The story
Early visitors
The valley area between Whistler and Blackcomb was first surveyed and documented in 1858 by Hudson's Bay Company men looking for an alternate route into the Cariboo area further north. Although little-used at the time, the route later became one of the many paths used during the Gold Rush at the turn of the century. Known as the Pemberton Trail, the route followed a path similar to the Sea-to-Sky Highway, leading past the Whistler area to the present-day town of Pemberton. In the 1860s British Naval surveyors named the mountain "London Mountain," but it soon garnered the nickname "Whistler" because of the shrill whistle made by the Western hoary marmots who lived among the rocks. Four lakes paralleled the route of Trail, the highest then being known as Summit Lake. However, there was another Summit Lake in British Columbia, and in 1910 the name was changed to its current form, Alta Lake.
One of the first permanent residents in the Alta Lake area was trapper John Millar, who set up a cabin next to the trail just south of the base of the mountain. During a trip to sell furs in Vancouver in 1911, Millar stopped at the Horseshoe Bar & Grill for dinner. The cook was Alex Philip from Maine, and Millar invited Philip to join him for dinner. Millar was a storyteller, and during the conversations that followed, he invited Philip to visit the Alta area. Alex and his wife Myrtle visited what was then known as Summit Lake several times over the next few years, and in 1913 they purchased 10 acres (40,000 m2) of land on the northwest corner of Alta Lake for $700.
Rainbow Lodge and other early resorts
By 1914, the Philips' Rainbow Lodge fishing resort was completed with four bedrooms, a large living/dining area and a kitchen. The resort was named for the rainbow trout that were the main attraction of the resort. That same year, the Pacific Great Eastern Railway (PGE) reached the lake from Squamish. Executives of the PGE suggested the Lodge host fishermen from Vancouver, which was now less than two days away (from three or more) via steamship to Squamish and then the PGE to Alta Lake. A standard rate of $2 for a week was applied, and the first group arrived with 25 people. The resort was a hit. Millar left when the railway arrived, looking to get further away from civilization.
Building followed demand, and over time the lodge grew to include an additional 45 buildings (cabins, tennis courts, general store, post office) and could accommodate 100 people. It became the most popular west coast resort for 30 years. The Philips operated the Lodge until 1948 when they sold it to Alec and Audrey Greenwood. The main Lodge burnt down in 1977, but today the area has been preserved as Rainbow Park. The Philips both remained in the valley until their deaths. Alex died in 1968 at age 86, and Myrtle died in 1986 at age 95.
Following the successful launch of Rainbow Lodge, several other tourist resorts set up in the valley. Russell Anderson Jordan opened the Alta Lake Hotel, which burned down in 1930, and replaced it with Jordan's Lodge on nearby Nita Lake. Bert and Agnes Harrop built Harrop's Point in the 1920s. This became the Cypress Lodge in 1945 under its then-owner Dick Fairhurst, who built new cabins and a main lodge in the early 1960s. In 1972 the property was purchased by the Canadian Youth Hostel Association and it remained the Whistler Hostel until it was closed in 2010 when the association (now Hosteling International) opened a new, larger hostel. The original building is still standing today, home to the point artists' centre and the Whistler sailing club. Cecilia and John Mansell moved to Alta Lake in 1945 and built the Hillcrest Lodge near today's Lakeside Park on Alta Lake. They sold it in 1965 to the Mason family and others who operated it as Mount Whistler Lodge for skiers. The main lodge was burnt in a fire practice by the fire department in 1986.
There was some commercial use of the London Mountain area as well. Logging had been carried out for some time, but the arrival of the railway in 1914 made this much more profitable and for several years there were a few sizable mills and lumber operations: The Barrs at Parkhurst Mill on Green Lake (to the north), and the Gebharts with the Rainbow Lumber Company on Alta Lake. The fur trade remained for some time, later supplanted by a mink and marten farm. Jimmy Fitzsimmons ran a prospecting support company, which led to mining surveys up Fitzsimmons Valley. The shafts can still be found on the Singing Pass trail.
Olympic dreams
In 1960, the Canadian Olympic Association visited the west coast looking for potential sites for a future 1968 Winter Olympics. They initially looked at a site on Diamond Head just north of Squamish, which was already developed to the extent of a single chairlift. However, they concluded that the area simply couldn't be developed properly, "it just wasn't the right terrain for a world-class resort." Franz Wilhelmsen, a local businessman who had married into the Seagram family, had already come to the same conclusions when he had been scouting areas for a new ski resort. He met with the COA and convinced them to look further north in the London Mountain area, "And they were impressed."
Encouraged by their positive reviews, Wilhelmsen organized the Garibaldi Olympic Development Association (GODA) to make a formal bid. At this time there was no road, no electricity, and no piped water or sewer in Alta Lake. Their bid for the Olympics was unsurprisingly rejected, and the Canadian bid was given to Calgary, who came in a close second place to Grenoble. Undaunted, Wilhelmsen decided to press ahead with development of a resort.
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In 1962, the Garibaldi Lifts Limited was formed with Franz Wilhelmsen as president. It had two main objectives, to finance and supervise required land/business studies, and to erect and operate ski lifts on London Mountain. The company had little experience in ski operations, so they hired Willy Schaeffler, a well known developer, to help them. Schaeffler proved as enthusiastic about London Mountain as COA and GODA had been. Schaeffler returned and wrote a good feasibility study about the Alta area, which had no mining claims.
From 1962 to 1965, Garibaldi Lifts raised funds and began development of the ski area on the south side of the mountain. The government agreed that they would set aside a 56-acre (230,000 m2) plot at the base of the mountain for Garibaldi Lifts to buy, and agreed to bring the highway to the base of the mountain if they could raise enough money. By 1965, they had reached their goal of raising $800,000 and started planning for development. However, they were not happy with the name, and on August 27, 1965, London Mountain officially became Whistler Mountain.
By 1965, the Provincial Government had completed a narrow gravel road from Vancouver. Electricity arrived the same year with the installation of a substation along the lines from Bridge River. Everything was in place, and the Alta area became a hive of development. GODA made a bid for the 1972 Winter Olympics, but Banff won again and eventually lost to Japan.
Whistler opens
By the fall of 1965 the ski area featured a four-person gondola to the mountain's mid-station, a double chairlift to the alpine tree line (the Red Chair), and two T-bars, all provided by GMD Mueller. In addition, a day lodge was constructed and six ski runs cut into the hill. Whistler officially opened for skiing for the first time on January 15, 1966. The new mountain won instant acclaim for its vertical drop, good snow conditions, and huge alpine area. The only problem at the time was the road, it was a dirt logging track, which was only plowed on Saturday, to the detriment of Friday travelers.
With real infrastructure in place, in 1968 GODA made another bid for the 1976 Winter Olympics, and this time the joint Vancouver/Garibaldi won the Canadian nomination. However, in 1970 when Montreal won the voting for the 1976 Summer Olympics, Vancouver/Garibaldi was removed from further consideration and the games eventually went to Denver, Colorado. In a stunning turn of events, Denver turned down the games after winning the bidding. The games were then offered to the other North American entry, Vancouver/Garibaldi, but political turmoil due to the recent change in government led to their bid being withdrawn as well, and in desperation the IOC returned the games to Innsbruck for a second time in a row.
The gravel road was paved to Whistler in 1966, and on to Pemberton in 1969. The Blue and Green chairlifts were added in 1970, providing access to additional terrain. In 1972 these were joined by the Olive and Orange chairlifts. A parallel lift to the Green Chair to alleviate crowds came in 1974, and the Little Red Chair came in 1978. The Roundhouse, an on-mountain lodge and restaurant, was completed in 1980. This new lodge provided respite for cold skiers who had survived the long ride up on the Red Chair.
Whistler Village
In 1974, the provincial New Democratic Party of British Columbia was interested in developing tourism and took a number of steps affecting Whistler. At the time, the Alta Lake area was overdeveloped, so the government instituted a development freeze while they studied the problem. The only solution was to continue development in another location. They quickly decided to focus on the table between Whistler and Blackcomb, about 4 km to the north of the existing facilities on Alta Lake. At that time this was the site of the Alta Lake dump, and the remains of a Volkswagen Van are still buried under the modern village.
In 1975, the Resort Municipality of Whistler (RMOW) was formed, the first Resort Municipality in Canada and also the first place in British Columbia since Canadian prohibition where bars were allowed to be open on Sunday. The act also created the Whistler Village Land Company who would oversee all development of the new Whistler Village. In 1977 the provincial government named Al Raine the Provincial Ski Area Co-ordinator, in charge of expanding BC's skiing capabilities. Raine was previously National Coach for the Canadian Women's Ski Team, and was married to famous Canadian skier Nancy Greene. Raine saw the potential in developing Blackcomb Mountain, then part of the Garibaldi Provincial Park, and joined the Whistler city council. The Blackcomb area was currently zoned for logging, but Raine and Greene successfully lobbied the government to remove the zoning and allow development as a ski area.
In 1977, the Municipality hired Sutcliffe Griggs Moodie Development Consultants to design a layout for Whistler Village's development. However, their design was considered too conventional and allowed too much car traffic. Raine recommended Eldon Beck, who had been the primary designer at Vail, celebrated for its layout. Beck's designs included a pedestrian Main Street Village Stroll and an elevated covered walkway system, limiting all vehicles to the outside of the developed area. To this day the village retains this basic design in spite of dramatic expansions, and has won worldwide acclaim in architecture circles.
In January 1978, 53 acres (210,000 m2) of crown land were given to the Whistler municipality to develop the town centre. The first sod for the village was turned on August 18, 1978, by first Mayor Pat Carleton. By 1979, many amenities were in place, including Municipal Hall, Fire Hall, Health Care Centre, and Elementary School. Phase 1 expansion included 11 parcels in the modern Village Square area, including the Whistler Conference Centre, a variety of hotels, restaurants, grocery store, hardware store, etc. An enormous underground garage was built to support all of the buildings in the area, completed before any construction could start above it. The first hotel, the Blackcomb Lodge, anchors the Village Square area to this day.
Blackcomb opens
In 1978, a call for bids was issued to develop Blackcomb for skiing. The bidding to develop Blackcomb was contested by two companies, the Aspen Skiing Company, and the newly formed Blackcomb Skiing Enterprises (BSE). Aspen, having recently developed the Fortress Mountain Resort in Alberta, won the contest. A new company, Fortress Mountain Resorts, was formed with a 50–50 partnership between Aspen and the Business Development Bank of Canada. The new competition, paid for partially by tax dollars, was not initially appreciated by Whistler.
Initial development of the mountain included four triple chairlifts (later named Cruiser, Stoker, Catskinner and Fitzsimmons) and one double chairlift, all supplied by Lift Engineering (Yan Lifts). The double chair was installed on the lower Gear Jammer run where the tube park is located today and was used as a beginner chair at a reduced speed. This area was also the first area to get permanent underground snow making pipes supplying snow making guns up the south side of the run. At the time the lifts were referred to only by number.
Blackcomb opened for skiing on December 6, 1980, along with the newly constructed village. To ensure guests could continue to easily access Whistler from the new village, Whistler added three Yan triple chairlifts for the same season; the Village, Olympic, and Black Chairs which met up with the top of the Orange chair at the top of the men's downhill course. Whistler's original base at Alta Lake began to be referred to as Whistler Creek, or Creekside, after the creek that runs through the area.
Competition and buildout
Throughout the 1980s the two ski areas competed strongly for ticket sales among the village visitors, which led to a rapid buildout of new lifts that opened new areas and improved ride times.
In 1982, "Chair 6" (later rebranded Jersey Cream) opened in the Horstman Creek drainage on Blackcomb. Whistler cut new trails along the northern flank of the mountain. In 1983, Blackcomb acquired a used T-Bar from Fortress Mountain and installed it on a south-facing slope, in full view of Whistler Mountain. This 7th lift was coined the Seventh Heaven T-Bar and gave access to high alpine and glaciated terrain. It also gave Blackcomb the highest lift-serviced vertical drop of any ski area in North America, with the top of the lift at 7,348 feet (2,240 m). Blackcomb promoted themselves as the "Mile High Mountain".
Whistler responded in 1986 with the opening of the Peak Chair to the summit of Whistler Mountain at 7,160 feet (2,180 m), acquiring a Poma triple chairlift from the closed Pikes Peak ski area in Colorado. Although not as high as Seventh Heaven, this lift opened up Whistler Mountain's alpine terrain, and allowed access to the Harmony Bowl area. The new terrain made Whistler the largest alpine ski area in North America.
Skiers could buy a Blackcomb pass, a Whistler pass, or a Dual Mountain pass. Locals loved when tourists would ask "Where is Dual Mountain?"
Intrawest buys Blackcomb
In 1986, Blackcomb's assets and real estate rights were bought by fledgling real estate developer Intrawest. Intrawest was an early developer of timeshare listings, and saw the potential in developing the ski resort with condominium assets as a timeshare destination.
Intrawest immediately carried out massive upgrades on Blackcomb. They started by moving the Seventh Heaven T-Bar across the ridge to the Horstman Glacier, still running up to the peak, and supplemented it with the Showcase T-Bar to service Blackcomb Glacier. Doppelmayr replaced Seventh Heaven in its original alignment with a high-speed quad chairlift, and built two additional high-speed quads, Wizard and Solar Coaster, which cut the ride time from the base area to Rendezvous from 45 minutes to 15. The Rendezvous Restaurant was renamed Base 2 and the moniker moved to the restaurant at the top of Solar Coaster and Catskinner.
Renewed competition
In response to Blackcomb Mountain's construction of three high-speed quads, Whistler Mountain undertook one of the biggest ski-lift construction projects ever realized in Canada at the time, the construction of the Whistler Express Gondola. Carrying passengers 1,157 m (3,796 ft) vertically and 5 km (3.1 mi) horizontally over 63 support towers, the lift opened on November 24, 1988. In 1990 Whistler began upgrading its aging fleet of fixed grip chairlifts with the addition of its first high-speed quad chairlift. The Green Chair Express, which replaced the two Green Chairs, was built by Lift Engineering (Yan), and substantially cut long lift queues in the Green area of the mountain. A year later, Whistler Mountain replaced three double chairlifts and the original Creekside gondola with two high-speed quad chairlifts, the Quicksilver Express and Redline Express lifts, also built by Lift Engineering. In 1994, the Blue Chair was removed and replaced with a Poma high speed quad named the Harmony Express, providing access to Little Whistler Peak.
In 1994, Blackcomb made what would be its last major lift expansion until 2018 with the replacement of the lower mountain triple chairlifts. Stoker was replaced with a high speed quad in a longer alignment known as the Excelerator Express, while Fitzsimmons and Cruiser were replaced with the two-stage Excalibur Gondola, running from Whistler Village to the base of Excelerator with a mid-station near the top of the former Fitzsimmons lift. The second is dubbed by some as the "gondola to nowhere" since it does not connect with any restaurant or access additional terrain. However, in combination with Excelerator, it allowed rapid access to Blackcomb for Whistler Village traffic, who previously had to take three or four chairlifts to Rendezvous (Fitzsimmons, Stoker, Cruiser, and Jersey Cream, with 3 of those being slower chairs; or Fitzsimmons, Wizard and Solar Coaster). Excelerator also opened up a vast area of intermediate-difficulty terrain to the left of Solar Coaster and below Jersey Cream that was previously neglected and under-utilized, because skiers who traveled those slopes frequently had to go all the way to the bottom of the mountain, which was over-skied and icy.
This competition had driven development of the two mountains at a rate no other resorts could come close to matching. In 1992, Snow Country Magazine voted Whistler the Number One Ski Resort in North America. Similar No. 1 rankings quickly followed from other major magazines, and between 1992 and 2000 it won No. 1 ranking from one of the major magazines every year. In 1996, it became the only resort in history to be simultaneously named No. 1 by Snow Country, SKI and Skiing magazines.
Intrawest buys Whistler
In 1997, the Whistler Mountain Ski Corporation was also bought out by Intrawest.
Like their expansion on Blackcomb, Intrawest immediately started a major build-out on Whistler. Following a deadly accident on Quicksilver in December 1995, all three of Whistler's Yan high speed quads were replaced. A new Creekside Gondola was constructed by Poma for the 1996–97 season to replace Quicksilver. In 1997, Doppelmayr constructed new high speed quads to replace the Redline and Greenline chairs, respectively named the Big Red Express and Emerald Express. These lifts received new terminals and chairs, but reused the predecessor lifts' towers. The original Roundhouse was demolished and a new lodge built in its place. Around this time Intrawest began marketing the two mountains as one large ski area under the name "Whistler-Blackcomb". On April 20, 1999, Whistler Blackcomb became the first North American ski resort to top 2 million skier visits in one season.
From Wikipedia’s article on Whistler Blackcomb, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3