Sun Peaks Resort is Canada’s second-largest skifield and while the skiing can be fantastic it also offers many more experiences, writes Mike Scott
On reflection, the multiple summits of Sun Peaks Resort are a godsend because if one ski mountain has tough conditions, and the other is okay, the third can still be fantastic.
In this story, the third summit is Mount Tod, the highest of the three, mysteriously shrouded in clouds and laden with the most powder in the resort.
We were grateful to ‘Old Toddy’, as it affectionately came to be known among us because the concern leading into the 2023-24 season revolved around whether an El Nino weather pattern would result in a lean snow year for Canadian skifields, following three epic seasons from an extended La Nina period.
Would the snow fall? At first, it didn’t. Many North American resorts were reporting sparse snow bases, sometimes drastically low.
But then, in mid-January, a polar vortex burped out a ‘lobe’ of super-cold air and dropped powder over British Columbia.
Out of Sun Peaks’ three mountains, Old Toddy got the best of it, and our Kiwi friends found it and let us know.
While poor visibility dissuaded other snow riders, we tracked the high runs off the Crystal Chair like a gang of metronomes, hunting freshies in the trees and jumps on the side of near-empty groomers.
Mt Tod is a beacon standing over the Secwepemc territory about 45 minutes northeast of Kamloops in British Columbia’s interior.
In 1959 it attracted locals who saw potential in the slopes and went on to establish Tod Mountain Ski Resort which has since developed into Sun Peaks.
The ski area is stretched over three mountains, Tod, Sundance and Mt Morrisey with 1728ha of skiable area, 13 lifts and 139 runs.
It boasts 6m of average snowfall.
Bruce Neale, from Taranaki, had visited Sun Peaks in the summer for the mountain biking on offer but this was his first winter visit with his family-of-four.
“It’s easy. Direct flight from Auckland to Vancouver and then a connector to Kamloops. Then the shuttle drops us off at our accommodation with the fridge stocked with our food request.”
“We were skiing [on] one day after leaving home.”
His family skied every day of their 10-day stay thanks to the daily snow dumps and loved the powder among the trees mixed with jumps and technical runs.
And they could do run after run, thanks to almost non-existent lift lines. January in Canada is not a holiday month like it is in New Zealand, so crowds, especially during the week, are not going to be huge.
Sun Peaks has only ever reached 82 per cent of its lift capacity during peak holiday periods, according to Tourism Sun Peaks’ marketing development manager, Emily MacInnes.
“We want to maintain low lift lines and uncrowded runs.“
Like many BC fields, Sun Peaks markets itself as family oriented and is popular with Antipodeans with Australian and Kiwi skiers making up 45 per cent of international visitors during winter.
My family was going to test the ‘family friendly’ marketing because we were arriving as a cohort of multiple generations and varying levels of experience from rip-it-up teenage daughters, to progressing middle-aged plodders, a seasoned and expert 76-year-old uncle to my completely non-skiing 83-year-old mother.
Would Sun Peaks cater to us all?
Of course, the skiing wasn’t an issue. From your accommodation anywhere along the stretched-out resort in the valley, you can take a nearby lift and be carving the slopes in a short amount of time.
Of course, we’d discovered the beauty of Mt Tod, but as MacInnes pointed out, there was much more to enjoy.
“We have lots of different terrain with a variation of runs for all abilities. We have light and dry snow and consistent conditions.
“Sun Peaks is Canada’s second largest ski area and is a true ski-in / ski-out resort.”
But what does your 83-year-old non-skiing grandmother – Merren - do while the rest of the whānau is whooping it up on the Sun Peaks’ slopes?
Heaps of things, it turns out, and thankfully, because her trip to Canada had ignited a lust for adventure, she would not be satisfied sitting around waiting for skiers to get tuckered out.
First up Merren explored the village which is TARDIS-like. It doesn’t feel large, especially when staying in centrally located accommodation, but it has more than 40 restaurants, cafes and boutique shops.
The food on offer ranges from bagels to full breakfast, pub fare or pizza to fine dining. You can start the day with coffee and finish with a beer or fine Okanagan wine while listening to the local music.
Being a non-skier or boarder did not stop her carving up the slopes. Sun Peaks offers a snow limo service which is a comfortable seat on skis operated by a ‘chauffeur’.
“The great thing about the snow limo was the speed but there was the ability to get up on the mountain and see what the skiers see.
“It did give me a sense of the exhilaration of coming down the slope fast.”
Next was snowshoeing, a meeting with a local author, before a dog-sledding trip with her granddaughter.
A full family visit to Cleavage Axe Co for a bit of competitive axe-throwing became one of the must-dos.
There’s plenty of competitive fun in hurling a sharp, weighty object at a target. Under the guidance of our host Paul, we swiftly honed our skills, hitting the bullseye in no time and we engaged in ‘friendly’ playoffs.
It was a hoot all while consuming nice pub food and drinks and chatting about the snow, weather, and our upcoming backcountry skiing trip the next morning.
Not to be confused with cross-country skiing, backcountry skiing or ski mountaineering or ski touring is the concept of passing beyond skifield boundaries and into the mountains under your own power to find pristine powder runs all to yourself.
The sport is growing in popularity in New Zealand, too.
In fact, not too many years ago, many mountain huts in the South Island’s Southern Alps were often nearly empty during winter. Now they are more likely to be visited by more alpine skiers than alpine climbers during a year.
Going ‘backcountry’ involves specialist equipment: skis with touring bindings, skins and avalanche safety equipment, which our certified guide and instructor from Sun Peaks Backcountry, Bodie Shandro, organised for my 15-year-old daughter Ruby and me.
We took the lift to the top of Tod mountain and then ‘skinned’ away into almost silent wilderness where the only sound was the ‘shooshing’ of our skis or snow sluffing off tree boughs.
Soon enough, it was all hooting and hollering as we floated through the trees, ‘yo-yoing’ our way around the mountainside – skiing down, before skinning up to do it all again.
While backcountry skiing requires effort, and you won’t get the same number of runs in a day as a ski lift enables, the payoff is that the runs you do have will be the best of the day - and you earn them.
Shandro shared his extensive knowledge teaching us how to use the equipment and the dangers to manage in Canada’s winter hills.
He also kept such a masterful pace that as we descended on the final run, we were feeling more energised by the experience than tired from the exertion.
And as I swished my way through the trees, I kept thinking, “Thank goodness for polar vortexes and ‘Old Toddy’.”
For more information, see sunpeaksresort.com. For more things to do in Canada, visit canada.travel
The writer was a guest of Destination British Columbia Hellobc.com
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