Canada's Top Skiing Destinations
Apex
Apex Resort, 5,249ft up in British Columbia's Okanagan Valley near Penticton, will be
almost unrecognisable this winter: more than $10m has been spent on improving the ski
area, developing its Wild West theme (the Gunbarrel saloon's speciality is coffee made
with brandy and Cointreau flambeed into the glass down the double-barrel of a shotgun).
The new Holiday Inn "Sun Spree" resort hotel at Apex Mountain village will
provide 89 rooms, and a new high-speed detachable quad to the summit "Quickdraw"
- replaces two old chairs, cutting travelling time to less than six minutes.
There are seven new trails, with names like Outlaw and Maverick, and a summergrooming
programme (removing rocks, widening trails, etc) has been carried out on existing trails
like Gunbarrel, Magnum 22, Buckshot and flanks. Make My Day - a chute whose name was
inspired by Clint Eastwood movies - will also be a smoother ski, but just as challenging.
A new snowmaking system has also been installed. Apex now has 52 trails on its two
mountain faces (Apex and Beaeonsfield peaks) almost half of them intermediate grade, with
10 per cent novice standard and about a third of them in the advanced/expert category.
With skiing up to about 7,217ft, the vertical drop is 1,968ft.
Banff / Lake
Louise
Technically Banff/Lake Louise comprises three different ski areas (Mount Norquay/Mystic
Ridge, Sunshine Village and Lake Louise itself) but as they are up to 30 miles apart, it
seems arbitrary to try to "link" them.
Lake Louise is the showpiece, in terms of skiing (four mountain faces on Mounts Whitehorn
and Lipalian, five bowls and more than 3,280ft vertical drop) and outstanding scenery
there are more than a dozen peaks that reach 10,006ft or more.
Each chair has an easy way down for novice skiers. Sunshine Village, which straddles the
Continental Divide and the Alberta/British Columbia border, is a high altitude resort with
good intermediate slopes above the tree-line. It can be bleak and cold in bad weather, but
if you catch it on a good day, the scenery including Canada's "Matterhorn"
(Mount Assiniboine) is dramatic.
Mount Norquay, now mystified with the prefix "Mystic Ridge", is Banff's local
ski area, and probably the oldest resort in Canada. Small but steep, a whole new
upper-intermediate area with 12 new runs was recently opened up on "Mystic
Ridge".
But Norquay is still best known for a run called Lone Pine, described in The Insider's
Guide to the Best Canadian Skiing as "an unforgiving brute legendary for its
unrelenting vertical and monster moguls".
Banff/Lake Louise is celebrated for its railway hotels built for Canadian Pacific
passengers. The Banff Springs is perched above the town, while Chateau Lake Louise is in
the most stunning lake-side location with views of five glaciers.
Big White
With a base elevation of 5,446ft, Big White, in the heart of the Monashees, is the
highest ski resort in British Columbia. The terrain is unusually varied, with steep
gulleys and bowls (the recently opened Parachute Bowl was the location for the Canadian
Speed Skiing Championships three years ago) and there are good cruising runs like Roller
Coaster, Speculation and Villager as well as tree skiing in Paradise Glades.
The 1,000 skiable acres are divided between groomed slopes and bowls and glades. At higher
elevations, snow on the trees often freezes, turning them into the so-called
"snow-ghosts" that are the hallmark of Canada's higher resorts The Ridge Rocket
Quad, which almost bisects the resort, is the main artery to much of the skiing. The
terrain between the Rocket and Big White's other main quad, Bullet, is almost entirely
lower intermediate and intermediate. The main expert terrain can be found off the Powder
and Falcon chairs, at present on the outer perimeter of the ski area, although the resort
has expansion plans.
Panorama
Panorama, which emerged as a significant ski area a decade or so ago, is now famous for
three things: helicopter skiing, day trippers, and vertical drop. Recently the resort
built a new lift (the Summit T-bar) up to its Top of the World area, givimg it 4,265
vertical feet - more than Jackson Hole, Wyoming, the US's biggest vertical drop. All this,
including 43 trails, is accomplished with only eight lifts.
Panorama is long and lean; its vertical drop is achieved by having one chief spine-like
ridge (served on one flank by the Quadzilla chair and on the other by the Sunbird triple
chair) but few ribs
Although it is situated on the edge of the Bugaboos in the Purcell Mountains - ranges well
known to helicopter skiers - Panorama relies on its snow-making system to keep its runs
well-covered. Almost three quarters of its terrain is topped up with artificial snow,
which makes many of the trails a little unforgiving, though good for strong intermediates
and above who enjoy high-speed cruising.
Panorama also provides the setting for helicopter skiing outings with R.K. Heliski, mainly
from Banff, two hours away, and specialises in newcomers requiring "easy pace"
descents
Red Mountain
If Canada has a low-profile cult resort legendary among the cognoscenti for being steep
and deep, Red Mountain is it. Yet it has only four lifts serving the 30 trails on its two
peaks. (Red Mountain is the original, easier mountain, and Granite, with a vertical drop
of 2,788ft is by far the bigger.)
Statistics tell you much about the resort's profile. Snowmaking: none (hardly ever
needed). Expert terrain: 45 per cent. The Kootenay region between the US border and
Revelstoke is home to three of the world's most famous helicopter skiing ranges: the
Monashees, Purcells, and Selkirks Skiing was introduced to the area a century ago by
Norwegian gold miners in nearby Rossland, one of British Columbia's few genuine old mining
towns turned ski resorts.
The first ski competitions were held here before the turn of the century These racers'
pioneering efforts led to the Winter Olympic triumphs of Nancy Greene (1968) and Kerin
Lee-Gartner (1992), two of Rossland's most famous ski racers. Apart from Red's many powder
options, it has one of the best cruising trails in North America: Long Squaw.
Silver Star
Silver Star ski area, in the Okanagan Valley on the edge of the famous Monashee
Mountains, changed itself from a friendly (really friendly: lift attendants sometimes hug
skiers) "ma and pa" ski hill, to a destination resort by developing the terrain
it most lacked: 23 trails for advanced intermediates and experts at Putnam Creek Basin.
That also doubled its size, making it the second largest ski area in British Columbia
(after Whistler / Blackcomb) and increased its vertical drop to 2,493ft, the biggest in
the Okanagan (famous for its wines).
Putnam Creek and the original slopes at Vance Creek are linked by a long quad chair which
enables skiers either to make continuous loops back into Putnam Creek or to return to
base. Silver Star, with its brightly coloured imitation 1890s architecture from the
"Victorian gaslight era" is one of the most attractive resorts in Canada.
Many trail names reflect the area's mining history or echo its name: Lone Star Milky Way,
Constellation and Big Dipper are all easy cruising runs in Vance Creek.
Whistler / Blackcomb
For many skiers
these two towering mountains that stand shoulder to shoulder near the western seaboard of British
Columbia provide the best skiing in North America.
They have the biggest vertical drop, with more than 4,921ft of skiing on both mountains, a
full 984ft more than Jackson Hole, the highest in the US.
Yet 30 years and some $600m ago there was nothing here except the mountains. Until then,
the munificent snow caused by the moist Pacific air meeting the craggy mountain-tops fell
silently and was skied only by the few prepared to hike up. Now Whistler's bowls and
Blackcomb's glaciers and the huge network of other trails in between (almost 200 in all) -
are served by 24 lifts. One of Whistler's problems is the weather that produces so much
good snow: in spite of its big vertical drop, the height of Whistler Village
(purpose-built and car-free) is only 2,132ft (almost 492ft lower than Kitzbühel, one of
the lowest important resorts in Europe).
That means it is often raining down in the village while it is snowing on the slopes. Rain
is an offputting sight to skiers weighing up whether to venture out on the slopes or not.
In Whistler, it is nearly always worth giving the weather the benefit of the doubt.
