Whistler

By the time I got to Whistler, I needed to be wowed. And I don’t even ski. But with Skiing Magazine’s ranking of Whistler as North America’s number one ski destination for the eleventh year running, it has been framed as both the perfect winter and summer getaway. And its fame will only grow: Whistler will host all the alpine events of next winter’s Vancouver Olympics. This ain’t Lutsen, people.

But is it all it’s cracked up to be? Is Whistler the de facto mountain destination for everyone? The answer is mostly yes, but a little no.

Mountain ski towns come in two varieties: organic and developer-created. Telluride is (or perhaps was) an example of the former, Beaver Creek would be the latter. Both can be great, but they are different animals. Whistler exists very much in the Beaver Creek mold.

Whistler is a compact, walkable ski town in which nothing is more than a couple of decades old. It has great lodging, dining, and outdoor activities, as well as a bunch of intangibles that make it hard to resist even if skiing isn’t your primary interest. But the mountain’s planned nature takes the edge off the sense of discovery. Whistler lacks a certain authenticity and ends up feeling somewhat less than the sum of its parts.

That said, it’s undeniably appealing. Whistler’s trump card, in most every respect, is its proximity to Vancouver, Canada’s great Pacific Rim city, which I’ll be profiling later this year in these pages.

Whistler’s weather is unlike that of most major ski centers in North America. Whistler Village is lower (2,200 feet), and its temperatures are often above freezing (don’t expect a Currier & Ives scene), but its proximity to the Pacific Ocean means that soaking winter storms dump massive loads of snow in the high country. In town, there are no altitude issues and the climate is never unbearably wintery. But if you don’t like the idea of getting rained on during your ski vacation, think twice about Whistler.

The natural bounty of Vancouver and southwestern British Columbia is obvious in Whistler’s restaurant scene. Fresh Pacific catch is in abundance year-round, and Whistler’s and Vancouver’s chef communities intermingle, so this is no fondue-and-steak burg. Whistler’s food scene has all of Aspen’s ambitions, without its pretensions. The town also draws on Vancouver’s music and entertainment trades for top-drawer nightlife.

Finally, Whistler is easy to get in and out of. Its altitude means it’s not easily snowed in, and, under optimal conditions, it’s a two-and-a-half-hour drive from the Vancouver airport. (Those conditions will rarely exist over the next year as a massive pre-Olympics road project will keep the Sea-to-Sky Highway 99—Whistler’s only access route—under perpetual construction.) The drive is stunningly scenic, starting out along the Pacific Coast at Howe Sound and boasting some stretches of amazing mountain views.