I have a recurring dream. In it, I’m flying down an endless, perfectly angled fall-line run with shin-deep powder billowing behind as I sweep over berms and sidehills, dropping hundreds of leg-burning metres as a leitmotif of snow-clad forest flashes by. Weirdly, instead of channelling some backcountry idyll, this magical vignette unfolds on a piste, as if my subconscious knows something I’m loathe to voice—that the solid, predictable base of a well-groomed run buried in new powder can be as good as skiing gets.
In addition to classic powder-hounding, I chase this snow-on-piste beast across the world’s ski areas. It’s a good pet to have in your pocket—particularly in early season when powder dumps on well-pounded pistes are far safer than pursuing fluff on questionable off-piste obstacle courses. Thus, as I made my way over the Duffey last weekend through a thick snowstorm en route to Sun Peaks—one of Canada’s best piste destinations and an early season standout by any measure—I was pretty sure I’d be taking it for a walk.
I wasn’t wrong. With a significant storm dumping what seemed like far more than Sun Peaks’ usual dry, dependable tranches, we thought to let it fill in a bit and start our trip with some laps on the resort’s 37 kilometres of hill-and-dale Nordic trails—well-covered even at this point in the season. It paid off when the next day proved sunny and still powder-ful, a function of low crowds and the ability of the hill’s seven chairlifts to spread skiers and riders across the three unique faces of Tod, Sundance and Morrisey mountains. Indeed, it seemed entirely criminal that we found an abundance of powder to ski a day after it had been there for the taking. With the additional shock of skiing right onto a chair even on a weekend, we not only racked up a dozen runs by noon, but managed to make our way across all three sectors.
Catching cruisers with powder atop them can be life-changing, but cruising freshly groomed corduroy can also be transcendent to skiers at any level: a place for beginners to safely explore their pizza-wedges; for intermediates, a wide-open space to gain confidence; and for experts, a warm-up bonanza of speed and physics. Indeed, the G-forces pulled on good corduroy are enough to keep Einstein interested; there’s something about crossing the fall-line with your edges slicing velvety ridges, knowing that the quirky combo of speed, edging, and gravity will keep your body suspended only centimetres above them.
While the ski world is full of superb cruisers, they’re often overlooked in the scramble for steep, deep and off-piste adventure. And while perfectly groomed cruisers are short-lived mythical creatures elsewhere (in Whistler they can only be sighted between 8:30 and 9:30 a.m.), they’re a longer-lived daily reality at Sun Peaks, whose carpets of perfection win consistent praise, a particular charm that draws skiers back again and again. Marking Sun Peaks on their calendars for early season training is a habit for plenty of racers—both from around B.C. and abroad. Legendarily, Austria’s National Team signed a five-year deal in 2005 to exclusively train there in the lead-up to the 2010 Olympic Games. Whether they thought it would give them a feel for B.C. snow or just deliver groomed runs wide enough to set four Giant Slaloms side-by-each is hard to say. But it’s well-known that the team also loved the somewhat-isolated, self-contained nature of Sun Peaks, which delivered them from the public scrutiny of busier resorts.
Certainly, the snow-covered strollable base village has been likened to “a little bit of Europe” by more than one visitor, a comment that resonates with its boutiques and some 25 eating and drinking establishments featuring a range of casual to fine-dining, intimate to family friendly, local to international cuisine. These days, with the town growing fast as a place to live (with only 1,400 residents, it even has a school), its spacious charm may last only a few more seasons.
Space, of course, is a key ingredient for cruising. And the 4,270 acres of skiing spread across Canada’s second-largest ski area offer more of it than many comparably sized resorts. In addition to wide-open speedways, some runs feel like secret-garden glades—only you’re not dodging trees because they’re wide enough to pull off big, arcing GS turns.
If what’s underfoot is a big draw, then what lands atop in frequent dumps of 10 to 15 cm is pure bonus—not only the perfect cruiser topper, but the preferred refresher for gladed forests and off-piste terrain. And while roomy, consistent skiing remains a central draw, Sun Peaks offers all the other winter feels you’ve come to expect—from dog-sledding to horse-drawn sleigh rides, fat biking, ice-fishing, and snowshoeing. There’s also the chance to dip into ski history with Canadian Olympic doyenne Nancy Greene Raine, who lives here year-round and can be found on the slopes most days.
But I was only here to follow my early season powder-on-piste desires, so while French draft horses pulling excited families through the village snorted clouds into the cold air, I was just happy to know I could still count on Sun Peaks as one of the best places in Canada to chase that dream.
Leslie Anthony is a Whistler-based author, editor, biologist and bon vivant who has never met a mountain he didn’t like.
