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British Columbia Interior just got closer for L.A. skiers

post #1 of 14
7/12/12 at 7:16am
Thread Starter 

United Airlines has just announce direct daily flights from LAX to Kelowna International Airport commencing Dec. 19.

 

From Kelowna, B.C. is it just under an hour to Big White, just over an hour to Silver Star, and about two and a half hour drive to Revelstoke or Sun Peaks. Sun Peaks can also be accessed via a shuttle flight to Kamloops followed by a three quarter hour drive.

 

These and other B.C. Interior ski resorts are way less crowded than most of the major resorts in North America. Even during the Christmas holidays I would describe these resorts as busy but not crowded and where an occasional 10 minute line up is considered a long wait.

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post #2 of 14
7/12/12 at 5:39pm

and don't forget Apex, a 10 minute line there would be an eternity. Doing all 3 Okanogan mountains on a short trip is cheap and very easy. Adding Sun Peaks and Revy just takes a bit more effort
 

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post #3 of 14
7/12/12 at 11:25pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by noncrazycanuck View Post

and don't forget Apex, a 10 minute line there would be an eternity. Doing all 3 Okanogan mountains on a short trip is cheap and very easy. Adding Sun Peaks and Revy just takes a bit more effort
 

Yes, Apex is the least busy by far. Not sure of the driving time Kelowna to Apex but it might be bad to try to make it thru Kelowna during rush hour.

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post #4 of 14
7/13/12 at 7:49am

From the ski area at Big White or Silver Star to Penticton it is exactly the same time, about 

1.5 hr. Stay in Penticton. Apex is 27 km away about the same as Silver Star is from Vernon. Both cities have an oversupply of accommodation in winter and staying in town makes sense. Big White and Sun Peaks are both a bit further from their cities so add another 1/2 hour each way if staying in town but still a relatively short drive. 
 

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post #5 of 14
7/13/12 at 8:51am

That's a nice flight! Probably geared toward the Aussie/Pacific market?

Are they flying the CRJ700's?  That's what they fly direct into Aspen and it's a nice plane. You can check one ski bag, gate check a carry on free and still take a personal item on the plane. 

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post #6 of 14
7/13/12 at 10:41am

Just add snow, and you have the anti-Colorado.  Great ski areas and better people.  Another vote for Penticton, all that great wines and a sea monster too.

 

Good on you United, hope it pays.

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post #7 of 14
7/13/12 at 12:30pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by SHREDHEAD View Post

That's a nice flight! Probably geared toward the Aussie/Pacific market?

Are they flying the CRJ700's?  That's what they fly direct into Aspen and it's a nice plane. You can check one ski bag, gate check a carry on free and still take a personal item on the plane. 

 

Pretty sure that is the plane, holds 66. Probably true about the Aussies being the target market. Aussies are the largest out of province group of skiers at Sun Peaks and likely even more so for Big White and Silver Star since they are owned by an Aussie. Most of the Aussies that I see at Sun Peaks are not all that great skiers and would not be interested in Revelstoke.

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post #8 of 14
7/13/12 at 10:36pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by DanoT View Post

 

Pretty sure that is the plane, holds 66. Probably true about the Aussies being the target market. Aussies are the largest out of province group of skiers at Sun Peaks and likely even more so for Big White and Silver Star since they are owned by an Aussie. Most of the Aussies that I see at Sun Peaks are not all that great skiers and would not be interested in Revelstoke.


That's because we get the gnar-enhanced Aussies up at Niseko! biggrin.gif

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post #9 of 14
7/14/12 at 6:47am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by jimintokyo View Post


That's because we get the gnar-enhanced Aussies up at Niseko! biggrin.gif

 

I've heard that the Japanese skiers don't usually ski the trees, so are you competing with the hot shot Aussies for powder turns in the woods or do you have the forests to yourself?

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post #10 of 14
7/14/12 at 2:52pm

Can only vouch for Sun Peaks, went during Xmas a few years ago, GREAT snow, easy mountain, no liftlines, short ride down to Kamloops.
 

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post #11 of 14
7/14/12 at 10:27pm

That was then, this is now, Dano.

Damn Aussies didn't hide their tracks and sneak into the trees, so now every Tom, Bruce & Taro is in there trashing it up.

When I remember what it used to be like I want to spear Aussies with a ski pole hopmad.gif -- then, when I sit down to veal milanese and anchovy pasta washed down with a glass of barbaresco, I want to buy'em all a Fosters biggrin.gif

 

Fortunately, while more skiers and boarders take to the off-piste now, the snowsports population in Japan has plummeted over the past two decades, so there's still enough powder to go around on most days.

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post #12 of 14
7/15/12 at 9:33pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by DanoT View Post

Aussies are the largest out of province group of skiers at Sun Peaks and likely even more so for Big White and Silver Star since they are owned by an Aussie.

There are really more Aussies than Yanks?  Every time I've been to the area I've ridden the chair with many people from WA and not so many from elsewhere out of province.  I know that there are a fair amount of folks from the Southern Hemisphere that ski in the interior of BC, but the US border is awfully close.  At Silver Star I spent a week where I thought that they'd moved the mountain to Bellevue, WA.  It was weird, every other person I rode the chair with was from Bellevue.  There weren't too many Aussies.

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post #13 of 14
7/16/12 at 9:20am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Posaune View Post

There are really more Aussies than Yanks?  Every time I've been to the area I've ridden the chair with many people from WA and not so many from elsewhere out of province.  I know that there are a fair amount of folks from the Southern Hemisphere that ski in the interior of BC, but the US border is awfully close.  At Silver Star I spent a week where I thought that they'd moved the mountain to Bellevue, WA.  It was weird, every other person I rode the chair with was from Bellevue.  There weren't too many Aussies.

According to Sun Peaks marketing dept. 15% of their skiers are from the US while it is 10% US skiers on average for the rest of the Canadian resorts. I'm not sure if Whistler numbers are part of the average because I assume their US numbers are well above !5%.

 

IMO there are too many US skiers that when it comes to skiing in Canada just think Whistler and are thus missing out on what makes Canada such a great place to ski. The BC Interior and Alberta offers everything from world class quality snow, perfect grooming, huge vertical, huge terrain, huge snowfalls, bowls and trees, to great intermediate runs and tons of ski in/out accommodation and NO CROWDS. Also an abundance of Cat and Heli operations.

 

As far as the Aussies go, they are most noticeable in Dec. and Jan. which is their summer holidays. It is weird to ski all the kids skiing mid week in Jan. but they are all Aussie kids on summer holidays.

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post #14 of 14
7/24/12 at 6:42pm

Direct daily flights from L.A.???   Wow... I predict that will be an experiment that fails rather quickly, and at the very least gets scaled back to maybe 2-3 direct flights per week.
 

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