History

The first inhabitants of this area were the Coast Salish First Nations people. They lived a nomadic lifestyle with the Lil’wat Nation to the north (where Pemberton is today) and the Squamish Nation who occupied the area between northern Vancouver and Squamish. In 2008, the Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre opened in Whistler. It is located near the base of Blackcomb mountain and is a vast source of information regarding the First Nation inhabitants of the region.

The original ‘Whistler Village’ grew in the early 1960′s and was located in the area known today as ‘Creekside’. Once the ski lifts opened Whistler exploded, with many new homes being built in the area, with no regulations, no building codes, no police and no planning. In 1974 the provincial government had to intervene and stop the developments to maintain some order. So in 1975 the Resort Municipality of Whistler was born and in 1977 the municipality was given some Crown land in order to build a new town center. The current village was designed by Eldon Beck with the visitor in mind, and construction began in 1978. Eldon wanted to create a village that took advantage of the beautiful natural surroundings, so he designed a pedestrian only town with twists and turns to maximize the views. Whistler is truly a remarkable town, in that once you get here, you will most likely not use your car (if you brought one).

Whistler mountain was initially known as London mountain, and changed its name to Whistler in 1965 (complete name was Garibaldi Whistler Mountain) and opened for skiing in 1966. The name Whistler was first used by locals because of the shrill whistle sound made by the western hoary marmots who live among the rocks. It wasn’t until 1980 that Blackcomb mountain opened its lifts for the first time. In 1985 Blackcomb extended its terrain into the alpine to become the first true ‘vertical mile’ ski resort in North America. Intrawest Corporation combined both mountains, Whistler and Blackcomb into one entity in 1998. Since then, both mountain operations have continued to expand so today they boast a total of 8171 acres of terrain and 38 lifts. In 2008, the newest addition to the lift fleet, the Peak 2 Peak gondola was opened. It links the alpine areas of the two mountains together, spanning a distance of 4.4 klms.