What would you recommend for a newbie for a ski week in Whistler?

[Ski-Dad]

Just grabbed a week at WorldMark Cascade for mid-January next year. Meanwhile I'm turning up zilch with RCI and the extremely limited Raintree options are very expensive in my opinion (50k points which is ~$1,950 USD in MFs for 1BDR Lake Placid in Creekside). Better than hotels still, but I'd rather find something in Main Village or Upper Village with that price.

It's expensive because of the base cost of your RCI points. $1950 for 50K is very expensive. There are a few RCI points units out there with a low acquisition cost and MF per point ratio that are half what you are paying per RCI point (under 1 cent per point). Vacation Village at Grandview is an example. Their 49K, 98K, 61K and 122K units are the ones you want. The 49K and 98K units show up regularly on the TUG Free Timeshare listings.