By Dylana Milobar

New chairlift highlights busiest day ever at Sun Peaks Resort

Jan 4, 2019 | 3:19 PM

SUN PEAKS, B.C. — A new chairlift, and a new busiest day ever has Sun Peaks Resort looking forward to the rest of the 2019 ski season.

Chief Marketing Officer Aidan Kelly says the warm weather in nearby Kamloops had those at Sun Peaks Resort hoping for at least a decent start to the ski season, and with the last big snowfall, their success soared past the forecast.

“So actually, on Saturday, Dec. 29, we had our busiest day in the history of Sun Peaks, which is a pretty bold statement. But there were just under 7,000 people that were skiing that day.”

Despite the increase in visitors, the lift line-ups weren’t totally clogged, Kelly says, due in part to the new Orient chairlift.

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“So the ski in and out access has been really improved, and we knew that would be something that would be appealing,” he says. “But what we didn’t anticipate was the high usage of the lift itself and that people are actually skiing this area a lot more now.”

The $4 million lift was under construction throughout the summer and fall months, and wrapped up in time for a Christmas Eve opening.

According to Kelly, expanding the ski experience is just the start of developing the east side of the village, with more homes and condos on the way.

“There’s a lot of real estate that was built out here over the last few years, I think we’re going to see a lot more. The new Elevation project should be on sale within the next couple of weeks as well,” Kelly explains, “and we’re already kind of in the early stage of talking about ‘what do we need out here from a service standpoint’? Because there’s limited food and beverage, there’s limited skier services. People are out here now starting their day, they want to rent skis, maybe lessons, that kind of thing.”

As the resort grows, more visitors from countries around the world are making their way to Sun Peaks, including Australia, New Zealand, Germany, and the U.K.

“A bunch more Americans coming across the border. The exchange rate kind of helps out a little bit with that. And one of the emerging markets we don’t see a ton of traffic from yet, but I think it’s going to grow moving forward, is Mexico,” Kelly says. “There’s actually a lot of Mexican skiers that are flocking to the British Columbia ski resorts now, and we’re seeing that a little bit here at Sun Peaks as well.”

In the meantime, Kelly says the resort expects the rest of the 2019 ski and snowboard season to run smoothly, with another 15 centimetres of snow in the forecast next week.