 Poster: A snowHead
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Went to Banff last year and off there again next week. Am looking at Whistler for next year, but I heard on here somewhere that Whistler is wetter and busier, seems that way comparing the photos and webcam.
Queues at Banff were non-existant last year.
How big is Whistler compared to Louise and Sunshine for a newbie/intermediate.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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stevev,
Whistler will undoubtedly be busier. It will also be wetter (in the village and on the lower slopes, anyway) and you'll have more days of poor visibility at the top. You'll also get queues on some lifts (Jersey Cream and Glacier Express on Blackcomb spring to mind), and for the gondola first thing in the morning: worst at weekends when Vancouver comes out to play.
OTOH, it's somewhere that's well worth a visit, though I'd suggest you'd get more out of it once you start to crawl out of the intermediate plateau, simply because the best reason to go is to be able to ski the amazing variety of steeps, ungroomed and (frequent) powder. On the whole, for a lower-level skier, LL and Sunshine (especially Sunshine) offer you a better mix of relatively unchallenging slopes, with the opportunity to ratchet up the difficulty without scaring yourself silly (e.g. North Divide & South Divide at Sunshine).
For what its worth, I spent six consecutive years going to Banff (and benefiting from the excellent Club Ski tuition programme) before venturing to Whistler - but then again, I've not been back to Banff since.
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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 for the informative info. We are on club ski again this year, hoping to progress a bit more. We had 7 days skiing last year and progressed through the greens to scaring ourselves of a few blues on the last day in Sunshine. hoping to improve on that and do a few more days in Lousie this year.
We would be happy to stay in Banff for another year, but the group we are planning on going there have done 4 or 5 trips there and want a change of scenery
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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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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Cheers Cathy, I will check that resort out.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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Yes. Whistler is wetter and busier than Banff: I don't like having to decide where to ski according to which lift has the shortest queues - too much like France at half term  . It's just about the only resort that I've ever visited that I wouldn't bother going back to: the one thing you can say about Whistler is that it has an excellent marketing machine, but for a newbie/intermediate, there are far more suitable resorts - both in Canada and US and nearer home in Europe.
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I've done both and in my opinion Whistler has so much more terrain so you have so much more space and more selection, it is more geared up for it so the resteraunts on the slopes are much bigger. I would pick Whistler as the best I've ever skiied ever, I plan on going again in the future. also if you are staying in the whistler village you can walk to the gondola's for either mountain in 10 mins. (the gondola's start in the same place)
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I've spent a fair ammount of time in and skied whistler, some of the small hills surrounding Vancouver and banff. Whistler is most definatley busier and wetter than banff. I thoroughly enjoyed both places and much prefer skiing in Canada to anywhere else. However I must admit I have never been back to whistler and prefer to ski some of the Okanagan resorts, you can hire a 4x4 and easily ski a number of resorts during a 14 day trip.
Everybody will have their own opinions of where they rate and where they don't. You must ski whistler at least once then make up your own mind as to where to go or whether to go back. Personally I like to try as many places as possible. 
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I agree, depends on what you want... if you DON'T like busing/traveling around then I would choose Whistler as it's all in one place, otherwise for selection (more mountains) pick Banff.
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