Events: Alpine Skiing

Venue Capacity: 7,700

VANOC Investment: $27,635,000 -- The governments of Canada and BC agreed to jointly fund new construction and upgrades.

Status: Improvements included contouring and reshaping of the men's and ladies' downhill courses and additions to the existing snowmaking system.

Opened: Upgrades began in the summer of 2006 and were completed by November 15, 2007.

Elevation: 810 metres

Distance: 4.1 km from Whistler Athletes' Village

Whistler Creekside will host both men's and ladies' alpine skiing events at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games.

The men's downhill slope is located on the newly designed Dave Murray Downhill course on Whistler Mountain, named for the late Canadian alpine skier who competed in the Lake Placid 1980 Olympic Winter Games where he finished 10th in the downhill. He is also remembered as one of Canada's Crazy Canucks along with Ken Read, Steve Podborski and Dave Irwin.

Meanwhile the ladies' downhill course is brand new, located on Franz's Run, parallel to the men's course also on Whistler Mountain. It is named for Franz Wilhelmson who was a driving force in getting the Whistler Resort to its current status as the top ski resort in North America.

Whistler Creekside is one of two bases for Whistler Mountain; it is located a short drive between Whistler Village and the Whistler Athletes' Village.
The Whistler Blackcomb ski resort is consistently one of the top ski resorts in North America, welcoming upwards of two million visitors each year. It was opened for skiing in February 1966, with just three lifts. Whistler Mountain has hosted 11 FIS World Cup races, the most recent event in 2008. The region held its first FIS World Cup in 1975.

The Whistler Blackcomb ski resort will remain open during the 2010 Winter Games. The mountain resort is connected to Vancouver by the Sea-to-Sky Highway (or Highway 99), which has had more than $600 million in upgrades in advance of the 2010 Winter Games. The highway remains a geographical challenge based on the region, as shown on July 29, 2008 when a massive landslide closed the highway and wiped out the railway tracks just north of Porteau Cove. The highway was closed for five days.

The mountains of Whistler and Blackcomb are now connected by a "Peak 2 Peak" gondola which opened December 12, 2008. The project connects both mountains, with a gondola that will set a world record for length and height as it takes travelers on an 11 minute, 4.4km journey 436m above Fitzsimmons creek, which runs in the valley between Whistler and Blackcomb. The length of the unsupported span is 3.024km. One gondola cabin departs every 49 seconds and there are a total of 28 cabins. The speed of the gondola is 7.5m per second. The capacity of each cabin is 22 seated and 6 standing, and up to 2050 people can be moved per hour each way. There are four towers (2 on Blackcomb and 2 on Whistler), with towers between 35m-65m high. The two stationary ropes that the cabins ride upon are called track ropes, and they are 56mm in diameter. The total length of the track rope with the sag is 4600m. The single rope that pulls the cars along the track ropes is called the haul rope and is 46mm in diameter. The total length of the haul rope loop with the sag is 8850m.

Following the Games, Whistler Creekside will continue to offer world-class ski conditions for tourists and all recreational skiers while also being used for future international competitions and national training.