Whistler

The Lil'wat and Squamish nations both used the valley, which they called Cwítima and Sḵwiḵw, and shared a village, Spó7ez, south of today's resort where Rubble Creek meets the Cheakamus River. In the late 19th century the Lillooet Cattle Trail was cut through the valley, and in 1914 Myrtle and Alex Philip bought land on Alta Lake and opened the Rainbow Lodge. The Pacific Great Eastern Railway, finished the same year, cut the trip from Vancouver from three days, and the lodge gained a reputation as the most popular holiday destination west of the Rockies, known for boating, fishing and hiking.

Skiing came with the Olympic ambitions of the 1960s. In 1962 four Vancouver businessmen explored the area to build a ski resort and bid for the 1968 Winter Games; the bid failed, but the ski area on Whistler Mountain, which naval surveyors of the 1860s had named London Mountain, opened in January 1966. The community, then still called Alta Lake, was offered the 1976 Games after Denver withdrew but declined, and in 1975 it became British Columbia's first resort municipality. Blackcomb opened in 1980, and after years of rivalry the two mountains came under one owner as Whistler Blackcomb.

In 2010 Whistler was the Host Mountain Resort of the Vancouver Winter Olympics and Paralympics, staging the alpine, Nordic and sliding events; the Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili was killed in a training run at the Sliding Centre on the day of the opening ceremony. The Peak 2 Peak Gondola has linked the tops of the two mountains since December 2008, and since the Games the Olympic Park in the Callaghan Valley has stayed open for public skiing.

Whistler's culture is built around the mountains. Winter means skiing and snowboarding, and Whistler has been ranked among the top resorts in North America by ski magazines since the mid-1990s; summer belongs to mountain biking, and the Crankworx festival, held since 2004, is the biggest annual gathering of the sport's community. Hiking, ice skating, snowshoeing, golf and fishing fill out the year.

The resort has also built a cultural life of its own. The Audain Art Museum, opened in 2016, holds a wide permanent collection of British Columbian art, the Squamish Lil'wat Cultural Centre presents the two nations whose land this is, and the Whistler Film Festival each December has become an important showcase for Canadian independent film. The village's plazas and Olympic rings are a reminder of 2010, and the resort is often used as a setting for films and television.

Several thousand residents live here only for the season. Daily manners follow the mountain code: early starts on powder days, casual dress everywhere and a strong sense of being part of an outdoor community.

Whistler had about 14,000 permanent residents at the 2021 census, a rise of 19 per cent in five years, plus several thousand seasonal residents, while more than two million people visit each year. The municipality covers about 240 square kilometres of valley floor and mountainside along Highway 99, 58 kilometres north of Squamish and 36 kilometres south of Pemberton, with neighbourhoods strung out along the lakes between Function Junction in the south and Green Lake in the north.

Tourism drives the economy: the ski and bike operations of Whistler Blackcomb, hotels, restaurants, shops and guiding. Local buses run through the valley and on to Pemberton, and the Valley Trail links the neighbourhoods for those on foot or bike.

The rhythm of life follows the seasons. Winter days start early on the lifts and end in the village bars; spring and autumn are quiet shoulder seasons when many businesses slow down; summer brings bikers, hikers and lake swimmers. Black bears are part of everyday life, and residents learn to keep rubbish and food out of their reach.

Whistler has no dishes of its own; its food is the cooking of a busy international resort, much of it served in the restaurants, cafés and bars of the pedestrian village and the Upper Village. Menus draw on British Columbia's produce — Pacific salmon, spot prawns and halibut from the coast, and fruit and wine from the Okanagan valley across the mountains.

Breakfasts and bakeries matter in a town of early starts, and cafés stand around Olympic Plaza and the Village Stroll. After skiing, the village bars and pubs take over, and beer from the Whistler Brewing Company is served in the village.

Many visitors stay in condos and chalets and cook for themselves, and the bakeries and coffee shops of the village supply salads, soups and sandwiches for the mountain. Dining out is part of the cost of a stay, and it rises with the seasons, highest in the ski season and the summer holidays.