Resort improvements coming for new winter season at Sun Peaks

Nov 4, 2018 | 8:16 AM

SUN PEAKS — Skiers and snowboarders will have some new features to look forward to this winter at Sun Peaks Resort.

Chief Marketing Officer Aidan Kelly says the resort’s biggest addition will be a whole new chair lift, with construction expected to wrap up by mid-December.

“So that’s big news for us, its been a while since we’ve built a new chair. And that’s going to be out in kind of the East Village area of the Resort,” Kelly explains, “It’s called the Orient Lift, and its a quad chair, and its going to be a big benefit to the overal flow and ski terrain that we have at Sun Peaks.”

Kelly says the new chair will allow skiers better access to the terrain in that area.

“But one of the big pieces of the lift was just improving the overall flow, and allowing people that are either skiing or staying out in that East Village area to better access the main village,” Kelly says, “Right now is a little bit tricky, you had to take a certain chair, and then cross over the road, and it just wasn’t smooth and fluid.”

Along with the addition of the Orient chair lift, the resort will be improving their most popular lift, the Sundance chair.

“We had some additional capacity that we’re able to add on there, so new carriers are going on the lift line,” He says, “That will give us a 30% increase in capacity on that lift to get people up a little more efficiently.”

While Sun Peaks doesn’t regularly have long line ups, Kelly says the extra seats will be a huge help during busier weekends or holidays.

And that’s not all.

Going hand in hand with the improvements to the lifts and extra runs will be new snow grooming equipment.

“Theres a couple of new snowcats coming on.” Kelly explains, “One has already arrived, and the other is arriving this week. Those are big, expensive items but those are really important to the experience that we’re able to offer at Sun Peaks.” 

Its not just the guest experience the resort is working to improve, Sun Peaks Resort staff will have some new housing as well. 

“We have a staff accommodation building that will be ready in the new year,” Kelly says, “So that’s a good addition for us, especially with the housing crunch that’s happening with all the destination resorts in Western Canada.”

As far as how much snow the resort is expecting, its too early to tell, according to Kelly.

“Over the last week, we’ve had about 40 centimetres at mid-mountain so theres definitely a snow base there to work with.” 

The resort opens for ski and snowboard season on November 17.

A complete list of improvements made to the resort can be found on the Sun Peaks Resort website.