When most people think of skiing in Canada, I think that Whistler is usually at top of mind, and for good reason. As one of the biggest ski resorts in the world, it has terrain for everyone, unmatched infrastructure, and a bustling village. There truly is no place like it. However, all that brings with it a sort of mayhem that has spiralled in the past few years. Lift tickets have soared to over $200 CAD /day, gondola lineups wind and weave through the village in the mornings, and the sea to sky highway hits its capacity with tourists coming in from out of town and the 3,000,000 residents of Vancouver.
Looking east of the Pacific Mountain range home to this magnificent ski resort, across the interior BC plateau, one will find themselves at the edge of the Canadian Rocky Mountains. A name that likely rings a lot of bells among those who have looked to visit Canada. The Canadian Rockies host around 20 ski resorts of widely varying terrain, weather, and vibe. The amount of terrain is astonishing.
If you draw a line down the trans-canada highway with some minor detours, a pretty incredible trip can be strung together showing off all this region has to offer. These 5 resorts are the essence of a Canadian Rockies journey. Not to mention that they also make up what might be the world’s most picturesque winter road trip.
Sunshine Village
Flying into Calgary, Alberta is the first step on your journey. As you descend into town, you will be greeted with a city skyline backdropped by the snow capped rockies only about 50km away. From here, it is a quick 1.5 hour drive to the beating heart of a rockies winter, Banff. The city was founded in the 1880s to service the Canadian Pacific Railway. Many of the extravagant buildings and hotels built to promote people of the day to move west are still here today. Notably, the Fairmont Banff Springs, which could be your home for this part of the journey. I am biased, but this is the nicest hotel in the world.
Sunshine village ski resort sits a mere 15 minutes from the town of Banff. The quick drive takes you high up a winding valley to the base of the gondola, where you then ride up to the edge of the sunshine meadows taking in sweeping views of the surrounding mountains. By the time you have reached the ski hill, you are at around 2200m (7200ft). This makes Sunshine a trusty spot for good snow all season. In 2022, there was so much snow through the spring that they actually opened a lift on July 1st for Canada day. A full summer ski day festival ensued.
The resort sits in a sort of bowl allowing you to access skiing on all aspects. There is a good selection of longer big mountain runs, while also mixing in some nice shorter runs on a ton of different terrain types. This is a great resort to kick things off at and get your legs warm. The Wawa chair offers quick laps on fun rolling terrain to keep the family entertained. Or, if you have left the family behind and are looking to rip it up from day one, Delirium Dive offers some of the biggest terrain in the country with almost 700m of vertical in a wide open heaven of snow. Sunshine also recently added a few heated/covered chairlifts. So even on those chilly Banff mornings you are nice and comfortable.
Lake Louise
This spot holds a special place for me. In 2020 when I first moved to Western Canada in the middle of the Covid pandemic, I nestled into a staff accommodation room in the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise for the winter. With not a lot of social interaction going on, I set my eyes across the Bow Valley on the Lake Louise Ski resort and figured I might as well explore the place. That winter I was the embodiment of the old phrase “No friends on a pow day.” Being brand new to Alberta I certainly had no friends, and the 2020 winter delivered plenty of pow days.
Lake Louise year over year is voted the #1 ski resort in Canada for good reason. The hill is massive with more terrain than I could cover in a whole season. Lift infrastructure is well updated and keeps people spread around the hill nicely keeping lines short. Oh, and did I mention the views? Lake Louise Ski Resort is named for the iconic mountain lake across the valley which you can see from all parts of the mountain. Look a little to your left and you will also see Mt. Temple. A 11,600 ft beast of a mountain and one of the tallest in the Canadian Rockies.
This is a heck of a second stop on your journey and a tough one to top. But, fear not, there is plenty more these mountains have to offer.
Panorama
Panorama is a lesser known gem of the region tucked away south of Golden in the Columbia valley. There is lots of fun to be had here and usually without any crowds. The hill is known for getting a little less snow than surrounding resorts But, when your benchmark is places like Revelstoke and Golden receiving on average 6-8 meters of snow per year, a little less is still pretty damn good.
I would say this is the best family hill on the list. The mountain has great lift access with options for everyone even if you make your way up to the summit. Temperatures in the lower lying valley tend to be a little warmer offering great opportunity for some apres on the patios. The village at the base of the hill has a nice charm to it and offers everything you would want in a post ski day hangout.
If you are up for it, the Taynton bowl area offers some more intense skiing for those looking to get off the beaten path. The area can only be accessed by hiking, or if thats not your thing, grabbing a ticket for Pano’s cat skiing service. Because the area is not lift accessible, it takes alot longer to be tracked out through the winter and there is no doubt you can find some top tier steep skiing.
Revelstoke
On to a special stop on the trip, and my personal favourite, Revelstoke. This place is known for it’s mammoth snowfall totals, abundance of hike accessed terrain, massive vertical (The largest in North America), and lively town. You really can’t go wrong here. At this point, you have travelled about 500km from Calgary and are at one of the more remote parts of the rockies. This is a true mountain town with elevated highway passes on either side. It is not uncommon for highways to be closed on either side of the town during big snowfalls, and you end up with the whole place to yourself. It is ideal to build a contingency day in for this. Park’s Canada is incredible at clearing the roads, but it can take up to a full day.
A day at Revelstoke begins with a big ride up the Gondola. Grab a coffee for the journey as you are covering 1000m of vertical on this ride up to the tree line. It can get relatively warm in the valley, so this setup keeps you high above the occasional winter rainfall and in the thick of world class skiing. I have spent full weekends skiing the Stoke chair over and over and over again without ever getting bored. You would be hard pressed to find another ski lift on the planet with more options for incredible terrain.
When the ski day is done, the trip is far from over. The Revelstoke Grizzlies Junior hockey team often draws crowds in the 1000’s and typically run about $5 per ticket. The village idiot is a classic apres pub in town, and there are a plethora of other local restaurants to hit whatever craving all that skiing might be inducing. On the topic of food… before you make your way down the hill at the end of the day, it is absolutely mandatory that you stop for a burger at the Mackenzie Outpost at the top of the gondola. This might just be the best burger in the world when you pair it with a local pint and the fact that you’re high above the clouds on a patio.
Sun Peaks
The final stop on this journey is another sneaky good hill tucked away north of Kamloops BC. I would imagine most people in the area aren’t even aware that it is the second largest resort in Canada behind only Whistler. Sun Peaks features a ton of ski-in ski-out accommodation, 3 interconnected mountains to explore, and a smaller village seeing minimal crowds.
Situated about as central as one can get in BC, the city slickers of Calgary and Vancouver (Myself Included) wouldn’t even know where to begin finding this place on a weekend. Kamloops is the closest city housing only about 100,000 people. If you’re willing to string together this legendary Rockies road trip, this stop is going to reward you. Prepare for nothing short of meters and meters of snow all to yourself, sure to leave you longing to return to Western Canada for years to come.
Wrapping it Up
It might sound like a pipe dream getting to all these places in one shot, but aside from one 3 hour haul from Revelstoke to Sun Peaks, you will never be in transit for more than 2 hours at a time. You are looking at ticking off 5 world class ski resorts and some of the nicest Canadian mountain towns in 2 incredible weeks. This also happens to be some of the most affordable skiing in the world. Lift tickets average 30% of the cost charged by comparable resorts in the United States.
If all this sounds appealing, get in touch and we can make it happen.
Go West 