Any tips for skiing at Whistler?
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Anonymous
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I'd appreciate any tips for a first time trip for a family of 4 intermediate skiers with 2 teens. We're heading there Saturday, staying in Creekside.
Thanks! |
Anonymous
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What type of tips are you looking for? We had a place there for a while. Now go to Europe, roughly the same amount of travel time, like the scene better.
If you are going there strictly to ski, Creekside is fine, if not your kids are going to wonder why you aren't staying in the Village. There are hand full of place to eat in creekside but they can be busy. If you haven't done it before, or you party gets car sick pretty easily, the drive up can be a real wake up call. You go from sea level to 2300' pretty quickly. The slopes never feel croweded. Great ski school. |
Anonymous
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Creekside is pretty disconnected from whistler/blackcomb.
Whistler side is easier terrain, wide rolling greens/blues. Lift lines are always longer. Take creekside gondola up and work your way to Emerald or Harmony area early and enjoy the pow. Peak chair is fun too and if it fills out, you can take the “peak to creek” run from top to bottom (very fun). Warm up and acclimate with mid mountain runs on ego bowl. Blackcomb side is excellent and favored by locals and intermediate/advanced skiiers. Lots of off piste, mid mountain has more technical terrain. 7th heaven is a must and be sure to lap the crystal area a few times. Warm up and acclimate to Blackcomb with runs on easy out. For food: handlebar pizza, pasta lupino, blue wild, yanagi sushi, Earls. The Keg is also good with great value. Have fun! |
Anonymous
The slopes will be extremely crowded christmas week… especially on weekends. Whistler is incredible, enjoy the trip. It’s the largest and best skiing resort in North America. It will ruin skiing in the US for you 
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Anonymous
| Is anything even open? Just curious looked like not much snow. |
Anonymous
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We love Whistler! The ski town is our favorite and we have been to a lot of mountains out west. We love staying in town, walkable to lifts, tons of restaurants, great happy hours and apres ski, lots of activities. Such a great town and the people are great.
It is longer to get there but worth it. Easy and inexpensive shuttle from Vancouver to Whistler. The drive is beautiful and you don’t need a car if staying in town. Creekside is not in the village and not ideal because limited restaurants, activities, etc… Go to the top and upper half mountain to ski, better snow and conditions since higher. But it’s so huge that it doesn’t feel crowded anywhere. |
Anonymous
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I had the worst car sickness of my life (as a passenger) driving back from whistler to Vancouver. I was fine driving up and no problems while skiing so I was shocked on the return.
Definitely do the Peak to Peak gondola! It is very slushy at the bottom so just ride the lifts down when you can toward the bottom. Not sure what negative vibe the Pro-Euro skiing poster was referring to. Very friendly, international crowd; no pretense regarding apparel and gear, etc. very family friendly. |
Anonymous
the alpine has had a record snowfall this season. base and mid mountain is a slower start, but it’s been dumping snow last 7 days. if OP is heading there saturday, they are in for a great time. |
Anonymous
+1. Family friendly, down to earth crowd all about the skiing. Agree no pretense and no one cares about any scene or to be seen. The village is also quite large and very cute. |
Anonymous
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Don’t go the week after an atmospheric river came through and took out all the snow on the lower part of the mountain.
Other than that, it was one of my favorite ski places. We bought groceries on our way in, at the last largish grocery store before you get to Whistler. We have early birds, so they were up and out before the lines got too long. |
Anonymous
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Op here. Thanks for the responses! We picked Creekside bc we booked a little late and were able to get better lodging there.
For comparison, when we went to park city we stayed in canyons village and enjoyed it a lot. Drove to park city when we wanted to eat out, but we were very content to ski and then chill by the fire. None of us care to walk around in the cold to shop. It was really easy to take gondolas to the park city side of skiing and I’m hoping it’s as convenient to use the peak to peak gondola at Whistler. I guess I could use any insights into that… traversing from one side to the other. (I was hoping we could ski down to the Excalibur gondola to go up that side, but the lower trails still aren’t open.) What about parking at Whistler or taking the shuttle to start on that side? Worth it? Thanks! |
Anonymous
| hi OP, just take the creekside gondola up (less lines than whistler or blackcomb) and then catch the red chair (big red express). That’s the easiest and fastest coming from creekside. Have fun Whistler side and catch all the powder up top then take the peak to peak to cruise 7th and crystal. No need to drive or shuttle! |
Anonymous
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This looks like a madhouse. 2 hours to wait for the first run of the day?
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DSlF9rYkiyn/?igsh=cWVsdGJxNDl3N2xz |
Anonymous
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Another video of a 2 hour wait for the gondola
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DSI0xqFE3zu/?igsh=aWpiaXQyYXh2bDFr |
Anonymous
lol this is not at all representative of the current lines. I’m at Whistler now and these videos were taken earlier in the pre-season before many of the lifts were open. Don’t believe everything you see on social media PP. |