My thoughts on Whistler/Blackcomb

Each of the mountains has it's own good points and bad points, in general it felt like Whistler generally has better snow conditions, less rocks and less time spent on cat tracks to get back to lifts, it also has access to Symphony and Harmony bowls giving you the chance to ski different conditions and if you are feeling really energetic access to flute bowl which involves about a 30 minute hike, the benefit of the hike is you get to access terrain that is skied by a much smaller number of people. Blackcomb has the glacier, and it seemed to me, access to more gladed skiing, the downside is that it feels like you have spend a lot more time riding cat tracks to get back to the lifts, the prime example of this being the 6.5km ride back to the lifts after skiing the glacier. Blackcomb seems to have more catering capacity, including the waffle house!. My main dislike of Whistler/Blackcomb is that at the end of the day there are only a limited number of routes down the mountain that get very busy and can get scraped off making the last run of the day a little tricky, on the plus side there are always a good number of mountain safety personnel on the mountain endeavouring to keep things safe.

The majority of the time I spent at Whistler/Blackcomb the average snow depth was 130cm making the off piste skiing limited. Whistler/Blackcomb makes its reputation on powder and off-piste skiing, when it doesn't get the snow then the amount of skiable terrain is reduced and a lot less enjoyable due the to the number of rocks that are just below the surface of the snow. Compared with Sundayriver, the resort where I have done most of my skiing, the grooming and snowmaking at Whistler/Blackcomb falls well short of the standards I'm used to at Sundayriver. When conditions were good it was nice to be able to look at an area of terrain and say "that looks nice" and go and ski it. One of the good things that Whistler/Blackcomb provides is a free daily tour of the mountain, the tour is led by experienced skiers who have spent a lot of time at Whistler and know their way round the mountains.

On mountain catering is excellent with a good variety of foods all prepared to order on the premises. They cater to a variety of tastes and queues during the time I have been at Whistler have always been reasonable, the only problem I experienced is finding seating during busy periods. The big downer for me about Whistler is the lack of available Ben & Jerry's Ice cream varieties.

Given the choice would I rather ski at Whistler/Blackcomb or Sundayriver, I would have to say Sundayriver, Why? Sundayriver has more dependable conditions even in poor snow years we've always had good conditions to ski on, in the scheme of things it's not a mainstream resort like Whistler and although it gets busy it never feels over-crowded.