Saying Whistler is big does not really capture it. The two mountains together cover around 3300 hectares and 460 km of marked pistes, with 41 greens, 109 blues, 90 reds and 30 blacks. The Peak 2 Peak Gondola stitches them in eleven minutes across the valley, glass-floor cabins included. You can ski groomed motorways on Blackcomb's Solar Coaster ridge, drop into the Spanky's Ladder backcountry chutes, then finish with sun-warmed turns on the Horstman Glacier well into May. Beginners get gentle wide carpets at Olympic Plaza, intermediates own the place, experts have alpine bowls and steep tree skiing for entire seasons. Down at the base, Whistler Village is fully pedestrian, an Intrawest creation with restaurants, hot tubs, breweries and live music every night. The Pacific maritime climate brings heavy, abundant snow, occasionally rain-on-snow lower down, dependable cover up high. Vancouver airport sits ninety minutes south on the Sea-to-Sky Highway, making this resort the easiest world-class destination on the West Coast.