A day at Whistler Blackcomb Ski Resort

Whistler Blackcomb - What we did

As mentioned above, the ski lifts run from 8:30 to 16:00. We made the most of the time. How? You can find out here.

Whistler Creekside

Alex and Nakul are in Whistler quiete often and therefore know what smart people do: don’t drive to Whistler Village, but to Whistler Creekside. Here is also a gondola (Creekside Gondola), which takes you to the top of Whistler Mountain. With the Creekside Gondola we go up to the Ravens Nest and then continue with the Big Red Express. This takes us to the top.

Another enormous benefit of Whistler Creekside: Parking in the parking garage is free and you park very close to the gondola respectively the ski lift. And so we actually managed to queue at the Creekside Gondola at almost exactly just after 9:00 - yes, I had to go to the washroom.

Colored runs

Even though we have been strapping on the snowboards from time to time for a few years now, we are definitely no experienced riders. That means, we know our possibilities and stick to green slopes for the descents. Green, blue and black are used to classify slopes according to their difficulty. This classification helps to find the most suitable and appropriate slopes for oneself.

• Green slopes are beginner slopes and are advisable for winter sports enthusiasts who are new to skiing or are still learning the basics. As a rule, green slopes have a slight gradient, are wide and open and perfect for learning and trying.
• Blue slopes are intermediate slopes and more challenging than green slopes. Here, more experienced skiers can enjoy steeper slopes, more turns and also humps (bumps in the snow).
• Black slopes are advanced slopes and are the most demanding. Here, experienced and skilled skiers can plunge down the mostly steep slopes on narrow runs between trees or rocks.

Ego Bowl to Emerald Express

The first run of the day is Ego Bowl. It's green, super wide and super cool. If you ask the internet, Ego Bowl is "a popular intermediate slope for advanced skiers looking for a bit of adventure and excitement on the slopes." I wholeheartedly agree with that. By the way, it's hard to say how long this slope is, if at all. I think it took us something between 15 and 30 minutes for one run. But time flies when you're having fun, and this is a blast!

Just like some other slopes Ego Bowl ends at the Emerald Express lift. This takes us back up to Roundhouse Lodge, where we also started. From there, by the way, you can also take the Peak 2 Peak Gondola over to Blackcomb Mountain. That's what we do, but first we dash down the Ego Bowl slope. Wooooo!

Easy Out to Catskinner Chairlift

On Blackcomb Mountain, we whiz down the Easy Out. It parts from the Expressway. Actually, we wanted to ski down the Expressway to get to the 7th Heaven lift, but somehow we didn't get the hang of it. Instead, we took the Easy Out, which is so much fun as well. If you look at the map you can see that Easy Out slides into another slope (Last Resort), but I'll just stick with Easy Out.

Expressway to 7th Heaven

I'm not quite sure when my face first touched ground. You probably are familiar with those cartoons in which huge snowballs are rolling over the slope with two ski poles and two skis peeking out. Nothing like that happened to me. I just did a proper somersault in the snow, and here on the Expressway I exhaled abruptly at one point when my body hit the slope head-on. But nothing happened, I'm fine and somehow this is also part of skiing, isn’t it

However, I actually found the Expressway quite cool, Rico not so much. The run is relatively narrow, which is not ideal for snowboards, because with them you need space to swing. That’s where the fun is. But that's not possible here. It's more like a wider road with snow on top. I found the constant slight slope quite pleasant, as you didn't get too carried away, but could work a bit on your own technique.

With the 7th Heaven Chairlift we go up to the Horstman Hut, where I nevertheless sit out a round for safety's sake and devour a hot chocolate. And for those who have been asking themselves the whole time "What was the weather like up there?", let me tell you: it was mixed. As the pictures show, it was pretty dizzy up here and the view was limited to the next signal pole that marks the slope on the right or left.

Green Line to Rendezvous

From the hut we follow the Green Line back to the starting point up here on Blackcomb Mountain. Near the Peak 2 Peak Gondola is the Rendezvous, where we take a break with poutine and burgers.

The Green Line is a great slope. However, the greatness shrinks when you can't see further than two meters. In addition, the fog does strange things with your head. For one thing, there were moments when I wasn't quite sure if I was moving at all - you can't really see anything and you actually see everything at the same time, because it's so bright and white. Somehow the brain can't really deal with that. On the other hand, I once had the feeling that I was going to the right, but then saw the piste barrier coming at me from the front. So I had to sit down for a moment.

Pony Trail and Co.

We're back on Whistler Mountain, where we zip down the green runs a few more times. One run that I personally enjoyed immensely was the Pony Trail. Guys, how awesome is that one. Wide yet with cool turns and all. At the end of the Pony Trail begins the Big Red Express ski lift, which we already know from this morning.

A few times more we ski down a combination of Pony Trail and Bear Cub before finally tackling the last run of the day: From Roundhouse Lodge we follow the Pony Trail and Bear Cub to the Big Red Express, descend the Expressway (there is one on Whistler Mountain, too) for a short while, then turn onto the blue Cross Roads track and finally race down the also blue Lower Franz's track to Whistler Blackcomb.

All in all, it was a terrific day with lots of fun. Only the marmots were missing, although I'm not sure if they weren't shaken out of hibernation when my upper body hit the slopes.