The largest ski resort in North America is closing for at least three weeks effective midnight tonight. The pause comes as part of a provincial effort to slow the spread of Covid-19 through new restrictions on business and travel. Gyms, indoor dining, and houses of worship are also closing by order of the BC government. Whistler Blackcomb was specifically identified to “address and prevent community spread related to non-essential travel,” according to a news release. Other British Columbia ski resorts are currently allowed to remain open.
“Covid-19 continues to create challenges for people and businesses throughout B.C., and we are grateful for the sacrifices people continue to make to keep one another safe,” said British Columbia Premier John Horgan. “We know that the idea of more restrictions is not welcome news, but we are asking people to rise to the challenge with the confidence that vaccines mean better days are ahead. We are not out of the woods yet, but the provincial health officer’s orders, combined with our vaccines, give us the tools we need to move out of this pandemic together.”
Whistler Blackcomb parent company Vail Resorts recently announced 28.4 percent decline in net income due to effects of the pandemic. Whistler Blackcomb was disproportionately impacted due to the Canadian border remaining closed. Destination visits declined to 15 percent of Whistler Blackcomb visitation this season compared to 48 percent in the same period the prior year. Skier visits across all North American Vail Resorts declined 8.2 percent for the season as of March 7th.
The Whistler Blackcomb closure order is scheduled to last through April 19th, 2021. Whistler Mountain had been scheduled to close April 18th with Blackcomb Mountain planned to remain open until May 24th.
On Monday evening Whistler Blackcomb Chief Operating Officer Geoff Buchheister issued the following statement:
“Throughout the season, Whistler Blackcomb has prioritized the health and safety of our guests and employees. Monday’s order from the Province of British Columbia to close Whistler Blackcomb came as a surprise and we respect the decision and are taking immediate steps to comply. We would like to thank all of our guests and employees for their willingness to adapt to our COVID safety protocols and will update the website with more information on the future of the 2020-21 season.”
By Tuesday, resort officials decided to close both mountains for the season and turn their attention to summer.
Lift Blog 
This seems unfair that only Whistler Blackcomb is required to close. I know the legal situation is different in Canada, but there would absolutely be a lawsuit for this in the United States.
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Maybe the spike in covid cases stems from that particular ski resort
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Indeed it is absurd that Sun Peaks is allowed to go about operations but Whistler is being forced to shut down. Vail Resorts should in fact sue the B.C. government for being discriminated against.
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Well come on read the news the more deadly variant has spread in Whistler. Sun Peaks is more isolated and has not had this level of outbreak! It isn’t favouritism just pragmatic Sun Peaks is due to close after next Monday as it is!
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So what’s going to stop potential Covid variant spreaders who either don’t know about it or don’t care about it from going to other resorts and spreading it there? You really can’t quarantine a whole town and even if you did, look what happened at Wuhan in early 2020. Covid still got out and will continue to until people can accept that Covid is real and that there are protocols for a reason.
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Just shut down hotels, bars and liquors stores BUT keep the mountain open
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Vail resorts are the real criminals. They deserve what they get
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Vail Resorts could have been a little better about enforcing the protocols, but I don’t think they really should get that much blame. They said that they would limit the number of people on the mountains. With Whistler and Blackcomb branded as one resort, you really can’t control where people go. At least at Park City, the Canyons lot would be full, but everyone would take the shuttle to Park City because it was better skiing than at Canyons. You really can’t account for that. It also doesn’t help that Vail has a lot more high profile resorts that are larger in size, but not in terrain quality.
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Great, then bc residents have to pay a us company for a sore dick legislation. Fuck vale, let’s bc company’s benefit. I think it’s more economical.
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Was Whistler doing a particularly poor job in enforcing masks & social distancing? Or were there outbreaks specifically linked to Whistler? I could see those as reasoning.
Or maybe is the idea that Whistler is such a draw for out-of-province visits (relative to other BC resorts) that closing it will have a larger effect than closing Sun Peaks, Revelstoke, etc. Because I could buy that too, even though it does seem unfair.
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I have been to whistler 2 times 2 weeks this past month and a half so my daughter could train there. We bubbled with the appropriate amount of groceries, and did not go out to potential catch covid. While the staff was doing a fabulous job, most people visiting are horrible with masking.
In the village itself I have Lots of what I call Covid-idiots. I have large parties with 20’somethings and entitled snobs who refuse to mask in the village centre. One incident involved 10 friends visiting for one of the kids B-day who’s Mommy owned the condo. He even told the RCMP that him and his “friends” were not being loud, but the RCMP don’t even break-up the parties or hand out fines for having large I door gatherings.
While it is a shame that non-Whistler residents are ruining it for the others, but lack of policing and entitled snobs have ruined it for everyone.
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I was fortunate enough to just spend the last two weekends in Whistler with my family. In the lift lines there is absolutely 100% enforcement of masks. You can only ride a chairlift or a gondola with your own family group. Entering any store, or hotel hand sanitizer sanitization and mask wearing is an absolute must. I brought my own food to the apartment with me and didn’t leave the resort other than to go skiing so it absolutely perplexes me how this can be considered any more risky then heading up to Cypress Mountain or going to my local supermarket. It’s absolutely absurd to think that this Saturday I will be able to drive to Cypress Mountain stand for 30 minutes in a lineup to ski a three minute run and repeat the 30 minutes lineup. And yet I can’t go back to Whistler. How the health authority cannot differentiate between people skiing on the mountain with masks and young people living and working and going to parties in Whistler I cannot fathom
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It really isn’t that complicated. The majority of people don’t care about taking any sorts of precautions. What you’re doing is fine, it’s the others that are ruining it for people like you.
News flash: the majority of people are assholes
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What is a shame, are the non-evidence based opinions of the people making comments here, and the communistic government, that continues to get paid regardless of them destroying free enterprise.
Furthermore, people assuming that customers bad behavior caused the covid spread is outrageous. Where is the evidence? Where is the data? Covid is unstoppable, the only thing that people can do is boost their immune system and when they eventually get the infection their body will fight it off naturally, helping to create herd immunity.
The frail, immune compromised, obese, diabetic should stay home and work on their health or get the vaccine and stay under their rock. Everyone else should go about their life as normal, such as in Florida, Denmark, etc
Covid is seasonal and infection spread is based upon latitude and time of year, with the deadliest times in Canada in December and january.
Infections and deaths are dropping rapidly and will continue to do so all the way through August, regardless of any government lockdown, regardless of masking etc. Those medieval interventions don’t make a difference.
The virus will activate heading into the fall and deactivate as spring approaches, just like the flu has for thousands of years.
Go look at the daily death rate charts of the deaths in Canada; there’s your evidence.
This ski resort is highly unlikely to have spread it and was just targeted based upon arbitrary thinking of completely ignorant government. Canadian citizens should be outraged and demand more. The resort should sue.
Notice how when there’s an infection spread the government blames the people, but when infections go down and things improve then it’s the government’s actions that improved things? Isn’t that convenient? Always blame the people.
It’s it’s an assumption without evidence, a tyrannical lie.
You can’t outsmart the virus.
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Eugenics, ableism and fatphobia, in my conspiracy theory comments??? It’s more likely than you might think.
The fact that some countries (Australia, NZ, Singapore, Vietnam) have been able to significantly control the spread of the virus and have a lower rate of death per capita is all the evidence we need that government intervention does work, and that the US and UK have catastrophically failed in their duties to their citizens.
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You cherry-picked places that are either near the equator (virus does not activate them same way at all latitudes), or have much better metabolic health than most of the world. Some small islands shut their borders early (NZ, Taiwan)… that is the ONLY gov intervention that may have delayed – not stopped – the viral spread there… but the horse is already our of the barn on the large continents. Taiwan kept schools open the entire time… no issues.
You could learn a lot from the Fat Emperor.
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@Jason
Obviously you are an idiot. Nothing of what you said is even remotely factual, or based on any true evidence.
In addition individuals here have already explained that it was due to community spread, and no one is blaming the resort. But people flock to Whistler in part (large part) to ride the mountain.
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Yes that’s the it was in Whitefish Montana when my daughter and I took train there a month ago. We got a sleeper on train to be safe, but when we got to lodge half the guests walked around without masks. Same with people on free ski bus to Mountain and in town. Very stressful and we won’t do that again.
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As someone who skis whistler blackcomb everyday I’d say they actully did a really good job. They had paid people walking in lift lines to ensure masks were up. They also had cones in the lines in the gondy where you were unforced to stand other wise they’d tell you to stand next to the cones. The restrains we’re really well handled too. I’m really sad but hopefully they open in April.
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Is the entire village, stores and restaurants closed or is it just the ski slopes? Can people still go relax in a whistler rental and grab something to eat, or is that not possible either?
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in addition to Whistler Blackomb’s closure, as part of the Province wide new order, all bars and restaurants are now closed to indoor dining and alcohol service until April 19. Only outdoor patio service will be available. Apparently there has been a high number of the highly infections Brazilian variant (that makes younger people really sick) in Whistler and contact tracing is showing that other areas of spread have originated there. Our Provincial leadership has done an awesome job of trying to manage spread and recent dramatic spikes in cases has called for this quick action. We are hopefully very close to ending this with the vaccines, and we are all very tired of the restrictions but the more we pull together the more quickly our lives return to pre-pandemic normal!
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Damian, good point. Your question really shines a light on the effectiveness of this policy. Is it data driven and will it make a difference if the ski hill is closed? Yes, you can still drive up to Whistler, stay in a hotel or your own cabin, and have dinner outside on a patio – maskless. Apparently THAT is ok, but if you were to put on your skis and a mask, stand two metres from the next person and ski, oh no, THAT would increase the spread of covid….
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There is an outbreak in the How Sound health authority area, where Whistler is located. Here is the most recent map:
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Another large BC resort confirmed it has not been ordered to close.
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There are a lot of Americans who read this blog who might think this is extreme, based on their own experience of the pandemic at this moment.
The situation is not the same in B.C. There were 936 cases reported there in the 24 hours ending Saturday––more than at any point in the pandemic so far. The seven-day running average of new cases has jumped from 600 to 800 in just a week. And just 6% of B.C.’s population has been fully-vaccinated, so the vaccine isn’t as much of a barrier to community spread as it is in the States.
As toward closing a ski resort, it has less to do with the skiing than it does with everything that surrounds it––après, dining, lodging, and the like. Whistler is maybe the biggest tourist / travel destination in B.C., outside of Vancouver proper. We’ve seen these settings be vectors for viral spread time and time again over the past year. Add in health system capacity and the closure starts to make more sense.
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To be fair, the US has in many ways just decided to treat the Pandemic as normal and accept the concomitant deaths. Many US states with ski areas had days with far higher rates per capita that what BC has right now, but they decided to sacrifice people at the altar of ‘the economy.’
(sorry, I’m feeling a little bitter right now. Lots of suffering in the world…)
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the economy is a good precedent but there are solutions to prevent the spread that don’t harm the economy as much. Masks and social distancing don’t harm it, closures do. Wear a mask and stuff doesn’t close.
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Definitely not trying to turn a blog on ski lifts into a political debate, but the most extreme solution isn’t always the best one. If people follow resort Covid protocols, stay home when they don’t feel well, and refrain from apres-ski activities (particularly indoor ones), a ski season can work, as the sport itself is an inherently safe one. Someone who shows up, wears their mask in the liftlines and the lodge, heads home/to a hotel after skiing isn’t the problem, it’s the people who act like dunces and openly violate resort policy, and also the fault of the resorts who do nothing to stop, or even foster this behavior. Doing a blanket closure of resorts does tremendous damage to local economies that rely on skier tourism to help fill the rooms at their hotels, tables at their restaurants and provide people with jobs at resorts. Vermont didn’t do a blanket closure, but even their minor and largely unenforced restrictions concerning inter-state travel caused somewhat of a decline in tourism, I’m not sure of the actual numbers but it must have taken a notable toll as Vermont is now trying to impose restrictions on short-term rentals (AirBNB, etc) to help resuscitate their hotels. I have to imagine that doing what BC did to Whistler to Vermont’s areas would lead to a pretty nasty economic decline
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30 % of vermonts skiers come from Canada , borders closed so was quieter
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Oh absolutely Skiing can be safe. I actually work at a Vail Resort, and most of us are doing all we can, all things considered. It’s good that I can ask guests to put up their masks with the full weight of a multinational corporation behind me, and Sr. Management is out in some of our busiest lines every day asking people to mask up. I don’t doubt Whistler itself was doing an excellent job. The issue is that it’s very tough to stop all the stuff around it from causing problems.
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I have skied Stevens Pass Resort which is owned and operated by Vail here in Washington State 11 times this season. There are strict protocols here which most people adhere to. I’ve seen 1 person being an asshole refusing to wear a mask and the employees pulled him out of the lift line and dealt with him respectfully while keeping the lift moving. I’m almost 60 with no vaccine and feel comfortable going skiing. I use the bathrooms but that’s about it and keep my face covered. There is zero evidence skiing and snowboarding is contributing to covid spread here in Washington
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I’ve been skiing in Eastern Washington and Northern Idaho after moving to Spokane last year. These resorts are certainly less crowded than Stevens Pass, so I say with ABSOLUTE CONFIDENCE, that I agree with you and skiing has had absolutely no contribution to Covid-19 here. Heck, even before Covid-19, I always wore a mask and goggles (preventing sunburn, wind burn and chapped lips), and brought food to eat in either a backpack or my car, since I’m cheap! Same with my friends.
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To me this seems ridiculous. VR WB have been doing an excellent job at maintaining and enforcing COVID protocol, the wearing of masks, observing safe distancing rules and yet the BC Govt has ordered it to shut down. While Costco where the crowds are dangerous and the norm is to flout any and all rules of distancing and health protocols is allowed to remain open. Is it because Costco offers no contact tracing?
This enforced shut down does not make sense to me as Dr. Henry has been advocating for relaxing the rules on one hand and curtail healthy out door exercise on the other. Shut the bars if she must but keep the ski mountains open so the people of BC can exercise in the fresh mountain air.
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There’s a huge cluster right now linked to WB. Clearly WB isn’t doing good enough.
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That’s not true at all. They did such a great job.
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Multiple articles point to a cluster linked to WB
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@Logan Clarke
Nope you are wrong. The town of Whistler Village was doing a horrible job, RCMP was not enforcing rules either. Seeing groups of seven or eight young adults going out, no masks, all staying in one apartment, partying, when gathering outside of your household was forbidden. Whis is a party town and always will be. When ⅓ or so of the pedestrians in the village refusing to wear a mask and masking in the village is mandatory, the town is not doing it’s job. When I arrived to find in restaurant dinning I was mortified, this is always the precursor to community spreading when the community is not vaccinated.
WB ski hill was doing their best, no questions asked.
@ NE_Skier:
unfortunately blanket restrictions is the only way to stop those who ruin it for the others. Unfortunate that idiots cannot get out of their own path ofd destruction which ruins the fun for so many others. I lost my payment on my Air BnB, and my daughter lost her ability to get ready for qualifying for 2022 games, so trust me I am pissed too.
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Like most government policies, this is arbitrary, and makes no sense. The British Columbia government just needs to LOOK like they’re doing “something”.
It’s the politicians fallacy: 1. Something has to be done. 2. This is “something”. 3. Therefore it must be done.
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You summed it up perfectly
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I really wish there were some politically feasible way to allow skiing (which seems pretty safe on its own) while preventing all the dangerous things that seem to happen around it (apres, bar visits, unsafe long distance travel). I know skiing has significantly improved my quality of life this season, but I’ve certainly felt the negative effects of the Texans, Floridians and Georgians traveling to my mountain community without taking the necessary precautions. This is in spite of most on-mountain employees (myself included) working extremely hard to enforce masking protocol. There’s only so much we can do, y’know? Here’s hoping vaccine distribution continues to tick up, and next season isn’t quite ‘like no other.’
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In California everyone over 16 gets the vaccine after the 13 of April.
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Rest of the US isn’t far behind either; here in CO we’re going to move into the general vaccination stage pretty soon too. Hopefully people actually get the vaccines when they are eligible so that we don’t have to be worrying much about covid by the time skiing ramps up next November.
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I have removed a number of comments from this thread relating to masks and vaccines. I welcome spirited discussion on my website but I will not allow it to be used to spread misinformation on these topics.
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Thank you very much. I am not tired of Covid. I am tired of people who promote fake information & are not following simple rules that even kindergarten children can.
FYI
“a mask during high-risk exposures experienced a greater than 70% reduced risk of acquiring infection compared with persons who did not wear masks under these circumstances.”
Doung-Ngern P, Suphanchaimat R, Panjangampatthana A, et al. Case-Control Study of Use of Personal Protective Measures and Risk for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Infection, Thailand. Emerg Infect Dis. 2020;26(11).10.3201/eid2611.203003. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32931726
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We respect that. With that being said. There still may be some interesting times ahead for the ski/travel industry. Next point of interest will be the upcoming ski season in Australia, New Zealand and South America.
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What I don’t understand is why closing one resort is the answer. What’s going to stop tourists from going somewhere else in BC? It’s 2020 all over again. One big resort closes, everyone goes to the medium sized ski areas. Those areas can’t handle it, so they close leaving tourists going to small local ski areas. Point being that if you’re going to close one, close them all.
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There’s absolutely no mystery here as to why Whistle is shut down again. First of all we have a mayor that took months and months and months to adopt even mask wearing. We have an operator of six clubs/restaurants/bars that constantly and always have flounced the authorities. They make almost 0 effort at mitigating/educating/reducing the chance of spread. They have consistently partied every day like it was New Year’s. In addition, there are 130 other places offering food and/or booze, all trying to make a living. And the craziest part is there has been absolutely no pushback or resistance to welcome and fly in everyone in Canada east of Whistler to come and enjoy themselves “responsibly“. Perfect timing for Fail Resorts/WhistlerBlackcomb to shut down, they made their money now. After April 1 has always been a gift not a money maker. We locals are holdin the bag again after all the partiers have left their trash and town……..
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Will travel from the USA be allowed for July 4? What’s going on with Canada’s vaccinations?
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Here’s a related tid bit. I live in East-Central Canada, Ontario. My wife and I chose to heed the call of provincial governments and health authorities to refrain from all but essential travel (for he well-being of all). Accordingly, we did not activate the Epic passes we had pre-purchased in late summer. All travel related businesses refunded our money or deferred our reservation, except VR WB. What’s more, VR ducks the matter insisting that I deal with their insurance provider yet deals direct when collecting early payment. So, on one hand, they won’t refund a pass that, because of the pandemic, was never used while, with the other hand, advertise a 20% Discount to all taker for next years passes. Hmm.
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It varies from place to place where people wear masks at ski resorts. Here in the Midwest, in my experience most people follow the mask rules and there are sometimes people enforcing it. In Colorado in my experience it varies where you go. For example, when I went to Snowmass there was a lot of workers enforcing masks while when I went to steamboat they didn’t enforce it to a degree that Snowmass did. Normally around base areas and more congested areas you will see more people enforcing masks which makes perfect sense. That is the most needed place they need to do so. Go to more remote lifts like Morningside at steamboat they won’t enforce it as well there. It’s really where the resort chooses to enforce and how they enforce it. I think that base villages are still the main problem though in spreading COVID at resorts and it does not really get spread on lifts and even on gondolas too.
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The resorts themselves are only part of the issue too; what people do before and after skiing as well as how they get to the resort plays a big part. Eldora resort is doing a fair job enforcing masks in my opinion but the one time I tried riding the RTD ski bus up there the driver didn’t enforce it at all so a bunch of people on the bus took off their masks. It doesn’t matter how well people wear masks at the resort of those people take them off in a crowded bus with dozens of people, go out to eat/drink in close proximity without masks, party, etc
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Alright folks- Let’s get a few things straight.
First of all, the WB general area has seen a spike in COVID cases.
Second- The WB area is very popular and pulls in a lot of people for skiing and other activities.
Third- As many have mentioned, there are too many who are not adhering to the mask mandates and the authorities have to take this into consideration as well. This is an issue at ALL of the ski hills out there, not just WB. Trying to enforce the mask mandate.. well not enough people available to enforce it and too many inconsiderate idiots who simply put their mask back down after passing the enforcement zone.
Fourth- There has been a spike in COVID cases and hospitalizations in the recent weeks, especially in areas like New York, Florida, and California, where a false sense of security has been established because of the warmer weather, more vaccines, as well as pure stupidity from the younger generation out celebrating spring break. We will see increases all over the place.
Taking these things into account, along with the fact that many areas where the ski hills are located don’t have extensive hospital facilities to be able to treat large amounts of people, it is inevitable that shut downs like this are going to take place.
Cry, complain, demand, threaten all you want, in the end- it is wasted energy. There is no way to satisfy everyone. They are simply doing what they feel is best based upon the data they have available to them. If you don’t like the job they are doing then go run for that office and make different decisions.
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After this pandemic is behind us we will have the ability to look back on decisions made in the moment and judge if they were effective or not. Science shows outdoor activities to be the safest around. It’s spring time and much easier to outdoor grab and go food. Shut down indoor dining and bars. Let people have some ability to enjoy their time. Canada may be facing a mental health problem more severe than the US with how abrasive their restrictions are.
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I just finished a big circular ski trip taking in Tahoe, sun valley, Jackson hole and big sky and there were some noticeable differences in compliance with mask rules. Tahoe was the best which is consistent with what I’ve seen elsewhere in California. In SFO, people wear masks even when outside in a park. Big sky was the worst. Lots of maskless people on the hill. I even rode up with a resort employee who had contracted COVID 3 weeks earlier and was maskless on a chairlift. She explained her actions by saying that masks were useless and that she didn’t believe in vaccines. Other than the careless people, Big Sky was awesome.
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In my experience, the number of people wearing masks changed over the season. I live in California and in the beginning, the number of people wearing masks changed. In the beginning, everyone was wearing them no matter where they were but as the season moved on fewer and fewer people were. I think it has a lot to do with misinformation.
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Both mountains are closed for the season.
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