Blackcomb hiking trails

Hiking has returned to Blackcomb Mountain this summer, thanks in large part to access to the mountain via the Peak 2 Peak Gondola.  Six hiking trails on Blackcomb give people great alpine views, without hours and hours of uphill slogging to get to the views.

Hiking trails of various degrees of difficulty have been accessible via gondola and chairlift on Whistler Mountain for years.  But if you wanted to hike Blackcomb, it meant walking all the way up from the base.  With the opening of the Peak 2 Peak Gondola last December, it made sense to re-open the hiking trails on Blackcomb as well.  Trails that were planned and created in the early 1990s (when Whistler and Blackcomb were owned by different companies) were re-opened for resort customers this summer.

Arthur DeJong of Whistler Blackcomb says access to the alpine regions of both mountains has been a success so far, both esthetically and financially, with summer revenue doubling for the ‘Alpine Experience’ packages.  While much of the credit goes to the Peak 2 Peak, DeJong takes pride in the what people experience once they leave the chair-lifts and gondola.  DeJong enthusiastically describes  how the trails were carefully designed to maximize views while minimizing interfacing with ski-area infrastructure; all in the quest for a more natural alpine experience.  “We’re trying to have the guests experience the alpine in as natural a setting as possible.  Hopefully we’re encouraging a relationship with our guests…that it’s not just a one time event to use the trail systems–that it becomes part of their summer itinerary.”

The other important consideration for the resort–similar to winter ski runs–was to offer different levels of difficulty, so that people of all ages and levels of fitness could enjoy the experience.  There are ‘green’ (easy), ‘blue’ (intermediate), and ‘black’ (advanced) trails, and most are connected into a series of loops.  The easiest trail, the ‘Alpine Walk’ is a 1.6 kilometre (60 minute) loop with viewpoints overlooking the Fitzsimmons Valley, Whistler Mountain, and the distant Cheakamus Glacier.

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