With an early opening, the folks at Whistler are being cautious this year to not upset Ullr, who doesn’t like to see those precious goods go unused, especially during the Thanksgiving holiday. It just happens to benefit us mere mortals as well…
Early season this year has been less than spectacular, although the snowpack around the Northwestern U.S. and Western Canada has been trending about average, and average in the Pacific Northwest is great. Whistler’s memo for an early opening day below:
“Whistler Mountain will begin operations for the 2016.17 winter season one day ahead of schedule on Wednesday, November 23. Thanks to the recent colder temperatures and natural snowfall over the last week our operations team has been able to get Whistler Mountain ready to open one day early.
Blackcomb Mountain will open as scheduled on Thursday, November 24.On November 23, guests will have the option to upload Whistler Mountain via the Whistler Village Gondola or Creekside Gondola. First upload will be at 8:30am with last upload from the valley at 2:00pm. Skiing and boarding is open until 3:00pm with a mandatory download in effect on both gondolas. There will be limited terrain open and early season hazards will exist.
On November 24, the PEAK 2 PEAK Gondola and Blackcomb Mountain will open with uploading via the Excalibur Gondola and Excelerator Express as well as the Wizard Express and Solar Coaster Express. First upload will begin at 8:30am with last upload from the valley at 2:00pm and skiing and boarding until 3:00pm. Mandatory download will be in effect with limited terrain open and early season hazards.”
According to Whistler, the runs that will be open are Jolly Green Giant, Upper and Lower Ego Bowl, Upper Whiskey Jack, Upper Pony Trail, Lower Pony Trail, Papoose, Upper Bear Cub, Orange Peel. There will also be a Small/Medium Terrain Park at the top of the Emerald Express Chair. Mandatory download is in place, as a skiable base does not extend all the way to village.
Check out some of the webcam porn from Whistler this afternoon:
Whistler Peak:
Glacier Express:
Blackcomb:
So yeah, did we mention its been snowing? Better yet is the forecast for the coming week:
All told, it looks pretty likely that Whistler will have the best skiing of anywhere in North America this Thanksgiving. We can only get more stoked about an extra day on the hill.
