Alpine Skiing Prevails At Whistler Despite Wet And Warm Weather

Ian Greenwood
·2 min read

It's a winter of superlatives. When the going gets rough, we skiers tend to go to the extremes, proclaiming that x-resort—in this case, Whistler Blackcomb, British Columbia—is having its worst season ever.

James Pavelick (of Rise & Alpine), a Whistler Blackcomb skier, YouTuber, and British Columbia resident, wasn't content to trust hearsay, though. He wanted to find out if Whistler Blackcomb was indeed in the dumps after a week of brutally warm weather or if the situation had been overblown.

Here are his results.

Obviously, this video was shot on only one day—Saturday, February 3rd, to be exact—at Whistler Blackcomb, meaning it can't tell the entire story of an entire winter.

However, based on Pavelick's video, it wasn't looking half bad at Whistler Blackcomb this weekend. I'd more than enjoy those dust-on-crust turns he caught in the alpine.

But, the lower down Pavelick got on the mountain, the more the naysayers started to make sense. It's true: things are pretty manky and icy at lower elevations in the Pacific Northwest right now.

That's the advantage Whistler Blackcomb holds, though. I can't tell you how many times I've loaded a gondola at the Creekside Base in the rain, only to be skiing powder by the time I reached the Peak Express Chair. Not every resort has that kind of vertical range.

Still, Whistler Blackcomb and its PNW compatriots could use a reset.

"Skiing at Whistler Blackcomb isn't that bad. I've never had a bad day on skis, at its worst, the mountains still rocked," Pavelick wrote in the caption to his video. "There's hope people. Let's keep on turning."

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