Whistler Peak

Whistler Mountain rises 7,160 feet in the Coast Mountains of British Columbia, named for the shrill warning calls of the hoary marmots that live among its summit rocks. Long before it became one of the most famous ski and mountain bike destinations in the world, it was simply a rugged Coast Range peak on the edge of Garibaldi Provincial Park, and the terrain that draws people here today is the same terrain the contours have always described.

This map shows the mountain underneath the resort. The contour lines trace the alpine bowls and cirques carved into the upper slopes, the high ridgeline running toward the ice of the surrounding backcountry, and the long descent into the Fitzsimmons Creek valley that separates Whistler from Blackcomb Peak across the way. To the south, the terrain falls toward Cheakamus Lake. Stripped of lifts and trail names, what remains is classic Coast Mountains topography: deep valleys, glacial sculpting, and steep, sustained relief.