Table of contents for Buyer's Guide 2023 - Vol.51 #1 in Ski Canada

Wondering where to ski this winter? Arm yourself with a Mountain Collective Pass and the answer quickly becomes, “Just about anywhere.” With four destinations being added to the partnership of top-tier resorts for this ski season, 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 North America, Europe, Chile, Japan, New Zealand and Australia. As they say, “It’s always snowing somewhere…

FLY ME TO THE MOOSE The Joneses have some work to do. Keeping up with Canada’s most exclusive ski neighbourhood takes some serious investment. But for heli-skiers, life doesn’t get any better than this. Canada’s most private, unabashedly posh ski locale you’ve never heard of is in plain view at the base of Revelstoke Mountain Resort (RMR). These handsome, sprawling, 8,000-square-foot mega-mansions come with all the bells and gold-plated whistles you can imagine—from triple-height cathedral ceilings to full spas and wine cellars. The pièce de résistance: each house has its own private heli-pad, plowed and dusted for the daily lift into B.C.’s powder-heaped Selkirk and Monashee ranges. In recent years, more than a dozen of these swank lots have come up for sale—most sold quickly. But if you don’t want…

► If you’re a Canadian skier you’ve either heard of Skican, partied with Skican, or both. From Le Massif and Chamonix to Jasper, Telluride and Beaver Creek, the Toronto-based travel agency made just for skiers has been helping us find our happy place for more than 50 years. As North America’s first ski tour operator, Skican opened up Western Canada for easterners in the 1960s. By its heyday in the ‘80s it was transporting up to 20,000 skiers to Whistler and Blackcomb every year. A flight from Montreal to Calgary in the mid-’60s was twice the price of a charter to the Alps. To Robin Nasmith, a young engineer and intrepid skier, this presented a problem as well as an opportunity. He took the idea of packaged Canadian ski holidays…

NEWS: SIT SKIERS GET THEIR OWN CLOTHES The Flyline Kit is the first outerwear kit specifically for sitski athletes. Eddie Bauer designed the jacket and bib in collaboration with sitskier Trevor Kennison. “The most difficult part was the shaping,” says Dave Mertes, the project manager. “We needed to craft the pieces for a sitting-only position.” There is also the need for enhanced comfort, since spinal-cord injuries often result in limited sensation and circulation below the waist, leading to issues with chafing, pressure sores and cold. This was particularly important with the pants. Designers had to contour them to eliminate seams, pockets, zippers and excess fabric in the seat. And the bib portion rises to the collar bone so they don’t slip off. The jacket is short in front and longer…

SAAS-FEE IAIN It was such an odd feeling when the doors of the Metro Alpin, the world’s highest funicular railway, opened at Mittelallalin, its uppermost station at 2,980 metres. Instead of elbowing our way out with 115 other Saas-Fee skiers and sightseers clambering for first tracks or a dining table with a view of the Allalinhorn, we stayed put. Our Scottish mountain guide Dougal Tavener had instructed the magazine’s instruction editor Nigel, our ski-buddy Holly and me to hang back and wait for the alpine subway conductor to close the doors and start the descent, the four of us, now the only passengers. About a third of the way back down, the funicular made a brief, unscheduled stop and we hopped out onto a tiny platform scoured into the solid…

My family had fallen into a pleasant après routine three days into our second RV adventure of 2022. Step 1: Exchange ski gear for folding chairs stowed in our rented motorhome’s cavernous rear compartment. Step 2: Fill plastic cups with local microbrews and sodas chilling in the propane-powered fridge. Step 3: Poutine. Step 4: Discuss whether to roll out or hunker down. Hunkering was a viable option at Owl’s Head, the penultimate stop on our road trip to all four of the ski resorts dotting the Eastern Townships region between Montreal and Sherbrooke. For one thing, Owl’s Head allows overnight RV parking. For another, the brews were flowing freely. And last but definitely not least, the blackwater tank was still reading three-quarters full. Having recently acquired a taste for snowy…

A note buried in our 50th anniversary issue last autumn contained a rare mention of Anne Slade, Ski Canada’s “long-suffering managing editor.” An integral part of the team here, and my work wife of 30 years, Slade retired in the winter and is now happy in the tub with a Harlequin romance novel. Slade’s received little credit over the decades while she quietly kept me on a leash and the magazine accurate, consistent and at the printer on time; I’ve learnt so much through my patient colleague. We’ve brainstormed, complained and laughed, all while finishing each other’s sentences without noticing. My first stint at Ski Canada was for two years in the late ’80s where, along with sister magazine Racquets Canada, Slade had already put in more than a decade.…

There’s a reason we ski with our weight centred and hands forward, it’s so we’re ready for the unexpected. The next icy patch, the groomer divot, the deep mogul trough or invisible windlip. When we anticipate trouble we have a chance at staying on our feet. It’s good advice for life off the slopes, too. Especially these days. Last January, Ski Canada was planning to head to Denver’s Outdoor Retailer Snow Show. This is the annual conference where ski and outdoor brands launch the next winter’s newest and greatest gear to North America. Omicron had different ideas. For the second year in a row, the announcements were mostly virtual. And that was just the beginning. Container shortages and continued lockdowns in Asia cramped already constipated supply chains. Inflation started to…

SALOMON DRIVER PRIME SIGMA PHOTO MIPS $500; salomon.com The long name speaks to all the technology stuffed into this goggle and helmet combo. The Driver is a more subtle take on the visor helmet that also combines multiple levels of protection, comfort and clarity. It doesn’t come cheap, but after putting it on it’s hard to go back. The theory behind integrating goggles and helmets is sound—less futzing and a better fit between the two—but in practice it’s hard to achieve a seal between the bottom of the goggle and the face. Salomon gets around this by hooking the goggle lens into a track that applies inward pressure to customize the foam shape and seal gaps. The lens combines photochromic tinting with Salomon’s Sigma technology. The first automatically lightens and…

Skiing is probably the second-funnest thing most of us do. When broken down to physics and biology, it’s the push and pull of g-forces on a skier’s body that make the sport so exhilarating. Performed rhythmically, the zero-g moment at the top of the turn, closely followed by the mega-g moment at the bottom of the turn, is what’s thrilling as you move from weightlessness to massive load and acceleration. Done smoothly, this transition becomes the g-spot. Finding it takes practice, but, boy, do you get results. To visualize finding the g-spot, consider how the body and skis work together. At the completion of a turn, the skier’s body must cross over the skis to roll them onto the new edges. Perfecting this weighless moment takes commitment. It requires the…

Maybe your skis are so old the shop won’t tune them any more. Or you’ve skied them so hard the camber has gone flat. Whatever the reason, you’ve decided you need a new pair. Great. Except now you’re staring at a wall of skis at your favourite shop, or, worse, an endless scroll of models on some website. An abundance of options may seem like a good thing, but research shows too many choices are likely to leave you questioning your decision. It’s called the paradox of choice, and the goal of this ski review is to help you overcome it. We test and review skis to make your decision manageable. Before you head out or log on to put down money for a new pair, read through the following…

Air Canada flies direct to Zurich and Geneva (your bag, plus your ski bag, still travel free): aircanada.com. When you get there, Swiss trains are a great way to get around: sbb.ch/en MORE RESEARCH Ideas start at: MySwitzerland.com Saas-Fee Tourism: saas-fee.ch Saas-Fee Mountain Guide Office: saasfeeguides.com Zermatt Tourism: Zermatt.ch Lux chalets lodging: mountainexposure.com Heli-ski, or sightsee drone-style: air-zermatt.ch Part pirate ship, part Hogwarts, great location: HotelAlexZermatt.com Add an e-bike adventure to your trip: BikeArenaZermatt.ch St. Moritz Tourism: stmoritz.com Go all-inclusive with Club Med: CanadianSkiVacations.com Engelberg/Titlus Tourism: engelberg.ch Look down on everyone from the Terrace Hotel: Terrace.ch Book a mountain guide: EngelbergMountainGuide.ch/en Grindelwald tourism: grindelwald.net/ JOIN A GANG Enjoy Club Med at St. Moritz or the best of both Grindelwald and Engelberg on one of the two 2023 Ski Canada Readers’…

It’s one thing to be the slowest skier in a group. It’s another when you’re getting dropped by a 10-year-old. That’s exactly what happens when an old guy like me skis with the Whistler Freeride Club (WFC). It’s everything I can do to keep up with the tykes, some of whom still have to hop to get on the Peak Chair. It’s January in Whistler. I’m here to figure out how and why young freeriders are driving the progression of the sport. And make no mistake: they’re driving hard. Every autumn when the latest crop of ski movies hits the streaming services, young freeriders are skiing steeper lines, at faster speeds, with bigger airs and more insane and dangerous tricks. And always, some teenager has come along to push the…

You’ve got the right gear for ski season, how about your car? Forget all-seasons or regular tires designated for mud and snow—there’s no good substitute for a worthy set of grip-it-and-rip-it, specially designed, dedicated winter tires. Here’s why. GRIP IT Spoiler alert: winter is cold. Like a skier’s knees and your cranky Uncle Joe, most types of tires get stiff when temperatures drop below 7 °C, which loosens their grip on the road. But not winter tires. A winter tire’s rubber stays flexible when temperatures drop, allowing treads to flex, grip and push slippery water away. Basically, in cold weather, winter tires still do their job of keeping the car connected to the road. STOP IT On snowy surfaces, a car’s ability to stop is king. Regular tires have narrow…