Popular Winter Sports Vacation Options in BC Canada
By: Fabiola Grosshan
Submitted: 2010-09-28 03:45:09 | Word Count: 542
Canada welcomes tourists with a highly diversified selection of competitive ski and boarding vacations. Whether you are interested in a five-star luxury vacation at a top-notch resort with included gourmet meals, impeccable accommodation conditions, and soothing mountain lodge spa services, or are simply looking for a secluded and quiet rustic lodge that only provides the bare essentials, you will undoubtedly find it in Canada.
Resort-based forms of skiing
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Canada encompasses numerous reputable ski resorts ranging from the east to the west. Similar to the US, Canada’s largest alpine territory that is suitable for skiing and boarding spreads out in the western side of the country, in provinces like British Columbia and Alberta. To the east, most Canadian resorts can be found in the provinces of Quebec and Ontario.
Canada’s - and North America’s - largest and most popular ski resort is Whistler Blackcomb in British Columbia, which numbers among the top voted and best rated resorts in the whole world. The alpine skiing territory spreads on more than 8,000 acres, and features over a mile of vertical descent. A rapidly growing and increasingly famous resort is the recently founded Revelstoke, which presents skiers and boarders with the opportunity to try out the longest vertical drop in the country - 5,620 feet at Whistler Blackcomb Mountain. Other famous resorts in the east include names like Le Massif and Mt. Tremblant.
BC cat skiing and snow cat boarding
British Columbia is renowned the world over for offering an impressively large array of cat-skiing operations for winter sports enthusiasts looking to escape the crowded lift lines and tracked-out snow characteristic to regular mountain resorts. According to statistics, a staggering 95% percent of the world’s cat skiing and snow cat boarding companies are operating in British Columbia, and there are dozens of dedicated operations to choose from in the area. BC cat skiing and snow cat boarding operators offer both daily and multi-day services, the latter including stays at mountain lodges, hotels, and various other properties.
Backcountry accommodation options
For tourists who can’t afford a heli skiing or cat skiing trip, or who are looking for a more peaceful way to spend their winter holiday, Canada offers a vast selection of huts and lodges that can be booked for backcountry ski/ boarding trips. Ski tours are a great option for exploring the picturesque backcountry scenery in British Columbia and Alberta, allowing you to travel from hut to hut and visit popular tourist objectives.
The “Powder Highway”
Standing out as one of the most sought after ski/ boarding vacation options in British Columbia, the Powder Highway provides a balanced mix of snow cat boarding/ skiing, backcountry skiing/ boarding, and even helicopter skiing/ boarding. This encompassing winter vacation package offers tourists access to eight competitive ski resorts, around two dozen cat skiing/ heli skiing operations, and an abundance of backcountry lodges and touring services. In the peak season when the snow conditions are right, the Powder Highway also gives winter sports enthusiasts the chance to ski or board fresh, impeccable, champagne-like powder in breathtakingly beautiful mountainous territory.
