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Whistler garners world-wide accolades

Whistler, you humble old soul, stand up and take a bow. You’ve blown the competition right out of the frozen water with this year’s list of accolades.

Whistler, you humble old soul, stand up and take a bow. You’ve blown the competition right out of the frozen water with this year’s list of accolades.

Around the world, countless ski, snowboard and other leading publications are rating Whistler the top ski resort in North America.

The awards come from a wide range of audiences. From big mountain freeskiers and snowboarders, to ski vacation connoisseurs and discerning business delegates, it seems everybody loves Whistler.

For the fifth year in a row, Skiing Magazine (November) named Whistler-Blackcomb the number one ski area in North America in its annual editor survey. TransWorld Snowboarding (November) and Freeskier (December) magazines also awarded number one overall rankings, while readers of SKI magazine (October) voted Whistler as their number one dream vacation. In its "Insider's Guide to the Best Stuff Outside" Sports Illustrated Women (December/January) selected Whistler as the winner in the Best of Snow — Skiing category.

In overseas accolades, the U.K's Good Skiing & Snowboarding Guide (September) ranked Whistler number one, and the Daily Telegraph (October) rated Whistler second in the world to Zermatt, Switzerland in its Best Ski Resorts survey. The Daily Telegraph wrote: "Canada's premier resort is rightly acknowledged as the current snow capital of the world." Whistler was also awarded its first conference destination awards (September) in Successful Meetings Magazine (August), and Incentive Magazine.

Whether for the big mountains or big snow, the best of on and off mountain services, accommodations, and dining, or simply the exciting mountain culture, Whistler has consistently come up as a favourite in editor and reader surveys.

Skiing magazine listed some of the reasons for Whistler's popularity: "Whistler-Blackcomb has the biggest vertical, largest skiable area, the best backcountry, and the most lifts and runs and the village is the archetypical post-millennial snow centre."

Whistler first started hitting the charts in 1989 when SKI magazine voted the resort second in its annual survey of North American resorts. It was first voted as the Number One Ski Resort in North America in the fall of 1992 by Snow Country magazine, and for six years thereafter. The rest is, as they say, "history."