Best Ski resort in Calgary Canada

AndrewNZ

AndrewNZ

Member
Hey Guys, next year I am planning to visit Canada for a little bit of an OE. This is a pretty big trip for me and my goal is to get a job at a ski resort in the Calgary Area...

Now, Pretty much all I know about the area is that It is close to vancouver and it is when Durschti Shreds urban in 'Yeah dude'

So Can people who live in the area/know about the area plese shed some information on which ski resort I should look at applying for a job/ or that you would recommend me to visit. Im keen for a resort with a estabilished Park

and one that has a general good reputation.

So Two things you can do which will earn +k

1. If you know any good resorts in the calgary

2. Give information that will help me research/live over there.
 
1. theirs two mountain ranges between Calgary and Vancouver.

2. calgary olympic park is the only good one thats near calgary (less then a 2 hour drive)
 
Calgary and Vancouver are quite far apart. It's an 11 hour drive but there's way too many great resorts to list in between. Within about 2 hours of Calgary are Nakiska, Norquay, Sunshine, and Louise. Norquay, Sunshine, and Louise all have good parks. Louise is the furthest away (maybe abit over 2 hours). Canada Olympic Park (COP) is inside Calgary. Castle Mountain is maybe a bit less than 3 hours away from Calgary and has awesome snow and unreal natural terrain. If you go out west, you'll be in BC.
 
Yeh u got a choice between louise, COP and sunshine.. all are pretty good. Nakiska used to have a siiiick park till rcr banned jumps then it was still fun cause u cud still gap the rails and the take off and landings were as wide as a cat, but this season they got rid of the park all together.. Prob because only the staff used it and we were caught by the head of RCR jumping the rails and rcr had a "no air" policy.
 
Crap, Calgary and Vancouver 11 hours drive? Crap!

Aight, So id be pretty keen for like a kinda off set resort that has pretty decent park and a really mellowed attitude.

+k to all.
 
If yur workin at a resort.. cant get much mellower than naiska.. Best time of my life... rarely get more than 600 guests so there is NO work load and get heaps of ski breaks... the staff res is the old athlete village and theres only like 100 staff so u get to know everyone........HOWEVER u need a car to get to the jumps at titty deep powder at sunshine and or louise. so yeh.... we went 5 ways in a car and it ended up being like 300 each so it was fine.
 
So its most likely that I will be wanting a flat/housing near the resort and I would probably rely on public transport, as I only will be there for less than 3 months.
 
Okay so I have settled for two resorts. I found an usefulpage

http://www.incalgary.com/Ski%20Resorts.htm

And looking at that, To stand out.

Sunshine Village

Lake Louise Ski Resort.

Now I am just wondering, If anyone has had any experience with either of these two resorts, Can you please give me an extensive report on them (Mainly just what you think of the mountain and the park :D), That'd be heaps of help.
 
a hell of a lot more than 2 ranges, rockies, purcells, kootnies, etc etc.. must be at least a dozen
 
This year i was there in feb. nd they had little snow but the day after i left they got a dump. Louise has really nice lines off the backand sunshine would have been better with more snow but regardless. Louise's terrain park is smaller and had three nice big kickers in a row and a line of 4 smaller kickers like 15-20 feet. Nice rail lines, but there weren't that many. Sunshine has a bigger park with tons of rails but their jump lines only have two a piece on wither side of a fence, also had a nice line of small hips which was fun to play around on. As i said this is mid season, if you want pics pm me
 
If you want to be close to Sunshine or Lake Louise, you're going to want to look for an apartment in Banff or Canmore. I live in Banff and ride every day at Sunshine. It's a super mellow attitude and we have a good park. There's a ton of jibs and jumps in the park. Sunshine has the latest closing in Canada, the season is still going strong right now. The party scene in Banff is unreal if you're into that. You can live in Banff and get a Big 3 pass which gives you a pass to Norquay (5 minutes outside of town), Sunshine and Lake Louise. If you don't have a car, you can purchase a bus pass which gives you access to all the hills or try your luck at hitch-hiking. There are photos of the sunshine park in my profile.

What country are you from?
 
I am New Zealand, So it would be a big adventure for me, Banff is sounding the best option, the fact that Public transport is available to the mountains, Thanks for the notes about parks, will definitly note that. Apartment in Banff? Would that be very expensive?

Wow To Jordan. +k hard

 
Sunshine: Awesome area, plenty of snow, super sick park, open longest out of any area around, plenty of terrain, including freeride zones for which you need a beacon and rescue gear. Theres also some really sick terrain just out of bounds if you know where to look. Definitely a good place to know people at, but seeing as you'll probably be working there it won't be hard to get some people to show you around. I also know that they have staff lodging, which is pretty sweet. Its a pretty popular resort though, and can get crowded pretty fast. Probably my favorite area within driving distance from calgary.

Louise: About the same size as shine, no freeride zones but really awesome terrain, if you want to ski mountain this would be the place. The park is pretty little compared to sunshine's though. Shorter season than shine by a few weekends, but much farther from anything, including banff. I don't know that much about louise, if you have any questions though, shoot me a pm and I'll see if I can help you out.
 
If you're dead set on being near calgary I would say living in Banff and skiing sunshine would be your best bet. The hill is nice, the scenery is amazing and Banff is quite the party town as well. Make sure you visit other hills while you are here, there's a ton of world class skiing in BC. I skied a bunch with some dudes from Australia this winter and they concluded that the worst day of skiing here was still better than the best day they had ever had back home.
 
Saying Vancity and Calgary are in the same area is like sayin Invercargill and Wellington are.

I suggest Vancouver, or find a nice town in BC close to a mountain like Golden or Nelson
 
Hmm, they don't mention the Selkirks, Purcells, Monashee's. Strange, but yet there are lots of Ranges I've never heard of.
 
yo i live in edmonton and have a place in canmore which is like 4 and half hours away from edmonton and 45 min from clagary

cop is in calgary and has the best park in alberta

sunshine village norquay and lake louise are the big three resorts in banff clagary area and are pretty close to calgary norquay is across the street from banff and has a decent park but shitty mountain

sunshine village gets the most snow and has a good park depends on the effert tthe park puts in it

its my favorite and has the best rep and terrain and is the biggest and you stay on the hill if your staff i think depends on your job

louise is decent they might have a sick park next year and the hill is decnet

and in british columbia there is big white silverstar and revelsroke and panorama which are the closest main skii resorts near alberta

so if your looking for a sick place to work at near clagray with a good park i would go to sunshine village or just cop

or if you go to bc go to big white.
 
DOnt forget fernie, powder keg, castle, big mountain in whitefish, big sky, etc.

man there is a lot of skiing within 6 or 7 hours of calgary.

I feel extra lucky.
 
why are you so set on calgary? revelstoke golden or Vancouver would be better choices imo.
 
Well I have a friend who will also met in Calgary so Yeah I am definite on Calgary, Thanks for all the information, and Whoever Said that note on Staff lodging, Can you please give me more information about this, Cause It looks like Sunshine will be my mountain but of course I will go to other resorts when I am there, no doubt. Thanks though.
 
Ok, yes you can get staff lodging, but it FUCKING SUCKS BALLS. Live in Banff at the HI.....way better, or find a place of your own before you get out here. Check out the Banff Craig and Canyon news paper for better ideas.

If your going to work at the shine.....you have to be in Outside Ops to get any good riding time. Being a cook, or a dish pig may sound like a great idea, but honestly its stupid and sucks ass. You could get work work where you ride a few hours a day, or work where you don't ride at all.

Now that being said, depending on how much expearence you have you could work a few places.

If your not that great at skiing, and don't have much expearence lifty is the way to go. Sunshine hires TONS of lifties from your side of the world. They get pretty long ride breaks, and most of the people there will be in the same situation as you.

If you have the certification for it, you can be a Ski instructor. Some people think its cool, and have fun with it, but i think it sucks major. For one there is a high layoff rate. Two, you have to fit the grooming standard. For three, you get paid on a "per lesson" basis. So in other words, no bookings, no money.

Third is Trail Crew. This is a pretty hard bunch to get with. You ride ALOT, but its mostly big mountain. But trail crew and ski patrol always get first tracks on everything. ( even stuff thats closed). Now THEY WORK HARD. There is no crew out there that works as hard as trail crew. Like pounding steel into the ground, lifting 50 lbs fences up steel slopes, running large bundles of bamboo on your back while your skiing down moguls. But you can get TONS of skiing time. Some days they just lift a fence out and ski all day. They also get laid off somewhat early ( late april - early may), and they don't get on-hill staff accom.

Last but not least, where i work ( and of course i think the best work) ......park crew. Now we ski ALOT ( mostly park laps....but there isn't nothing wrong with that, but when we get 10+ cm of snow....well lets just say who wants to ride park on a day like that). But that is not to say we don't work hard. The job is super similar to trail crew. Labour intensive. Lifting rails, and boxes. Digging trenches ( sometimes all day), spraying dye on takeoffs landings ( the pack weighs more then 70 lbs). Building and maintaining features in weather that can depend from - 40 to +10. When the wind, and cold stops the hill we get shuttled up via sled and work through it. Plus we are a hard bunch to get along with. If your not weird, or don't have a thick skin......you woun't last long. Now this is a job that you can't "just get hired for." I did, but i have been working park for 3 years. But if you ride the park ALOT, and have some expearence in it, then you have a chance.

For hiring look onthe Sunshine website for numbers. Call the mountain and talk to HR. Melanie Wilks is super nice and can help you out with all the specifics.

Hope that helps you out. If you have anymore questions just hit me up.

P.S. work on getting that VISA now. I heard they can be pretty hard to get, and with the recession the way it is.......they are going to start to limit them.
 
Dude go to Nelson, tiny ass hill but all it does there is snow, upwards of 40cms in a night is not uncommon and its relaxed cause its a small town hill

plus there is Red mountain resort like 45 minutes away

tonnes of great skiing in the Selkirks
 
I made that working at sunshine village video and it was the worst work day of my life. travelling around talking to Aussie's sucks. If i were doing a whole season somewhere I would settle on Revy or Kicking horse because park gets boring-Sunshine is Flat as shit and boring as hell-Louise is awesome but doesn't get much in the way of snow. Revy and K-ho give you slack country access (as long as you aren't some punter who can't ski worth shit) they also have significantly better terrain and way better snow. Whatever you do don't limit yourself to Sunshine because it = gay as aids for anyone who isn't a total punter. Trust me if anyone knows...I know.
 
anyone who has trouble with the flats at shine is a fircken gaper. shines sick good park and great natural snow has back country access, theres the dive, wild sides pretty sick sometimes garbage shoots, sunshines great and a hear working there is a hoot.
 
I may have been a little harsh on sunshine so my bad. It was just a super frustrating season there this year. No snow whatsoever. Just saying if you are going to do season to ski then go somewhere else. If you want to party banff is the next best place to whistler for ski town destinations.
 
my feelings about the resort in no way reflect the people who work at Sunshine. They are awesome...especially the park crew who do a great job with the little they have to work with. I would just never move there to do a season. Not enough variety or snow.
 
sunshine is great to just ski but i go there quite a bit and ive only had one real powder day. and even when there is powder the hill is so freaking flat that you don't move.
 
Hey man go to red the got a sick park , cliffs theres always fresh pow to shred up and sick gaps hidden all over the place. Its defiantly a place to go
 
Man, you should take some of the advise on the smaller, less brand name hills.
the question is, what are you really looking for? is it more of a scene or more skiing? do you want spend your time in canada hanging with a bunch of guys from back home? or in smaller town, with an oppressively local vibe.
sort out your priorities, and your preferred/ dream terrain, then it will be easy to give you beta.
 
fortress is supposed to re-open this year (for real, finally) with decent prices and almost all terain except hells kitchen and that area. im stoked as hell, that was my favorite
 
about 20 mins past nakiska on highway 40. I dunno maybe 40 mins from canmore?best ski hill in alberta, although castle is pretty sick too

 
well i asked my dad and he said they have no snowmaking equipment on back or farside, and farside wont even be open, but theyre gonna have a better park where the t bar is there. but other then that lift tickets will be like 40 bucks for adult which i thiink is not bad.
 
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