I lived on the West Coast for over three years before finally visiting Whistler, which might be the second most famous place in BC after Vancouver. Known as one of the best places to ski in North America, it’s perhaps less known for non-rich people like myself going there to ski for the first time.
We went at the end of the ski season in the spring, where one of the two mountains in the village (Whistler and Blackcomb) was closed as they prepared for mountain biking season. I was intending to take a ski lesson and was encouraged when they told me that lessons were 50% off since it was so late in the season, but I was less encouraged when they told me that still amounted to $400.
I had watched a few youtube videos the day before, and I decided this was enough to try it out without lessons. The first hill I went down, labelled ‘intermediate’, which we had to go down to get to the ‘easy’ route nearby, almost killed me. When you’re going down steep hills, you’re supposed to go side to side (in other words, ‘ski’), but of course I couldn’t do that yet and just ended up going 50km/h+ down the hill until I wisely bolted and took a hard fall, my first of very many.
I didn’t die, but there were some scary flashes as I came to the edge of a cliff where my beginner turning skills were either enough to save me or when I had guts enough to dive before rolling off. Even with a helmet on, I hit my head hard enough to hurt more than once.
This was not a place to learn to ski. It looked like there were bunny hills on the map of the closed mountain, but not on Blackcomb. The easiest hills were either curvier and steeper than I would have wanted, or the rare times it was relatively straight, I was next to a giant cliff or a series of trees. Sometimes, there were giant trees, cliffs, and hairpin turns even on the easy routes. But it seemed like I was the only one who was struggling; even the children who were skiing were skilled. About half the people I saw fall were subsequently pulled down the hill by the ski paramedic people with something like a broken leg, probably by doing something a lot more daring than me just trying to stay upright.
Going down in the wind, seeing the snow mountain views, was enough to intrigue me to go again. For the near future though I can get away with something a lot more beginner-friendly, cheaper, less steep, and less trendy, I think.
Aside from skiing, the village is probably the most resort-like place I’ve ever been, with central/eastern Canada’s most famous ski place, Tremblant, being the runner-up. Right next to the ski lifts are bars, clubs, restaurants, and multiple ice cream shops that are rocking pretty much from noon until dinner time for après-ski. At one of the places we went, people were literally dancing on tables for hours starting by 2pm on a Monday. There was even an 80 year old woman who joined them at one point. I think this place had a reputation though, since when I described my experience to multiple people after returning home, they correctly guessed the name of the bar.
When we sat down at this place of hedonism, there was a DJ near us, but no dancing. Seemed loud, but hey, we’re on vaca. Then, one group stood up on their tables and chairs next to us, and then next to them another, until eventually we were completely surrounded on all sides by people dancing on tables. There was one table next to us that didn’t join in, but they soon left, and we were all alone in the middle, with people outside of the ring taking videos, perhaps making us a meme with our obviously disinterested expressions. We moved to another table just in time, since the servers, instead of telling me to stop dancing on tables before they hurt themselves, brought out a series of champagne guns that were sprayed all over that dancing crowd.
Maybe the bars in Whistler can buy insurance for things like that.
We stayed in the village, and the place was too warm to keep the windows closed, so I heard people walking from the bars well past 2am each night, even though we weren’t immediately next to any of them. The strip beyond the spots right next to the ski lifts, closer to where we were staying, are more popular later on at night, but there’s a general lull between 5 and 7 in the town, kind of like a late siesta, for people to recharge before going out again. All this and it was perhaps one of the quietest times of the year – in summer, it’s still busy with mountain bikers, and in the winter months, the skiing is better, so there are more people.
The village atmosphere would have been a lot of fun in my early 20s when I had the energy to party and the social interest to mingle with strangers, maybe try to pick up women if I had enough Irish whiskey. ‘Ski all day, party all night,’ I imagine is the mantra for the groups that come there, although I’ve never seen it on a Whistler fridge magnet yet. I imagine it as a rich Canadian version of Las Vegas, with groups of friends and acquaintances travelling up for a few days to go wild and make their coworkers jealous while they scroll through Instagram at home.
With all the action in the village it can be easy to forget that Whistler is in a beautiful area of more mountains where you can do other outdoor things. We went for a couple hikes – one on a very touristy and short trail to an old train wreck that’s since been heavily graffitied, and we attempted to get to a hike around a lake, but the dirt road was covered in snow about half way there so we had to change plans. We found a trail down that hill and parked, but 2/3s of it ended up being in deep snow even though it was late April. We still did the trail, but our feet were quickly wet.
Going downhill and over rocks around the lake was incredibly dangerous, not to mention that we saw and heard more signs of wildlife than we were comfortable with, given the deep snow, that we were in the start of grizzly country and they were probably just finishing up hibernation.
The Whistler area is a fun place to visit for its energy, and like the rest of the west coast there’s beauty everywhere and ways to get away from the crowds if you find less popular places. If you don’t like the resort vibe, I wouldn’t say it’s so special that you should still go there, unless you’re an avid skier and upper-middle class. Nearby Pemberton and Squamish are much more chill and still have myriad hiking and other outdoor things, minus all the skiing.
I don’t know if I’ll go back unless someone else initiates it, or perhaps in another decade if a mid-life crisis strikes up.
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