy with the name, and on August 27, 1965, London Mountain officially became Whistler Mountain.\nBy 1965 the Provincial Government had completed a narrow gravel road from Vancouver.\nElectricity arrived the same year with the installation of a substation along the lines from [Bridge River](https://bliptext.com/articles/bridge-bridge-british-columbia).\nEverything was in place, and the Alta area became a hive of development.\nGODA made a bid for the [1972 Winter Olympics](https://bliptext.com/articles/1972-winter-olympics), but Banff won again and eventually lost to Japan.\n\n## Whistler opens\nBy 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 Mueller](https://bliptext.com/articles/gmd-mueller).\nIn addition, a day lodge was constructed and six ski runs cut into the hill.\nWhistler officially opened for skiing for the first time on January 15, 1966.\nThe new mountain won instant acclaim for its vertical drop, good snow conditions, and huge alpine area.\nThe 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 travelers.\nWith real infrastructure in place, in 1968 GODA made another bid for the [1976 Winter Olympics](https://bliptext.com/articles/1976-winter-olympics), and this time the joint Vancouver/Garibaldi won the Canadian nomination.\nHowever, in 1970 when [Montreal](https://bliptext.com/articles/montreal) won the voting for the [1976 Summer Olympics](https://bliptext.com/articles/1976-summer-olympics), Vancouver/Garibaldi was removed from further consideration and the games eventually went to [Denver](https://bliptext.com/articles/denver), Colorado.\nIn a stunning turn of events, Denver turned down the games after winning the bidding.\nThe games were then offered to the other North American entry, Vancouver/Garibaldi, but political turmoil due to the recent [change in government](https://bliptext.com/articles/1972-british-columbia-general-election) led to their bid being withdrawn as well, and in desperation the [IOC](https://bliptext.com/articles/international-olympic-committee) returned the games to Innsbruck for a second time in a row.\nThe gravel road was paved to Whistler in 1966, and on to Pemberton in 1969.\nThe Blue and Green chairlifts were added in 1970, providing access to additional terrain.\nIn 1972 these were joined by the Olive and Orange chairlifts.\nA parallel lift to the Green Chair to alleviate crowds came in 1974, and the Little Red Chair came in 1978.\nThe Roundhouse, an on-mountain lodge and restaurant, was completed in 1980.\nThis new lodge provided respite for cold skiers who had survived the long ride up on the Red Chair.\n\n## Whistler Village\nIn 1974 the provincial [New Democratic Party of British Columbia](https://bliptext.com/articles/new-democratic-party-of-british-columbia) was interested in developing tourism and took a number of steps affecting Whistler.\nAt the time, the Alta Lake area was overdeveloped, so the government instituted a development freeze while they studied the problem.\nThe only solution was to continue development in another location.\nThey quickly decided to focus on the table between Whistler and Blackcomb, about 4 km to the north of the existing facilities on Alta Lake.\nAt that time this was the site of the Alta Lake dump, and the remains of a [Volkswagen Van](https://bliptext.com/articles/vw-camper-van) are still buried under the modern village.\nIn 1975 the [Resort Municipality of Whistler](https://bliptext.com/articles/resort-municipality-of-whistler) (RMOW) was formed, the first Resort Municipality in Canada and also the first place in British Columbia since Canadian [prohibition](https://bliptext.com/articles/prohibition) where bars were allowed to be open on Sunday.\nThe act also created the Whistler Village Land Company who would oversee all development of the new Whistler Village.\nIn 1977 the provincial government named [Al Raine](https://bliptext.com/articles/al-raine) the Provincial Ski Area Co-ordinator, in charge of expanding BC's skiing capabilities.\nRaine was previously National Coach for the Canadian Women's Ski Team, and was married to famous Canadian skier [Nancy Greene](https://bliptext.com/articles/nancy-greene).\nRaine saw the potential in developing [Blackcomb Mountain](https://bliptext.com/articles/blackcomb-mountain), then part of the [Garibaldi Provincial Park](https://bliptext.com/articles/garibaldi-provincial-park), and joined the Whistler city council.\nThe 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.\nIn 1977 the Municipality hired Sutcliffe Griggs Moodie Development Consultants to design a layout for [Whistler Village's](https://bliptext.com/articles/whistler-british-columbia) development.\nHowever, their design was considered too conventional and allowed too much car traffic.\nRaine recommended Eldon Beck, who had been the primary designer at [Vail](https://bliptext.com/articles/vail), celebrated for its layout.\nBeck'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.\nTo this day the village retains this basic design in spite of dramatic expansions, and has won worldwide acclaim in architecture circles.\nIn January 1978, 53 acre of [crown land](https://bliptext.com/articles/crown-land) were given to the Whistler municipality to develop the town centre.\nThe first sod for the village was turned on August 18, 1978, by first Mayor Pat Carleton.\nBy 1979 many amenities were in place, including Municipal Hall, Fire Hall, Health Care Centre, and Elementary School.\nPhase 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.\nThe first hotel, the Blackcomb Lodge, anchors the Village Square area to this day.\n\n## Blackcomb opens\nIn 1978 a call for bids was issued to develop Blackcomb for skiing.\nThe bidding to develop Blackcomb was contested by two companies, the [Aspen Skiing Company](https://bliptext.com/articles/aspen-skiing-company), and the newly formed Blackcomb Skiing Enterprises (BSE).\nAspen, having recently developed the [Fortress Mountain Resort](https://bliptext.com/articles/fortress-mountain-resort) in Alberta, won the contest.\nA new company, Fortress Mountain Resorts, was formed with a 50–50 partnership between Aspen and the [Business Development Bank of Canada](https://bliptext.com/articles/business-development-bank-of-canada).\nThe new competition, paid for partially by tax dollars, was not initially appreciated by Whistler.\nInitial development of the mountain included four triple chairlifts (later named Cruiser, Stoker, Catskinner and Fitzsimmons) and one double chairlift, all supplied by [Lift Engineering](https://bliptext.com/articles/lift-engineering) (Yan Lifts).\nThe double chair was installed on the lower Gear Jammer run where the tube park is located today and was used as a beginner chair at a reduced speed.\nThis area was also the first area to get permanent underground snow making pipes supplying snow making guns up the south side of the run.\nAt the time the lifts were referred to only by number.\nBlackcomb opened for skiing on December 6, 1980, along with the newly constructed village.\nTo ensure guests could continue to easily access Whistler from the new village, Whistler added three Yan triple [chairlifts](https://bliptext.com/articles/chairlift) for the same season; the Village, Olympic, and Black Chairs which met up with the top of the Orange chair at the top of the men's downhill course.\nWhistler's original base at Alta Lake began to be referred to as Whistler Creek, or Creekside, after the creek that runs through the area.\n# [Blackcomb Mountain logo, 1980–1985. The green leaf represents Aspen's ownership. The red and black skis were common to early marketing. | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ef/Blackcomblogo.png]\n\n## Competition and buildout\nThroughout 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.\nIn 1982, \"Chair 6\" (later rebranded Jersey Cream) opened in the Horstman Creek drainage on Blackcomb.\nWhistler cut new trails along the northern flank of the mountain.\nIn 1983 Blackcomb acquired a used T-Bar from Fortress Mountain and installed it on a south-facing slope, in full view of Whistler Mountain.\nThis 7th lift was coined the Seventh Heaven T-Bar and gave access to high alpine and glaciated terrain.\nIt also gave Blackcomb the highest lift-serviced vertical drop of any ski area in North America, with the top of the lift at 7348 ft. Blackcomb promoted themselves as the \"Mile High Mountain\".\nWhistler responded in 1986 with the opening of the Peak Chair to the summit of Whistler Mountain at 7160 ft, acquiring a Poma triple chairlift from the closed [Pikes Peak](https://bliptext.com/articles/pikes-peak) ski area in Colorado.\nAlthough not as high as Seventh Heaven, this lift opened up Whistler Mountain's alpine terrain, and allowed access to the Harmony Bowl area.\nThe new terrain made Whistler the largest alpine ski area in North America.\nSkiers could buy a Blackcomb pass, a Whistler pass, or a Dual Mountain pass.\nLocals loved when tourists would ask \"Where is Dual Mountain?\"\n\n## Intrawest buys Blackcomb\nIn 1986, Blackcomb's assets and real estate rights were bought by fledgling real estate developer [Intrawest](https://bliptext.com/articles/intrawest).\nIntrawest was an early developer of [timeshare](https://bliptext.com/articles/timeshare) listings, and saw the potential in developing the ski resort with [condominium](https://bliptext.com/articles/condominium-living-space) assets as a [timeshare](https://bliptext.com/articles/timeshare) destination.\nIntrawest immediately carried out massive upgrades on Blackcomb.\nThey started by moving the Seventh Heaven T-Bar across the ridge to the Horstman Glacier, still running up to the peak, and supplemented it with the Showcase T-Bar to service Blackcomb Glacier.\n[Doppelmayr](https://bliptext.com/articles/doppelmayr-north-america) replaced Seventh Heaven in its original alignment with a [high-speed quad chairlift](https://bliptext.com/articles/high-speed-quad-chairlift), and built two additional high-speed quads, Wizard and Solar Coaster, which cut the ride time from the base area to Rendezvous from 45 minutes to 15.\nThe Rendezvous Restaurant was renamed Base 2 and the moniker moved to the restaurant at the top of Solar Coaster and Catskinner.\n# [Blackcomb Mountain, as seen looking north from Whistler Mountain. The trails served by Seventh Heaven are seen face-on just right of mid-frame, the upper half of these trails are not obvious in the large \"bowl\" along the top of the peak. The majority of Blackcomb's trails run down the slope to the left, and are not easily visible in this picture. | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bd/Blackcomb///panorama///from///whistler///mountain.jpg]\n\n## Renewed competition\nIn 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.\nCarrying passengers 1157 m vertically and 5 km horizontally over 63 support towers, the lift opened on November 24, 1988.\nIn 1990 Whistler began upgrading its aging fleet of fixed grip chairlifts with the addition of its first [high-speed quad chairlift](https://bliptext.com/articles/high-speed-quad-chairlift).\nThe Green Chair Express, which replaced the two Green Chairs, was built by [Lift Engineering](https://bliptext.com/articles/lift-engineering) (Yan), and substantially cut long lift queues in the Green area of the mountain.\nA year later, Whistler Mountain replaced three double chairlifts and the original Creekside gondola with two [high-speed quad chairlifts](https://bliptext.com/articles/high-speed-quad-chairlift), the Quicksilver Express and Redline Express lifts, also built by [Lift Engineering](https://bliptext.com/articles/lift-engineering).\nIn 1994, the Blue Chair was removed and replaced with a [Poma](https://bliptext.com/articles/poma) high speed quad named the Harmony Express, providing access to Little Whistler Peak.\nIn 1994, Blackcomb made what would be its last major lift expansion until 2018 with the replacement of the lower mountain triple chairlifts.\nStoker was replaced with a high speed quad in a longer alignment known as the Excelerator Express, while Fitzsimmons and Cruiser were replaced with the two-stage Excalibur Gondola, running from Whistler Village to the base of Excelerator with a mid-station near the top of the former Fitzsimmons lift.\nThe second is dubbed by some as the \"gondola to nowhere\" since it does not connect with any restaurant or access additional terrain.\nHowever, in combination with Excelerator, it allowed rapid access to Blackcomb for Whistler Village traffic, who previously had to take three or four chairlifts to Rendezvous (Fitzsimmons, Stoker, Cruiser, and Jersey Cream, with 3 of those being slower chairs; or Fitzsimmons, Wizard and Solar Coaster).\nExcelerator 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 traveled those slopes frequently had to go all the way to the bottom of the mountain, which was over-skied and icy.\nThis competition had driven development of the two mountains at a rate no other resorts could come close to matching.\nIn 1992, Snow Country Magazine voted Whistler the Number One Ski Resort in North America.\nSimilar No. 1 rankings quickly followed from other major magazines, and between 1992 and 2000 it won No. 1 ranking from one of the major magazines every year.\nIn 1996, it became the only resort in history to be simultaneously named No. 1 by Snow Country, SKI and Skiing magazines.\n\n## Intrawest buys Whistler\nIn 1997, the Whistler Mountain Ski Corporation was also bought out by [Intrawest](https://bliptext.com/articles/intrawest).\nLike their expansion on Blackcomb, Intrawest immediately started a major build-out on Whistler.\nFollowing a deadly accident on Quicksilver in December 1995, all three of Whistler's Yan high speed quads were replaced.\nA new Creekside Gondola was constructed by [Poma](https://bliptext.com/articles/poma) for the 1996-1997 season to replace Quicksilver.\nIn 1997, [Doppelmayr](https://bliptext.com/articles/doppelmayr-north-america) constructed new high speed quads to replace the Redline and Greenline chairs, respectively named the Big Red Express and Emerald Express.\nThese lifts received new terminals and chairs, but reused the predecessor lifts' towers.\nThe original Roundhouse was demolished and a new lodge built in its place.\nAround this time Intrawest began marketing the two mountains as one large ski area under the name \"Whistler-Blackcomb\".\nOn April 20, 1999, Whistler Blackcomb became the first North American ski resort to top 2 million skier visits in one season.\n1998 saw the replacement of the Peak Chair with a high-speed quad.\nThe original Peak Chair was renamed Franz's Chair and moved parallel to Big Red with a return station approximately halfway up Big Red's lift line.\nFranz's runs primarily in early and late season, when lower altitudes are not well covered.\nIn 1999, the Black Chair was replaced with a high speed quad, the Garbanzo Express, running on a longer alignment starting next to the Whistler Village Gondola's midstation that eliminated the need for guests skiing this terrain to ride the Olympic Chair.\nThe Fitzsimmons Express was added in 2000, following the line of the long-gone Village Chair and roughly paralleling the lower part of the gondola.\nThe top of Fitzsimmons and the bottom of 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.\nIt was the second lift with the Fitszimmons name, the original lift being a triple chairlift replaced by Stage 1 of the Excalibur Gondola in 1994.\nStarting in 2000, Intrawest started redeveloping the Creekside area with new village layout.\nThroughout, Intrawest also extensively developed the summertime attractions, notably golf and [mountain biking](https://bliptext.com/articles/mountain-biking).\nToday, Whistler Blackcomb averages 2 million visitors during the ski season, but another 2.5 during the summer.\nWhistler Blackcomb's 2006/2007 season saw Doppelmayr construct the Symphony Express, a high speed quad that begins towards the bottom of the Symphony Amphitheater and carries riders to the top of Piccolo.\nOne of the original names suggested for this lift was Piccolo Express.\nA more ambitious upgrade was the [Peak 2 Peak Gondola](https://bliptext.com/articles/peak-2-peak-gondola), opened to provide a direct connection between the Roundhouse on Whistler and Rendezvous on Blackcomb.\nPeak-to-Peak opened for the first time on December 12, 2008, but low snowfall meant it was rockbound at the time.\nThe first summer operation day was June 6, 2009.\n# [Whistler Mountain, as seen looking south from Blackcomb Mountain. The original Whistler area starts mid-frame and extends down and to the right. Whistler Peak is just to the right of the fold. To the left of the peak is the Harmony Bowl area, Little Whistler Peak, and then the recently opened Symphony Bowl. The Black Tusk can be seen in the distance between Whistler Peak and Little Whistler. | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8d/Whistler///Mountain///3.jpg]\n\n## Renewed Olympic bid\nAs 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](https://bliptext.com/articles/2010-winter-olympics).\n[Calgary](https://bliptext.com/articles/calgary) also bid for the Canadian entry, as their equipment from the [1988 Winter Olympics](https://bliptext.com/articles/1988-winter-olympics) was already in place and allowed them to offer a low-cost bid, as did [Quebec City](https://bliptext.com/articles/quebec-city), which lost the 2002 bid.\nCalgary was eliminated in close voting on November 21, 1998, and Vancouver-Whistler won the second round of voting on December 3.\nIn IOC voting [Pyeongchang, South Korea](https://bliptext.com/articles/pyeongchang-county) won the initial round, which eliminated [Salzburg](https://bliptext.com/articles/salzburg), but in the second round on July 2, 2003, they won every one of [Salzburg](https://bliptext.com/articles/salzburg)'s supporters and bested Pyeongchang 56–53.\n# [A statue of Ilanaaq, mascot of the 2010 Olympics, located at the top of the Whistler Village Gondola on Whistler Mountain | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/46/2009-0605-Ilanaaq-2010Oly-Whistler.jpg]\n\n## Reorganization\nIn 2006 Intrawest was purchased by the alternative asset management firm, [Fortress Investment Group](https://bliptext.com/articles/fortress-investment-group).\nThree weeks before the opening of the [2010 Olympics](https://bliptext.com/articles/2010-olympics), Fortress failed to make payment on its loan used to buy out Intrawest.\nThis caused its creditors to force Intrawest to divest itself of several of its resort holdings in 2009 and 2010 which included a partial sale of Whistler Blackcomb, in order to reduce its debt load.\nThis was achieved through a public offering of shares of Whistler Blackcomb Holdings Inc on the Toronto Stock Exchange in 2010.\nThe net outcome of the reorganization is that Whistler Blackcomb Holdings is the managing partner and controls 75% of the partnerships which own the assets of Whistler Blackcomb.\nThe remaining 25% of the partnerships are owned by [Nippon Cable](https://bliptext.com/articles/nippon-cable).\nIntrawest sold its remaining 24% stake in Whistler Blackcomb to KSL Capital Partners in 2012.\n\n## 2010 Olympic Games\nFor the 2010 Winter Olympics, Whistler hosted the [alpine skiing](https://bliptext.com/articles/alpine-skiing-at-the-2010-winter-olympics) events.\nThe men's skiing took place on the [Dave Murray](https://bliptext.com/articles/dave-murray-skier) Downhill course, while women's skiing took place on a new course, which started on Wild Card, cut across Jimmy's Joker to Franz's Run and connected at the bottom of the [Dave Murray](https://bliptext.com/articles/dave-murray-skier) Downhill.\nIn order to serve the spectators and judges who needed to travel only to the timing area a short distance above the Creekside base, a temporary high-speed quad was built by Doppelmayr, known as the Timing Flats Express, in the Creekside base.\nThis alleviated demand on the Creekside Gondola and other lifts that served the starting areas, much higher up the mountain.\nAfter the Olympics, it was dismantled and sold to [Sunshine Village](https://bliptext.com/articles/sunshine-village), Alberta and replaced the Strawberry chair.\nIn preparation for the Games, [Google Maps](https://bliptext.com/articles/google-maps) launched a [Google Maps](https://bliptext.com/articles/google-maps) Street View partnership with Whistler to map out the various Olympic venues and many of the ski runs there.\nThe imagery was taken with cameras mounted on the back of snowmobiles and included panoramas from the Dave Murray Downhill run to the peak of Whistler and to the top of 7th Heaven.\nBlackcomb hosted the [bobsled](https://bliptext.com/articles/bobsleigh-at-the-2010-winter-olympics), [luge](https://bliptext.com/articles/luge-at-the-2010-winter-olympics) and [skeleton](https://bliptext.com/articles/skeleton-at-the-2010-winter-olympics) events at [The Whistler Sliding Centre](https://bliptext.com/articles/the-whistler-sliding-centre).\n[Whistler Olympic Park](https://bliptext.com/articles/whistler-olympic-park) hosted Olympic and Paralympic [biathlon](https://bliptext.com/articles/biathlon-at-the-2010-winter-olympics), [cross-country skiing](https://bliptext.com/articles/cross-country-skiing-at-the-2010-winter-olympics), [Nordic combined](https://bliptext.com/articles/nordic-combined-at-the-2010-winter-olympics) and [ski jumping](https://bliptext.com/articles/ski-jumping-at-the-2010-winter-olympics), some distance to the south of the Creekside area in the [Callaghan Valley](https://bliptext.com/articles/callaghan-valley).\nThe British Columbia government paid $600 million for major upgrades to the [Sea-to-Sky Highway](https://bliptext.com/articles/british-columbia-highway-99), which carried the majority of visitors to the alpine sites.\nNotable accomplishments for Whistler athletes in the 2010 Olympic Games:\n[Ashleigh McIvor](https://bliptext.com/articles/ashleigh-mcivor) won the first gold ever in Ski Cross, an inaugural Olympic event;\nMaëlle Ricker won gold in Snowboard Cross;\nSiblings Mike and Britt Janyk competed in alpine skiing events on the mountain they grew up skiing;\nSki cross athlete Julia Murray, daughter of Dave Murray, competed in her first of likely many Olympic Games.\n\n## 2010s\nSummer 2010 had two lift construction projects at Creekside Base.\nThe Timing Flats Express, used for passenger transport for the games, was removed and rebuilt as the Strawberry Express at [Banff Sunshine](https://bliptext.com/articles/banff-sunshine) in Alberta.\nThe second project was the construction of the Kadenwood Gondola, providing access to the Kadenwood Estate Homes from the Creekside base.\nBuilt by Doppelmayr-CTEC, it is a pulse gondola with 8 passenger cabins in two groups of 2.\nWhistler Blackcomb announced plans on January 18, 2013, regarding plans for two high-speed detachable chairlift installations for the 2013–2014 season.\nThe Harmony Express on Whistler was replaced with a high speed six pack constructed by Doppelmayr, upgrading its capacity from 2,400 to 3,600 persons per hour.\nThe original lift was reinstalled in the Crystal Ridge zone of Blackcomb and renamed the Crystal Ridge Express, replacing the triple chairlift that had previously served this area.\nWhile the Crystal Ridge Express ends at the same location as that of the removed triple at Crystal Hut, it starts lower down the mountain on the Blackcomb Glacier Road near the base of Rock n' Roll.\nThe lift line had been cut many years prior in anticipation of construction, and allows for the runs in this area to be lapped without needing to return to Excelerator.\nIn 2014, new 8 person cabins were bought to upgrade the Whistler Village Gondola, the existing cabins having been in service since 1988.\nSigma, a subsidiary of Leitner-Poma who originally installed the lift, were contracted to produce the new cabins.\nIn May 2015, Whistler Blackcomb announced that both mountains would be declared smoke-free environments, President and CEO Dave Brownlie was quoted as saying \"We have made the decision...to preserve the pristine alpine environment our guests come here for,\".\nHe continued to highlight a need for a safer workplace for employees and experience for guests, \"We also recognize as a leader in the outdoor adventure and wellness industry and as the largest employer in the Whistler community, we have a responsibility to our guests and staff to provide a safe and healthy environment for work and play. We believe implementing this new policy aligns with this goal.\"\nIn April 2016, a $345-million three-phase development plan, named 'Renaissance,' was announced by the mountain, described as the \"largest and most exciting investment in the Company's history.\"\nOn-mountain improvements to skiing and snowboard activities included a replacement of the Magic Chair with a new high-speed lift and the addition of night skiing in the same area during phase one.\nAdditionally, during phase two and three, the Franz, Catskinner, and Olympic chairs would be replaced with new high speed lifts, a new gondola would be constructed from Creekside Base on Whistler Mountain, two new chairlifts would be added in Bagel and Khyber Bowls, and two new high speed lifts would replace Wizard and Solar Coaster.\nThe Renaissance developments reflect many of the proposals included in the resort master plan updated at the end of 2013.\nAdditional projects part of Renaissance include a 163,000-square-foot water park with water slides, a mountain roller coaster, a suspension bridge atop Whistler Mountain's peak, expansion of Whistler Mountain Bike Park, new parking facilities and housing developments, a new 'Blackcomb Grind' hiking trail, and a revitalization of Blackcomb's base.\nThe start of this project will be subject to government approval and the renegotiation of the company's master development agreements and negotiation of a proposed business partnership with local First Nations.\nOnce approval is granted, Phase One projects and expansions will take two years to construct.\nOn August 8, 2016, it was announced that Whistler Blackcomb Holdings, which owned 75% of the Whistler and Blackcomb partnerships, would be sold to [Vail Resorts](https://bliptext.com/articles/vail-resorts) of Colorado for C$1.4 billion, which also saw the addition of the resort to the Epic Pass.\nFor 2018, Doppelmayr carried out two major lift projects.\nOn Blackcomb, the aging Wizard and Solar Coaster high speed quads were replaced with a two-stage ten passenger gondola, with a midway turn station near where the previous lifts met.\nLike the Whistler Village and Excalibur Gondolas, the two segments can be operated as one continuous lift or as two separate lifts.\nOn Whistler, the Emerald Express was replaced with a high speed six pack, and similar to Harmony five years earlier, the original lift was relocated to Blackcomb to replace Catskinner.\nThe Catskinner Express runs on a modified alignment compared to its predecessor, starting below the Magic Castle whereas the triple started at the base of the Nintendo Terrain Park.\n\n## 2020s\nDue to the [COVID-19 pandemic](https://bliptext.com/articles/covid-19-pandemic), Whistler was forced to close for the remainder of the ski season.\nVail gave refunds to anyone who booked a trip during the closing time.\nHowever, the 2020–2021 season was in operation.\nTo comply with provincial safety protocols, masks and social distancing were mandated in crowded spaces to reduce transmission of the disease.\nExcept for a brief closure in March 2021, operations remained like this for the rest of the season.\nThe 2021–2022 season saw similar rules in the resort.\nIn 2020, the Horstman T-bar was closed down and dismantled as the glacier it was built on receded.\nHowever, glacier skiing is still an activity during the summer, only in the upper regions with the Showcase T-bar.\nFor the 2022-2023 winter season, as part of Vail's Epic Lift Upgrade project, Doppelmayr replaced the Creekside Gondola and the Big Red Express, upgrading them to a ten-passenger gondola and a high speed six pack chair respectively.\nThe new Creekside Gondola increased its lift capacity by 35% and the new Big Red 6 increased its lift capacity by 30%.\nIn May 2022, the old cabins and chairs of the two lifts were put on sale and were sold for charity.\nSince the Creekside Gondola is also a mountain biking lift in the summer, during construction, bikers were allowed to bring their bikes in the Whistler Village Gondola cabins and the Garbanzo Express opened earlier.\nHowever, due to shipping delays, the Creekside Gondola and Big Red 6 were only completed in December 2022.\nFrom the start of the 2022-2023 winter season before the opening of the two new lifts, shuttle buses transported guests from the Creekside area to the main village.\nThe 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 seasons will have seen the resort install two high speed chairlifts from Doppelmayr that had originally been manufactured for installation at [Park City Mountain Resort](https://bliptext.com/articles/park-city-mountain-resort), both of which replaced older high speed quads.\n2023 saw the replacement of Fitzsimmons with a high speed eight pack, while 2024 will see the replacement of Jersey Cream with a high speed six pack.\n\n# Major events\n\n# Major lifts\n\n## Winter lifts\n\n## Summer lifts\nThe resort also features many unnamed [magic carpet](https://bliptext.com/articles/magic-carpet-ski-lift) lifts, scattered primarily around beginner areas.\n===Terrain aspects ===\n\n# Other facilities\n\n## Whistler Mountain Bike Park\nThe **Whistler Mountain Bike Park** celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2008.\nHaving consistently grown since its inception, it sees an average of 100,000 bikers each summer.\nThe Whistler Mountain Bike Park uses the Fitzsimmons 8 and Garbanzo quad lifts, as well as the Whistler Village [Gondola](https://bliptext.com/articles/gondola-lift) and Creekside [Gondola](https://bliptext.com/articles/gondola-lift) to shuttle bikers to around midstation, at 1,200 m. The park has 47+ trails for all skill levels totaling 250 km + of trails.\nThere 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.\nDuring the summer, Fitzsimmons 8 and Garbanzo are used for bike hauls, with select chairs having their seats replaced with a bike rack.\nThese racks fit four bikes, three in grooves and one on a hook on the side of the chair.\nThe bikers then get on the next chair which is a normal passenger carrier.\nThe Fitzsimmons chair, the most popular on the mountain, used this system until 2023.\nThe updated Fitz chair opening December 12, 2023 updated the capacity from 2 per chair to five.\nThe updated chair features many seats, and 4 front tire slots on the back, as well as a hook on the side for a fifth bike.\nThe bike park has three zones: the Fitzsimmons Zone (the lower zone), the Garbanzo Zone (the upper zone) and the Creekside Zone.\nAll riders take either the Village [Gondola](https://bliptext.com/articles/gondola-lift) or Fitzsimmons 8 to the Olympic Station area.\nThen intermediate and advanced riders can take Garbanzo up further to the Garbanzo zone.\nGarbanzo riders can then return to midstation or Whistler Village, the base of the bike park.\nThe Creekside Zone can be accessed via the Creekside Gondola or by riding through the Garbanzo Zone.\nFrom the top of Garbanzo to the village is an 1100 m vertical descent; eclipsed only by the descent from the top gondola station or the top of the Peak Chair, the highest accessible point on the mountain.\n\"A-Line\" is the most well-known track.\nThe 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.\nThe Boneyard features a collection of high-intermediate and advanced slopestyle features, including drops, dirt jumps, and more.\nEach summer since 2004, the park hosts [Crankworx](https://bliptext.com/articles/crankworx), the largest annual [freeride](https://bliptext.com/articles/freeride-mountain-biking) mountain biking competition in North America.\nAnother major competition, Harvest Huckfest, was held there each fall from 2002 to 2008.\n# [Aerial View of the Whistler Bike Park | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4d/Aerial///View///Bike///Park.jpg]\n# [Riders waiting in the Fitzsimmons chairlift line | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/85/Bike///Park///Bottom.JPG]\n\n## Whistler Blackcomb's Tube Park\nFor the 2005–06 ski season, Blackcomb Mountain opened the Tube Park to allow for recreational [tubing](https://bliptext.com/articles/tubing-recreation) at the resort.\nThe tube park is located at Base II alongside the Village Run.\n\n# Incidents\n\n## Quicksilver Express grip failure, December 23, 1995\nThe 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.\nInstead, the emergency brake activated, sending shockwaves down the cable.\nGrips on at least two of the chairs slipped, and caused chairs to slide down the cable and slam into each other.\nIn all, eight were injured, and two were killed in one of the worst ski lift accidents in North America.\nThe lift's manufacturer, [Lift Engineering/Yan](https://bliptext.com/articles/lift-engineering), entered bankruptcy after the incident in July 1996.\nThe cause was found to be a design fault in the Yan detachable grip.\nThe Quicksilver lift was removed and replaced by the first Creekside Gondola.\nThe other two Yan high speed quads on Whistler, Greenline and Redline, were replaced with Doppelmayr high speed quads the year after that, with all new terminals, grips and chairs, and renamed as the Emerald Express and Big Red Express respectively.\n\n## Excalibur Gondola collapse, December 16, 2008\nThe Excalibur gondola had a major malfunction on December 16, 2008, when the upper portion of one of the lift towers detached and [collapsed](https://bliptext.com/articles/collapse-structural), causing several of the gondola cabins to drop near to the ground, leaving 53 people trapped on the lower section of the lift line.\nFirefighters rescued passengers from a cabin dangling over Fitzsimmons Creek, and from another gondola that landed on a bus shelter.\nThe third cabin had crashed into the trees, narrowly missing a condominium.\nTwelve people suffered minor injuries.\nAccording to Whistler-Blackcomb, a joint in the tower separated due to the buildup of ice from water that had seeped into the tower.\nThe undamaged upper half of the lift running from Blackcomb's Base 2 was reopened on Saturday December 20.\nAfter repairs were made to the collapsed tower, the whole lift was back in service on Wednesday December 24.\n\n## Harmony Express grip failure, February 18, 2009\nThe lift operations team on Harmony had been experiencing some problems with the lift during the day of Wednesday, February 18, 2009.\nThat night, a grooming machine operator found a chair had fallen from the lift at Tower 11.\nAt the tops of the lift towers are a series of wheels known as sheaves, or sheave trains as there are almost always more than one in a row.\nTowers typically have two sheave trains, one for the uphill-moving side of the cable loop, and one for the downhill side.\nUpon inspection the next morning, maintenance crews discovered that the sheave train on the downhill side of tower 11 had failed, and that the sheave had turned into the path of a chair and forced it off the cable.\nThe cause was later determined to be a failed bolt, and all of the bolts were replaced.\nThe lift reopened on Sunday, February 22, 2009.\nThe affected chair No. 37 was temporarily removed from operation; it has since been replaced.\n# [Four sheaves make up this lift tower's uphill sheave train. A similar train is off-frame to the right, guiding the cable as it returns downhill. | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/21/Sheeve///cable///catcher///and///brittle///bar///P1402///annotated.png]\n\n## Whistler T-Bars summer maintenance incident, August 31, 2009\nOn 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.\nThe person remained attached to both the tower and the maintenance carrier while the second employee was secured to the carrier.\nThe 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.\nThe employee hanging from the tower only received bruises.\n\n## Big Red Express bolt failure, December 6, 2009\nOn Sunday, December 6, 2009, at 8:55 am, a passenger aboard Big Red noticed that a sheave train had broken off Tower 31 and had fallen to the ground.\nThey immediately notified the lift operator at the top terminal (2 towers away) and Whistler Blackcomb Lift Maintenance department.\nAs a result, the lift was run at a low speed to evacuate all passengers.\nAll passengers were finally off the lift just before 10 am.\nThe lift was closed down for the day, repaired, and back in operation Monday, December 7.\n\n# Photographs","current_revision":"73368816-be5e-413a-ba5b-c6dccff974d4","created_by":"kACnuQmH5k9Nr5VNVEpVeg7XpvUmMctD","created_at":"2025-01-25T18:33:17.120Z","updated_at":"2025-12-25T02:21:17.165Z","search_vector":"'blackcomb':2 'whistler':1","search_content":" \n \n**Name:** Whistler Blackcomb \n**Location:** [Whistler Mountain](https://bliptext.com/articles/whistler-mountain) and [Blackcomb Mountain](https://bliptext.com/articles/blackcomb-mountain) \n**Nearest City:** [Vancouver](https://bliptext.com/articles/vancouver) \n**Coordinates:** 50.10833°N, -122.9425°W \n**Status:** Operating \n**Owner:** [Vail Resorts](https://bliptext.com/articles/vail-resorts) \n**Vertical:** Whistler: 1,530 m (5,020 ft) · Blackcomb: 1,565 m (5,133 ft) \n**Top Elevation:** Whistler: 2,182 m (7,160 ft) · Blackcomb: 2,240 m (7,347 ft) \n**Base Elevation:** Creekside: 653 m (2,140 ft) · Village: 675 m (2,214 ft) \n**Skiable Area:** 8171 Whistler: 4757 acre · Blackcomb: 3414 acre \n**Number Trails:** 241 · [[Image:Ski trail rating symbol-green circle.svg|13px]] 35 – Easiest · [[Image:Ski trail rating symbol-blue square.svg|13px]] 110 – More Difficult · [[Image:Ski trail rating symbol-black diamond.svg|13px]] 35 – Most Difficult · [[Image:Ski trail rating symbol-double black diamond.svg|13px]] 20 – Expert \n**Longest Run:** Peak To Creek (Whistler), Green Road (Blackcomb): Both are 11 km \n**Liftsystem:** 34 (Whistler 19)(Blackcomb 17) · 5 [gondolas](https://bliptext.com/articles/gondola-lift) · 1 [high-speed eight-pack chairlift](https://bliptext.com/articles/detachable-chairlift) · 3 [high-speed six-pack [chairlifts](https://bliptext.com/articles/chairlifts)](https://bliptext.com/articles/detachable-chairlift) · 9 [high-speed quad [chairlifts](https://bliptext.com/articles/chairlifts)](https://bliptext.com/articles/detachable-chairlift) · 3 triple [chairlifts](https://bliptext.com/articles/chairlifts) · 15 [surface lifts](https://bliptext.com/articles/surface-lifts) \n**Lift Capacity:** 69,939 skiers/hr Whistler: 36,148 Blackcomb: 33,791 \n**Snowfall:** 11.7m/year ( 415 in.) \n**Snowmaking:** Whistler: 325 acres · (131 hectares), 6.8% · Blackcomb: 382 acres · (154 hectares), 11.1% \n**External Link:** https://www.whistlerblackcomb.com/ \n \n\n# \n**Whistler Blackcomb** is a [ski resort](https://bliptext.com/articles/ski-resort) located in [Whistler, British Columbia](https://bliptext.com/articles/whistler-british-columbia), Canada.\nBy many measures, it is the largest ski resort in [North America](https://bliptext.com/articles/north-america) and has the greatest uphill lift capacity.\nIt features the [Peak 2 Peak Gondola](https://bliptext.com/articles/peak-2-peak-gondola) for moving between [Whistler](https://bliptext.com/articles/whistler-mountain) and [Blackcomb](https://bliptext.com/articles/blackcomb-peak) mountains at the top.\nWith its capacity, Whistler Blackcomb is a busy ski resort, often surpassing two million visitors a year.\nWhistler was originally conceived as part of a bid to win the [1968 Winter Olympics](https://bliptext.com/articles/1968-winter-olympics).\nAlthough the bid failed, construction started anyway and the resort opened for the first time in January 1966.\nBlackcomb Mountain, originally a separate entity, opened for business in December 1980.\nThe two resorts underwent a period of intense rivalry through the 1980s and 1990s, with constant upgrades and improvements that were unseen at other resorts.\nBy the mid-1990s, the area was repeatedly named the best resort in many skiing magazines.\n[Intrawest](https://bliptext.com/articles/intrawest), the BC real estate firm that developed Blackcomb, purchased Whistler in 1997 and fully merged operations in 2003.\nWhistler Blackcomb was the centrepiece of a renewed bid on the part of nearby Vancouver for the [2010 Winter Olympics](https://bliptext.com/articles/2010-winter-olympics), which they won in July 2003.\nWhistler Blackcomb hosted the [alpine skiing events](https://bliptext.com/articles/alpine-skiing-at-the-2010-winter-olympics), including the men's and women's Olympic and Paralympic alpine skiing disciplines of [downhill](https://bliptext.com/articles/downhill-ski-competition), [Super-G](https://bliptext.com/articles/super-g), [slalom](https://bliptext.com/articles/slalom-skiing), giant [slalom](https://bliptext.com/articles/slalom-skiing) and [super combined](https://bliptext.com/articles/super-combined).\nIn contrast with Cypress Mountain—which hosted the freestyle skiing and all snowboard events, and was plagued with a lack of fresh, natural snow during the Olympics—Whistler Blackcomb had the second-highest snowfall on record with 1,432 cm (over 14 metres) by the end of the 2009-10 season.\nOver the next decade, Intrawest expanded by purchasing additional ski resorts across North America, before expanding into golf and other resorts as well.\nWhistler Village, widely recognized for its livable design, formed the basis of similar [Tyrolian](https://bliptext.com/articles/tyrol)-inspired developments at their expanding series of resorts, as well as other resorts that hired Intrawest to build similar developments on their behalf.\nIn 2010, Intrawest sold off much of its 75% interest in Whistler Blackcomb Resort via a public share offering.\nIn August 2016, the American company [Vail Resorts](https://bliptext.com/articles/vail-resorts) bought Whistler Blackcomb Holdings for $1.39 billion.\n[Nippon Cable](https://bliptext.com/articles/nippon-cable)'s minority interest in Whistler Blackcomb Resort has continued throughout the ownership changes, by way of ownership of a 25% interest of the Whistler and Blackcomb partnerships.\n\n# Description\nThe ski areas at Whistler and Blackcomb are situated on two ridge-lines running roughly northwest to southeast.\nThe two are separated by a deep valley with Fitzsimmons Creek running along the valley floor.\nThe main base area at Whistler Village is located on the northwest end of this valley, where Fitzsimmons Creek flows into the larger Green River, which forms a floodplain running north–south just to the west of the village area.\nThe Sea-to-Sky Highway runs along the Green River valley.\nThe ski runs generally run northwest towards the village area, or into the valley area between the two ridges.\nA small number of runs are located on the south side of the Whistler ridge, where they run to the Creekside Base area, some distance south of the main Whistler Village.\nWhistler Mountain is the basis of the southern of the two ridges, on the right when looking at the Whistler-Blackcomb ski area from Whistler Village.\nIt has a summit elevation of 2184 m. The total vertical drop is 1530 m and 4757 acre skiable inbound terrain.\nWhistler is served by a total of 19 lifts; 2 gondolas, 5 high-speed detachable quad chair lifts, 4 high-speed detachable sixpack chair lifts, 2 fixed grip triple chair lifts, 1 T-bar (called T-bars but parallel T-Bar was removed however towers and stations still mostly stand) and 7 carpet lifts.\nIt also hosts the drive station for the [Peak 2 Peak Gondola](https://bliptext.com/articles/peak-2-peak-gondola) connecting it with Blackcomb mountain to the north.\nThere are 4 on-hill restaurants, as well as a children's ski school.\nIt is served by two base areas: Whistler Creek also known as creekside, the original base on its southwest flank, and Whistler Village on its northwest flank.\nBlackcomb Mountain is the northern ridge, on the left when viewed from the village.\nIt has a lift-serviced elevation of 2240 m at the top of the 7th Heaven chair – Blackcomb Mountain itself is higher at 2440 m, but unlike Whistler, the peak is not lift-served.\nBlackcomb has a higher skiable vertical, at 1565 m, but less in-bound skiing area at 3414 acre.\nIt is served by 15 lifts; 2 gondolas, 6 high-speed quads, 1 fixed-grip triple and 7 surface lifts (1 T-Bar and 5 carpet lifts), as well as the end-station for the Peak 2 Peak.\nBlackcomb is the location of the world-famous \"Couloir Extreme\" run, which is one of the top ten steep in-bound runs in the world, according to [Skiing Magazine](https://bliptext.com/articles/skiing-magazine).\nOriginally 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](https://bliptext.com/articles/extreme-skiing) [Sylvain Saudan](https://bliptext.com/articles/sylvain-saudan) complained about the unauthorised use of his name.\nThe two previously separate ski areas of Whistler and Blackcomb were integrated into one operation in 1997 after [Intrawest](https://bliptext.com/articles/intrawest) merged with Whistler Mountain Ski Corporation.\nTicketing, pass, and access control systems for the two ski areas were fully integrated in 2003.\nTogether, Whistler and Blackcomb form the largest ski area in North America at 8171 acre.\nEither mountain alone would be in the top-five in terms of size.\nThe mountains are accessed via four gondolas and one high-speed eight pack: Blackcomb Excalibur Gondola, Whistler Mountain Village Gondola, and Fitzsimmons Express in the village; the Blackcomb Gondola in Blackcomb Base/Upper Village; and the Whistler Creekside Gondola to the south in the Creekside area.\nThe primary skiing terrain starts about one-third up the mountains.\nSki-outs to the valley are usually possible during the months of December through April.\nThe mid- and upper- areas are serviced by 10 high-speed detachable chairs and 5 fixed-grip lifts made by [Lift Engineering](https://bliptext.com/articles/lift-engineering), [Doppelmayr](https://bliptext.com/articles/doppelmayr-north-america) and [Poma](https://bliptext.com/articles/poma).\nTwo [T-bars](https://bliptext.com/articles/t-bar-lift) service the [Horstman Glacier](https://bliptext.com/articles/horstman-glacier) and the Whistler alpine regions and take skiers to the entrance to Blackcomb Glacier.\nThe overall lift capacity, 65,507 skiers per hour, is the greatest in North America.\nBefore 2008 the only connection between the two mountains was via the village.\nThe opening of the [Peak 2 Peak Gondola](https://bliptext.com/articles/peak-2-peak-gondola) on 12 December 2008 connected the two mountains at approximately 1,800 m. The lift has a total length of 4.4 km and the longest unsupported span for a lift of its kind in the world at 3.02 km while also having the highest ground clearance for a lift of its kind, 436 m above the valley floor.\nWhistler Village, which is part of the Resort Municipality of Whistler, a geo-political entity not directly associated with the resort company's operation, is situated at the base of the Whistler Mountain Village Gondola and Blackcomb Excalibur Gondola.\nThe village incorporates community services, shops, entertainment venues, restaurants, bars, hotels, condominiums and vacation properties.\nThe village is 675 m above sea level, and is located 137 km from [Vancouver International Airport](https://bliptext.com/articles/vancouver-international-airport).\n\n# History\n\n## Early visitors\nThe valley area between Whistler and Blackcomb was first surveyed and documented in 1858 by [Hudson's Bay](https://bliptext.com/articles/hudson-s-bay-company) men looking for an alternate route into the Cariboo area further north.\nAlthough 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.\nKnown as the [[Pemberton](https://bliptext.com/articles/pemberton-british-columbia) Trail](https://bliptext.com/articles/pemberton-trail), the route followed a path similar to the [Sea-to-Sky Highway](https://bliptext.com/articles/british-columbia-highway-99), leading past the Whistler area to the present day town of [Pemberton](https://bliptext.com/articles/pemberton-british-columbia).\nIn 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](https://bliptext.com/articles/western-hoary-marmot) who lived among the rocks.\nFour lakes paralleled the route of Trail, the highest then being known as Summit Lake.\nHowever, there was another Summit Lake in BC, and in 1910 the name was changed to its current form, Alta Lake.\nOne 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.\nDuring a trip to sell furs in Vancouver in 1911, Millar stopped at the Horseshoe Bar & Grill for dinner.\nThe cook was Alex Philip from Maine, and Millar invited Philip to join him for dinner.\nMillar was a storyteller, and during the conversations that followed, he invited Philip to visit the Alta area.\nAlex 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 acre of land on the northwest corner of Alta Lake for $700.\n\n## Rainbow Lodge and other early resorts\nBy 1914, the Philip's [Rainbow Lodge](https://bliptext.com/articles/rainbow-lodge) fishing resort was completed with four bedrooms, a large living/dining area and a kitchen.\nThe resort was named for the [Rainbow trout](https://bliptext.com/articles/rainbow-trout) that were the main attraction of the resort.\nThat same year, the [Pacific Great Eastern Railway](https://bliptext.com/articles/pacific-great-eastern-railway) (PGE) reached the lake, from [Squamish](https://bliptext.com/articles/squamish-british-columbia).\nExecutives 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.\nA standard rate of $2 for a week was applied, and the very first group arrived with 25 people.\nThe resort was a hit.\nMillar left when the railway arrived, looking to get further away from civilization.\nBuilding 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.\nIt became the most popular west coast resort for 30 years.\nThe Philips operated the Lodge until 1948 when they sold it to Alec and Audrey Greenwood.\nThe main Lodge burnt down in 1977, but today the area has been preserved as Rainbow Park.\nThe Philips both remained in the valley until their deaths.\nAlex died in 1968 at the age of 86, and Myrtle died in 1986 at the age of 95.\nFollowing the successful launch of Rainbow Lodge, several other tourist resorts set up in the valley.\nRussell Anderson Jordan opened the Alta Lake Hotel which burned down in 1930, and replaced it with Jordan's Lodge on nearby Nita Lake.\nBert and Agnes Harrop built Harrop's Point in the 1920s.\nThis became the Cypress Lodge in 1945 under its then-owner Dick Fairhurst, who built new cabins and a main lodge in the early 1960s.\nIn 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 Hosteling International) opened a new, larger hostel.\nThe original building is still standing today, home to the point artists centre and the Whistler sailing club.\nCecilia and John Mansell moved to Alta Lake in 1945 and built the Hillcrest Lodge near today's Lakeside Park on Alta Lake.\nThey sold it in 1965 to the Mason Family and others who operated it as Mount Whistler Lodge for skiers.\nThe main lodge was burnt in a fire practice by the fire department in 1986.\nThere was some commercial use of the London Mountain area as well.\nLogging 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.\nThe fur trade remained for some time, later supplanted by a mink and marten farm.\nJimmy Fitzsimmons ran a prospecting support company, which led to mining surveys up Fitzsimmons Valley.\nThe shafts can still be found on the Singing Pass trail.\n\n## Olympic dreams\nIn 1960 the Canadian Olympic Association visited the west coast looking for potential sites for a future [1968 Winter Olympics](https://bliptext.com/articles/1968-winter-olympics).\nThey initially looked at a site on [Diamond Head](https://bliptext.com/articles/diamond-head-canada) just north of [Squamish](https://bliptext.com/articles/squamish-bc), which was already developed to the extent of a single chairlift.\nHowever, they concluded that the area simply couldn't be developed properly, \"it just wasn't the right terrain for a world-class resort.\"\nFranz Wilhelmsen, a local businessman who had married into the [Seagram family](https://bliptext.com/articles/seagram), had already come to the same conclusions when he had been scouting areas for a new ski resort.\nHe met with the COA and convinced them to look further north in the London Mountain area, \"And they were impressed.\"\nEncouraged by their positive reviews, Wilhelmsen organized the Garibaldi Olympic Development Association (GODA) to make a formal bid.\nAt this time there was no road, no electricity, and no piped water or sewer in Alta Lake.\nTheir bid for the Olympics was unsurprisingly rejected, and the Canadian bid was given to [Calgary](https://bliptext.com/articles/calgary), who came in a close second place to [Grenoble](https://bliptext.com/articles/grenoble).\nUndaunted, Wilhelmsen decided to press ahead with development of a resort.\nIn 1962 the Garibaldi Lifts Limited was formed with Franz Wilhelmsen as president.\nIt had two main objectives, to finance and supervise required land/business studies, and to erect and operate ski lifts on London Mountain.\nThe company had little experience in ski operations, so they hired [Willy Schaeffler](https://bliptext.com/articles/willy-schaeffler), a well known developer, to help them.\nSchaeffler proved as enthusiastic about London Mountain as COA and GODA had been.\nSchaeffler returned and wrote a good feasibility study about the Alta area, which had no mining claims.\nFrom 1962 to 1965 Garibaldi Lifts raised funds and began development of the ski area on the south side of the mountain.\nThe government agreed that they would set aside a 56 acre plot at the base of the mountain for Garibaldi Lifts to buy, and agreed to bring the highway to the base of the mountain if they could raise enough money.\nBy 1965 they had reached their goal of raising $800,000 and started planning for development.\nHowever, they were not happy with the name, and on August 27, 1965, London Mountain officially became Whistler Mountain.\nBy 1965 the Provincial Government had completed a narrow gravel road from Vancouver.\nElectricity arrived the same year with the installation of a substation along the lines from [Bridge River](https://bliptext.com/articles/bridge-bridge-british-columbia).\nEverything was in place, and the Alta area became a hive of development.\nGODA made a bid for the [1972 Winter Olympics](https://bliptext.com/articles/1972-winter-olympics), but Banff won again and eventually lost to Japan.\n\n## Whistler opens\nBy 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 Mueller](https://bliptext.com/articles/gmd-mueller).\nIn addition, a day lodge was constructed and six ski runs cut into the hill.\nWhistler officially opened for skiing for the first time on January 15, 1966.\nThe new mountain won instant acclaim for its vertical drop, good snow conditions, and huge alpine area.\nThe 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 travelers.\nWith real infrastructure in place, in 1968 GODA made another bid for the [1976 Winter Olympics](https://bliptext.com/articles/1976-winter-olympics), and this time the joint Vancouver/Garibaldi won the Canadian nomination.\nHowever, in 1970 when [Montreal](https://bliptext.com/articles/montreal) won the voting for the [1976 Summer Olympics](https://bliptext.com/articles/1976-summer-olympics), Vancouver/Garibaldi was removed from further consideration and the games eventually went to [Denver](https://bliptext.com/articles/denver), Colorado.\nIn a stunning turn of events, Denver turned down the games after winning the bidding.\nThe games were then offered to the other North American entry, Vancouver/Garibaldi, but political turmoil due to the recent [change in government](https://bliptext.com/articles/1972-british-columbia-general-election) led to their bid being withdrawn as well, and in desperation the [IOC](https://bliptext.com/articles/international-olympic-committee) returned the games to Innsbruck for a second time in a row.\nThe gravel road was paved to Whistler in 1966, and on to Pemberton in 1969.\nThe Blue and Green chairlifts were added in 1970, providing access to additional terrain.\nIn 1972 these were joined by the Olive and Orange chairlifts.\nA parallel lift to the Green Chair to alleviate crowds came in 1974, and the Little Red Chair came in 1978.\nThe Roundhouse, an on-mountain lodge and restaurant, was completed in 1980.\nThis new lodge provided respite for cold skiers who had survived the long ride up on the Red Chair.\n\n## Whistler Village\nIn 1974 the provincial [New Democratic Party of British Columbia](https://bliptext.com/articles/new-democratic-party-of-british-columbia) was interested in developing tourism and took a number of steps affecting Whistler.\nAt the time, the Alta Lake area was overdeveloped, so the government instituted a development freeze while they studied the problem.\nThe only solution was to continue development in another location.\nThey quickly decided to focus on the table between Whistler and Blackcomb, about 4 km to the north of the existing facilities on Alta Lake.\nAt that time this was the site of the Alta Lake dump, and the remains of a [Volkswagen Van](https://bliptext.com/articles/vw-camper-van) are still buried under the modern village.\nIn 1975 the [Resort Municipality of Whistler](https://bliptext.com/articles/resort-municipality-of-whistler) (RMOW) was formed, the first Resort Municipality in Canada and also the first place in British Columbia since Canadian [prohibition](https://bliptext.com/articles/prohibition) where bars were allowed to be open on Sunday.\nThe act also created the Whistler Village Land Company who would oversee all development of the new Whistler Village.\nIn 1977 the provincial government named [Al Raine](https://bliptext.com/articles/al-raine) the Provincial Ski Area Co-ordinator, in charge of expanding BC's skiing capabilities.\nRaine was previously National Coach for the Canadian Women's Ski Team, and was married to famous Canadian skier [Nancy Greene](https://bliptext.com/articles/nancy-greene).\nRaine saw the potential in developing [Blackcomb Mountain](https://bliptext.com/articles/blackcomb-mountain), then part of the [Garibaldi Provincial Park](https://bliptext.com/articles/garibaldi-provincial-park), and joined the Whistler city council.\nThe 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.\nIn 1977 the Municipality hired Sutcliffe Griggs Moodie Development Consultants to design a layout for [Whistler Village's](https://bliptext.com/articles/whistler-british-columbia) development.\nHowever, their design was considered too conventional and allowed too much car traffic.\nRaine recommended Eldon Beck, who had been the primary designer at [Vail](https://bliptext.com/articles/vail), celebrated for its layout.\nBeck'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.\nTo this day the village retains this basic design in spite of dramatic expansions, and has won worldwide acclaim in architecture circles.\nIn January 1978, 53 acre of [crown land](https://bliptext.com/articles/crown-land) were given to the Whistler municipality to develop the town centre.\nThe first sod for the village was turned on August 18, 1978, by first Mayor Pat Carleton.\nBy 1979 many amenities were in place, including Municipal Hall, Fire Hall, Health Care Centre, and Elementary School.\nPhase 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.\nThe first hotel, the Blackcomb Lodge, anchors the Village Square area to this day.\n\n## Blackcomb opens\nIn 1978 a call for bids was issued to develop Blackcomb for skiing.\nThe bidding to develop Blackcomb was contested by two companies, the [Aspen Skiing Company](https://bliptext.com/articles/aspen-skiing-company), and the newly formed Blackcomb Skiing Enterprises (BSE).\nAspen, having recently developed the [Fortress Mountain Resort](https://bliptext.com/articles/fortress-mountain-resort) in Alberta, won the contest.\nA new company, Fortress Mountain Resorts, was formed with a 50–50 partnership between Aspen and the [Business Development Bank of Canada](https://bliptext.com/articles/business-development-bank-of-canada).\nThe new competition, paid for partially by tax dollars, was not initially appreciated by Whistler.\nInitial development of the mountain included four triple chairlifts (later named Cruiser, Stoker, Catskinner and Fitzsimmons) and one double chairlift, all supplied by [Lift Engineering](https://bliptext.com/articles/lift-engineering) (Yan Lifts).\nThe double chair was installed on the lower Gear Jammer run where the tube park is located today and was used as a beginner chair at a reduced speed.\nThis area was also the first area to get permanent underground snow making pipes supplying snow making guns up the south side of the run.\nAt the time the lifts were referred to only by number.\nBlackcomb opened for skiing on December 6, 1980, along with the newly constructed village.\nTo ensure guests could continue to easily access Whistler from the new village, Whistler added three Yan triple [chairlifts](https://bliptext.com/articles/chairlift) for the same season; the Village, Olympic, and Black Chairs which met up with the top of the Orange chair at the top of the men's downhill course.\nWhistler's original base at Alta Lake began to be referred to as Whistler Creek, or Creekside, after the creek that runs through the area.\n# [Blackcomb Mountain logo, 1980–1985. The green leaf represents Aspen's ownership. The red and black skis were common to early marketing. | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ef/Blackcomblogo.png]\n\n## Competition and buildout\nThroughout 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.\nIn 1982, \"Chair 6\" (later rebranded Jersey Cream) opened in the Horstman Creek drainage on Blackcomb.\nWhistler cut new trails along the northern flank of the mountain.\nIn 1983 Blackcomb acquired a used T-Bar from Fortress Mountain and installed it on a south-facing slope, in full view of Whistler Mountain.\nThis 7th lift was coined the Seventh Heaven T-Bar and gave access to high alpine and glaciated terrain.\nIt also gave Blackcomb the highest lift-serviced vertical drop of any ski area in North America, with the top of the lift at 7348 ft. Blackcomb promoted themselves as the \"Mile High Mountain\".\nWhistler responded in 1986 with the opening of the Peak Chair to the summit of Whistler Mountain at 7160 ft, acquiring a Poma triple chairlift from the closed [Pikes Peak](https://bliptext.com/articles/pikes-peak) ski area in Colorado.\nAlthough not as high as Seventh Heaven, this lift opened up Whistler Mountain's alpine terrain, and allowed access to the Harmony Bowl area.\nThe new terrain made Whistler the largest alpine ski area in North America.\nSkiers could buy a Blackcomb pass, a Whistler pass, or a Dual Mountain pass.\nLocals loved when tourists would ask \"Where is Dual Mountain?\"\n\n## Intrawest buys Blackcomb\nIn 1986, Blackcomb's assets and real estate rights were bought by fledgling real estate developer [Intrawest](https://bliptext.com/articles/intrawest).\nIntrawest was an early developer of [timeshare](https://bliptext.com/articles/timeshare) listings, and saw the potential in developing the ski resort with [condominium](https://bliptext.com/articles/condominium-living-space) assets as a [timeshare](https://bliptext.com/articles/timeshare) destination.\nIntrawest immediately carried out massive upgrades on Blackcomb.\nThey started by moving the Seventh Heaven T-Bar across the ridge to the Horstman Glacier, still running up to the peak, and supplemented it with the Showcase T-Bar to service Blackcomb Glacier.\n[Doppelmayr](https://bliptext.com/articles/doppelmayr-north-america) replaced Seventh Heaven in its original alignment with a [high-speed quad chairlift](https://bliptext.com/articles/high-speed-quad-chairlift), and built two additional high-speed quads, Wizard and Solar Coaster, which cut the ride time from the base area to Rendezvous from 45 minutes to 15.\nThe Rendezvous Restaurant was renamed Base 2 and the moniker moved to the restaurant at the top of Solar Coaster and Catskinner.\n# [Blackcomb Mountain, as seen looking north from Whistler Mountain. The trails served by Seventh Heaven are seen face-on just right of mid-frame, the upper half of these trails are not obvious in the large \"bowl\" along the top of the peak. The majority of Blackcomb's trails run down the slope to the left, and are not easily visible in this picture. | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bd/Blackcomb///panorama///from///whistler///mountain.jpg]\n\n## Renewed competition\nIn 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.\nCarrying passengers 1157 m vertically and 5 km horizontally over 63 support towers, the lift opened on November 24, 1988.\nIn 1990 Whistler began upgrading its aging fleet of fixed grip chairlifts with the addition of its first [high-speed quad chairlift](https://bliptext.com/articles/high-speed-quad-chairlift).\nThe Green Chair Express, which replaced the two Green Chairs, was built by [Lift Engineering](https://bliptext.com/articles/lift-engineering) (Yan), and substantially cut long lift queues in the Green area of the mountain.\nA year later, Whistler Mountain replaced three double chairlifts and the original Creekside gondola with two [high-speed quad chairlifts](https://bliptext.com/articles/high-speed-quad-chairlift), the Quicksilver Express and Redline Express lifts, also built by [Lift Engineering](https://bliptext.com/articles/lift-engineering).\nIn 1994, the Blue Chair was removed and replaced with a [Poma](https://bliptext.com/articles/poma) high speed quad named the Harmony Express, providing access to Little Whistler Peak.\nIn 1994, Blackcomb made what would be its last major lift expansion until 2018 with the replacement of the lower mountain triple chairlifts.\nStoker was replaced with a high speed quad in a longer alignment known as the Excelerator Express, while Fitzsimmons and Cruiser were replaced with the two-stage Excalibur Gondola, running from Whistler Village to the base of Excelerator with a mid-station near the top of the former Fitzsimmons lift.\nThe second is dubbed by some as the \"gondola to nowhere\" since it does not connect with any restaurant or access additional terrain.\nHowever, in combination with Excelerator, it allowed rapid access to Blackcomb for Whistler Village traffic, who previously had to take three or four chairlifts to Rendezvous (Fitzsimmons, Stoker, Cruiser, and Jersey Cream, with 3 of those being slower chairs; or Fitzsimmons, Wizard and Solar Coaster).\nExcelerator 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 traveled those slopes frequently had to go all the way to the bottom of the mountain, which was over-skied and icy.\nThis competition had driven development of the two mountains at a rate no other resorts could come close to matching.\nIn 1992, Snow Country Magazine voted Whistler the Number One Ski Resort in North America.\nSimilar No. 1 rankings quickly followed from other major magazines, and between 1992 and 2000 it won No. 1 ranking from one of the major magazines every year.\nIn 1996, it became the only resort in history to be simultaneously named No. 1 by Snow Country, SKI and Skiing magazines.\n\n## Intrawest buys Whistler\nIn 1997, the Whistler Mountain Ski Corporation was also bought out by [Intrawest](https://bliptext.com/articles/intrawest).\nLike their expansion on Blackcomb, Intrawest immediately started a major build-out on Whistler.\nFollowing a deadly accident on Quicksilver in December 1995, all three of Whistler's Yan high speed quads were replaced.\nA new Creekside Gondola was constructed by [Poma](https://bliptext.com/articles/poma) for the 1996-1997 season to replace Quicksilver.\nIn 1997, [Doppelmayr](https://bliptext.com/articles/doppelmayr-north-america) constructed new high speed quads to replace the Redline and Greenline chairs, respectively named the Big Red Express and Emerald Express.\nThese lifts received new terminals and chairs, but reused the predecessor lifts' towers.\nThe original Roundhouse was demolished and a new lodge built in its place.\nAround this time Intrawest began marketing the two mountains as one large ski area under the name \"Whistler-Blackcomb\".\nOn April 20, 1999, Whistler Blackcomb became the first North American ski resort to top 2 million skier visits in one season.\n1998 saw the replacement of the Peak Chair with a high-speed quad.\nThe original Peak Chair was renamed Franz's Chair and moved parallel to Big Red with a return station approximately halfway up Big Red's lift line.\nFranz's runs primarily in early and late season, when lower altitudes are not well covered.\nIn 1999, the Black Chair was replaced with a high speed quad, the Garbanzo Express, running on a longer alignment starting next to the Whistler Village Gondola's midstation that eliminated the need for guests skiing this terrain to ride the Olympic Chair.\nThe Fitzsimmons Express was added in 2000, following the line of the long-gone Village Chair and roughly paralleling the lower part of the gondola.\nThe top of Fitzsimmons and the bottom of 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.\nIt was the second lift with the Fitszimmons name, the original lift being a triple chairlift replaced by Stage 1 of the Excalibur Gondola in 1994.\nStarting in 2000, Intrawest started redeveloping the Creekside area with new village layout.\nThroughout, Intrawest also extensively developed the summertime attractions, notably golf and [mountain biking](https://bliptext.com/articles/mountain-biking).\nToday, Whistler Blackcomb averages 2 million visitors during the ski season, but another 2.5 during the summer.\nWhistler Blackcomb's 2006/2007 season saw Doppelmayr construct the Symphony Express, a high speed quad that begins towards the bottom of the Symphony Amphitheater and carries riders to the top of Piccolo.\nOne of the original names suggested for this lift was Piccolo Express.\nA more ambitious upgrade was the [Peak 2 Peak Gondola](https://bliptext.com/articles/peak-2-peak-gondola), opened to provide a direct connection between the Roundhouse on Whistler and Rendezvous on Blackcomb.\nPeak-to-Peak opened for the first time on December 12, 2008, but low snowfall meant it was rockbound at the time.\nThe first summer operation day was June 6, 2009.\n# [Whistler Mountain, as seen looking south from Blackcomb Mountain. The original Whistler area starts mid-frame and extends down and to the right. Whistler Peak is just to the right of the fold. To the left of the peak is the Harmony Bowl area, Little Whistler Peak, and then the recently opened Symphony Bowl. The Black Tusk can be seen in the distance between Whistler Peak and Little Whistler. | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8d/Whistler///Mountain///3.jpg]\n\n## Renewed Olympic bid\nAs 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](https://bliptext.com/articles/2010-winter-olympics).\n[Calgary](https://bliptext.com/articles/calgary) also bid for the Canadian entry, as their equipment from the [1988 Winter Olympics](https://bliptext.com/articles/1988-winter-olympics) was already in place and allowed them to offer a low-cost bid, as did [Quebec City](https://bliptext.com/articles/quebec-city), which lost the 2002 bid.\nCalgary was eliminated in close voting on November 21, 1998, and Vancouver-Whistler won the second round of voting on December 3.\nIn IOC voting [Pyeongchang, South Korea](https://bliptext.com/articles/pyeongchang-county) won the initial round, which eliminated [Salzburg](https://bliptext.com/articles/salzburg), but in the second round on July 2, 2003, they won every one of [Salzburg](https://bliptext.com/articles/salzburg)'s supporters and bested Pyeongchang 56–53.\n# [A statue of Ilanaaq, mascot of the 2010 Olympics, located at the top of the Whistler Village Gondola on Whistler Mountain | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/46/2009-0605-Ilanaaq-2010Oly-Whistler.jpg]\n\n## Reorganization\nIn 2006 Intrawest was purchased by the alternative asset management firm, [Fortress Investment Group](https://bliptext.com/articles/fortress-investment-group).\nThree weeks before the opening of the [2010 Olympics](https://bliptext.com/articles/2010-olympics), Fortress failed to make payment on its loan used to buy out Intrawest.\nThis caused its creditors to force Intrawest to divest itself of several of its resort holdings in 2009 and 2010 which included a partial sale of Whistler Blackcomb, in order to reduce its debt load.\nThis was achieved through a public offering of shares of Whistler Blackcomb Holdings Inc on the Toronto Stock Exchange in 2010.\nThe net outcome of the reorganization is that Whistler Blackcomb Holdings is the managing partner and controls 75% of the partnerships which own the assets of Whistler Blackcomb.\nThe remaining 25% of the partnerships are owned by [Nippon Cable](https://bliptext.com/articles/nippon-cable).\nIntrawest sold its remaining 24% stake in Whistler Blackcomb to KSL Capital Partners in 2012.\n\n## 2010 Olympic Games\nFor the 2010 Winter Olympics, Whistler hosted the [alpine skiing](https://bliptext.com/articles/alpine-skiing-at-the-2010-winter-olympics) events.\nThe men's skiing took place on the [Dave Murray](https://bliptext.com/articles/dave-murray-skier) Downhill course, while women's skiing took place on a new course, which started on Wild Card, cut across Jimmy's Joker to Franz's Run and connected at the bottom of the [Dave Murray](https://bliptext.com/articles/dave-murray-skier) Downhill.\nIn order to serve the spectators and judges who needed to travel only to the timing area a short distance above the Creekside base, a temporary high-speed quad was built by Doppelmayr, known as the Timing Flats Express, in the Creekside base.\nThis alleviated demand on the Creekside Gondola and other lifts that served the starting areas, much higher up the mountain.\nAfter the Olympics, it was dismantled and sold to [Sunshine Village](https://bliptext.com/articles/sunshine-village), Alberta and replaced the Strawberry chair.\nIn preparation for the Games, [Google Maps](https://bliptext.com/articles/google-maps) launched a [Google Maps](https://bliptext.com/articles/google-maps) Street View partnership with Whistler to map out the various Olympic venues and many of the ski runs there.\nThe imagery was taken with cameras mounted on the back of snowmobiles and included panoramas from the Dave Murray Downhill run to the peak of Whistler and to the top of 7th Heaven.\nBlackcomb hosted the [bobsled](https://bliptext.com/articles/bobsleigh-at-the-2010-winter-olympics), [luge](https://bliptext.com/articles/luge-at-the-2010-winter-olympics) and [skeleton](https://bliptext.com/articles/skeleton-at-the-2010-winter-olympics) events at [The Whistler Sliding Centre](https://bliptext.com/articles/the-whistler-sliding-centre).\n[Whistler Olympic Park](https://bliptext.com/articles/whistler-olympic-park) hosted Olympic and Paralympic [biathlon](https://bliptext.com/articles/biathlon-at-the-2010-winter-olympics), [cross-country skiing](https://bliptext.com/articles/cross-country-skiing-at-the-2010-winter-olympics), [Nordic combined](https://bliptext.com/articles/nordic-combined-at-the-2010-winter-olympics) and [ski jumping](https://bliptext.com/articles/ski-jumping-at-the-2010-winter-olympics), some distance to the south of the Creekside area in the [Callaghan Valley](https://bliptext.com/articles/callaghan-valley).\nThe British Columbia government paid $600 million for major upgrades to the [Sea-to-Sky Highway](https://bliptext.com/articles/british-columbia-highway-99), which carried the majority of visitors to the alpine sites.\nNotable accomplishments for Whistler athletes in the 2010 Olympic Games:\n[Ashleigh McIvor](https://bliptext.com/articles/ashleigh-mcivor) won the first gold ever in Ski Cross, an inaugural Olympic event;\nMaëlle Ricker won gold in Snowboard Cross;\nSiblings Mike and Britt Janyk competed in alpine skiing events on the mountain they grew up skiing;\nSki cross athlete Julia Murray, daughter of Dave Murray, competed in her first of likely many Olympic Games.\n\n## 2010s\nSummer 2010 had two lift construction projects at Creekside Base.\nThe Timing Flats Express, used for passenger transport for the games, was removed and rebuilt as the Strawberry Express at [Banff Sunshine](https://bliptext.com/articles/banff-sunshine) in Alberta.\nThe second project was the construction of the Kadenwood Gondola, providing access to the Kadenwood Estate Homes from the Creekside base.\nBuilt by Doppelmayr-CTEC, it is a pulse gondola with 8 passenger cabins in two groups of 2.\nWhistler Blackcomb announced plans on January 18, 2013, regarding plans for two high-speed detachable chairlift installations for the 2013–2014 season.\nThe Harmony Express on Whistler was replaced with a high speed six pack constructed by Doppelmayr, upgrading its capacity from 2,400 to 3,600 persons per hour.\nThe original lift was reinstalled in the Crystal Ridge zone of Blackcomb and renamed the Crystal Ridge Express, replacing the triple chairlift that had previously served this area.\nWhile the Crystal Ridge Express ends at the same location as that of the removed triple at Crystal Hut, it starts lower down the mountain on the Blackcomb Glacier Road near the base of Rock n' Roll.\nThe lift line had been cut many years prior in anticipation of construction, and allows for the runs in this area to be lapped without needing to return to Excelerator.\nIn 2014, new 8 person cabins were bought to upgrade the Whistler Village Gondola, the existing cabins having been in service since 1988.\nSigma, a subsidiary of Leitner-Poma who originally installed the lift, were contracted to produce the new cabins.\nIn May 2015, Whistler Blackcomb announced that both mountains would be declared smoke-free environments, President and CEO Dave Brownlie was quoted as saying \"We have made the decision...to preserve the pristine alpine environment our guests come here for,\".\nHe continued to highlight a need for a safer workplace for employees and experience for guests, \"We also recognize as a leader in the outdoor adventure and wellness industry and as the largest employer in the Whistler community, we have a responsibility to our guests and staff to provide a safe and healthy environment for work and play. We believe implementing this new policy aligns with this goal.\"\nIn April 2016, a $345-million three-phase development plan, named 'Renaissance,' was announced by the mountain, described as the \"largest and most exciting investment in the Company's history.\"\nOn-mountain improvements to skiing and snowboard activities included a replacement of the Magic Chair with a new high-speed lift and the addition of night skiing in the same area during phase one.\nAdditionally, during phase two and three, the Franz, Catskinner, and Olympic chairs would be replaced with new high speed lifts, a new gondola would be constructed from Creekside Base on Whistler Mountain, two new chairlifts would be added in Bagel and Khyber Bowls, and two new high speed lifts would replace Wizard and Solar Coaster.\nThe Renaissance developments reflect many of the proposals included in the resort master plan updated at the end of 2013.\nAdditional projects part of Renaissance include a 163,000-square-foot water park with water slides, a mountain roller coaster, a suspension bridge atop Whistler Mountain's peak, expansion of Whistler Mountain Bike Park, new parking facilities and housing developments, a new 'Blackcomb Grind' hiking trail, and a revitalization of Blackcomb's base.\nThe start of this project will be subject to government approval and the renegotiation of the company's master development agreements and negotiation of a proposed business partnership with local First Nations.\nOnce approval is granted, Phase One projects and expansions will take two years to construct.\nOn August 8, 2016, it was announced that Whistler Blackcomb Holdings, which owned 75% of the Whistler and Blackcomb partnerships, would be sold to [Vail Resorts](https://bliptext.com/articles/vail-resorts) of Colorado for C$1.4 billion, which also saw the addition of the resort to the Epic Pass.\nFor 2018, Doppelmayr carried out two major lift projects.\nOn Blackcomb, the aging Wizard and Solar Coaster high speed quads were replaced with a two-stage ten passenger gondola, with a midway turn station near where the previous lifts met.\nLike the Whistler Village and Excalibur Gondolas, the two segments can be operated as one continuous lift or as two separate lifts.\nOn Whistler, the Emerald Express was replaced with a high speed six pack, and similar to Harmony five years earlier, the original lift was relocated to Blackcomb to replace Catskinner.\nThe Catskinner Express runs on a modified alignment compared to its predecessor, starting below the Magic Castle whereas the triple started at the base of the Nintendo Terrain Park.\n\n## 2020s\nDue to the [COVID-19 pandemic](https://bliptext.com/articles/covid-19-pandemic), Whistler was forced to close for the remainder of the ski season.\nVail gave refunds to anyone who booked a trip during the closing time.\nHowever, the 2020–2021 season was in operation.\nTo comply with provincial safety protocols, masks and social distancing were mandated in crowded spaces to reduce transmission of the disease.\nExcept for a brief closure in March 2021, operations remained like this for the rest of the season.\nThe 2021–2022 season saw similar rules in the resort.\nIn 2020, the Horstman T-bar was closed down and dismantled as the glacier it was built on receded.\nHowever, glacier skiing is still an activity during the summer, only in the upper regions with the Showcase T-bar.\nFor the 2022-2023 winter season, as part of Vail's Epic Lift Upgrade project, Doppelmayr replaced the Creekside Gondola and the Big Red Express, upgrading them to a ten-passenger gondola and a high speed six pack chair respectively.\nThe new Creekside Gondola increased its lift capacity by 35% and the new Big Red 6 increased its lift capacity by 30%.\nIn May 2022, the old cabins and chairs of the two lifts were put on sale and were sold for charity.\nSince the Creekside Gondola is also a mountain biking lift in the summer, during construction, bikers were allowed to bring their bikes in the Whistler Village Gondola cabins and the Garbanzo Express opened earlier.\nHowever, due to shipping delays, the Creekside Gondola and Big Red 6 were only completed in December 2022.\nFrom the start of the 2022-2023 winter season before the opening of the two new lifts, shuttle buses transported guests from the Creekside area to the main village.\nThe 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 seasons will have seen the resort install two high speed chairlifts from Doppelmayr that had originally been manufactured for installation at [Park City Mountain Resort](https://bliptext.com/articles/park-city-mountain-resort), both of which replaced older high speed quads.\n2023 saw the replacement of Fitzsimmons with a high speed eight pack, while 2024 will see the replacement of Jersey Cream with a high speed six pack.\n\n# Major events\n\n# Major lifts\n\n## Winter lifts\n\n## Summer lifts\nThe resort also features many unnamed [magic carpet](https://bliptext.com/articles/magic-carpet-ski-lift) lifts, scattered primarily around beginner areas.\n===Terrain aspects ===\n\n# Other facilities\n\n## Whistler Mountain Bike Park\nThe **Whistler Mountain Bike Park** celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2008.\nHaving consistently grown since its inception, it sees an average of 100,000 bikers each summer.\nThe Whistler Mountain Bike Park uses the Fitzsimmons 8 and Garbanzo quad lifts, as well as the Whistler Village [Gondola](https://bliptext.com/articles/gondola-lift) and Creekside [Gondola](https://bliptext.com/articles/gondola-lift) to shuttle bikers to around midstation, at 1,200 m. The park has 47+ trails for all skill levels totaling 250 km + of trails.\nThere 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.\nDuring the summer, Fitzsimmons 8 and Garbanzo are used for bike hauls, with select chairs having their seats replaced with a bike rack.\nThese racks fit four bikes, three in grooves and one on a hook on the side of the chair.\nThe bikers then get on the next chair which is a normal passenger carrier.\nThe Fitzsimmons chair, the most popular on the mountain, used this system until 2023.\nThe updated Fitz chair opening December 12, 2023 updated the capacity from 2 per chair to five.\nThe updated chair features many seats, and 4 front tire slots on the back, as well as a hook on the side for a fifth bike.\nThe bike park has three zones: the Fitzsimmons Zone (the lower zone), the Garbanzo Zone (the upper zone) and the Creekside Zone.\nAll riders take either the Village [Gondola](https://bliptext.com/articles/gondola-lift) or Fitzsimmons 8 to the Olympic Station area.\nThen intermediate and advanced riders can take Garbanzo up further to the Garbanzo zone.\nGarbanzo riders can then return to midstation or Whistler Village, the base of the bike park.\nThe Creekside Zone can be accessed via the Creekside Gondola or by riding through the Garbanzo Zone.\nFrom the top of Garbanzo to the village is an 1100 m vertical descent; eclipsed only by the descent from the top gondola station or the top of the Peak Chair, the highest accessible point on the mountain.\n\"A-Line\" is the most well-known track.\nThe 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.\nThe Boneyard features a collection of high-intermediate and advanced slopestyle features, including drops, dirt jumps, and more.\nEach summer since 2004, the park hosts [Crankworx](https://bliptext.com/articles/crankworx), the largest annual [freeride](https://bliptext.com/articles/freeride-mountain-biking) mountain biking competition in North America.\nAnother major competition, Harvest Huckfest, was held there each fall from 2002 to 2008.\n# [Aerial View of the Whistler Bike Park | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4d/Aerial///View///Bike///Park.jpg]\n# [Riders waiting in the Fitzsimmons chairlift line | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/85/Bike///Park///Bottom.JPG]\n\n## Whistler Blackcomb's Tube Park\nFor the 2005–06 ski season, Blackcomb Mountain opened the Tube Park to allow for recreational [tubing](https://bliptext.com/articles/tubing-recreation) at the resort.\nThe tube park is located at Base II alongside the Village Run.\n\n# Incidents\n\n## Quicksilver Express grip failure, December 23, 1995\nThe 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.\nInstead, the emergency brake activated, sending shockwaves down the cable.\nGrips on at least two of the chairs slipped, and caused chairs to slide down the cable and slam into each other.\nIn all, eight were injured, and two were killed in one of the worst ski lift accidents in North America.\nThe lift's manufacturer, [Lift Engineering/Yan](https://bliptext.com/articles/lift-engineering), entered bankruptcy after the incident in July 1996.\nThe cause was found to be a design fault in the Yan detachable grip.\nThe Quicksilver lift was removed and replaced by the first Creekside Gondola.\nThe other two Yan high speed quads on Whistler, Greenline and Redline, were replaced with Doppelmayr high speed quads the year after that, with all new terminals, grips and chairs, and renamed as the Emerald Express and Big Red Express respectively.\n\n## Excalibur Gondola collapse, December 16, 2008\nThe Excalibur gondola had a major malfunction on December 16, 2008, when the upper portion of one of the lift towers detached and [collapsed](https://bliptext.com/articles/collapse-structural), causing several of the gondola cabins to drop near to the ground, leaving 53 people trapped on the lower section of the lift line.\nFirefighters rescued passengers from a cabin dangling over Fitzsimmons Creek, and from another gondola that landed on a bus shelter.\nThe third cabin had crashed into the trees, narrowly missing a condominium.\nTwelve people suffered minor injuries.\nAccording to Whistler-Blackcomb, a joint in the tower separated due to the buildup of ice from water that had seeped into the tower.\nThe undamaged upper half of the lift running from Blackcomb's Base 2 was reopened on Saturday December 20.\nAfter repairs were made to the collapsed tower, the whole lift was back in service on Wednesday December 24.\n\n## Harmony Express grip failure, February 18, 2009\nThe lift operations team on Harmony had been experiencing some problems with the lift during the day of Wednesday, February 18, 2009.\nThat night, a grooming machine operator found a chair had fallen from the lift at Tower 11.\nAt the tops of the lift towers are a series of wheels known as sheaves, or sheave trains as there are almost always more than one in a row.\nTowers typically have two sheave trains, one for the uphill-moving side of the cable loop, and one for the downhill side.\nUpon inspection the next morning, maintenance crews discovered that the sheave train on the downhill side of tower 11 had failed, and that the sheave had turned into the path of a chair and forced it off the cable.\nThe cause was later determined to be a failed bolt, and all of the bolts were replaced.\nThe lift reopened on Sunday, February 22, 2009.\nThe affected chair No. 37 was temporarily removed from operation; it has since been replaced.\n# [Four sheaves make up this lift tower's uphill sheave train. A similar train is off-frame to the right, guiding the cable as it returns downhill. | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/21/Sheeve///cable///catcher///and///brittle///bar///P1402///annotated.png]\n\n## Whistler T-Bars summer maintenance incident, August 31, 2009\nOn 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.\nThe person remained attached to both the tower and the maintenance carrier while the second employee was secured to the carrier.\nThe 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.\nThe employee hanging from the tower only received bruises.\n\n## Big Red Express bolt failure, December 6, 2009\nOn Sunday, December 6, 2009, at 8:55 am, a passenger aboard Big Red noticed that a sheave train had broken off Tower 31 and had fallen to the ground.\nThey immediately notified the lift operator at the top terminal (2 towers away) and Whistler Blackcomb Lift Maintenance department.\nAs a result, the lift was run at a low speed to evacuate all passengers.\nAll passengers were finally off the lift just before 10 am.\nThe lift was closed down for the day, repaired, and back in operation Monday, December 7.\n\n# Photographs","revisionCount":2},"hasMore":false,"nextCursor":null}