Sun Peaks BC 2010 -2011 For the addicts!

[bowralzak]

Hey Sly at least 1/2 the price of what you would pay in OZ for something equivilant. Value is one question, crowds are the next , snow quality and mountain variety. all leave OZ for dead basically.
Did have a question for you though.
We are planning a boys trip approx 10 of us for Feb 2012 for 14 days and looking at Red Mountain. 2/3 rds of the the group are intermediate skiers so need cruisy runs etc whilst the others are interested in Cat Skiing nearby.
Have you skied there and what do you think of the place??
Good value or not?

 

[Crystal]

Red...not an intermediate mountain.

 

[sly_karma]

Wot Crystal said. Red is good value for sure, but its emphasis is on unmanicured terrain and deep Kootenay powder. Not to say there's no intermediate skiing at all, but the intermediate boys will get bored skiing Paradise triple all week.

Although it's not considered a perfect intermediate resort either, Revelstoke has cat skiing close by too, and its lifted skiing has more vertical and a more diverse terrain mix.

Fernie would be another place where both resort and cat skiing could be accomodated - Island Lake Lodge is pretty close by, take off over there for 2-3 days while the carvemeisters stay put and do their thing. Fernie has plenty of advanced terrain but does a lot of grooming to keep the Calgary weekend crowd happy.

Another one to consider would be to ski either Silver Star or Sun Peaks as a group (SS in particular has plenty of long steep bumps for the advanced and experts), then the cat ski group goes to either Monashee Powder Adventures (east of SS) or Mustang Cat Skiing (sort of between SS and SP) whilst the rest of the group continues on to the other of the two resorts. Then after the cat ski days that group goes on to the resort and rejoins the rest for the last few days.

Suggest you book the cat days pretty soon, those places aren't huge and book out quickly for February dates. Also recommend you position the cat days later in the trip, give those legs a chance to get some condition before the expensive skiing. Biggest limiting factor for most people in deep snow is not lack of skills but lack of fitness. If you can't ski a full day, you're wasting money.

 

[Hacski]

I ended up at the Sydney Snow Expo today without planning to be there and met Audi Annie. Lovely to meet you Annie and the guys (and the snow bunnies). I'm sure missHac will have us back at Sun Peaks again.