Overview

Getting Around

There are 3 places with gondola and ski down access, Whistler Village, upper village and creekside. Upper village leads to Blackcomb, creekside leads to Whistler, and Whistler VIllage leads to both. You don’t really need a car if you stay in one of the 3 areas.

There’s a Peak 2 Peak Gondola connecting Whistler and Blackcomb, which takes around 11 min.

In the first half of the season (until late January) most of the the lifts open at 8:30AM and closes at 3PM. Alpine lifts close at 2:30pm. There’s a thing called First Tracks that you can buy for 28CAD / 20USD, which allows you to get up to the Whistler mountain as early as 7:30AM to ski untouched pow without any lift line, and a 17CAD voucher for food on the mountain. I haven’t tried it tho.

The trails on both mountains are pretty well designed. On Whistler, almost all trails lead to Olympic Mid Station, where you can take the Whistler Gondola up or down, ride Garbanzo Express up, or ski down to the Whistler Village. On Blackcomb, almost all trails lead to Blackcomb Gondola, Excelerator Express and Excalibur Gondola. You can also ski down to either the parking lots, upper village, or Whistler Village from those lifts.

Skiing

Whistler Blackcomb is the biggest resort in North America, and it’s a hard mountain. You will have the best time if you can ski blacks, even better if you can see double blacks and beyond because there are multiple semi-hidden areas for experts only, like Flute Bowl in Whistler and Spanky’s Ladder in Blackcomb.

Blues are all over the mountain so if you can’t ski blacks you should have a good time as well. That said, some of the blacks here are more of a blue, or a safe black which you can survive if you tread very slowly and carefully (see below), so it’s also a good place to progress into blacks.

There’s a wide variety of terrains, from alpine to woods, from bowls and chutes to wide and long groomers to gladed and tree skiing.

Food

There are plenty of food options on the mountain, most are cafeteria style with fast food, ramen, pasta, fish and chips, etc. The price is honestly very modest, most are under 15USD. It’s funny how Switzerland has half the ski pass price but double the food price.

In the village there are quite a few restaurants. Kind of like a small Zermatt. Grocery stores and fast food options are also within walking distance.

Weather

During my 8-day stay in late December, there are 3 days with big snow, 2 bluebird days, and 3 cloudy days with light snow. If you like sunshine please don’t come and go to California.

On non-bluebird days, the alpine area is usually super foggy and windy if they’re open at all, with close to zero visibility.

Whistler vs. Blackcomb

Overall, during my stay at least, Blackcomb is a much better mountain due to the terrain and the lift line.

My goal in this trip is to hone my skills in ungroomed blacks I just progressed from blues to blacks (or say groomed to ungroomed) this season, so the mountain with the more accessible black runs wins. I only skied a minimal number of greens and blues head to toe as most of the time when I was skiing a blue or a green it was only to get to a black or a lift.

I was quite interested in the alpine area of Whistler, particularly Symphony Express and Harmony Express (most of the runs from Peak Express are too hard for me), but those two were more often and not closed. Even when they were open, the top was either wayyy too foggy with zero visibility or the lift lines were 20min long.

Meanwhile, in Blackcomb, Crystal Ridge Express was always open with a manageable lift line and Glacier Express was generally open with a minimal lift line. 7th Heaven Express was often closed but even when it was open it had a brutal lift line so I didn’t really care much about it.

I spent the most time in Glacier Express, Jersey Cream Express, and Crystal Ridge Express. All these 3 lifts lead to plenty of black runs.

I particularly love the top of Glacier Express as it’s such a wide and open alpine terrain and you can ski wherever you want, marked or not. 7th Heaven is also kind of like that but the chairlift queue is 10x. 10x really is not an exaggeration at all if you use single lanes. The single lane in Glacier Express is super fast while in 7th Heaven Express it’s as slow as the group lanes. I’d even say that it’s more like 20x, 1min vs. 20min.

As a result, of the 7 days I skied, I spent 2.5 in Whistler and 4.5 in Blackcomb.

Black Runs Reviews

The difficulty rating is scoped within black runs.

• ⭐️/⭐️⭐️: in my comfort zone
• ⭐️⭐️⭐️/⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️: can ski but not with ease
• ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️: can’t ski or have to side slip many parts

This review features 26 black runs, 19 in Blackcomb and 7 in Whistler, since I stayed a lot more time in Blackcomb.

Upper Glacier Drive (Blackcomb)

Groomed and not very steep, not a black. In fact, this has always been the upper part of Blue Line (blue) until the 2024/2025 season.

difficulty: ⭐️
fun: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Brownlie Basin / Dave’s Day Off (Blackcomb - Glacier Express)

It’s a bowl at the top with entry points all over the edge, and a chute with some small trees at the bottom.

difficulty: ⭐️⭐️
fun: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Dakine (Blackcomb - Glacier Express)

Officially it starts off the Upper Glacier Drive, but you can actually start from the platform above. Overall a pretty straightforward ungroomed run.

difficulty: ⭐️⭐️
fun: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Lower Glacier Drive (Blackcomb - Glacier Express)

Mild and long mogul fields. Love it. In the final section you can branch out and ski a steeper mogul field, though it’s still not very challenging.

I did see this being groomed once by the Swiss criminals (ski patrols) tho.

difficulty: ⭐️⭐️
fun: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Davies Dervish (Blackcomb - Glacier Express)

Soft mogul field with an icy and rocky base, and it’s also fairly steep. Need to be very careful because it’s hard to brake. It’s right beside Glacier Express so you can see how majestic and steep it is when you’re waiting in line.

difficulty: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
fun: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Overbite (Blackcomb - Glacier Express)

It looks like a steep powder trail with some moguls, but the moguls are actually rocks. The rocks are completely covered with snow/ice so you never knew until you ski on it.

I had a pretty hard time because of the steepness and the rocks. I’m skidding so hard whenever I’m on the “moguls”.

It’s also a pretty long run.

From Trailforks it seems like the first section is consistently over 60%, or 55-60 degrees. Definitely one of the steepest black runs.

difficulty: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
fun: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Straight Shot (Blackcomb - Crystal Ridge Express)

A straight and somewhat steep run. Not a lot of powder and no moguls, but plenty of hidden rocks.

difficulty: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
fun: ⭐️⭐️

Arthur’s Choice (Blackcomb - Crystal Ridge Express)

Gladed skiing in the woods. The space between the trees are big so it’s not so dangerous, and it’s a fairly open woods so you can choose your own route down. Overall a pretty beginner-friendly tree skiing.

difficulty: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
fun: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Blowdown (Blackcomb - Jersey Cream Express)

There are 3 black straight shots on creek bed like terrain you can take after you drift away from Jersey Cream (blue) into the woods at the right. There’s a mild traverse that takes you to them. Blowdown is the first one, Staircase the next, and then it’s The Bite.

Blowdown is a weird one because normally for blacks it’s steeper at the beginning which turns milder in later sections, but this one is the reverse. It’s mild at the beginning, steeper in the middle, and then very steep in the final section. I had to side slip for some parts in the final section.

difficulty: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
fun: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Staircase (Blackcomb - Jersey Cream Express)

I could never find the sign for Staircase, but this run is still easy to find. It’s the next open area with no trees after Blowdown.

The hard part about this one is to navigate around the big rocks, which require some big drops and turns.

difficulty: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
fun: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Bite (Blackcomb - Jersey Cream Express)

I’m actually not quite sure about this one because it’s possible that I take the more difficult entrance, but in my run there was a mandatory straight lining in the entrance with 2 rocks on the side and another one at the bottom with only 70% covered with thin ice/snow, so I had to side slip that part.

The rest is a steep and narrow gully with lots of rocks. For my skill level I should be able to do normal turns, but my confidence level was low so I side-slipped down most sections.

difficulty: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
fun: ⭐️⭐️

Xhiggy’s Meadow (Blackcomb - 7th Heaven Express)

To get to this run is a long and sometimes scary journey. You need to keep going left from 7th Heaven Express, across a steep slope. There is a very sketchy pathway before you can reach the final section of the traverse, blocked by 2 rocks, vertically stacked with a narrow horizontal displacement. You can either climb to the top of a big rock or through the narrow pathway at the side of the top rock (top of the bottom rock). To get through you either do a sketchy traversal on the top of it, or do a straight line off the rock. The latter is actually very doable because it’s powder at the bottom and on a wide slope, but I don’t want to, so I took a lot of time to do the sketchy traversal, step by step.

In the final section of the traverse, there is a very narrow downward slope that isn’t too steep. You should be perfectly fine if you just send it and break after the slope .. but I didn’t, had a yard sale, and one of my skis fell down to the slope.

Xhiggy’s Meadow is truly a meadow. It’s a VERY THICKKK powder field. By the width and the steepness it’s just an easy blue but the powder is sooo thick so I can see it being a black. Definitely harder to ski than a lot of the easy blacks.

The area is sooo pretty on a bluebird day. It’s a HUGE powder field and it’s so open that many parts still have the powder untouched. Looks like heaven.

I’m very shit at skiing powder but skiing this one is really fun because of how thick the powder is.

difficulty: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
fun: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Catskinner (Blackcomb)

Mild groomed run, a blue.

difficulty: ⭐️
fun: ⭐️

Stoker Bumps (Blackcomb)

Thick powder field that is pretty mild.

difficulty: ⭐️⭐️
fun: ⭐️⭐️

Cruiser Bumps (Blackcomb)

Just like Stoker Bumps but shorter.

difficulty: ⭐️⭐️
fun: ⭐️⭐️

Gear Jammer (Blackcomb)

difficulty: ⭐️⭐️
fun: ⭐️⭐️

Freefall (Blackcomb)

Big powder field, not very steep.

difficulty: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
fun: ⭐️

Bark Sandwich (Blackcomb)

It’s a narrow gladed run in the woods and steep at times. Probably around the same level as Where’s Jose, and more difficult than Arthur’s Choice.

difficulty: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
fun: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Where’s Joe (Blackcomb)

It is a straight gladed run. The run itself doesn’t have any trees, kind of like Closed Captions, so I’m not sure if you can call it a gladed run. It’s real icy and rocky tho.

difficulty: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
fun: ⭐️⭐️

The Saddle (Whistler - Peak Express)

It’s an easy groomer that should be a blue (which it was), but the difficulty lies in its visibility. Top of Peak Express is more often than not very windy and foggy, so the visibility is often very bad.

difficulty: ⭐️
fun: ⭐️⭐️

Ratfink (Whistler)

Mogul fields. The final section before merging to another trail is very steep.

difficulty: ⭐️⭐️
fun: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Closed Captions (Whistler)

A narrow, straight and steep run between the woods. There’s also a narrow mild pathway through and around the woods, and then back to the run.

difficulty: ⭐️⭐️
fun: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Wild Card (Whistler)

Ucy mogul field but not very steep.

difficulty: ⭐️⭐️
fun: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Raven (Whistler - Garbanzo Express)

I’m very confused about this one because from the map it seems very short but in reality it’s very long. I’m not sure which track I was actually skiing after the Raven part, but I’ll just treat all of them as one. The first section is powder iirc. And the next section is very interesting because it’s a groomer on the left but THICK and uneven powder at the right.

I’ll just rate the part I skied, which is the ungroomed part.

difficulty: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
fun: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Upper Dave Murray Downhill (Whistler - Garbanzo Express)

Easy groomer, should have been a blue.

difficulty: ⭐️
fun: ⭐️

Goat’s Gully (Whistler - Garbanzo Express)

Very hard for me. It’s a very narrow U-shaped gully and steep at many parts. Had to resort to side slipping in a lot of sections.

difficulty: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
fun: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Whistle Blackcomb Review

Overall it’s a really good resort, the best I’ve been to in terms of pure skiing. There is just so much variety.

The food options and the village are also decent, definitely much better than Lake Tahoe.

But if considering everything, I’ll still give an edge to Zermatt because of the weather and the unbeatable scenery.