Showcase Chair Opening Dates
The Showcase Chair is brand new for the 2026-27 season, replacing the Showcase T-Bar. It has no opening history yet. The T-bar it replaces opened on 14 February 2026 in its final season — 85 days after the resort opened. The new chair should open far earlier, most likely alongside Glacier Express in mid-to-late December, because it removes the physical constraints that held the T-bar back.
Where Showcase Chair sits in the opening order
The Showcase Chair is a fixed-grip quad on Blackcomb Mountain, built through summer 2026 to replace the Showcase T-Bar, which had served the upper Horstman Glacier and Blackcomb Glacier since 1988.
It sits at the very top of Blackcomb’s lift hierarchy. Riders reach it via the Blackcomb Gondola, then Jersey Cream Express, then Glacier Express — so it can only open once that chain is running and the alpine is stable. In practice its earliest realistic opening is tied to Glacier Express, which has opened around 20-21 December in each of the last two seasons.
Note on naming: Whistler Blackcomb calls this lift the Showcase Chair. Some early coverage referred to a “Glacier Quad” — that name is not used by the resort.
Showcase Chair at a glance
| Lift type | Fixed-grip quad chairlift |
|---|---|
| Built | 2026, replacing the 1988 Showcase T-Bar |
| Manufacturer | Skytrac (reported by Lift Blog and skiresort.info; not formally announced by Vail Resorts) |
| Capacity | Approximately 2,400 people per hour (third-party figure, unconfirmed) |
| Alignment | Longer than the T-bar and shifted north, running beside the glacier rather than across it |
| Foundations | Towers and terminals anchored on exposed bedrock, not on glacier ice |
| Terrain served | Upper Horstman Glacier and Blackcomb Glacier — roughly 215 acres of alpine bowl and steep lines |
| Vertical, length and elevations | Not yet published by Whistler Blackcomb |
Historical opening dates
The chair itself has no history. What it has is the record of the lift it replaces, and that record is the whole reason it was built.
| Season | Opened | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2022-23 | Showcase T-Bar | Open by 19 Jan 2023, then ran consistently |
| 2023-24 | Showcase T-Bar | Closed on every day checked from 7 Dec to 26 Feb. Ran only briefly at the very end of the season |
| 2024-25 | Showcase T-Bar | Closed on eight consecutive checks from 26 Dec to 11 Mar. Finally running by 4 April |
| 2025-26 | Showcase T-Bar | Opened 14 February 2026. Last ever day of operation 19 April 2026 |
| 2026-27 | Showcase Chair | Expected mid-to-late December, in line with Glacier Express |
Status drawn from Whistler Blackcomb’s own archived lift status feed and its Instagram Terrain Alert announcing the T-bar’s 2026 opening.
What Showcase Chair needs to open
In its final season the Showcase T-Bar opened on 14 February 2026, some 85 days after Blackcomb opened on 21 November. It ran for roughly nine weeks and was dismantled. Across its last three seasons it was shut on essentially every mid-winter day on record.
The reason was physical, not operational. Several of the T-bar’s towers stood directly on glacier ice, which moves. Each season the lift had to be manually reset, and as the Horstman Glacier receded the track became too steep to ride safely without a very deep, continuous, smooth snow surface.
The snow depth numbers make it plain
Settled snow depth at the Roundhouse weather station at 1,835 m on the day each lift opened:
| Lift | Snow depth needed to open |
|---|---|
| Harmony 6 Express | 75–118 cm |
| 7th Heaven Express | 97 cm |
| Peak Express | 100–140 cm |
| Glacier Express | 132 cm |
| Showcase T-Bar | 200 cm and 211 cm |
The T-bar needed roughly double the settled snow depth of any chairlift on the mountain. That is a surface lift’s problem: riders are dragged along the snow, so the track itself must be deep and continuous. A chairlift carries riders above the surface and only needs its towers standing and the terrain safe.
What to realistically expect
Whistler Blackcomb’s own framing is cautious. Their words are that the new chair provides “faster, easier access” and “more consistent” access — they have promised reliability, not a specific earlier date, and have published no opening date for the lift.
The reasoning for a much earlier opening is nonetheless sound: bedrock foundations remove the annual glacier setup, the alignment moved off the ice, and a chairlift needs roughly half the snow depth a T-bar does. On that basis mid-to-late December is the sensible expectation, tied to Glacier Express, rather than the T-bar’s February-to-April pattern.
One thing this does not mean: summer skiing is not returning. In March 2025 Whistler Blackcomb stated it cannot run Horstman Glacier summer operations for the foreseeable future due to glacial recession, and the final Momentum camps ran in May 2025.
A final caution for the lift’s debut season. New lifts frequently open later than planned, commissioning and testing take time, and 2026-27 is forecast to be a strong El Niño winter with a slow start. A first season that begins in January would not be a surprise.
What to expect for 2026-27
Whistler Blackcomb has confirmed a target opening day of Friday 20 November 2026, conditions permitting.
There is one significant caveat this season. NOAA has issued an El Niño Advisory giving a greater than 90 per cent chance of a very strong El Niño through winter 2026-27, with a real possibility of the strongest event in the record dating back to 1950.
El Niño winters have historically started slowly at Whistler. Across the last thirteen seasons, El Niño Novembers delivered an average of 33 cm of snow at Roundhouse against 109 cm in La Niña Novembers, and roughly half the settled snow depth by the end of November.
Two things stop that being a prediction. El Niño mainly delays the start rather than ruining the season — by New Year the snowfall gap narrows considerably. And the strongest El Niño in our records, 2015-16, saw Whistler open early on 19 November with 332 cm down by New Year. Treat it as a tendency worth planning around, not a forecast.
Treat every date on this page as a planning window rather than a fixed commitment. Lift openings are decided on the morning, on the basis of snow depth, avalanche control work, wind and visibility.
When does Showcase Chair close?
The Showcase T-Bar last ran on 19 April 2026. Blackcomb’s alpine lifts generally run later than Whistler Mountain’s: in 2026 Glacier Express finished on 9 May and 7th Heaven on 18 May, with Blackcomb closing on 18 May.
Where the Showcase Chair will sit in that spring schedule is not yet known.
Common questions
Is the new Blackcomb lift called the Glacier Quad or the Showcase Chair?
Whistler Blackcomb calls it the Showcase Chair. Some early coverage used the name “Glacier Quad”, but the resort’s own construction updates consistently use Showcase Chair.
Will the Showcase Chair open earlier than the old T-Bar?
Very probably, though Whistler Blackcomb has not promised it. The T-bar’s towers stood on moving glacier ice and it needed around 200 cm of settled snow to run, which is why it often opened in February. The new chair is anchored on bedrock and, like other chairlifts, should need far less. Mid-to-late December is a reasonable expectation rather than a guarantee.
When did the Showcase T-Bar actually open in past seasons?
It opened on 14 February 2026 in its final season, was running by 19 January in 2022-23, and barely ran at all in 2023-24 and 2024-25 — closed on every mid-winter day on record, and only operating in late season.
Does the Showcase Chair mean summer skiing is coming back?
No. Whistler Blackcomb stated in March 2025 that it cannot run Horstman Glacier summer operations for the foreseeable future because of glacial recession. The final summer camps ran in May 2025.
How do I get to the Showcase Chair?
From Blackcomb Base, take the Blackcomb Gondola, then Jersey Cream Express, then Glacier Express. The Showcase Chair sits above Glacier Express and can only run once that chain is open.