Ski Canada Buyer's Guide 2024

Wondering where to ski this winter? Arm yourself with a Mountain Collective Pass and the answer quickly becomes: “Just about anywhere.” With seven of Canada’s best resorts and several additional dream destinations in the United States, the ways that a Mountain Collective Pass could transform your winter are now greater than ever. With one purchase, Mountain Collective passholders buy themselves two days of skiing at any of two dozen world-class destinations. There are no blackout days at any of the resorts, and once you’ve enjoyed your two days you can take advantage of a 50-percent discount on any subsequent day passes. The roster is a lineup of the best of the best resorts in Canada, the United States, Europe, Chile and Australia. As they say, “It’s always snowing somewhere in…

Ski Canada has a secret, a very dark secret, and it’s time to let you in on it. Perhaps you should sit down. We’re now owned…by…a…snowboarder! It’s true. The latter half of our 52-year existence has involved teasing and taunting our backside brethren but we’re coming clean now. Our long-time art director—and new publisher—Norm Lourenco, is a trayer. A snow seal. A knuckle dragger. Ski Canada has gone from its birth as an “off-season” sidekick of Racquets Canada, owned by a colonel with an Order of the British Empire title, to joining the 100-magazine empire of publisher Maclean Hunter, to three decades of Work From Home operations under independent owner Paul Green, to finally settling into the hands of Norm. Norm the Snowboarder. It was 18 years ago that a…

SHORT TURNS To get to Canada’s busiest ski factory, head east of Quebec City along the south shore of the St. Lawrence. After three hours, turn inland and drive through rolling forest and farmland to tiny St.-Narcisse-de-Rimouski. This unlikely location may soon be home to the world’s most advanced ski manufacturer. “Utopie wants to leave its mark on the ski and snowboard industry,” says J.F. Bouchard, the general manager and founder of Utopie. “We think robotics will move the industry forward.” At most ski factories, handfuls of humans run nearly finished skis through the sanding and polishing grinders, over and over, five days a week. But at Utopie MFG, this most labour-intensive step is performed by a four-armed robot—likely the first robot to be tasked with finishing a ski. And…

Last January, it looked like Cole Richardson’s young freeskiing career was going to be cut short. The Canmore native and Lake Louise local stormed onto the ski scene five years ago at age 16. Cole’s prowess at combining daring, bigmountain descents, high speeds and park tricks quickly made him a regular in ski movies and on magazine covers (including the Winter 2021 issue of Ski Canada). His rise stopped abruptly last year after a high-speed collision with a Japanese tree that he described as “near fatal.” The crash lacerated his pancreas and liver, shattered his elbow and damaged nerves in his shoulder. After five hours of life-saving surgery, he spent a month in a Japanese hospital with a tangle of tubes keeping him alive. Doctors told him it would be…

FIS World Cup ski racing will return to Tremblant after a 40-year absence. A women’s giant slalom is set for December 2-3, 2023. It will be the alpine circuit’s only Canadian stop, with World Cup speed events at Lake Louise being recently cancelled. Tremblant last hosted a World Cup in 1983 and is now on the roster for the next three years, thanks to campaigning by an Alpine Canada/Tremblant delegation that included former racer and Tremblant local Erik Guay. The group convinced FIS of the resort’s capacity to deliver a world-class competition by successfully hosting a Nor-Am Cup race last February and upgrading the Flying Mile run to comply with World Cup safety standards. Known in Europe as the White Circus, the World Cup tour draws huge crowds. To keep…

Over consecutive snowy weekends last February, our man in Ontario tested two portable fire pits in ski hill parking lots. “During the pandemic,” says Adam Bisby, “I noticed that many snowseekers started to après outside. As a dedicated barbecuer and staunch critic of overpriced burgers, this was a trend I felt I could embrace.” Testing the Solo Stove and Biolite’s techie FirePit+, our intrepid tailgater discovered more than the surprising combustibility of Ski Canada back issues. To varying extents, both of the portable mini stoves grill certain foods nicely, clean up easily, are easy on the eyes, and produce very little smoke thanks to battery powered fans and clever air-flow designs that burn wood efficiently and cleanly. On the con side, says Bisby, “postBBQ the stoves made my vehicle smell…