# Whistler Skiing questoin



## BevL (Mar 18, 2007)

I think I know the answer to this and feel like a doorknob since I live so close, but have always declared that I know nothing about outdoor activities where my feet might get cold.

Would week 15 be considered late for skiing in Whistler?  I'm looking at a change in my timeshare portfolio and would be interesting in trade value of a week like that.

TIA

Bev


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## lanalee (Mar 18, 2007)

I don't believe Week 15 is too late for skiing at all.  According to this schedule, Whistler Mountain closes winter operations on about April 22nd, but Blackcomb Mountain stays open for winter operations until June.

And just as an FYI - this year, there is a ski festival being held during Week 15.  
2007 TELUS World Ski & Snowboard Festival


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## BevL (Mar 18, 2007)

My question I suppose more accurately would be would a Week 15 in Whistler have good trade power?  If it's considered skiing, I would think so.


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## Steamboat Bill (Mar 18, 2007)

I skied there in July..but it was on the glacier.


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## T_R_Oglodyte (Mar 19, 2007)

Bev - 

beginning about week 12 or 13 there is a noticeable decline in trade power.

I know you're a former Winners Circle owner.  My week 52 will easily pull Whiski Jack for week 12 or later, but is hit and miss for earlier weeks.

HTH.


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## BevL (Mar 19, 2007)

Thanks Steve, that is exactly the info I was looking for.

Bev


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## asp (Mar 19, 2007)

Relative trading power - in my opinion - can be seen by looking at the number of points the week has been given by RCI.  The skiing in late spring could be great, or it could be "wet cement".


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## T_R_Oglodyte (Mar 19, 2007)

deleted - changed my mind


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## Bill4728 (Mar 31, 2007)

We love the spring skiing week of 14-16  but week 15 & 16 are much easiert to get than week 12 or 13.


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## T_R_Oglodyte (Mar 31, 2007)

Bill4728 said:


> We love the spring skiing week of 14-16  but week 15 & 16 are much easiert to get than week 12 or 13.



leaving tomorrow for three days of skiing.  Taking advantage of the drop in lift ticket prices and rental prices after April 1.


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## Bill4728 (Apr 5, 2007)

Just a little more on the subject.

My point based TS in Whistler Club Intrawest has ranked the ski weeks with president's week and the last 3 weeks of Mar as the highest demand. First week of April (week 14) as high demand, week 15 as middle demand ( less than all other winter weeks) and week 16 as middle-low and weeks 17-20 as low demand.


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## i39249 (Apr 21, 2007)

*Questions*

Whistler is one of the places I'd like to go to.  During the last weeks of March, could one just rent a car at Vacouver airport and drive up to Whistler?    If so, do you need chains?  Or should one just take a shuttle from the airport to Whistler?


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## T_R_Oglodyte (Apr 21, 2007)

i39249 said:


> Whistler is one of the places I'd like to go to.  During the last weeks of March, could one just rent a car at Vacouver airport and drive up to Whistler?    If so, do you need chains?  Or should one just take a shuttle from the airport to Whistler?



Easily doable.  Very little chance of chains being needed.  Check road conditions before you leave Vancouver, then either pick some up before you leave Vancouver.  If chains are needed, I wouldn't try to pick them up at Squamish, since there are some grades between Vancouver and Squamish.


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## eal (Apr 22, 2007)

If you rent a car in Vancouver with good snow tires you won't need chains on the highway to Whistler.  Call the office location of the rental company you are using, tell them where you are going and ask them to make sure they give you a car with snow tires.


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## BevL (Apr 22, 2007)

Very very unlikely to need chains - if the highway is that bad, they'll close it so some idiot doesn't drive to fast and kill people, which happens too frequently.  And if you fly into Vancouver and there's snow anywhere, you'll hear about it before you're off the plane - we're terrified of the stuff here - LOL


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## Floridaski (Apr 22, 2007)

We are going to Whistler week 11 in 2008 and I am in the process of booking airline tickets via FF miles.  Waiting to get return flight added, hopefully we will be able to fly into Vancouver and drive to Whistler the same day.  But, I am starting to wonder about the wisdom of this choice.  

First we are coming from South Florida - it will take at least 10 hours of travel before we even get to Vancouver.  Then we will more then likely need to rent a SUV (wish we did not have to go this route) but since we bring our own ski's we need the space.  By the time we get this done we will have been up since 4 AM EST and I am not sure it is wise to drive 2 more hours.  Does anyone have good suggestions on:

1. Best rental rates on cars/SUV?  I normally just shop heavily on the internet and take the lowest fare.  We got a full size SUV this year via Thrifty for $303.00.  But, I would not suggest Thrifty to anyone - I should have paid the extra $40.00 dollars and stayed with Alamo.  Thrifty was not very customer friendly and it took over an hour to get the vehicle!  Also, since it seems that we may not need SUV for snow - do many rental companies have ski racks?

2.  Suggestions on hotels close to the airport?  I have gone to major travel sites.  But, since I am not familiar with Vancouver, I am not sure what is practical.  We most definitely will stay overnight on the return leg.  Most outbound flights leave very early and I am not getting up at 2 AM on the last day of my ski vacation to catch a flight.


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## BevL (Apr 22, 2007)

Anything in Richmond is going to be close to the airport, as that's where it's located.  And I think you're safe with pretty much any hotel there - there's no bad neighbourhoods in that particular suburb.  Lots of major chain type hotels there.

As for driving to Whistler after a long day, a lot will depend on the weather.  I can tell you that it's a fairly windy, narrower road and although I don't want to overly scare anyone, there are a fair number of serious accidents on it.  Extremely possible it will be raining or, less likely, snowing on your drive up there.  To err on the safe side, stay in town and get a fresh start.  But you know how confident a driver you are.

Can't help you with the car rental question, I'm afraid, since I live here.


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## T_R_Oglodyte (Apr 22, 2007)

Floridaski said:


> We are going to Whistler week 11 in 2008 and I am in the process of booking airline tickets via FF miles.  Waiting to get return flight added, hopefully we will be able to fly into Vancouver and drive to Whistler the same day.  But, I am starting to wonder about the wisdom of this choice.
> 
> First we are coming from South Florida - it will take at least 10 hours of travel before we even get to Vancouver.  Then we will more then likely need to rent a SUV (wish we did not have to go this route) but since we bring our own ski's we need the space.  By the time we get this done we will have been up since 4 AM EST and I am not sure it is wise to drive 2 more hours.  Does anyone have good suggestions on:
> 
> ...



If you're going to plan on spending a night before heading up to Whistler, you might then consider flying into Seattle, and spending a night somewhere en route to Whistler.  I understand that air fare into Seattle is significantly cheaper than Vancouver, and flight time might be less as well.  The cost savings may make that more attractive.

The road to Whistler is undergoing major upgrades. Many stretches of it have been upgraded to four-lane highway.  In its worst areas it's a standard 2-lane primary mountain highway.


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## BevL (Apr 22, 2007)

I can comment on Steve's point about airfares.  We NEVER fly out of Vancouver to the U.S. unless we're using FF miles.  Driving to Seattle reduces our airfare to about half when we do our biannual trek to Florida.  Definitely worth looking at if you haven't purchased airfare - flying to Seattle, perhaps driving partway if you're not too exhausted, then making the final trek up to Whistler the following day.


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## Floridaski (Apr 22, 2007)

We are using FF miles, so Vancouver is a better option.  

What is the difference in drive time from Vancouver vs Seattle?

I already have my outbound on hold using FF miles and will try to book the return next week.


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## BevL (Apr 22, 2007)

Sorry, missed that part of your post.  Vancouver is much closer and you're not messing with the border, especially if you're flying in or out on a weekend.  I'd say it's about 3.5 to four hours from Seattle, not counting boarder traffic and two to three, I'd say, from the airport in Richmond to Whistler.


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## T_R_Oglodyte (Apr 22, 2007)

BevL said:


> Sorry, missed that part of your post.  Vancouver is much closer and you're not messing with the border, especially if you're flying in or out on a weekend.  I'd say it's about 3.5 to four hours from Seattle, not counting boarder traffic and two to three, I'd say, from the airport in Richmond to Whistler.



It's about 5 hours from my house to Whistler, and that assumes no border backup and only minor traffic delays in Vancouver.  If you were driving from SEA, by the time you collected luggage and picked up a rental car, it would be about one hour from when you landed until you reached the Factoria area of Bellevue, where I live.  So if I were landing at Seattle and driving, I would plan on arriving in Whistler about six hours after landing. 

If you are unfortunate enough to be trying to drive through Seattle or Vancouver between 4 and 6:30, add at least one-half hour to that.


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## beejaybeeohio (Apr 22, 2007)

*Just returned*

from Whistler via Seattle.  Because our flight out of MSP was delayed we didn't get our rental car til 4pm about 2 hrs later than we had planned on.  We hit rush hour traffic in Seattle so it was getting dark when we hit the Sea to Sky.  I drove to Squamish which was harrowing with the construction pylons and curves especially considering we are from the  Eastern time zone which made it after 10 pm our time.  Hubby took over to Whistler after a break in Squamish, and though that portion was easier to drive it was a challenge in the dark.  We arrived at the Whiski Jack office around 9:15 so I guess our time wasn't too bad.

We did that drive r/t on Monday to pick up a friend from YVR at 5:20 pm. Luckily her flights were on time and we were back in Whistler by 8.  Our trip out of Whistler was also interesting as we left at 5am in the dark and rain.

My advice would be to drive the Sea to Sky in daylight.  If your flight gets in late it will be an arduous journey and you would be better off getting a good night's rest in Vancouver, checking in at Whistler in the  morning and hitting the slopes refreshed.


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## Floridaski (Apr 22, 2007)

I am going to try to move our inbound flight to Saturday, since we check in at Whistler on Sunday.  Based on your advice, we will overnight in Vancouver each leg of the vacation.  Granted this makes the 8 day vacation, a 10 day trip - but hey if I am going to sit on a plane for 10 hours, it should be worth the time.  We did something like this when we went to Ireland.  We added days on each side of the trip and it was the best thing we could have done.  

Any thoughts on rental cars.....


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## djyamyam (Apr 22, 2007)

Floridaski said:


> Any thoughts on rental cars.....


 
Do you need the rental?  Why don't you take a shuttle.  That way you don't need to push back your flights.  Just arrive, hop on the shuttle and let someone else worry about getting you to Whistler.

There are lots of direct services:

http://www.whistler.com/shuttle/
http://www.perimeterbus.com/

These are just two options.  

If you want to rent the vehicle, go to www.carrentals.com and plug in the dates of when you need and reserve it.  Check back on a semi-regular basis to see if prices change, which they normally do.  Depending how many are in your group, you won't need the SUV.  Avis rents ski racks for $3 / day.  Don't rent from Thrifty as they charge $10 / day.  Call a couple other car rental companies.


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## BevL (Apr 23, 2007)

I must say, when we head to Florida, we usually overnight in FLL or MIA, just much better than a redeye out and then taking a day to recover.


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## beejaybeeohio (Apr 23, 2007)

*Car rental vs shuttle*

For 2 people the shuttle will run 240 CDN rt.  Our car rental out of SEA via Enterprise was 255 US for 10 days and gave us flexibility to leave the Whistler area.  We definitely needed that since rain was prevalent for most of our stay.


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## Floridaski (Apr 23, 2007)

Since we are staying at Whiski Jack Ironwood - we will need a car.  I have checked and I can get a Mid size SUV from Alamo for about 10% more then just the shuttle would cost.  I will keep shopping and can more then likely get it close to the same price.  It would be nice to not worry about driving to Whistler, but we enjoy the freedom of having our own vehicle.  Since we are going skiing, we need the space for our gear.  I am going to definitely book overnights on each leg.  We are using 50,000 mile sky miles per ticket - so it is not a big deal to change days on the outbound.  I hate spending the 50,000 miles, but it is a $1074.00 ticket for the flights that I want.  Still a good value for the miles.
Thanks for all the advice....


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## T_R_Oglodyte (Apr 23, 2007)

Floridaski said:


> Since we are staying at Whiski Jack Ironwood - we will need a car.  I have checked and I can get a Mid size SUV from Alamo for about 10% more then just the shuttle would cost.  I will keep shopping and can more then likely get it close to the same price.  It would be nice to not worry about driving to Whistler, but we enjoy the freedom of having our own vehicle.  Since we are going skiing, we need the space for our gear.  I am going to definitely book overnights on each leg.  We are using 50,000 mile sky miles per ticket - so it is not a big deal to change days on the outbound.  I hate spending the 50,000 miles, but it is a $1074.00 ticket for the flights that I want.  Still a good value for the miles.
> Thanks for all the advice....



Once you lock in your dates, be sure to check Hotwire for a quote for that SUV, and do some Priceline bidding.  If you know how to use those services, there's a good chance you can drop that rental price by 1/3 to 1/2.  To learn how to use those services, go to www.biddingfortravel.com and www.betterbidding.com


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## Bill4728 (Apr 24, 2007)

During the dead of winter, having a four wheel drive in Whistler can be a good idea. But most of the time, whistler village doesn't have a lot of winter driving problems. The village is at only 2500 ft and didn't have even a trace of snow in the village this past weekend. Still at the top of the mountain( >6500 ft), the skiing was great even on April 21st.


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## T_R_Oglodyte (Apr 24, 2007)

Bill4728 said:


> During the dead of winter, having a four wheel drive in Whistler can be a good idea. But most of the time, whistler village doesn't have a lot of winter driving problems. The village is at only 2500 ft and didn't have even a trace of snow in the village this past weekend. Still at the top of the mountain( >6500 ft), the skiing was great even on April 21st.



Much of the time in late March and April, rain in the village means blizzard on the mountain.  I ski Whistler every year the first week of April, and as long as we stay high on the mountain conditions are usually very good - and often outstanding.

This year was the first year in a long when the lower parts of the mountains (between the village and the mid-stations) was good enough to warrant skiing out at the end of the day.  The Peak-to-Creek run was much better than the trails to the Main Village - I didn't try Lower Dave Murray so I don't know what kind of shape that route to Creekside was in.

*****

Also, this year there was enough fresh snow in early April to provide good skiing in the Seventh Heaven area.  Even in the middle of winter, Seventh Heaven is often icy and thin, because that face is so exposed.  This year I spent more time on the Seventh Heaven lift than I ever have in any previous visits - spent less time on Glacier Express and more on Seventh Heaven.

The new Piccolo high-speed quad is great, mostly because it reduces skiing pressure in Harmony Bowl.  Harmony Bowl is probably my single favorite area on either of the mountains.


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