Ski holidays in Canada - Call now on freephone 0800 652 8552

Skiing holidays in Canada - Although the probable location of the world’s first “modern style” drag lift in the late 1920s, Canada has been something of a late developer as a major skiing destination, which it now undeniably is. Although world-famous resorts such as Tremblant have been around since the early days of the sport, Canada has not, until recently, had many famous names to shout about.

The traditional 'chicken-and-egg' problem which hampered development of the huge snowfields making up much of the western half of the country was that the local populations were too sparse to justify investment in substantial resort infrastructure and ski lifts. Without that investment skiers, however, were unlikely to battle the elements to beat their way to these new ski areas. The vicious circle was broken in the 1970s, and following the Calgary Olympics there has been improved air access as well as huge investment in lifts and all other aspects of resort development.

Western Canada has also developed a reputation as the world's top heli-skiing destination, with increasing numbers of heli-skiing operations offering thousand square mile territories of untouched powder snow on huge verticals, and promoting them as an ultimate ski experience. In the east, there are hundreds of mostly small ski centres, usually with floodlit slopes. So, together these areas create the world's densest network of night-skiing slopes. Most have extensive snowmaking facilities and are within an hour's drive of Quèbec, Ottawa or Montréal. It’s easy to stay in a big city and then take your pick of the skiing. Snowmobiling is another national strength and there are nearly 50,000km (30,000 miles) of sign-posted trails criss-crossing the country.

Today, Canada is arguably the number one boom country for skiing in the world. With prices lower and infrastructure newer than in most other major ski destinations, the mass of skiers who have until now put Canada somewhere in the middle of their priority lists, have marked it very high in the rankings. Particularly popular are the resorts around Banff and the spectacular ski-world success story of the 1990s, Whistler Blackcomb near Vancouver, which constantly tops the ski-magazine reader polls in North America and has been voted 'best foreign resort' by Japanese ski magazine readers.

Today Whistler attracts over two million visitors annually and will host the 2010 Winter Olympics. A dozen more Western Canadian resorts are trying to emulate its success, whilst on the Eastern side of the country Tremblant is in to its second billion of development and is attempting to attract four million visitors annually. For more information on skiing holidays in Canada call freephone 0800 652 8552

Ski Resorts in Canada - Call now on Freephone 0800 652 8552