Best Day Ever: Insiders’ Guide to BC Skiing

Big White: Slopeside Everything + Family Fun

Located in BC’s Okanagan wine country, near Kelowna International Airport, Big White is all about ski-in, ski-out. Its swift lift system, consistent snow quality, and lively on-mountain village (with diversions like gourmet tapas, outdoor skating, and an ice climbing tower) make it popular with families. Also awesome, says Poplar Grove Winery’s Michael Ziff, 54, is Big White’s lack of crowds. “I can do a few laps on my favourite chairlift before anybody else shows up,” Ziff says

For Rick Duha, 59, an international businessman who has skied the globe, the best Big White days centre on family and friends. The mountain’s layout, he explains, enables skiers and boarders of different ability levels to ride lifts together yet descend on terrain ideal for each, from cruisy boulevards to hidden pockets of expert tree skiing.

“If it’s a really beautiful day, we’ll pack a lunch, walk up to Moonlight Bowl above the Gem Lake Express, and eat lunch there overlooking the backside of the mountain, which is absolutely stunning.” After more skiing comes shinny on the skating rink and a horse-drawn sleigh to dinner. “It’s the best all-around ski experience anywhere in the world.”

Kicking Horse: Majestic Vistas + Bronco Steeps

Kicking Horse Mountain Resort sits atop eastern BC’s majestic Purcell Mountains like a crown jewel. Known for its uncrowded bowl skiing, jaw-drop vistas, champagne snow, and vertiginous steeps, the mountain delivers its sprawl of adventurous terrain with a low-key vibe and just a few lifts. At the base, a slopeside mini-village supplies the essentials alongside ski-in lodgings ranging from studio condos to luxury homes. Twenty minutes away by car is the unpretentious town of Golden, the gateway to five National Parks (and a couple of very fun après-ski bars).

Jeff Gertsch, 39, is the lead guide at Purcell Heli-Skiing (now part of CMH Heli-Skiing). On his rare winter days off, Gertsch skis Kicking Horse. “The mountain provides an awesome challenge,” he says. “I’ve been known to be the kid in the line-up at first light, sipping coffee with my buddies, waiting to be the first one on the gondola.”

Once lifts start moving, he burns through lap after lap down the chutes of Bowl Over and CPR Ridge, moving further outward as patrol opens each successive zone of KHMR’s big, complex terrain. But even a pro has his limit: “You get 10 laps of skiing the Horse and you’re feeling pretty knackered.” He finishes his day with a cold pint atop the mountain at Eagle’s Eye. “It’s world class.”

Sun Peaks: Blue Skies + Room to Move

At BC’s second-largest ski area, three forested ski peaks encircle a snowy ski-through village, with slopeside lodgings dappled throughout. Just over four hours by car from Vancouver, at the juncture of the Cariboo and Monashee mountains, Sun Peaks is both a destination resort and a close-knit year-round community, with a focus on all-ages outdoor recreation.

“It’s a lot like skiing Colorado in terms of the quality of the snow,” says Elli Terwiel, 30, who grew up at Sun Peaks, raced World Cup, and competed at the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi. “We get really dry champagne powder or incredibly blue sunny days.” Either way, Terwiel (now a structural engineer in Berkeley, California) likes to ski the entire sprawl, from combed groomers to steep bump runs to glades tucked between trails.

But for 14-year-old Luc Dallaire, an up-and-coming competitive freestyle skier, it’s all about getting air—some 200 times a day—to perfect his grabs and switch tricks. “What I love about Sun Peaks is that the terrain park goes top to bottom,” Dallaire says. “It runs under the chairlift the whole way, on Sundance, so it’s like a show on the way up and you get to be the show on the way down.”

Whitewater: Athletic Skiing + Delicious Eats

Whitewater is a day ski area that attracts destination visitors from around the world. They come for the frequent dumps of lofty snow, easygoing yet ski-obsessed vibe, and rock-and-roll tree skiing. Many, especially Scandinavians, come for the ready access to the surrounding backcountry. Located in southcentral BC’s Selkirk Mountains, Whitewater also has the advantage of being less than 30 minutes from the historic little city of Nelson, where the food and drink scene—including Cantina del Centro, Yum Son, Pitchfork, and a pack of craft breweries—draws return visitors again and again.

Sam Kuch, 21, is a newly minted ski movie star and the hottest commodity in freeskiing. Nicknamed “The Kootenay Kid,” the Nelson and Whitewater local does things like point his skis down a spatula-wide space between trees before vaulting over a cliff, flipping and spinning, landing on another spatula-sized spot, then doing more of the same—all with effortless, centred form and an easy, happy smile.

At home, his best days start with coffee from Nelson’s Oso Negro before warm-up laps on Whitewater’s Summit Chair. Then he starts walking uphill. “That’s where Whitewater really shines,” Kuch says. “We have such easy access to the slackcountry from the chairlift. It’s a short, 20-minute hike to world-class terrain in the alpine.” Afterwards Kuch refuels at the day lodge’s acclaimed Fresh Tracks Cafe, rejuvenates at the Nelson rec centre pool, grabs a pint at Backroads Brewing—and gets ready to do it all again tomorrow.

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