Season In Whistler - Recently Updated Pages

Useful Links

Anonymous — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 18:10:24 CST

Add any relevant links here!

http://www.piquenewsmagazine.com/pique/index.php
- The pique newspaper - good classified ads and news for Whistler-Blackcomb.

http://www.x-rates.com/d/CAD/GBP/graph120.html
- The all important exchange rate graph!

Season In Whistler Home

Anonymous — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 04:03:07 CDT

Welcome to the new site for all people interested in spending a season in Whistler. The main focus is on snow sports but anyone (mountain bikers etc.) feel free to contribute!

A good start would be to add yourself to the who´s going where page and then to add a few links or photos.

The inspiration for this site came from this SCUK thread.

Also some good info on this thread: irishsnowboarder.com

There is not much content yet but it´s a wiki so start contributing!

UPDATED! Accommodation Providers

Insurance Providers

Instructor Courses

Best Bars and Restaurants

Useful Links
Who´s going in 08/09
Tips from the pro's

Bars and Restaurants

Anonymous — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 22:37:09 CDT

Places you must go – Food and Drink

• Wildwood for breakfast, before riding or when hungover. The classic breakfast is awesome, but for the more hungry try the Olympic with banana bread French toast. Found at the racket club at the far end of the village. Price: $9 classic and coffee ($11 Olympic + coffee)
• Splitz Grill, best burgers ever! You pick what goes in like subway. Order a Splitz combo 1 first, burger fries and drink. Try some splitz sauce. Found on Main street opposite 7/11. Price: $10 Combo 1 with cheese
• Merlins at Blackcomb base just to order nachos. Bring about 6 people to help eat them all. Price: $17 for a small mountain of nachos, $12 jugs.
• 21 Steps – in the loft, up the 21 steps to the restaurant then up the next flight to a chilled out lounge. Never too busy and cool for a couple quiet drinks. Located on the village stroll. Price: $5.50 pint
• Cinnamon Bear – found downstairs in the Hilton. Actually a super chilled out bar with a good few Yo-boys and then poshies from the hotel. Also has a kick ass entertainment system, like games and things, pool and TVs and free nibbles. Price: $6 beer
• Brandys, woot woot!! Go for a Beef dip (big garlic baguette with shaved prime rib steak sautéed mushrooms and onions and swiss cheese with a dipping au jus) and ice cold pint of Keiths (don’t order Canadian) Awesome deal. Some of the cheapest quality pints in town. Price: $12 Beef dip and beer, $4.50 pints
• Garfs to dance the night away, and drink jager till you cant remember.
• The Pie Shop properly called “4 and 20 Pies” has some awesome pies for that 2am snack. Found by the conference centre beside subway. Price: $3.80 for a pie
• Cittas patio (pronounced chee-tas) Best people watching and drinking spot full stop. You cant miss it. Price: $6 pint
• Moguls café – great smoothies for when the alcohol starts getting all too much. Kick ass breakfast bagels and wraps. Good to site outside and watch the world go by. Found opposite Cittas. Price: $5 smoothie, $4.50 bagels

Also suggested:

* Keg - Above Brandy's, has some of the best steak ive eaten in my life.
* Brewhouse - Good pub grub, good atmosphere, huge ribs
* GLC - Good for apre, waffle fries and a jug of beer always works well after a good days riding, although gets very busy, has good bands play.
*Blacks - Well, make your own mind up about this place, it has crap food, worse service and atmosphere like a retirement home, dont waste your money here.
* Longhorns - The 'Locals' hangout, gets very busy on thurs nights, good atmosphere.
* Merlins - Another locals spot at the base of blackcomb, a cool place to hang out, good bands often.
* Dustys - In creekside real nice pub, good atmosphere good bands, decent food.
* Mongolie - This place is a must, good fun and great food. Its tapenyaki style. In oct/nov they may have %50 off.

Accommodation

Anonymous — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 22:35:35 CDT

Accommodation is the single most important thing you need to worry about if you are planning to spend a season in Whistler. There are far more people who want to live there and there are places for them to live. If you are arriving as a group of friends and want to live together in a regular house then you need to arrive as long before the winter as you possibly can. The Pique Newspaper comes out in the village every Thursday morning and generally has the most rental properties advertised in the classifieds section. It is also available online:

http://www.piquenewsmagazine.com/pique/index.php?cat=C_Classifieds

There are many alternatives to finding your own house with friends and quite often they are slightly easier and often can be more expensive. If you are travelling on your own you can often find rooms advertised in the Pique as well as on various noticeboards around town. A couple of places to look are the noticeboard inside the Southside Lodge hostel, the noticeboard inside Gone Bakery and the one inside the Whistler Chamber Employment Centre, upstairs in the Tourist Information Building. There are a number of companies who sell places in shared houses full of people who are doing a winter season. These are probably the most expensive way of doing a season and also the easiest. They are great places to meet a load of like minded people especially if you are travelling on your own and have no previous experience of Whistler. A couple of companies offering this are:

http://www.seasonit.co.uk/
http://www.seasonaires.com/

The other option if you are travelling with a work visa is to take a job offering housing. If you have a job working for the company running the mountain, Intrawest, you can apply to live in HOUSE. This is offered on a first-come first-served basis and is always over subscribed every year. More information about HOUSE can be found here:

http://www.whistlerblackcomb.com/employment/residence/index.htm

A lot of the major hotels also offer housing with employment and hold recruiting fairs in the UK over the summer months for the forthcoming winter season. Four Seasons Resort and The Fairmont Chateau Whistler are two of the largest.

The Whistler Chamber of Commerce has a good section on there website detailing short-term and hostel accommodation available in town if you are arriving and need a place to stay for a short while. They also publish an additional list of housing available to the public at the end of summer showing places to stay that only become available for the 3 months before winter; these include HOUSE and Fairmont staff housing:

http://www.whistlerchamber.com/er-finding-a-place-to-live.html

A good place to also try is:
http://www.affordablewhistler.com/

Tips from the pros

Anonymous — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 22:33:17 CDT

From - http://www.snowboardclub.co.uk/PNphpBB2-viewtopic-t-23480-postdays-0-postorder-asc-start-405.html

Useful Things To Know.

• Take a laptop, internet cafes are hell expensive.
• Buy “Whistler and Blackcomb Advanced/Expert Guide book” small palm sized book available in most outdoor shops and the grocery store. Incredibly useful for those secret runs and lots of advise
• Before you go up check the webcams and call snowphone 604.932.4211 (if it’s the same number) weather could be totally different on the mountain. It could be raining in the village and bluebird above
• If its cloudy don’t let it put you off, just head for the trees. Trees are infact magic and disperse the cloud, plus you are not travelling as fast. Many powder turn people miss out on because of overcast days.
• If the village gondola queue is big, upload on Fitz and Garbo chair, which manage to miss all the tourist queues.
• On a big pow day there is nothing wrong with waiting at Peak chair for 2 hours, to be on the first few chairs up. It could well be the best run of your season.
• From personal experience only ride Lower Peak to Creek if it is a pow day or has been recently groomed. 5km is one hell of a long mogul run, and you will be crying at the bottom.
• Tie a whistle onto your jacket, and ride the trees with others, tree wells can be deep and near impossible to get out of.
• Wax your board often, every few hardcore days riding, or about every week as a rule. It makes such a difference and looks after your base.
• Carry ID and insurance papers at all times on the mountain.
• Ride a good bit with people better than you, it improves your riding immensely. Get out of your comfort zone be it on the steepest thing you have done, fastest speed, or biggest kicker.
• Slap hands and say hi to everyone you meet, its all about knowing. Get to know bartenders and bouncers, you can get all kinds of privileges from no queue, no cover charge, to free drinks. Make sure you tip!! At least 10% on drinks and a bit more for food if the service was good. If you don’t tip you wont get anywhere, bartenders might even ignore you and serve everyone else first.
• Don’t forget the tax on all goods. Its about 15% you need to add on to everything you buy, ie something in the shop marked at $5 will actually be nearly $6.50 when you get to the till. Only the liquor stores have the tax included in the price.

Places you must go – On the Mountain

• Flute bowl – Absolute must. Any pow day get some awesome well earned turns in a quiet area. Can hold powder patches for 3 or so days after a big dump.
• Spankys ladder – Again another pow day must, climb the bottle neck of the ladder (steps in the snow and rock, don’t fall or drop your board) to be rewarded with several massive bowls of perfect riding. Double black is the easiest way down from the ladder.
• Couloir – On Whistler mountain, a classic couloir, get it on a pow day and its epic. Daunting to look at but not too bad to ride, good initiation into double blacks.
• 7th Heaven – Perfect open glades, gentle slopes and such a wide area fresh tracks can be found everywhere. Nice into to tree riding on the lower half, not too dense. Awesome riding
• Peak to Creek – get this when it has been freshly groom and it is the most awesome fun long run, 7km of pure ripping straight from Whistler Peak right down to the pub in Creekside in one run.
• Straightline the Saddle – no fresh snow? Time to mess about, a straightline race down the Saddle is called for. Get to the top of the Saddle, find a clear line straight down, point and shoot. No turning or speed checking until you reach Peak chair. Guaranteed to make your eyes water.
• The parks – Start of small and get bigger. Generally the bigger the park the better it is kept and often ridden less. Just don’t be a tit in the park, have some sense, don’t cut people up, stop beneath an obstacle etc
• Backcountry – the proper stuff, fully out of bounds in the middle of nowhere. Make sure you are going with someone who knows the area, best bet is to go on the Avalanche Awareness Course. Teaches you a lot about snowpack, avalanches, and general safety in the mountains. Will learn how to use transceivers and probes etc, do some snowshoe hiking and ride some perfect untouched terrain.
• Harmony – everything from easy cruising to sick ridges, just a massive play area.
• Trees – on a cloudy day head for the trees, also intense on a pow day or just for a bit of fun. Look in the W/B guide for some runs or just make them up yourself, find a hole in the trees and dive in (make sure you know where it comes out and you’re not heading to oblivion)
• Chic Pea on Whistler mountain. Kick ass pizza in a funky cabin. Escapes the crowds of the big Roundhouse lodge

Insurance

Anonymous — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 20:47:07 CDT

Some providers that have been reccomended:

www.scuk.co.uk
http://www.thebmc.co.uk/

In general read the small print and check that all activities are covered - off-piste, park etc.

Whos going where

Anonymous — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 03:51:45 CDT

SeasonIt Accommodation

SnowBird Lodge
Barry and Eibhlin

Snow valley Lodge

Trappers Cabin

Chalet Bon Ami

Smoke Tree Lodge

Chalet Bon neige
Lee,

Vale Inn
Paul

Blackcomb
Stu & Wend (Found an apartment)

Instructor Courses

pablobaz — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 14:05:05 CDT

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