Whistler Blackcomb is busier and more crowded than ever. It’s often impossible to find parking, and morning lift queues are massive every time it snows. I thought the new lifts were supposed to reduce lift queues—but the queues are bigger than ever! Are we experiencing “induced traffic” similar to what happens when lanes are added to highways, and the traffic jams just get larger?
Last June, Park City Mountain, a Vail Resorts property, tweeted “chairlift tourism, or the idea that modernizing lifts will draw more crowds, does not exist,” after the Park City Planning Commission revoked building permits for two new chairlifts after an appeal raised by residents who were concerned that the new lifts would exceed Park City’s “comfortable carrying capacity” and cause even bigger parking and crowding headaches. Those two lifts are now headed to Whistler to replace the Fitzsimmons and Jersey Cream chairs.
Vail has upgraded six lifts on our mountains so far, soon to be eight, but they haven’t added any new ski runs, parking lots, restaurants or bathrooms. Everything and everywhere is just more crowded. I’ve never skied down Upper Franz’s and thought, “I wish this run was 30-per-cent busier,” but that’s what happened with the new Big Red upgrade.
The Resort Municipality of Whistler’s (RMOW) parking bylaw states that “0.5 spaces per hourly rated capacity of all base lifts” of parking is required for ski lifts, and that the parking must “be located no further than 500 metres from the lift for which it is required.” How were the Blackcomb and Creekside gondolas upgraded without adding more parking stalls?*** By my math, we’re talking at least 1,000 parking stalls, and that’s before the new eight-seater Fitzsimmons Chair is built this summer! And as a reader pointed out in last week’s Pique, we can no longer park along the roadways, and a larger portion of Lots 5 and 6 have been set aside for staff parking, so there are even fewer parking spots for skiers now than in the recent past.
I’m also surprised that only two of the eight new lifts are included in the approved Whistler Blackcomb masterplan on the BC Government website—the upgraded Emerald and Catskinner lifts. The other six new lifts aren’t even on the plans—so how can the province or the RMOW determine if our mountains’ “comfortable carrying capacity” has been exceeded with all of these lift upgrades? I went internet sleuthing to learn how much more lift capacity Vail Resorts has added to the mountains, and it’s not easy to figure out—their press releases are usually only relative, such as “Creekside Gondola Capacity increased by 35%.”
Maybe Vail Resorts is right and the new lifts aren’t the reason why the mountains are so much busier—maybe cheap season passes, fat powder skis, and remote working are more to blame. Doesn’t really matter why, and just complaining about how busy it is now doesn’t do any good either—the hordes are here. It’s already past the time to make improvements to better manage the crowds, and adding parking spots would be a good place to start. Is it too much to ask that the RMOW enforces its own parking bylaw, and requires Vail Resorts to add parking in proportion to its increased base lift capacities?
While they’re at it, they could enact policies to encourage carpooling—maybe charge more for parking a single-occupancy vehicle. Build covered e-bike sheds and provide more seasonal lockers so locals can leave their cars at home. If building a parking lot within 500 metres of a lift isn’t possible, build intercept parking lots north and south of town with a shuttle bus system and make them the cheapest option.
And let’s see a balance of on-mountain development, including new lifts and ski runs to spread people out more, automated avalanche control so the alpine can be reliably opened earlier, and more on-mountain restaurants. Build a mountain hut out at Symphony, the Showcase Gondola and the chairlift between Emerald and Harmony, because just swapping out lifts for higher capacity ones hasn’t improved the guest experience as intended.
Graham Scott // Whistler
***[Editor’s note: Pique asked the RMOW for clarity on current parking requirements, and was still awaiting a response at press time. Also, Whistler Blackcomb’s Master Plan documents include a caveat around future lift upgrades, noting “the phasing of new lifts or lift upgrades may differ from that outlined in this report as Whistler Blackcomb reacts to changing market needs for additional terrain or additional lift capacity in certain areas.”]
