Innholdsfortegnelse for Fall 2025 - Vol. 54 #2 i Ski Canada

Every time my friend Luca says, “Thanks again for saving my life,” the hairs go up on the back of my neck and I’m immediately taken back to last March. After frantically digging half a metre down into an avalanche path (an avalanche that I’d triggered), I reached his head, then shoved my fingers into his mouth to clear his airway. My PTSD memory starts minutes earlier, skiing tentatively through pea soup fog. In a surreal moment, I suddenly realized that although I was moving, so was the snow. Unlike a nightmare though, I was actually able to repeatedly scream “AVALANCHE!” and was also able to ski out of my nightmare. But the slide fully buried Luca, in a rigid Statue of Liberty pose. Around June, we stopped waking up…

Skiing has never just been about vertical metres or high-speed lifts, at least not for me. It’s about the journey—the winding roads to untouched powder, the locals who share their secret lines, the thrill of discovering some place snow-laden and new. This winter, with a Trump-led cold front chilling Canadians’ desire to travel south, I’m going to spend my dollars discovering lesshyped areas closer to home. After organizing ski vacations for decades—from formulating marketing strategy and trip packaging with major ski corporations to figuring bunk-bed logistics with my Tremblant crew, “Les Boys”—I’ve seen first-hand how more than just the geopolitical landscape has shifted. The rise of multi-resort passes has impacted the way we approach ski travel, unlocking new, compelling possibilities. Adventure is no longer tethered to a single mountain. Maybe…

Life was simple back when ski boots were just ski boots. Now there are at least four styles of boot construction. Choosing the right one comes down to fit, function and performance. REAR-ENTRY: The boot splits vertically, with a buckle releasing the rear half of the boot. PROS: Easy on and off CONS: Limited fit adjustability TWO-PIECE: The most common design. The upper and lower shells each overlap along front seams to cinch around the foot and lower leg. PROS: Volume is easy to adjust, excellent power transfer to ski CONS: Harder to get on and off THREE-PIECE: Like the two-piece, but without the overlap. Instead there’s a separate plastic tongue running down the front of the boot. PROS: Snug heel retention, smooth progressive flex CONS: Softer feeling HYBRID: The…

Safer, smoother-running chairlifts. Lift operators and attendants who are focused on chairlift riders rather than on tedious, repetitive tasks. Happier skiers and snowboarders. These are just a few of the factors Quebec’s Sommet Saint-Sauveur will be measuring this winter as it tests one of ski country's first forays into AI: an autonomous chairlift control system. Developed by Zurich’s Mantis Ropeway Technologies, the AI-camera-driven system will be tested on Sauveur’s high-speed, six-seat, Sommet Express. Designed in partnership with Doppelmayr, the tech uses intelligent cameras and algorithms to monitor each chair and its riders from various strategic vantage points near the unloading station. If there’s an issue, such as a skier falling while sliding off the ramp, the cameras will automatically ‘tell’ the lift to stop, so that attendants can come to…

Mountain Collective: Sunshine Village, Lake Louise, Marmot Basin, Panorama, Revelstoke, Sun Peaks— and eastern favourites like Le Massif and Bromont. Indy Pass: Apex and Big White, plus hidden gems such as Sasquatch, Manning Park, Calabogie, Massif du Sud, Loch Lomond, Sutton, Owl's Head and Mont Edouard. Ikon Pass: Blue Mountain, Tremblant, Le Massif, Revelstoke, Red, Panorama, Sun Peaks, Lake Louise, Sunshine Village, Norquay and Cypress. Epic Pass: Whistler Blackcomb, Fernie, Kicking Horse, Kimberley, Nakiska, Mont-Sainte-Anne and Stoneham.…

Categorizing skis is always a generalization. For the purposes of reviewing skis we’ve settled on five categories, which inevitably blend and blur. We reviewed carving and all-mountain skis in the last issue. They’re made for skiing the resort, so they were fairly easy to parcel out of the spectrum. Freeride, powder and backcountry skis are harder to group. All prefer soft snow, but then their attributes diverge. That makes it hard to organize the reviews. In the past, we’ve used weight and ski style as the filter. This year we’re combining the two and adding some subjective opinions. The skis are roughly organized from backcountry to powder to freeride, with the lightest, touringspecific skis at the start, the most playful, twintip skis at the end and a jelly doughnut of…

Heli-skiing is held up as the pinnacle of the sport. But not everyone is dying to hop on a heli. Plenty of capable skiers find the idea of flying to a 3,000m peak with no groomed routes down to be scarier than parking at Stowe. Fifty-four-year-old Barb Sligl was one such skier. The Vancouver writer has felt at home sliding around resorts since she was seven. But when she had a chance to join a day of heli-skiing at CMH Heli-Skiing’s Purcell destination in Golden, B.C., she considered curling up in the lodge with her book instead. For her, heli-skiing was more intimidating than inspiring. We asked her what made her nervous, and what happened. SC: If someone asked you a year ago if you were a heli-skier, you’d say……

WOMEN’S SKI: Designed specifically for a woman. No badge means unisex. TESTERS’ CHOICE: The most popular skis from the ski test. SKI NAME: The make and model. PRICE: The manufacturer’s suggested retail price. “With binding” means a pre-mounted binding is included. LENGTHS: All the different lengths, in cm, available for the model. DIMENSIONS: The width of the ski, in mm, at three spots: the widest point near the tip, the narrowest point under the binding, and the widest point near the tail. To keep shape proportional to length, designers adjust widths slightly for skis of different lengths. Narrower skis are easier to get on edge and transition from turn to turn, while wider skis are easier to ski in variable conditions and fresh snow. RADIUS: The size of a circle…

Drinks: Lüft is fun to say (pronounced Loooft) and even more fun to visit. After a deep renovation, the Lüft Café & Bar reopened last year to reveal a modern and funky hangout attached to the VRGE Hotel. With a curated cocktail menu, complemented by local beers and tasty sharables, it was the perfect spot for the testers to get geeky about skis. luftbar.ca Gear: We couldn’t have pulled off the ski test without the help of the great people at Skookum Revelstoke Bike & Ski Ltd. They have a deep selection of demo skis and probably the most experienced repair and service departments in town. They’re also conveniently located between downtown Revelstoke and the ski hill. skookumgear.ca Stay: We could keep an eye on the powder day lift line…