Whistler’s Camp Of Champions Announces Permanent Closure

Camp of Champions photo.

A staple of the summer ski and snowboard camp scene, Whistler Blackcomb’s Camp of Champions (COC) announced that it will not run its program this season. Citing lack of a solid snowpack on the Hortsman Glacier, COC’s owner and founder Ken Achenbach decided he could not fulfill his promise of providing a world-class terrain park to his campers, and made the call to close the camp.

The camp will file for bankruptcy and issue a full refund to all campers who signed up for this season.

While Whistler may have gotten tons of snow this year, the long and cold winter created a snowpack full of air, without the dense, wet snow needed to build the jumps and other features the summer camp wanted to provide to its campers. Even the droughts of the past two years have provided more snow for the park crew to work with.

Camp of Champions started in 1989, when the glacier was nearly 35 feet deeper than it is today. Since then, it has hosted some of the world’s best pro skiers and many generations of groms to push their skills to new levels. Campers came back year after year to ski and learn from their favorite coaches, and embraced the multi-generational experience Achenbach strived to provide.

Over the past few seasons, the glacier started retreating more rapidly, leaving less and less snow to build features and safely run the T-bar servicing the park.

This morning, Achenbach issued a heartfelt apology letter, explaining his motivations to make the choice to close. Read it here.