Why's it Called That: 7th Heaven at Blackcomb

In 1985, the 7th Heaven T-bar expanded Blackcomb's vertical to a statute mile, and tripled the skiable acreage.

One midwinter day during the 1984–85 season, Blackcomb’s avalanche forecaster and ski patroller Peter “Zhiggy” Xhignesse, came to my office with an idea. He had been looking at the south side high on Blackcomb Mountain and thought there was some very nice, open, skiable terrain there. To me, “south side” meant direct sun, while “high” and “open” meant very high winds. But I agreed to go with him the next day to take a look. The area was about a mile from the top of the Jersey Cream chair, then the highest top station on the mountain. That meant a long traverse to get skiers out there. But Zhiggy extolled the open chutes and glades, plus access to the Horstman Glacier. Together, they would double our total skiable terrain and add significant backcountry skiing. The marketing kicker was that this would give Blackcomb a full mile of vertical drop, the greatest in North America. 

I agreed to try to make this bold idea happen. At the time, the shareholders wanted to sell Blackcomb and were uninterested in making any further investment on the mountain. So I was faced with the challenge of acquiring and installing a lift without spending much money. That eliminated any chairlift options. Our small sister resort, Fortress Mountain, just west of Calgary, had a T-bar that had seen very little use over recent years. It could be put to much better use at Blackcomb.

No ski area wants its skiers to know that a lift is being taken away. Also, there could have been a bunch of red tape—and, hence, delays—around moving an asset from Alberta to British Columbia. So everything had to happen quietly and quickly. The whole lift was dismantled over one night and a day under the leadership of Blackcomb’s VP of Operations, Rich Morten, and loaded on a flatbed truck. Within two days it was unloaded, ready to be reconstructed on Blackcomb.

The board’s approval was still needed to complete the installation. The support was just not there. It was a hard no on spending the small amount of extra money to install the T-bar and cut a few trails. I countered by re-emphasizing the full mile of vertical skiing—yes 5,280 feet! “By promoting a vertical mile of skiing, we can sell enough additional season passes to recoup the cost,” I promised. After much hesitation, the board eventually gave the green light.

We had an exceptionally cold and snowy fall, delaying construction, but we got the T-bar open for Christmas—just eight months after Peter broached the idea.

We needed a name for the new lift and all the new terrain. The T-bar was the seventh lift on Blackcomb, but we had moved on from just numbering our lifts. About 20 years previously I had been skiing at Steven’s Pass outside of Seattle in a heavy, wet snowstorm. I was riding up a steep double chairlift, all bundled up under my hood, trying to stay warm and dry. At the top, a liftie with a big, black beard came out of the shack and in a very deep voice rumbled “Welcommme to 7th Heavennn.” I never forgot that voice.

So the new terrain, and T-bar, were named 7th Heaven. The increase in season-pass sales that season more than paid for the new lift. Skiers loved being able to get to the very top of Blackcomb, with its vast high-alpine terrain and views for miles of peaks and glaciers, then ski a full mile vertically to the base. The exposure was a key factor in attracting our new owners, Intrawest, the following summer. Along with massive lift and facilities upgrades, the T-bar was replaced with a detachable quad in 1987, and the 7th Heaven Express remains a signature lift at the resort. 

Hugh Smythe, previously CEO of Blackcomb and president of the Intrawest Resort Operations Group, retired in 2009.