Fresh Tracks

Looking to go long distance with your ski adventure this winter? Lucy Pavia gets stuck into the upbeat vibes, fresh powder and sushi scene of Whistler Blackcomb

On my last morning in Whistler, I wake up to a spontaneous carnival.

It’s 7.30am, but outside the hotel hundreds of skiers are filling the nursery slopes, a set of speakers is pumping out Calvin Harris and the occasional, ‘whoop!’ rises above the music. The Wizard Express chairlift up the mountain won’t open for another hour, but a long line of skis is already planted in the snow, saving their owners’ place as they go to fetch coffee and doughnuts. ‘It’s a 30cm day’ my host and Whistler resident Sarah explains, as we snap on our ski boots. Turns out, if you live in the resort and more than 30cm of snow falls overnight, it’s totally acceptable to sack off work for the morning and go skiing. You’re lucky to get a handful of 30cm days in a whole season, Sarah reasons, so why would you go to work? I plan to make this case to my boss the next time it’s unseasonably sunny in the UK.

I’m 32 and was first put in a pair of skis aged five, but before coming to Whistler I’d never skied outside the Alps. It felt pointlessly decadent to take a nine-hour flight from London to Vancouver for something you could do in Europe. But, Whistler is no Alps 2.0 – and it’s more than worth the journey. The two-hour airport transfer alone deserves its own review. After landing in Vancouver, we take the road north along the beautiful coastline of British Columbia, looking out at mountain ranges reflected in the inky waters of Lions Bay, where pods of orcas come to feed in the summer. Then, we cut inland through pine forest, winding up in the Pacific Ranges of the Coast Mountains, where Whistler sits.