4 Ways to Fuel Your Adventurous Soul on a BC Ski Trip

Wouldn’t it be nice to ski in a place where it takes days (instead of a morning) for runs to get skied out after a dump? Where there are more skiable acres on the mountain than people living in the adjacent town? And where the sport is such a part of local culture that business owners hang up “Gone Skiing” signs on a powder morning?

That place is British Columbia, Canada, a snow rider’s paradise with expansive terrain, few lift lines, and so much snow they’re digging out chairlifts by season’s end. BC is also home to North America’s largest resort (Whistler) and the ski area with the continent’s longest vertical drop (Revelstoke).

If the lure of crowd-free, ski-in/ski-out exploits doesn’t entice you to venture to the Great White North, here are four more ways to feed the winter adventurer within on a BC ski trip.

For a taste of extreme terrain you’ll have all to yourself, head to Revelstoke, located halfway between Vancouver and Calgary along what locals call the Powder Highway. Revelstoke, along with other towns in the Kootenay Rockies, make up Canada’s heli-skiing epicentre (Revy holds the record for the most snow in a single season at 23 metres or 78 feet!). Revelstoke Mountain Resort opened in 2007 after acquiring a parcel of cat-skiing terrain and adding a gondola to transport skiers up nearly 1,200 metres (4,000 feet) in just 20 minutes. From there, it’s just one more chairlift to get you to the summit and the start of North America’s longest vertical drop (1,700 metres or 5,620 feet).

Spend the day whooping it up in open bowls, down gnarly steeps, and through gladed gullies, with a vertigo-inducing view of the Columbia River more than a mile below. Then ski to your cozy room at the Sutton Place Hotel to relax in the hot tub before you get some sleep and do it all again tomorrow.

In Nelson, a three-hour drive north of Spokane, you may want to cut the ski day short and go straight to après. Head to Broken Hill for poutine, a classic Canadian snack of fries served with cheese curds and housemade gravy, enjoy street-style tacos at Cantina del Centro, 100-mile burgers at Mike’s Pub, or pints of organic amber ale at one of four breweries.

If your ski legs are beat from doing laps at nearby Whitewater—ranked in the Top 10 for powder skiing by Lonely Planet—glide right over to Coal Oil Johnny’s Pub for “pow chow” in a Canadiana setting that includes snowshoes hanging on the wall. When you’re finally sated, Ainsworth Hot Springs Resort will rejuvenate those quads for more uncrowded groomers, bowls, steeps, and glades the following day.

Another underrated resort is RED Mountain, located just 14.4 kilometres (nine miles) north of the U.S.-Canada border in eastern Washington state. The 110 runs here rarely get tracked out, which isn’t surprising since it’s one of the continent’s top 10 largest ski resorts. That said, it’s not located near any big cities—Spokane, WA (population just 217,000) is the closest urban centre, a 2.5-hour drive away. Like many BC resorts, RED’s terrain skews toward advanced, with plenty of challenging glades and thrilling chutes mixed in with family-friendly cruisers. And with on-mountain lodging such as The Josie hotel only steps from the lift, you’ll have plenty of time to hit the slopes and enjoy some creature comforts at any point in the day.

At SilverStar Mountain Resort in the Okanagan Valley north of Kelowna, a private lesson can help you tame the terrain at BC’s fourth-largest ski resort. A pro will show you the runs less skied, like those wide-spaced glades in Silver Woods, or help you handle the steep and deep pitches in Putnam Creek on the backside.

At both resorts, the terrain levels up as you progress, so you’ll never run out of challenges. And if the prospect of knee-knocking inbounds steeps that almost require a snorkel after a dump of powder doesn’t fuel your adventurous soul, there’s always heli-skiing right from the resort at Panorama, Kicking Horse, and Whistler.