Things to Do in Vancouver Before or After the World Ski & Snowboard Festival in Whistler

Hundreds of skiers and snowboarders will make their way from Vancouver to Whistler on the Sea to Sky Highway for the 2023 World Ski & Snowboard Festival (WSSF), the ultimate après of the winter season since 1996, taking place from April 10-16.

For 2023, the annual celebration of snow sports, music, arts, and culture will be showcasing Whistler’s reputation as a mecca for mountain culture by returning to its grassroots origins focused on Sea to Sky artists and athletes.

Saudan Couloir Race Extreme

Billed as the steepest ski and snowboard race in the world, the Saudan Couloir Race Extreme is the stuff of Whistler legend. The event takes racers down the Saudan Couloir, a double-black run, on Blackcomb Mountain.

Slush Cup

Have you got what it takes to charge through spring snow and send it across the slushy abyss of an icy slush pond, preferably with style? More importantly, do you have the right animal suit/vintage onesie/superhero outfit/budgie smuggler in which to get the job done?

Before you head up the snowy peaks for Whistler’s annual celebration of snow sports, music, arts, and mountain culture, be sure to check out all these activities in Vancouver first:

Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival

From April 1-23, anyone and everyone can take part in VCBF‘s many cherry blossom-related events and activities including their Big Picnic, Sakura Days, Bike the Blossoms, Tree Talks & Walks, and various sightseeing tours.

Capture Photography Festival

Capture is back from April 1-30 with its many various photography-centric public art exhibitions and other collections on display across the city including the featured showcase, As We Rise: Photography From The Black Atlantic, at the Polygon Gallery.

Science World

Take a peek at SW’s latest exhibition Skin: Living Armour, Evolving Identity on display until May 29. Discover how skin plays a crucial role in shaping physical and social interactions with the outside world across different organisms.

Witness the incredible shape-altering, colour-changing, and adaptable nature of skin and how it has inspired technological innovations. See a life-size rhinoceros model that shows the largeness of its skin, examine keratin-based feathers, furs, and quills, and even touch different specimens.

Vancouver Art Gallery

VAG always has something artistic and inspiring to offer with new and touring exhibitions to browse including the current Shary Boyle: Outside the Palace of Me multi-sensory experience featuring larger-than-life-sized automatons, two-way mirrors, a coin-operated sculpture and an interactive score as well as the new Hard-Edge collection showcasing a selection of modernist abstract paintings.

Museum of Vancouver

Pay a visit to MOV and see the featured career retrospective, All We Want is More: The Tobias Wong Project, collecting many of the provocative Vancouver-born and raised Canadian designer’s “paraconceptual” work gathered together in one place.

Vancouver Aquarium

Explore sea life and learn more about creatures under the sea by visiting the aquarium. VA’s newest interactive exhibit Nature’s Ninjas: Defenses of the Animal Kingdom promises to show guests some wild defense mechanisms of our favourite animals.

Visit Squamish

In between Vancouver and Whistler, make a stop off in the scenic Sea to Sky Region and see what Squamish and its neighbouring areas have to offer.

Happy adventuring!