(Whistler, British Columbia, Canada)
Skiing on the Blackcomb Glacier, as detailed in my previous post, was a special highlight of my ski week here. We enjoyed it so much that we went back to the glacier twice on our final day of skiing (see photo at top of this post, which looks back on what we just skied). Another highlight was hiking into the backcountry to ski the off-piste “Flute Bowl” on Whistler Mountain.
I never venture into “true” backcountry without a knowledgeable guide. However, at Whistler, there is a backcountry area within the resort boundaries. By skiing to the edge of the “Symphony Amphitheatre” and then carrying your skis up a steep mountain, you can then truly ski off-piste and unconfined by the on-piste crowds.
After traversing most of the access trail on skis, we took off our skis and walked straight up for about 20 minutes. It’s hard to say how long or far it was: all I know is that walking in ski boots up a snow-covered mountain is extremely tiring. Once we reached the agreed-upon lookout point, I had to sit down in the snow to cool off.
Groomed pistes sometimes feel like Autobahns…but hiking and skiing in the backcountry is a completely different sensation. Everything is silent. You feel much more responsible for yourself: you can’t just follow the 100 skiers in front of you. You have to use all of your senses and think several moves ahead.
In better snow conditions, off-piste skiing is mostly about the exhilaration of skiing through lush stashes of untouched powder. With poor snow conditions, it is more about being (relatively) alone in a vast wintry wilderness and finding one’s way back. It felt great to climb to a commanding look-out point…but it also felt great to get back to the marked trails.
My posts on skiing at Whistler-Blackcomb have contained a number of comments about the poor ski conditions. Indeed, that is all the locals seemed to talk about: I can’t tell you how many times a Whistlerite apologized this week for the state of the snow. Even though I wish all of my ski holidays would involve conditions like the “blizzard day in Val Gardena” (click for a video), a ski holiday is essentially about being in the mountains. Whether the snow is soft or hard, the mountains are still incredibly beautiful.
Besides apologizing for the snow, the locals were all very interested in hearing about how Whistler-Blackcomb compares to skiing in Europe. There is a feeling that Whistler-Blackcomb is world-class…and there also seems to be a need to have that feeling confirmed!
Unfortunately, I don’t think I can answer that question. The conditions here were too unusual to make any meaningful comparisons with European skiing. I also think the answer would be different for different types of skiers: a skier with cultural interests would probably respond differently than somebody who cares solely about the skiing. Perhaps this non-committal answer means that Whistler-Blackcomb is indeed comparable with European skiing? In any case, I’d love to come back again when the mountains have better snow conditions.
This is the last “post from the road” for my trip to Whistler-Blackcomb. I’ll be in Kingston for a while but will continue with more travel flashbacks and other travel-related posts. I also have a quick but somewhat odd trip coming up at the end of April. Stay tuned!