Ten best ski resorts in Canada

9th September 2016, by Dave Watts

Looking for powder? Head to the Canadian ski resort of Revelstoke

Canada has huge attractions for UK skiers and boarders – frequent dumps of snow, generally quiet pistes, great grooming, spacious and often luxurious lodgings and a warm welcome. And for competent skiers who enjoy skiing powder, there’s the knowledge that they can safely do so without paying for a guide or using avalanche safety equipment. This is because, unlike Europe, every resort has a ski area boundary marked by signs or a rope – everywhere within this boundary, however steep and gnarly it is, is avalanche controlled and patrolled.

But Canada has resorts to suit everyone, not just good skiers and boarders.

Here’s our pick of where to go.

BEST FOR POWDER
Revelstoke

This is the new kid on the Canadian block. Until 2007/8 it was a small hill for locals served by one short lift. But a gondola and two fast chairlifts have transformed it into a resort with the biggest vertical in North America and around 3,000 acres of slopes which get huge amounts of powder – around 40 feet a year on average. Its terrain is mostly ungroomed and steep. There is wonderful tree skiing and a big open bowl accessed through a cliff band – you need to know the best ways in and the ski school has half and full day Inside Tracks sessions where they show you around the terrain (a must for any keen skier or boarder). There’s also a cat-skiing area right by the lift-served slopes and heli-skiing that can be booked at the base area. The first part of a new resort village at the foot of the slopes is now complete with a hotel (see below), separate restaurant, bar and coffee shop. You can also stay in unpretentious Revelstoke town, a five minute drive away, with a daytime bus service and fair choice of restaurants and bars.

Where to stay
The luxurious Sutton Place Hotel is right at the foot of the slopes and has an outdoor pool, hot tubs, fitness facilities. 

Alternatives 


Whistler
Gets almost an average of almost 40 feet of snow a year and has awesome top bowls and chutes which are usually powder filled

Big White
Ideal for learning to ski powder with lots of easy intermediate slopes and tree runs and regular snowfalls

Fernie has massive snowfalls of 30 feet per year

BEST FOR EXPERTS
Fernie

Fernie has long had cult status among Alberta and British Columbia skiers because of its abundant snowfalls (30 feet a year, on average) and the adventurous nature of its steep, ungroomed terrain, largely among the shelter of trees. This makes it a superb mountain for good skiers, so long as you know where you are going (a lot of the runs are difficult to find and involve long traverses). To get the most out of the terrain it’s best to get guidance early in your holiday – you can take a two-day Steep and Deep Camp. There’s also great snowcat skiing nearby. The resort village is convenient but small and nothing special. Fernie town, a couple of miles away, is primarily a place for locals with few of the usual tourist trappings but it has a decent selection of bars and restaurants.

Where to stay 
Park Place Lodge Good value hotel with its own lively pub, an easy walk to the centre of town and on the bus route to/from the resort.

Alternatives
Revelstoke
Great steep and deep terrain (see Best for Powder above)

Whistler
Has more steep terrain than any other resort in North America

BEST FOR BEGINNERS
Sun Peaks

Canada is a long way to go to learn to ski but if you are going that far Sun Peaks is a great little place to start. It has a friendly, attractive, purpose-built small village made up of low-rise pastel-coloured buildings with a vaguely Tirolean feeling to them and a short traffic-free main street. The nursery slopes are right by the village centre and lifts and there are long easy green runs to progress to, including the long 5 Mile top-to-bottom run from Mt Tod with a vertical of over 800m. The ski school runs special Learn to Ski/Snowboard packages which include equipment hire and lift pass as well as lessons.
For more experienced riders there is some good intermediate cruising on blue runs, unique easy groomed glade skiing and some seriously steep black runs. The slopes were expanded by over 500 acres for the 2014/15 season and it is now the second biggest ski area in Canada – only Whistler is bigger.

Where to stay
Sun Peaks Grand hotel is the best in town, right on the slopes by the lifts and has an outdoor pool and hot tub.

Alternatives
Silver Star
Compact, car-free resort with good beginner area right by the village and easy runs to progress to

Fernie
Although best known as an experts’ mountain, Fernie has a great nursery slope and very quiet, easy runs to progress to

BEST FOR CONVENIENCE
Big White

North American resorts aren’t known for ski-from-the-door convenience, but some have been purpose-built for the convenience of skiers. Of these, among the most successful is Big White – virtually all the hotels and apartments in this modern resort are ski-in, ski-out, with the main lifts starting below village level; even Main Street is designated a ski run by the resort.
The terrain suits intermediates best, and the fact that it gets a lot of snow and has a lot of trees for shelter means that it is a good place to learn to ski powder. There’s also a great area called Happy Valley with other activities such as ice skating, snowmobiling, tubing and snowshoeing, served by a gondola that works till late. The village doesn’t amount to much – apres and shopping are limited. 

Where to stay
Stonebridge Lodge is in a near perfect location, with spacious well-furnished apartments, most with private outdoor hot tub.

Alternatives
Panorama
A French-style purpose-built resort, with some lodgings set right at the lift base, and others slightly below, linked by open-top gondola.

Silver Star
You’re half-way up the hill in your lodgings here, so you can start your day with a run not a lift.

Whistler has the biggest ski area in North America

BEST ALL ROUND
Whistler

Whistler’s two linked mountains (Whistler and Blackcomb) add up to much the biggest ski area in North America, which more or less automatically puts the resort on the shortlist of most transatlantic visitors – and certainly people who like to rack up the miles without skiing the same slopes repeatedly. For beginners, there are excellent nursery slopes, and top-to-bottom green runs to progress to. For experts, the high open bowls offer limitless possibilities, with regular dumps of powder streaming in from the nearby Pacific. There are even world-class terrain parks.
The purpose-built resort village is big and busy, but this means it has lots of bars and restaurants, with a lively apres-ski scene at the lift base from mid-afternoon, and more than a few touristy shops. There’s plenty for non-skiers to do, from zip lines to eagle-watching tours.

Where to stay
Fairmont Chateau Whistler is very comfortable and right at the foot of the Blackcomb slopes.

Alternatives
There is nowhere else in the same league as Whistler, but here are your best bets.

Panorama
Excellent terrain for beginners, experts and adventurous intermediates; a bit limited for blue-run skiers, though.

Lake Louise
All three sectors here will amuse intermediates and experts, though you can’t count on deep powder; good nursery slopes at the base lodge.

Click here for more details on why it’s never been a better time to go skiing in Whistler

BEST FOR VALUE
Banff

Banff does not offer the lowest on-the-spot prices, but it keeps one key advantage: good-value package holidays. The town sits at one end of a fabulously scenic drive through mountainous national parks, so it has a lot of lodgings to meet summer demand – and in winter these lodgings are relatively cheap.
Banff is a jolly little tourist town with more than 100 bars and restaurants (and countless souvenir shops). It has three ski areas, each a free bus ride from town. Norquay is only a few minutes away, but tiny; Sunshine Village, 20 minutes away, is a fair size and gets the best snow; Lake Louise, 45 minutes away, is the biggest area, with spectacular scenery.

Where to stay
Banff Caribou Lodge, a little way out of the centre but on the main street is woody and welcoming.

Alternatives
Jasper
Like Banff, Jasper is a big summer destination, with plenty of competitively priced lodgings in winter.

Kimberley
You’ll find some keenly priced packages to this small resort with ski-in lodgings.

BEST FOR CHARM
Silver Star
The core of this cute village was built in the 1980s to resemble a 19th century mining village. It is based around a tiny traffic-free square lined with brightly-painted Victorian-era style buildings, wooden sidewalks and faux gas lights. It opens up on one side right on to the slopes. Equally brightly painted individual houses built in the same style are dotted around the slopes above and served by chair lifts. There’s a nice little natural ice rink on a lake and a tubing hill nearby. Nearly all the accommodation is either ski-in/ski-out or less than 30 seconds walk to the snow.
The slopes suit all standards, with a mixture of easy green runs, intermediate cruising on well-groomed trails plus a dense network of single- and double-black diamond runs plunging through the trees, many of them top-to-bottom mogul fields. The ski school has an excellent reputation.

Where to stay
The luxurious Snowbird Lodge condos are ski-in/ski-out, a few steps down to the village centre and all except studios have private hot tubs on the balconies.

Alternatives
Tremblant
Charming core village purpose-built in the style of Old Quebec with narrow cobbled streets at the foot of a small area of varied slopes.

Sun Peaks
Small purpose-built resort with one main, traffic-free street of pastel-coloured buildings. Ski area expanded and now the second biggest in Canada

BEST FOR FAMILIES
Panorama
The resort village is on two levels, linked by an open-top gondola. The ‘upper village’ has lots of accommodation from which you step out straight on to the snow with no traffic in sight. It is based around a skating rink and outdoor hot pool complex, with various pools, water slides, hot tubs and a sauna – all free if you are staying there. Wee Wascals childcare centre looks after children aged from 18 months to 5 years. And ski school is available for kids aged 5 upwards. A list of babysitters is available for out-of-hours care.
The mountain has a vertical of 1220m, one of the biggest in North America and the terrain suits beginners, adventurous intermediates and experts best. And RK heli-skiing is based in the village, with a big lodge and heli-pad; it specialises in first-time heli-skiers and provides special fat skis to make skiing powder easy.

Where to stay
The ‘Upper Village Condos’ are comfortable and spacious and your room key gives you access to the hot pools and sauna.

Alternatives
Sun Peaks
Small purpose-built village with one main, traffic-free street and comprehensive childcare facilities through the Sundance Kids Centre and the ski school’s Sun Tots and Sun Kids programmes.

Big White
Lots of convenient ski-in/ski-out accommodation, Tot Town Daycare in the main square, special kids ski school programmes and fun family activities at the Happy Valley centre

BEST FOR SCENERY
Lake Louise
Lake Louise is spectacularly set in a National Park, with great views from the ski area of peaks and glaciers including Canada’s Matterhorn lookalike Mount Assiniboine. And the view from the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise hotel of the Victoria Glacier over the frozen Lake Louise itself is simply stunning – it’s well worth staying in a room with that view. The Lake Louise ski area offers runs to suit all standards, including lots of ideal intermediate terrain. The ski area is a couple of miles drive or bus ride away from Lake Louise village and another mile or so from the lake itself.
And there are two other areas nearer to Banff (a 45 minute drive away) worth exploring too – Sunshine Village and Mount Norquay, which both have intermediate cruising and steep options too. Having a car here is handy as the bus service from Lake Louise to the other two ski areas isn’t great.

Where to stay
For the most spectacular views book a room overlooking the lake in the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise.

Alternatives
Banff
Main resort in Banff National Park with Mount Rundle next door and many other spectacular peaks nearby

Whistler
The views from the top of glaciers and high open bowls and ridges are spectacular, as are the views down to Fitzsimmon Creek from the Peak 2 Peak gondola

If you want to ski in a cult resort in Canada, head to Red Mountain

BEST FOR BRAGGING RIGHTS
Red Mountain
This has long been a cult resort for expert skiers who can handle its steep terrain and tree skiing. And a few seasons ago the ski area was hugely expanded by a new quad chair up Grey Mountain, adjacent to its existing Granite Mountain terrain. This has added some more much needed intermediate runs to its existing mainly gnarly black runs through the trees. Runs are marked on the piste map but not nearly so clearly on the mountain, so having a local guide is helpful. And many retired locals volunteer to guide visitors around. Don’t worry: they are likely to be expert skiers – more Canadian ski team members over the years originate from nearby Rossland than anywhere else in Canada. There is good cat-skiing here too. As well as recently built accommodation at the base there is more in the small old mining town of Rossland (4km away and served by free shuttle-buses), which has a cool atmosphere and we like a lot.

Where to stay
The Prestige Mountain Resort is comfortable and has a hot tub, sauna, spa, popular après-ski bar and one of Rossland’s best restaurants.

Alternatives
Whitewater
About an hour away from Red and with equally cult status for ungroomed steep terrain; nearby Nelson is a cool town to stay

Kicking Horse
Developed in 2000 when a new gondola opened up what was previously heli-skiing terrain; now there’s a tiny village at the base




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• ski
• snow
• snowboard
• skiing
• family
• canada
• whistler
• banff
• sun peaks
• revelstoke

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