Source: Bloomberg Businessweek, Natalie Obiko Pearson, 6 October 2017
How can Vail Resorts improve upon Whistler? Unsurprisingly, it has loads of ideas.
Last fall, in a record-setting deal, Vail Resorts Inc. paid $1 billion to acquire Whistler Blackcomb, betting it could improve upon the resort’s already abundant selling points.
“It’s a game changer for our company. We’ve just added, arguably, the crown jewel of the ski industry,” says Pete Sonntag, Whistler’s new chief operating officer, who previously ran Vail’s Lake Tahoe operations.
Whistler’s slopes are only two hours from Vancouver along a dramatic ocean-side road that cuts through rainforests and past waterfalls. The twin peaks of Whistler and Blackcomb would individually rank among the continent’s biggest ski resorts by acreage, yet they’re seamlessly connected by a gondola—the world’s highest—that whisks visitors across a glacial valley in 11 exhilarating minutes. And powder is plentiful. The mountains get an average of 456 inches of snow a year, compared with Aspen’s 300.