Sun Peaks BC

We're just back from a short visit to Sun Peaks Resort, http://www.sunpeaksresort.com, near Kamloops, British Columbia. We left Vancouver on an unusually sunny, dry day and headed through the Coast mountains east to the interior. Kamloops, with its semi-arid climate was its usual brown and dry-looking self without a speck of snow to be seen anywhere. It looked like it hadn't snowed in weeks. We were wondering how there could possibly be enough snow to ski on at Sun Peaks. We took the road off the highway and started heading up into the high country. The countryside changed to prosperous-looking, wooded, horse farms and ranch lands, but, still no snow. Then, just before our arrival at the resort it all changed dramatically. There was snow and plenty of it! Rooftops were heavily laden with the white stuff.

Annual snowfall here is 6 metres (237") of powder and it showed. The conditions on the slopes were the best we've ever experienced anywhere and we've skied in quite a few locations. We were very impressed with this resort even though we were only able to sample just a few of the 120+ runs. There were no crowds, or, lift lines and more skiers than boarders. We only skied three days. The weather could have been better: the first day was heavy snow, the second was so foggy you could barely see your ski tips and on the third day it was clear sky lower down, but, still fogged in at the top. This location averages over 2,000 hours of sunshine a year, so, it was just our bad luck to be there during a bad patch. Although we never saw the top, the skiing was great nonetheless. On the day we were leaving it all cleared up and we were finally able to see the two Alpine bowls at the summit. Maybe next time...

There is a pretty ski-through pedestrian village and we enjoyed nice meals at some of the restaurants there.

The locals were very friendly, including this beautiful 'Newfie' (a Newfoundland dog, a unique Canadian breed)....

There was also drama with the arrival of a helicopter ambulance which quickly took away an injured skier. It wasn't a recreational skier injury, but, a speed skier, one of the competitors in the Speed Ski World Cup race happening while we were there.

Sun Peaks is the only speed skiing event held in North America and there were lots of Europeans that had come specifically to race here. We'd never heard of this event before and it was interesting to see the red-rubber suited competitors with aerodynamic helmets and leg padding. It's described as the 'fastest non-motorized sport on earth'. Skiers accelerate from 0 to 175 km/h in a mere 8 seconds! The record for this course is held by a Sun Peaks local skier, 178 km.

(Photo: Adam Stein)

Check out this video of the 2014 event.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Af-XprZc5NY&feature=player_embedded