 Poster: A snowHead
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Possibly a slightly odd choice for the title but I've seen so many people asking if it's worth going for a week I thought it might be useful. Well, the short answer is that yes, we thought it was worth it. No it's not cheap, yes, it's a long way, but, we were not disappointed.
We booked the main part of this trip 10 months in advance knowing that it wouldn't get any cheaper closer to departure. Flights and hotel were booked directly with BA - departure from Aberdeen via Heathrow to Vancouver. The BA flight times mean you arrive at 1900hrs and depart to come back at 2100hrs. Air Canada is earlier in both directions. We stayed at the Fairmont which, booking so far in advance, was on par in cost to pretty much everywhere else. Lift passes I booked as soon as they came out directly with Whistler Blackcomb, I also booked lessons (3 days for the price of 2) with them. Transfers I booked with the Whistler shuttle via Ridebooker and I would highly recommend them.
So, the skiing. Well, it was quite simply amazing. I do know that we got lucky with the weather as it snowed every single night and most days. That said, most of the time it was raining at the resort level and it was very heavy. The Fairmont is at the base of Blackcomb and is ski-in ski-out. That said, we only ski'd back down twice. One time we ski'd back down it was soft and heavy slush, the other time it was on huge icy bumps. I've never fallen so much in my life but at the same time have never laughed so much in my life. Most others that we saw on that run were having a similar experience. On every other day including our lesson days we got the lift back down from mid-station. I would recommend the ski school as they were very good. We have never experienced so much variety in conditions. We were blessed with pretty deep fresh powder on 3 days and it was just awesome.
The place is vast. We never got bored of exploring. Loads and loads of wide blue runs, plenty nice blacks and we saw loads of double blacks in some crazy places through the trees (of course no reds in Canada). The green runs were mainly narrow and simply linked sections together. I have to say, I genuinely don't think it would be ideal for beginners as a lot of these runs were pretty icy. Having been to Breckenridge it had far nicer huge wide green runs. If Whistler had runs like that then I never saw them other than on the lower mountains and the snow down there really wasn't great. Note that I thought the runs were steeper than in Breckenridge (i.e. a Whistler Blackcomb blue was steeper than a Breckenridge one if you see what I mean). Only on one day were the lift queues bad and that was on the Wednesday, the day after the best conditions. It took us an hour to get up the mountain that day. On every other day the longest we waited on any lift was about 2 mins. The lift queues are well managed and everyone was super friendly. We loved the huge variety there and whilst it was low cloud a lot of the time the scenery was pretty amazing.
The town itself has a massive choice of gear shops, restaurants, bars and gift shops. Cost wise it was good value with the exchange rate and you could easily eat out cheaply. The Fairmont was excellent and the Portobello restaurant on site was great value for breakfast. It was a pretty short walk into town although they did also offer a free bus which we never used.
So, all in all we loved it. Yes it takes a while to get there but it really isn't that bad. The time difference is 8 hours but all that means is you want to go to bed early and get up early which actually fits in quite well with a ski holiday. The transfer was 1.5 - 2 hrs with some great scenery (although it was dark on the way there of course). The people were all super friendly and we met some great people just through chatting on lifts or in the bars. Of course, the weather is a lottery and I know that for once we got lucky. Here's a couple of pictures.
View over to Whistler mountain from the hotel.
Bottom of the Olympic Super-G run.
Up on the Blackcomb Glacier.
The peak to peak gondola. An absolutely amazing feat of engineering.
The Women's Olympic downhill (not me in the pic).
On the peak to peak gondola.
Last edited by Poster: A snowHead on Sun 27-11-16 0:47; edited 1 time in total
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Nice report. How far up did you need to go to escape the rain?
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Thanks! Not far to be honest. On one day it was snowing at resort level. On the others it turned to snow about halfway between the resort and mid-station.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Looks great!
We are going on that BA flight at the end of the year - what time did you arrive at your hotel?
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Try dialling in +1 exposure compensation on the camera to get the snow looking a bit whiter in the pictures (the camera doesn't know it's shooting white stuff unless you tell it).
Colorado gets drier snow but isn't so pointy.
Whistler's lower sections are more fun on a snowboard I think especially when slushy. Now you know what the GoreTex is for.
As you probably sussed, the main thing is that you need to ski it pretty much when it's falling, as that's when it's best.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Glad you enjoyed it.
You seemed to book everything separately yourself was it cheaper that way than a package? We have always used the early booking deals (as you have) but through a Package.
We do prefer AirCanada for the slightly earlier arrival time as you note - though it used to be even better but they pushed it back 3 hours so not a huge difference.
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Sorry I only just saw these replies! Thanks for the tip philwig. I'm hopeless with cameras. We have been to Breckenridge and yes it was very different in terms of snow. That said it was a poor snow year when we went.
Coldhands I seem to recall we got to our hotel somewhere between 2130 and 2200. It was a pretty quick drive up as we were out of Vancouver without any delays. On the way back it was very busy and took a good bit longer. I see BA are using an A380 on that route now. We were on the 747-400 which I was quite happy about (would have preferred the 777 and it almost swung me to Air Canada as that's what they use)...yes I have issues!
Jake43 it worked out about the same. I wanted BA as I have never had an issue flying with them and it's handy collecting the Avios. It also meant an extra full half days skiing at the end with the later departure. The hotel was 50% off (also booked via BA) as it was in advance. The lift passes and shuttle were separate. I did it DIY to Breckenridge as well and wish I had done the same to Lapland to be honest.
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