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Christmas comes late to Whistler

Rain plagued some businesses while others thrived

It was the best of times and it was the worst of times for Whistler over the Christmas holidays.

It rained to the top of the mountains on Christmas Eve and it snowed every day afterwards for a total of 111 centimetres of fresh powder at the Whistler-Blackcomb weather station in just seven days.

For some, the weather decimated Christmas business, forcing them to close. For others business was booming.

"It was the best start of the season we’ve ever had," said Laura Goodwin, marketing co-ordinator for Canadian Snowmobile Adventures.

For a period of time CSA was the only snowmobile company able to operate because of its exclusive contract with Whistler-Blackcomb to use the terrain high on Blackcomb Mountain for some of its tours.

"Honestly, because we were the only company open, we were sold out," said Goodwin.

Likewise for companies such as Powder Mountain Snowcats, who could take their guests into the alpine, business was good.

Owner/operator Alberto Corso explained that his commercial tenure area is located between 4,500 and 7,500 feet. Even though it was raining in the valley, he said it was a "winter wonderland" at the top where kids could build snowmen and ride on their mini-luge.

"Because it was raining in the lower elevations and we could get families to high elevations and they could play in the snow… that picked up because there was really nothing for families to do (in the valley)," said Corso.

But while they were busy he said he noticed the phones weren’t ringing quite as much as they used to. And he worries.

He worries that the snowline may rise and affect the snow at even the higher elevations, which could impact his product.

"If it starts raining at a higher level, I’m going to be in trouble so the line it’s at right now is basically the highest it can go," said Corso.

"I’m not complaining but at the same time it’s not like the good old winters."

Companies operating in the valley were hard pressed to keep operations open, as the rain kept falling to the valley floor.

According to Environment Canada warning preparedness meteorologist Darlene Langlois, Whistler’s precipitation was on par for this time of year but the average temperatures were almost one degree above normal at 0.6 degrees instead of minus 0.3 degrees.

"When you’re right on the freezing point like that it can make a big difference whether it comes down as rain or snow," said Langlois. "In this case it came down mainly as rain."

To make matters worse, the bulk of the rain fell over the holidays from Dec. 19 onwards.

That day Kim Wilson, owner/operator of Blackcomb Snowmobile, said they had to make the decision to close. The company runs tours out of the Callaghan Valley and the Brandywine area.

They remained closed for 10 days. And while rain has forced them to close in years past, it’s never been over the busy Christmas holidays.

"We’ve never been closed for Christmas, ever," said Wilson.

That’s one of the most important times for resort operators she added.

"It’s sort of your first kick off," said Wilson. "Everybody’s getting started and you really need that revenue coming in at Christmas time to get everything going."

It was the same at the other end of the valley for Cougar Mountain. The rains forced the closure of their snowmobile tours, although the dog sledding tours remained open a little longer until they were forced to stop too.

"Closer to Christmas we weren’t running anything at all," said owner/operator Kevin Brownlee. "We weren’t even running dog sledding which we typically can with just a little bit of snow, but it was raining so much it melted everything."

Fortunately by Dec. 28 to 29 both companies were able to open again.

"It’s just so busy at Christmas that it’s a good chunk of your business but really it was super busy starting at around the 28 th , so we definitely made up those numbers," said Wilson.

Her concern, however, like many others in the resort, is the hangover effect the weather could have on future business.

Scott Carrell, owner/operator of Affinity Sports, said he spent the Christmas holidays with his head down busy fitting ski rental boots. While he believes his businesses did alright given the challenging circumstances, he said the conditions could impact guest visits next winter.

"I think it will potentially affect next Christmas bookings if we’re not aggressive for next fall," said Carrell, "If we have a good strategy as a resort I think we’ll be fine."

One strategy used this season accounts for the increase in visitor traffic over the last two weeks, according to Stuart Rempel senior vice president of marketing & sales with Whistler-Blackcomb.

The company, along with Tourism Whistler and the Resort Municipality of Whistler, invested $1.5 million in incremental funds this season – money they hadn’t intended to spend originally. The money went to promotions, particularly to driving home the message that Whistler is good value for money, with offers of $99 room nights in the lead up to Christmas.

"We got out there and made the offers known and combined with an improved snow situation starting on the 26 th, it really drove the results," said Rempel.

"We believe it was a necessary investment and it worked."

So while Christmas Eve and Christmas Day saw challenging snow conditions on the mountains, the following week was a complete turnaround.

Whistler-Blackcomb does not release its numbers of skier visits but Rempel did say that for a week beginning on Tuesday, Dec. 27, Whistler-Blackcomb recovered significantly, helped along by a tremendous effort from the marketing team to get the message that the snow was dumping on the mountains.

"We ended up having a week that was slightly off of last year, which was a record Christmas week for us, so we were very close to last year’s numbers on the mountain," he said.

Rempel added the company exceeded its budget almost every day that week and Monday, Jan. 2 was a "home run."

The Lower Mainland, said Rempel, is well aware the snow has been falling at Whistler-Blackcomb.

The Creekside parking lot was full to capacity on Jan. 2, a statutory holiday.

"The regional market turned out," he said.

Tourism Whistler President Barrett Fisher said the resort room night numbers for the two week Christmas period are not available yet but anecdotally at this point she is confident that the numbers will be close to last Christmas, the second best Christmas on record.

"The results of those two weeks are definitely going to come in strong and we’re pleased that we saw the pick up that we did," said Fisher.

The family offerings in the resort, from the new tubing park to the host of activities at the Telus Conference Centre and MY Millennium Place, also went a long way in creating good experiences for the guests when the weather was bad, Fisher said.

Tourism Whistler and Whistler-Blackcomb and the resort in general have been working to improve family activities for guests.

"That is a real feather in our cap as a resort," she said.

Fisher is confident that the Christmas rains won’t have a lasting effect on people’s memories.

"My sense of it is that as long we continue to see the kind of snowfall that we’re seeing… I think that’s where we’ll net out in a positive way," she said. "If we continue to see the strong winter season that we’re anticipating, that we will be absolutely in very good shape for next year."