World Best Sports

The mountains have been spruced up, the pistes groomed to perfection, the trees have been wrapped in thousands of tiny lights and the cobbled, pedestrian town scrubbed to Disney-esque levels of quaintness. Even the road from Vancouver has been rebuilt. The air of excitement and anticipation at the Canadian ski resort of Whistler is electric as the Winter Olympics opens for business next week.It's here – and at the neighbouring mountain of Blackcomb – that the downhill, cross-country and bobsleigh events are being held.

Both mountains boast top-to-bottom runs that total seven miles in length – one, Peak-to-Creek, is such a thigh-burner that there are strategically placed benches on the way down. For all the incredible skiing (Whistler Blackcomb is consistently voted the world's No.1 ski area), there's no escaping the ten-hour flight, followed by the near two-hour drive from Vancouver airport. But there's none of the queues of Europe, better food than the U.S. and wide-open skiable spaces, with snow almost guaranteed.

Bokmark it

Powered by Bookmarkify™