In the past ten years, Whistler Blackcomb has installed several new lifts on both mountains, replacing older lifts with new ones (such as the new Blackcomb Gondola and Emerald Express) or moving existing lifts to replace others (such as the Crystal and Catskinner chairs on Blackcomb Mountain). While it may seem like there have been a lot of changes in the last decade, the greatest change in lifts in the area was actually seen in the 1980s. A total of 21 lifts were built, six on Whistler Mountain and fifteen on Blackcomb. Eight of these lifts opened in the 1980/81 season alone.
On Whistler Mountain, skiers had been skiing down to the site of the Whistler Village and catching a bus or a ride back to the gondola base at Creekside for over a decade. In 1980, Whistler Mountain opened three trip chairlifts starting from the Village, breaking from its tradition of naming chairs for colours for the first time since opening in 1966.
The imaginatively named Village Chair began at Skiers Plaza and ended at Olympic Station. From there, skiers had a short run down to the aspirationally named Olympic Chair. At the top of the Olympic Chair they could then ski over to the Black Chair, which let them off at the top of what today is the top of the Garbanzo Express. To reach the Roundhouse required skiing down to another chair, either the Green or Red.
Of the three lifts, only the Olympic Chair continues to operate on Whistler Mountain today. The Village Chair was replaced in 1988 by the Whistler Express and, instead of requiring four exposed chairlifts, the ten-person gondola took skiers and sightseers alike straight from the Whistler Village to the Roundhouse. In 1999 the installation of the four-person Fitzsimmons and Garbanzo Expresses eliminated the need for the Black Chair. The Olympic Chair was shortened in 1989 and now operates as a beginner chair. It is one of the few fixed grip lifts still used on Whistler or Blackcomb Mountains.
Blackcomb Mountain opened its first five lifts (named One through Five) in 1980. Lift Five was a two-person chairlift designed for beginner skiers, located at Base II, then the hub of Blackcomb operations. The development of the Upper Village and the opening of the Magic Chair in 1987 moved beginners to the new Blackcomb base and Lift Five was removed.
Four triple chairs took skiers from Skiers Plaza to the top of the Rendezvous. Over time, these lifts began to be called by names as well as numbers: Fitzsimmons/One, Cruiser/Two, Choker/Three, and Catskinner/Four. To ride all four lifts could take over half an hour, a long journey if the weather was not great. In 1994, Lifts One through Three were replaced by Blackcomb’s first gondola, Excalibur, and the four-person Excelerator Express. Lift Four remained the only original lift operating on Blackcomb until it was replaced in 2018.
Though only one of the eight lifts installed in 1980 remains, the year marked the beginning of a busy decade of lift building for both Whistler and Blackcomb Mountains.
We all remember when Whistler Blackcomb announced that they would exchange the 25 year old Village gondolas with new and bigger ones in the fall of 2014. The old cabins found new owners all over the world. But do you know the history of all the lifts at Whistler Blackcomb? Slide on and take a gondola ride through the ages.
The first lifts were built on the south side of Whistler Mountain (what is now known as Creekside). By fall 1965, several lifts were installed, including a four person gondola, a double chair lift, and two T-bars.
With the opening of Blackcomb in 1980, a long-lasting rivalry started between both independently owned mountains. This led to a race to build lifts with the motto “higher, faster, and safer” in mind.
Whistler was large, highly departmentalized, more Canadian and European as well as more traditional. New to the business of skiing, the Vancouver based Hastings West Group took over Garibaldi Lifts Limited. In contrast, Blackcomb was young, tight, US-dominated and half controlled by the Aspen Corporation, whom were already experienced in the ski business. Blackcomb ski runs were designed to follow the fall line whereas Whistlers runs were designed more so to side-run the mountain.
In the following years, a marketing battle between both mountains was up and running. When Blackcomb installed its alpine 7th Heaven T-Bar in 1985 it became North Americas only “Mile High Mountain”. The new area opened up, including four powder bowls, wide open glacier skiing, and it also provided visitors with a vertical mile (1,609 meters’/5,280 feet) of skiing. A year later, Whistler Mountain responded with a high alpine triple Chair lift called Peak Chair, opening Whistler’s highest peak (1,530 meters’ (5,020 feet). The new alpine area provided experts with some of the most challenging runs in the world. In 1996, Whistler became the only resort in history to be simultaneously named No. 1 by Snow Country, SKI and Skiing magazines. However, even more exciting was the news announced March 1997 when Whistler and Blackcomb Mountain merged to form one big mountain company, which is today well known as Whistler-Blackcomb all over the world.
With the Peak2Peak opening in 2008, Whistler-Blackcomb finally broke two world records and is recognized in the Guinness World Record Book 2015 as the highest cable car above ground (436 meters above the valley floor) and the longest unsupported span between two cable car towers (3.024 kilometers). For skiers and boarders it is now easier to access the high alpine terrain on both mountains. But even for sightseers it is redefining the mountain experience in winter and summer by very impressive views and an incredible experience.
Those 50 years of lift history show: Competition drives innovation; but when two former rivals team up, they can move mountains and bring great peaks closer together.
Explore Whistler’s lift history on the map.
Map locations 1, 2 & 3: It all started in Creekside
4, 5 & 6: The ancestors of the Emerald Chair
7 & 8: History of Franz’s Chair
9: The Whistler Village Gondola and its early sisters
10 & 11: Developing the Olympic Chair
12: Reaching out to Whistler Peak
13, 14, 15 & 16: First chairlifts on Blackcomb
17: History of Jersey Cream
18: Up to 7th Heaven
19: History of the Magic Chair
20: Opening the Harmony Bowl
21: Preparing the way to the Glacier
Installation of Peak2Peak, Symphony, Fitzsimmons & Garbanzo
Many thanks go to Rod Nadeau and Ecosign Mountain Resort Planners Ltd. who helped gather information about Whistler’s lift history.