Ski Canada Buyer's Guide 2025

As a child, I remember wanting to be rescued and roped down from a broken chairlift. As an adult, not so much. Every season, around the ski world, more than a billion lift rides go the way we expect: uneventfully. As a Ski Canada reader, you're probably quite comfortable dangling from a steel rope a few or a few hundred metres in the air with no thoughts of “what if something goes wrong?” It's just that, when it does, like a highway car crash, it's human nature, one can't help but look. So, while we wait for the bullwheels of the 2024/25 ski season to start turning, I offer this selection of sad, scary and light lift-disaster stories that you're free to share with a stranger on your next ride…

SHORT TURNS Canadian freeride skiers may have an Olympics on the horizon now that their discipline has been adopted by the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS). The game-changing decision was made at the organization's general assembly held in Iceland last June. It means the Freeride World Championships will be included within the FIS framework, and it could mean we'll see freeride skiing added to the Olympic Winter Games as early as 2030 if the International Olympic Committee (IOC) approves. The FIS announcement caused some chatter within the freeride community. “I think a lot of people initially felt it would take the free out of freeride,” says Jordy Burks, program director of Ullr Big Mountain at Lake Louise. Preparing for an Olympics means a more regimented approach, he explains. “Freeride…

Every year, Ski Canada runs the country's most comprehensive test of new ski models. Now you can be part of the team. Travel with us to Revelstoke, March 16-21, to enjoy Revelstoke's legendary terrain while you test and help review the latest and greatest skis. Packages include five nights of slopeside accommodation, daily breakfast and après, four days of skiing and start at $2,950. skicanadamag.com/trips LIFE IS GRAND Here's an early peek at Chamonix's new Grand Montets by Doppelmayr France. It's part of an impressive reconstruction replacing two sections of cable cars destroyed in a 2018 fire. The project will total more than 155 million euros.…

SURVEY SAYS! According to a survey by Snow Season Central, these were the top three ski etiquette violations in Australia last season: 1. Budding in the lift line. 2. Skiing too close. 3. Disrespecting the environment. The study also named Melburnians as the country's worst-behaved skiers. With walk-up lift ticket prices soaring (see story page 16), the temptation is there to pay up front for an all-you-canski multi-resort pass. But how often do pass holders actually get on the hill? Remarkably, most either fail to break even or barely get there. According to a study conducted by the Denver-based Langston Company during the 2022-23 season, 53 percent of people in the study who hit the slopes three to five days purchased a pass—which is typically around the break-even point—and 37…

SHORT TURNS Canada's best-known climatologist rarely makes guarantees, but looking ahead to this winter, Environment Canada's David Phillips is confident enough to make an exception. “Clearly, it's going to be a better winter for skiing than it was last year,” he says. Climate change and El Nino conspired last season to set a record for the warmest winter ever in Canada and leave B.C. with nearly half its usual snowpack. With the disappointment still fresh and global warming lurking in the corner, we're wondering what skiers should make of Phillips’ assurance, La Niña forecasts and the future of winter? Winter weather comes in one of three flavours: neutral, El Niño or La Niña. It's driven by the El NinoSouthern Oscillation, or ENSO, a recurring climate pattern related to water temperatures…

YOUR RUN You don't haue to bend a knee to address us. Please drop us a line anytime at info@skicanadamag.com I read Steven Threndyle's column (Why I Once Cared About Tele, Winter 2024) and had to chuckle. “Swooping … like a hawk, lifting your arms like wings…” Is this person figure skating? Yes, we have seen a decline in tele skiing. We cannot, however, blame the gear. The gear is amazing. So is the feeling of making tele turns. And no, we are not swooping like hawks or making wing movements with our arms. We are carving tight turns, putting the ski on edge on hardpack, floating through bottomless powder after a big storm. Why is tele likely declining? It is hard to learn and very hard to master. The…