Whistler Blackcomb Callaghan Valley. The British Columbia government paid $600 million for major upgrades to the Sea-to-Sky Highway, which carried the majority of visitors to the alpine sites. In 2006 Intrawest was purchased by the alternative asset management firm, Fortress Investment Group. Three weeks before the opening of the 2010 Olympics, Fortress failed to make payment on its loan used to buy out Intrawest. This caused its creditors to force Intrawest to divest itself of several of its resort holdings in 2009 and 2010 which included a partial sale of Whistler Blackcomb, in order to reduce its debt load. This was achieved
Whistler Blackcomb as one large ski area under the name "Whistler-Blackcomb". On April 20, 1999, Whistler Blackcomb became the first North American ski resort to top 2 million skier visits in one season. 1998 saw the replacement of the Peak Chair with a high-speed quad. The original Peak Chair was renamed to Franz's Chair and moved parallel to the Big Red Express chair with a return station approximately halfway up the Big Red Express lift line. Franz's Chair runs primarily in early and late season, when lower altitudes are not well covered. The Black Chair was replaced with a high-speed quad, the