Travel
Is Vail Resorts Killing Whistler’s Spirit?
When Vail bought Canada’s famed Whistler Blackcomb ski mountain, locals were nervous. Now, after a record season of visitors, they’re enraged.
The takeover of Canada’s most iconic ski resort by an American corporation was never going to go smoothly. But Vail Resorts Inc.’s $1 billion acquisition of Whistler Blackcomb has Canadians seething.
The new owner’s offenses include the adoption of an on-mountain app that features Fahrenheit and inches, rather than Celsius and centimeters, and a season-pass pricing system that benefits globetrotting jet-setters at the expense of locals. Then there’s general discontent over the assimilation of a quirky, homegrown success story by an American corporate behemoth.