Photo: © Dom Koric / Sun Peaks Resort
Beginners, early intermediates, and advanced skiers will like it best. The biggest of Sun Peaks’ three mountains – Mount Tod – offers 825 vertical metres of skiing from top to bottom. That’s not much by the standards of, say Val d’Isere or Whistler – but if you’re skiing it in the middle of the week, with the sun shining, and hardly anyone else out, you probably won’t care.
There’s one top-to-bottom beginner run here, and a several broad, cruisey intermediate trails – you can’t miss ’em. But a lot of what you’ll find here are blacks (both groomed and bumpy) and short, sharp powder runs above the treeline. There’s also some well-organised cat-skiing on the upper slopes. Sundance is where you’ll find the nine-acre Rockstar Energy Terrain Park (with a variety of jumps, rails, boxes and hits in four distinct zones). There are also more beginner and intermediate slopes here. Mt Morrisey is where the gentlest of scenic trails have been cut through the trees.
In other words, if you’re a novice, or wobbly second-weeker, you’re going to love Sun Peaks – thanks to the excellent ski school, the lack of crowds and the fact that you can ski all the way from the top to the bottom of all three mountains on beginner trails.
Confident intermediates and early advanced skiers will like it too – several of the blacks are groomed, and once you’ve rebuilt your strength and confidence, you can set yourself against bumps and powder – ideally on one of the two-hour Top of the World clinics, which are tailor-made for people like you. By contrast, experts, used to long, steep big-mountain descents will get bored very quickly here. So too intermediates who don’t want to push themselves into new terrain.
Not for expert snowboarders
A healthy snowfall average and a wide variety of terrain should keep most boarders happy. Except the experts. However, if it snows, almost every kind of boarder will have fun here – cruising through trees, trying out short powder runs above the treeline, or testing themselves against the terrain park. The lack of competition for fresh tracks in the middle of the week (because this is such a quiet resort) will be a big bonus, too.
The only people who won’t like it are experts who are after the kind of long, steep runs you’ll find in the Alps – and of course anyone looking for a really vibrant scene, on and off the slopes. You need to target one of the bigger resorts for that.
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