Those who didn’t go to Whistler, did you have a good time?

Is whistler really worth the hype? What would be some other suggested ski fields in Canada to do a working holiday?

Welcome to Boardworld, @HHHsnow!

Whistler is a pretty amazing place. I might be biased but I absolutely love it here.

That said, Canada in general, is an amazing country and there’s a lot of great mountains to visit or work at. If you’re in it for the adventure, to see something new, to meet likeminded people, to explore the mountains and enjoy the snow… you’re going to have a great experience regardless of where you end up. As with most things, you’ll get out of it what you put in.

@TJswish, @OptimusGrime, @leasha101 all just did seasons in Canada outside of Whistler, and I’m sure they can tell you how great their experiences were.

Whistler is worth visiting, maybe even working/living one day, but it’s certainly not the be-all and end-all of snow adventure in Canada. There’s a reason they call Canada the “Great White North.” ? ??

Which other options are you considering?

Thanks for the warm welcome!

Don’t judge me but I am considering going with an agency, if only for the fact that I can leave NZ a little later and earn a bit more money rather than having to leave end of October to get to the Job Fairs.

So if I go that route the options are Big White, Panorama, Silver star or Sunshine village.

Else I saw TJswish’s post on Fernie, which looked absolutely awesome!

I’m not massive into the night life, but I’m looking for somewhere social and where I can improve my skiing (confession not actually a boarder, but super keen to learn!)

Everywhere has a nightlife and a social aspect, just Whistler and Banff’s are over the top!

I had a fantastic time and just couldn’t afford to go to Whistler and didn’t want the massive party life. Also queues really bug me so I like smaller / less touristy resorts.

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I’d never go with an agency but that’s me.

If you pay $1500 to get a job, that’s about 150 hours of work at $10 an hour. So if you work 40 hours a week, that’s 3.75 weeks of work (or almost a month) before you are making money.

So if you go over and just apply everywhere, you have about a month before you’re actually doing worse that being with a company. And during that time you could definitely get some shred time in!

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I replied in the Fernie thread so check that too

Doing this season in banff i really have no regrets. The town and people are awesome and with 3 ski hills close by it never gets boring. The only down side for us was most of the bigger snow storms throughout the season seemed to fizzle out before they reached us.
Sunshine village, lake louise and norquay are all very different mountains and all have there unique qualities which make them good so as i said you cant really get bored with banff

Anyway I got a few road trips in throughout the winter and from the people i met i can say this:

KICKING HORSE: located in golden bc, crazy steep terrain, relatively quiet in terms of lift lines. I never waited for more than 2 mins. Not as wild in terms of nightlife and i had friends that had no issues getting jobs by applyi g when they arrived.

BIG WHITE: A personal favorite, seemed to get quite alot of snowfall this year. And as the village is located on hill its really easy to get a few hours in everyday regardless of work times etc. They have night boarding for i think 3 months of the season. The overall vibe there was really cool, the nightlife was pretty decent and the resort staff got plenty of sweet deals also fairly nice accom up on the hill too. Some friends there went with the job agencies but others just used the resort website to organise their jobs.

Revelstoke: definitely keep this on the cards, the town is way quiet and chilled. But the mountain is crazy good. So much terrain yet hardly any crowds. 10 min gondy line on a busy day. Heaps of pow and being fairly new all the facilities are top class.

Highly recommend not going with those job companies as you can pretty much get the same result with one decent sunday spent on the computer and the less and less people that use them the more likely ski resorts will be to reduce the numbers they rely on from them

Hope this helps.