Score Change: Whistler Blackcomb Removes Horstman T-Bar

The Horstman T-Bar in February 2019. The lift was not operating when this photo was taken due to the lack of a snow base.

According to Liftblog, Whistler Blackcomb’s Horstman T-Bar has been removed. The surface lift seems has been gone since at least the middle of June.

The Horstman T-Bar’s removal was expected at some point due to the melting Horstman Glacier, but it still hurts to see it go. When the lift operated, it provided a vital connection from the Glacier area to 7th Heaven and made some of Blackcomb’s best expert terrain practical to lap. Now, visitors looking to make this journey will have to bear through the out-of-the-way Jersey Cream and 7th Heaven lifts.

We debated whether to change Whistler’s navigation score due to this removal, and we’ve ultimately decided to lower the score from a 7 to a 6. Despite the lift really only operating during peak times last season, we had given the resort the benefit of the doubt in our scoring. The loss of this connection makes it much longer and more complicated for visitors to get from Glacier to 7th Heaven despite the short distance between the areas.

We also considered changes to Whistler’s lift score, but decided against penalizing it in this category—the resort’s lift network is still truly unbeatable. It’s extremely unlikely Whistler will have a replacement for the T-Bar ready for next season, but we hope the resort considers replacing it with some sort of lift in the future.

Despite this knock, Whistler Blackcomb is still the top peak we’ve reviewed so far. See our full review here.

Whistler Blackcomb Score Change

7

Previous Navigation Score

6

New Navigation Score

87

Previous Overall Score

86

New Overall Score