 Poster: A snowHead
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Just back from a family trip to Sun Peaks, We (me, Mrs n and miss n, 12, and our friends – two adults, kids 8 and 10) booked with American Ski Classics and staying at the Sun Peaks Grand.
It wasn’t a resort any of us were familiar with initially, but we were hoping it would offer the variety of skiing for the whole family that we’d enjoyed with trips to Banff in 22 and 23.
We flew from Heathrow to Kamloops with Air Canada. Our initial flights had a 90 minute layover in Vancouver but AC evidently decided that this wasn’t long enough to allow for baggage transfer and any in-bound delays so moved us to the next YKA flight – five and a half hours after arrival from London. Of course, our Heathrow flight arrived about 15 minutes early, but hey ho.
This was the only downside and meant a 25-hour journey from waking up to arriving in Sun Peaks. Arrived at 23.30 into YKA but Sun Star Shuttle was waiting for us and the driver was great with luggage.
Easy check in at the Sun Peaks Grand, which is a pleasant hotel but sorely in need of refurbishment. The room was a decent size and well-equipped but the public areas and general décor could do with a facelift – and some decent lighting.
We had 9-day lift passes with each of the kids qualifying for free passes, and they were in ski school for 5 days (W, Th, F, M, Tu) from 08.45 until 15.30 including lunch. We paid CAN750 for the lessons which was much more expensive than our last two trips to Banff where we’ve had lessons at Sunshine and Louise, but the lessons were much longer and the ski school was really flexible with moving up and down groups.
I think the maximum group size for our daughter was 3, so very well organised. All three kids were up and out every morning without a grumble – not something we’ve been able to say every year….. 
Like elsewhere, Sun Peaks isn’t enjoying the best ever season, but it had had around 30cm in the days before we arrived, so conditions were great for the first half of the trip. Clear blue skies, comfortably sub-zero temps and incredibly quiet pistes made for some lovely skiing. A bit of bootpacking up to Gill’s and we had a couple of runs around the back of the hill where there were still plenty of fresh tracks to be had.
The middle weekend was Family and President’s weekend, so lots more visitors – but still a max of 5 minutes queuing in the village for lifts from the base. Temperatures also rose over the weekend, so we were quite happy that we’d booked a trip to the hockey on Saturday so finished the day after lunch.
It was our first ever hockey match, and the mighty Kamloops Blazers dispatched local rivals Prince George Cougars 2-1 after added/extra/over-time in some sort of one-on-one not-quite-penalty shoot off. Thoroughly enjoyed the game, despite having no idea what was going on – goals, comedy gloves thrown onto the ice fights, and enthusiastic Digger the Dog mascot 
The last three days were quiet again after the holiday weekend and we had another 10cm of show which freshened things up considerably. Despite the low snow this year and warm weekend temps, the snow management was excellent – no hints of bare patches anywhere and all runs were open throughout.
The ski area was perfect for us. Long green/blue runs for cruising and quiet enough for me to work on some technical stuff, as expected plenty of good tree skiing – not only on the black and double-black runs but also several ungroomed blues, especially over on the Morrisey side. Our daughter had done a double black in Louise last year and happily did three or four this year, including for the first time with me rather than in lessons.
The in-bounds back/slack-country area is huge and while nowhere near as extensive or challenging as Whistler it would be really enjoyable in a good snow year, and a great introduction for the kids.
Proximity to the village meant it lunch options were much wider that on our last two trips – there are a few excellent cafes in the village serving great sandwiches and coffee, and I assume the restaurants would be open at lunch too for people wanting a full meal.
Bottoms and Masa’s were both great for apres and Canadian bites, nice pizza from Mountain High and excellent Japanese food at Oya. Cahilty’s was great as well – a notch above Bottoms and Masa’s. Steak house was good, although painfully slow service. All superb with the kids as expected.
The village supermarket was ok – although 9 bucks for chocolate bars?! – but very limited fresh stuff. I like to make my own lunch sometimes and there was nothing there for that, but a minor issue.
It also seems like an incredibly friendly and close-knit community. We were there on the sixth anniversary of the disappearance of Ryan Shtuka, a seasonnaire who was last seen at a party in 2018 and one of the first things that came up when we were researching the resort. His family held a ski-together on the Saturday we were there which we would have joined had we not been at the hockey.
In conclusion, for our party it worked perfectly. Enough to keep us amused and challenged for nine days of skiing, and lovely to be able to fall out of the hotel and onto the lift.
All in all a fabulous trip, and we’ll be heading back in Feb next year.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Great report, been twice, want to go back
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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You must have arrived as left for silver star!
If your going again the season pass is worth looking at, it works out at about 8 days of lift pass purchase if you buy the pass early ( can pay in 3 instalment). You get 1 free group lesson some money off in some cafes and shops ( don't know which ones) . You also get 2 days free lift ticket at Silver Star . 25% off at most other resorts in bc / alberta/ Washington state and 50% off lift tickets at Whistler there are some restrictions. We managed to get our 2 free days in S S and the 25%off the other days as well.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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If you can get there earlier in the day the bus driver often stops at supermarket in Kamloops. There is a a firm that picks up shopping for you from kamloops they can drop off the shopping and put stuff in the fridge.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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It's been snowing most of this week too, so the weather pattern has changed in the right way.
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