A long-standing ticketing agreement between Whistler Olympic Park (WOP) and evo / The Callaghan for trail access has come to an end, with both organizations establishing separate ticketing for their respective trails in the Callaghan Valley for the coming winter season.
In an email to customers on Sept. 12, Whistler Olympic Park alerted passholders to the end of the agreement.
“As a result, each venue will now operate a distinct network of trails and services,” reads the email.
Previously, a season pass to Whistler Olympic Park granted access to evo / The Callaghan’s extensive trail network, just next door. Revenues were then shared between the two operations.
Speaking to Pique, president and CEO of Whistler Sport Legacies, which operates WOP, Roger Soane, explained it came down to a disagreement between the two parties, which he said had an agreement to allow access to trails that was renewed every year.
“This year we were negotiating, and we had thought we had an agreement, but at the end of the day it wasn’t agreed in writing, and so we’ve said let’s go our separate ways," he said. "We haven’t been able to come to an agreement for the coming season.”
Soane said it was an annually renewed agreement since evo / The Callaghan came under the ownership of evo back in 2021, explaining previous agreements hadn’t transferred over to the new ownership.
Asked whether there would be efforts to renew the arrangement, Soane said anything was possible, but added they are two different companies with different business outlooks.
“Whistler Sport Legacies is a non-profit sport organization, Evo is a for-profit organization, so there are going to be differences in how we look at things and how we run our businesses," he said. "I respect their vision for what they want to do and vice versa I’m sure. There’s no bad blood between the two of us, we will still be very neighbourly and we will work together for the good of the Callaghan Valley, it’s just that we are two separate business organizations.”
Founder and CEO of evo, Bryce Phillips, said in an email to Pique he hoped evo / The Callaghan and WOP would be able to re-establish the agreement.
“Most importantly, I wanted to share that we want nothing more than there to be one, cohesive experience for Nordic skiers as there has been for many years,” he said.
“Many of our friends and families are amongst those that have loved the experience across the entire offering, and it is our desire that the experience remains intact.
“With regards to the relationship with the Whistler Olympic Park, our hope is that we can carry on with the agreement that’s been established in years past.”
According to Phillips, the door is still open to achieve that for the 2024-25 year.
“We hope that there’s progress over the weeks ahead and are committed to doing everything within our power to delivering on what I’ve shared above.”
Until then, trail users wanting access to either will have to secure tickets to the respective network. Up until recently, tickets were sold with the understanding they would grant access to both networks.
With the agreement lapsed for now, passholders who secured tickets for the 2024-25 season prior to the news breaking will have to buy separate tickets to access the Callaghan trails if that’s what they were planning to do. Passholders who bought tickets to WOP expecting access to the Callaghan will be able to apply for a refund, if the change isn’t acceptable to them.
A season pass to WOP costs $399 for an adult ticket between now and Nov. 3 under early bird pricing, while the same ticket costs $499 from Nov. 4 onwards.
Evo / The Callaghan, for its part, will start charging for a season pass to access its trails as well, with early bird rates from now to Nov. 3 at $99 for an adult, and $129 from then on.
While the changes may have just occurred, both WOP and evo / The Callaghan websites have been updated to articulate that tickets for one do not grant access to the other.
Rates charged to access the WOP trail network will not change despite the end of the agreement, said Soane.
“We offer a great product—55 kilometres of groomed trails. Our goal and our mandate is to grow sport and to support the people who use our facilities and I think we offer a great value, so no we will not be changing our prices,” he said.
The combined WOP and evo / The Callaghan network consists of 112km of trails.
