Lightning is one of Mother Nature’s most awe-inspiring events. It also has the potential to be damaging and dangerous. Here in Whistler, lightning is most prominent during the summer months. Given this, we wanted to share some information to help educate guests about how we approach lightning safety.
At Whistler Blackcomb, we operate in a vast mountainous area which spans more than 8,000 acres of lift-accessed terrain. When lightning is in the forecast, our teams adapt quickly to manage the risk and avoid endangering our guests. In fact, we have several different lighting monitoring tools used by our weather forecasters – if there is a strike within 100 km of our resort and moving towards us, we act.
The procedures outlined below are an essential component of our commitment to safety and can have a significant impact on our operations – including closures of our lifts.
The first steps our mountain operations teams take when there is lightning in the forecast is building awareness by placing alerts and signage at the base of Blackcomb, Whistler Village, and Creekside Guest Relations informing visitors of potential service interruptions.
When lightning does strike, we react with a phased approach that prioritizes mitigating risk from higher elevations downward. Our approach differs depending on how far away the most recent strike was 100km, 60km and 30km all have different operational implications which are explained below:
100 km: Initial Precautions
Peak Chair upload operations are placed on standby, with download-only service remaining available. Closure signs are placed at the T-Bar crossing on Pika’s Traverse, and guests are asked to obey all signage and avoid entering alpine hiking areas.
Objective: Limit access to exposed alpine terrain while maintaining a safe route for guests already in the area.
60 km: Restricting Access to Alpine Areas
Peak Chair stops downloading. All sightseeing lifts (Whistler Village Gondola, Blackcomb Gondola, and PEAK 2 PEAK Gondola) are placed on standby, while the Whistler Village Gondola and Blackcomb Gondola remain available for guest download. Garbanzo Express in the Bike Park is placed on upload standby, and the Blackcomb Ascent Trail for hiking closes immediately. Ticket sales for affected sightseeing and Bike Park operations are paused.
At this stage, Ski Patrol begins sweeping exposed alpine areas, including hiking trails and the Top of the World bike trails.
Objective: Prevent new guest uploads and begin moving guests from exposed alpine terrain to lower elevations.
30 km: Full Mountain Moves to Standby Clearance
Fitzsimmons Express and Creekside Gondola are placed on standby. The Whistler Village Gondola and Blackcomb Gondola remain on standby and operate only as required to clear downloading guests.
All guests are directed to seek shelter in an enclosed building until lightning activity has passed.
Objective: Remove guests from exposed terrain and lift systems and guide them to safe shelter locations.
Wildfire Risk Mitigation
Another important aspect of our weather response program is reducing the risk of lightning-caused wildfires. When lightning occurs over the resort, staff are deployed to several locations throughout the valley to monitor lightning activity, identify potential fire starts, and coordinate a rapid response if needed. These vantage points help us pinpoint strike locations and quickly activate fire response procedures when required.
Service interruptions are a regular part of mountain resort operations, but guest and community safety always come first. While operational pauses can be inconvenient, they play an important role in protecting guests, employees, resort infrastructure, and the surrounding environment. Our lightning response procedures are designed to help us react quickly and effectively to changing conditions, keeping everyone as safe as possible until the threat has passed.