Skiing: Could Canada's 'Wonder Routes' concept work in Scotland?
Creating itineraries to meet the needs of different types of skiers and snowboarders is a great way of making resorts more accessible, writes Roger Cox
Situated about 120km north of Vancouver, Whistler Blackcomb is the largest ski resort in North America, with more than 8,000 acres of skiable terrain, and it also receives in excess of ten metres of snow every winter, making it a bucket list destination for skiers and snowboarders the world over. The thing is though, it’s so vast it can also be an intimidating place for first-timers to navigate.
I made my first visit there in January 2006, and because I was writing a travel story for The Scotsman I was lucky enough to be allocated a guide for the first couple of days of my trip. Jim McMahon was a banked slalom ninja with a love of snowboarding through tight trees, but once he knew I was more into steep and deep lines with less in the way of unyielding obstacles to crash into, he gave up torturing me in the woods and took me to the kinds of places he knew I’d enjoy – the wide open spaces of Flute Bowl, a half-hour boot-pack from the top of the Harmony Express lift, and the glorious, powder-stuffed descents of Spanky’s Ladder. Then, when it was time for us to part ways, he suggested a few other areas I might like – in fact, I still have the piste map Jim marked up for me, with biro circles around zones like Glacier Bowl that he reckoned I’d appreciate.
Obviously not everyone can afford to hire a dedicated guide when they go skiing somewhere new, but now the folks at Whistler have come up with the next best thing: an ingenious marketing initiative called Wonder Routes. Reasoning that different people come to Whistler looking for very different things, they’ve created a series of seven detailed itineraries, each one tailored to a different kind of snowsports enthusiast.
So, for example, there’s a route called Glade Stashes Checklist that might’ve been written by Jim himself, linking up black-diamond tree runs like Gun Barrels, Gnarly Knots and Yard Sale (as in: when a skier wipes out, scattering their gear all over the mountainside, it looks like a yard sale.) It’s not all advanced stuff though – there’s also the Family Certified Route, which allows parents to take little ones on a green-runs-only tour of the resort, stopping off at the Magic Castle playpark and the Chic Pea restaurant, so nobody gets hangry, and for those wanting to cruise around the resort on relatively undemanding pistes there’s a route called Super Blues.
The Aprés Route offers a tour of the best al-fresco eating and drinking spots, the Gold Medal Route is packed with race pistes and the Alpine Sampler is designed to get you up above the treeline, while those looking to soak up the scenery can ski the Top of the World Route, taking in the four highest points in the ski area.
In short: the folks in the Whistler marketing department have played a bit of a blinder, taking a big, complicated, spaghetti-bowl of a piste map and turning it into a series of clean, easy-to-understand edits, each of which will appeal to different segments of their target market. They haven’t had to add any new lifts or open up new terrain – they’ve simply figured out a compelling way of putting a fresh spin on what’s already there.
So, could Scotland’s ski centres pull off the same trick? And if so, what would that look like? Obviously Cairngorm, Glencoe, Glenshee, The Lecht and Nevis Range aren’t anything like as big as Whistler Blackcomb, but the varied terrain they offer can still be used to construct some solid, user-specific itineraries.
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At Glencoe, for example, they could promote a “Steep, Steeper, Steepest” route. Start off with a trip up the Main Basin T-Bar, hang a left at the top, and then work your way from Rannoch Glades (red) to the Spring Run (red) to the notorious Flypaper (black), the steepest in-bounds run in Scotland.
The Lecht, by contrast, would be a good place to do the Scottish equivalent of Whistler’s Family Certified Route. Starting at the day Lodge, you could begin by skiing the green runs beside the Robin and Wren magic carpets before progressing to the Kestrel Poma and skiing the green run next to that. Head back to the Day Lodge for lunch and then, once everyone’s had a chance to recharge, perhaps give the blue run beside the Osprey poma a go.
As Scotland’s largest ski area, Glenshee would be a good contender for a Super Blues-style itinerary. One possible route might start just above the car park with a couple of laps of the blues by the Sunnyside pomas, before heading up to Meall Odhar via the Caenlochan Poma. From there, you could drop into Coire Fionn, then make your way back to the road via the Coire Fionn Pomas and the Home Run.
Cairngorm might like to create an itinerary to promote its wonderful naturally occurring halfpipes, the Ciste Gully and the Gunbarrel, although there would need to be something in the small print about it not being cool to skoosh snow at people using the Coire Cas T-bar when you get near the bottom of the Gunbarrel (unless it’s someone you know, of course, in which case they’re fair game.)
Finally, Nevis Range would almost certainly want to promote a Powder Hunter’s Tour of the Back Corries, its most obvious USP, although it’s been a while since they have opened up this part of the resort. Who knows though – perhaps 2026 will be the year that finally sees it operating again.
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