Whistler’s success is the result of the passion and innovation of its community and visionary leaders who developed the area into a world-class resort and Host Mountain Resort for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.
These lands and waters lie within the unceded territories of the Lil’wat Nation and Squamish Nation, holding historic and cultural traditions. Over thousands of years, the Nations built vibrant, distinct cultures through an intimate relationship with the natural landscape.
Rainbow Lodge and Garibaldi Lift Ltd
The first settlers to live in the Whistler area arrived in the 1880s. By this point, the Pemberton Trail had been completed—which connected Howe Sound through Pemberton to Lillooet and the Interior—drawing prospectors and trappers to the area. One trapper, John Millar, enticed Myrtle and Alex Philip, from Vancouver, to the north shore of Whistler’s Alta Lake where they built the successful Rainbow Lodge in 1914. It would become a fishing and holiday camp. Later that year, the Pacific Great Eastern Railway pushed through the Whistler valley en route to Prince George.
Other settlers soon followed and more lodges, tea houses, farms, logging camps and mills were built around Alta Lake. By the late 1930s, Rainbow Lodge was the most popular honeymoon spot west of the Rockies and the tiny community of Alta Lake was lively and sociable throughout the mid-century, despite being accessible only by rail or float plane.
In the 1960s, a group of Vancouver businessmen launched a bid to host the 1968 Olympic Winter Games in Whistler. The bid failed, but the dream spurred some members, including Franz Wilhelmsen, to found Garibaldi Lifts Ltd and develop a ski area. Whistler Mountain opened for skiing in January 1966 as a ski area with a gondola, one chair lift and two T-bars on the southwest side of Whistler Mountain. Avid skiers began the trek up the new extension of Highway 99, paved that same year, and built A-frame cabins around the Whistler Creek base.
Building a world-class resort
By the mid-1970s, local visionaries dreaming of the Olympics began plans for a world-class summer and winter resort.
The Resort Municipality of Whistler (RMOW) was incorporated on September 6, 1975. At the time of incorporation, fewer than 1,000 people lived in Whistler. The newly elected mayor and council, along with municipal staff, local residents and the provincial government, started planning for the development of what would eventually become Whistler Village.
The Whistler Village Conceptual Plan consulting team began work in 1978 to develop Whistler Village. Eldon Beck, the landscape architect who was instrumental in the design of Vail Village in Colorado, created the foundation of the Whistler Village plan as a car-free town centre where people would meet and meander among an array of magnificent views.
As a result of this foundational work, Whistler Village, Blackcomb Mountain and the north side of Whistler Mountain opened for business in December 1980.
Learn more about Whistler’s history by visiting the Whistler Museum.
Hosting the 2010 Olympic Winter Games
On July 2, 2003, Whistler’s dream to host the Olympics at last came true as 5,000 cheering residents jammed Village Square to hear the International Olympic Committee select Vancouver/Whistler to host the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. This was the first time in Olympic history that the International Olympic Committee bestowed the designation Host Mountain Resort upon a community.
Alongside the four Host First Nations and Vancouver, Whistler successfully co-hosted the 2010 Games, which left many lasting legacies for the community, including sporting venues, the Whistler Athlete’s Village and the foundation of a working relationship with Lil’wat Nation and Squamish Nation—a first step toward reconciliation.
Take the 2010 Games Self-Guided Tour (PDF)
Supporting the Indigenous-led 2030 Games Bid
In 2021, four First Nations – the Lil̓wat7úl (Líl̓wat), xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and səl̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations – announced they had jointly entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the City of Vancouver and our municipality to begin assessing the feasibility of hosting an Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Signing the MOU was a first step for the four First Nations and the two municipalities, who worked with the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) and the Canadian Paralympic Committee (CPC) to explore the opportunity of hosting the 2030 Olympic and Paralympic Games. A first of its kind agreement, the collaboration centered on the Truth and Reconciliation Calls to Action, the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA), and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (UNDRIP) as a framework for true collaboration.
Although the bid did not proceed, this opportunity built deeper connection, which has set the stage for co-hosting future worldclass sport events with the Lil’wat Nation and Squamish Nation.
Looking to the future
Today, Whistler is home to almost 14,000 permanent residents and is visited by more than 3 million guests annually. Whistler is guided by the community’s Official Community Plan, which has been updated through extensive community collaboration.