- Whistler
- (60)
-
Canada
I worked for Vail for a few seasons and had a wicked time! I'm still here! Because Colorado snow and mountains and parties are sweet!
They provided my visa, accommodation and free ski pass for 5+ mountains and it was so easy! The only thing is that they require you to work all season-long, from mid-Nov to mid-April, but spring skiing rocks anyway!
I came on an H2B visa and all I had to pay for was travel and an appointment at the consulate. Do it! You won't regret it!
Fresh Tracks is a fab way to make the most of pow pow on Whistler Mountain and get a monster brecky! You pay $17 CAD for a ticket, get to the lift by 7am, always a down side! Upload from 7.30, its limited to 650 persons each day, when you get to the top you help yourself to a massive breakfast featuring everything you could imagine, then wait for the call "runs open" You then make a mad dash for your skis/boards then have about an hour of magical fun 'til everyone else gets on the mountain! Believe me, 650 people on Whistler Mountain is like having Andorra to yourself! Enjoy!
www.whistlerblackcomb.com/todo/events/detail/freshtracks.htm
In several north American and Canadian resorts, like Whistler, you can often get a refund from you ski pass for days you haven't skied. Great news if the weather doesn't play ball.
Working in Whistler for a season is a fantastic idea. I worked for the Westin Hotel on the front desk and I got paid a lot more than my friends who worked on the mountain. I also got tips, all meals while I was working, commission, and a severely discounted season pass. I would recommend it for anyone who wants a new experience.
Anybody that says Whistler is expensive should check out Allura Direct vacation rentals. We have booked two holidays through their website, each time choosing a condo that suits our needs of wanting something bigger and better than a hotel room.
It is a lot cheaper than booking through a UK travel agent, and we save ourselves at least £1000 each time we go. You pay for the condo and not the number of people staying, so there’s no single supplement for only having two people in a four person condo.
Whistler is buzzing in the summer. You can swim or wakeboard in Alta Lake, hike up to Singing Pass or Rainbow Lake, or tackle one of the challenging mountain bike trails, which are graded in the same way as ski runs. Kids can be transformed into trapeze artists at the base of Blackcomb or can hurtle down the hill on the luge.
Home of Whistler's best burgers, fries and ice cream. Everything is made fresh daily. Choose from over 20 different toppings and homemade sauces. The best burger you'll ever eat.
105-4369 Main Street; tel: 604 938 9300
The white chocolate and macadamia nut cookies served in the mountain restaurants are sublime. If you want to try a regional speciality, chocolatey Nanaimo bars are super sweet and packed with sugar - clearly an essential energy-boosting snack.
An absolute amazing experience of zip-lining through the woods.
You get outfitted with a harness and helmet, boots and rain gear. Then you practice at the mini zip-line just in front of the Whistler Gondola in the village. An escort shuttles you to the spectacular ancient rainforests between Whistler and Blackcomb mountains and finally, you zip over five incredible zip-line rides that gain progressively in height and length. An adrenaline pushing and great fun experience.
In addition to flying through the trees, you also learn important facts about Whistler's local ecology and the ancient forest. Definitely worth it.
A Disnified souless plastic ski resort. Stay away at all costs!
Blackcomb mountain is the one for snowboarders while skiers tend to prefer Whistler. Blackcomb has an awesome board park and some of the best runs for riders. 7th Heaven is just fantastic while Rock n Roll is a fantastic long blue for cranking the speed up with lots of big left and right handers. Best of all there's always plenty of powder days!
During school holidays, the lift queues can be enormous. How to beat them? Take the Fitzsimmons and Garbanzo chairlifts instead of the gondola on Whistler mountain.
Head up the mountain at 8.30am instead of 10. Join the singles lines. These move quickly and you meet locals who might share a tip on a hidden powder stash. (Or you can sneakily follow them!).
Try Crystal Chair on Blackcomb. It's older and slower, so queues are shorter and there's some fantastic terrain and sweet tree riding.
The Wizard chair is a great place to take to the hill for the first time. The slopes are the ideal gradient for learner skiers and snowboarders, and the pistes are well groomed so there are no nasty surprises in store!
Right at the bottom of Blackcomb.
No trip to Whistler is complete without a visit to Shakespeare’s pie shop
– it’s hands down the best spot for a snack in town.
They offer a mouthwatering selection of freshly made pies, and it’s great value for money. It’s very popular locally, and you’ll often spot some of Whistler’s many resident top pro skiers and snowboarders in there.
201-4000 Whistler Way
Tel: +1 604 935 1743
If you’re keen to do some serious shopping for snowboarding kit (and with the pound being relatively strong against the dollar, why not?), The Circle is the place. It stocks a wide range of brands and the staff are very helpful. Also check out Evolution.
The Circle
108 4369 Main Street
Tel: +1 604 905 4422
Evolution
8- 4122 Village Green
Tel: +1 604 932 2967
Showcase is the best spot in town to have your snowboard serviced. The staff are friendly and do a good job, and they’ll take on anything from a quick wax to a more involved repair. It’s right next door to the all-girls Burton shop.
Telephone: +1 604 905 2022
The Blackcomb park gets very busy, mostly with skiers and snowboarders of a very high standard.
This can be very intimidating for newcomers, so the Whistler park (known officially as the ‘Habitat Terrain Park’) is a great lower key alternative – it has a large assortment of rails and jumps to please all but the experts, and it’s a lot quieter allowing you to find your feet in peace.
As with all of Whistler it’s extremely convenient – you can do quick and easy laps on the Emerald Express chair.
Whistler is famed for having one of the best snowparks in the world, but the park is actually at Blackcomb!
There’s a beginner/intermediate one that’s great for most people, or for more experienced skiers and
snowboarders, there’s the advanced park just to the left of it. Helmets are compulsory in the advanced park.
Both parks are very long and very well maintained by European standards, and doing circuits on them is easy thanks to the nearby chairlift.
If the sun is shining and there are no clouds in the sky (and it does occasionally happen in Canada) 7th Heaven is the only place to go. High up above the treeline at the top of Blackcomb mountain, this mix of blue and black runs is some of the best skiing there is.
In the summer, you can add a little glamour to your holiday and arrive in style by taking the floatplane from downtown Vancouver to Whistler. The views are unforgettable and the trip takes just 30 minutes. You can also fly from Victoria on Vancouver Island.
Whistler Air; tel: 604 932 6615; www.whistlerair.ca
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