Morning on Blackcomb | The Press

(Whistler, British Columbia) You can discover Whistler and Blackcomb on your own, some apps like My Epic Pass allowing you to geolocate on the mountain and have a precise idea of ​​the terrain covered. But going with a guide changes everything: you benefit from the advice of an expert in addition to quick access to the lifts – it’s even better when you book as a group, because you share the cost of unparalleled service.

This is how Jean-Simon Forget was waiting for us at the Blackcomb base during our first day on the slopes last spring.

Starting the day away from the crowds that usually congest the village of Whistler is the first advice given by our guide from Mont-Tremblant. “Leaving Blackcomb allows you to take advantage of less busy lifts, especially on weekends or after storms. Also, Blackcomb often opens more quickly after storms because there are fewer steeps,” explains the man who is also a level 4 ski instructor, the highest level of the Canadian Ski Instructors Association. He tells us in passing that the resort opened in 1980 was designed expressly for skiing, while Whistler was first developed for logging, before welcoming its first skiers in 1966.

Since then, Whistler and Blackcomb have merged before falling into the hands of the Vail group in 2016, which paid nearly 1.4 billion to buy the pearl of the Canadian Rockies. A transaction which resulted in an investment of 66 million in the station’s infrastructure, renovated at great speed.

We first went up in the Blackcomb gondola, installed in 2018 to accommodate 47% more skiers than the pair of chairlifts that were there previously. At the summit, Jean-Simon Forget suggests going directly to the 7th Heaven sector – it gets busy around midday and the morning sun offers the most beautiful views of Whisler, right in front of us.

Here, we are first struck by the immensity of the place. Venturing to the left of the Xhiggy’s Meadow track, you approach Lakeside Bowl and the track boundaries become completely blurred.

We are therefore targeting areas of powder snow, because there is plenty of it left, almost 30 hours after the recent storm which left more than 40 cm of snow in the Alpine sectors.

Going back to the top of the 7th Heaven Express chairlift, we then head towards the famous Blackcomb glacier, accessible via a ski lift (T-bar) as well as a short climb on foot. A very modest effort when we see what awaits our skis. The valley dug by the glacier is dizzying, we often stop to admire the view between a few series of turns negotiated in the deep powder. We suddenly feel far away from the ski centers of the east of the continent…

From track to track

Climbing the glacier and crossing the path which allows you to exit it certainly takes a good fifteen minutes, after which you go back up via Crystal Ridge Express, at the top of which you stop for a bite to eat at the Crystal Hut, a small log cabin which serves of decadent waffles and which was highly recommended to us by everyone – with good reason!

Exhilarated, we hurtle down Straight Shot, a bumpy track that can be bypassed by taking the Crystal Road family car. We then considered the idea of ​​going up by Glacier Express, the only chairlift in Blackcomb which does not offer any easy exit – it is from here that we climb the legendary Spanky’s Ladder, a sector reserved for the most daring of experts. Instead we went up the Jersey Cream Express – which was incidentally replaced this year by a new fast six-seater chairlift – before taking the Peak 2 Peak cable car, heading towards Whistler.

Push your limits

Actually, a quick word about the difficulty levels displayed in Whistler Blackcomb; here, everything is amplified, so much so that the tracks identified by a double diamond have almost no equivalent in the East. We’re talking about dizzying bowls, falls, ledges overlooking the void or narrow corridors dug between rocky spurs.

“People will avoid them by telling themselves that they are not capable, that it is too dangerous,” says Jean-Simon Forget. But I want Quebecers who come to Whistler to not just stay on the groomed trails or in the accessible glades. In Whistler, there is also an adventure side, an exploration side, something that pushes us to be able to access terrain that we wouldn’t do because we don’t have the confidence. »

Two days at the station unfortunately did not allow us to gain enough confidence, so much so that we chose to go around the cornices while remaining relaxed in the advanced terrain. Everyone has their own adventure!