Image Credit: CFJC Today

By Adam Donnelly

SUN PEAKS RESORT

Sun Peaks Bike Park celebrates 25 years as summer season kicks off

Jun 14, 2024 | 6:30 PM

SUN PEAKS, B.C. — After a long, cool spring, the summer season is about to kick off at Sun Peaks Resort. That means the Bike Park is set to open — and this year it’s celebrating a milestone season.

“It’s our 25th anniversary of the Bike Park, so that’s lift access mountain biking here in Sun Peaks Resort,” Christina Antoniak, Director of Communications for Sun Peaks Resort, explains. “We kicked off in 1999 with a couple of trails, opened it up for riders to take their bikes up the chairlift, and since then, we’ve done major trail development work over 25 years to get to where we are today in terms of our mountain bike product.”

That product includes more than 80 kilometres of trails accessed via two lifts — the Sunburst and Sundance Express chairs — which has led to a huge increase in riders hitting the trails.

“We’ve seen, in five years, a 300 per cent increase in mountain biker traffic coming up to Sun Peaks,” Antoniak says. “And that’s day visitors and season pass holders, and that speaks volumes about the mountain biking experience, the product that we’re able to offer. There’s something for everyone.”

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Like skis, there is a fleet of bikes available to rent from the resort, as well as all the necessary protective gear. The resort also offers a full service repair shop in case your bike takes some damage out on the trails.

“Yeah, just the usual things you’d see in a bike park setting,” Rental and Retail Manager Mike Sleziak explains. “A lot of brake bleeds, a lot of brake pad replacements, a lot of tube changes, a lot of tires. All the things you’d expect people would be breaking in the bike park.”

Sleziak has seen incredible growth in the sport over the past decade and a half in Sun Peaks and gives a lot of credit to the resort for building its trail capacity.

A selection of photos from the inaugural season of the Sun Peaks Bike Park in 1999. Image Credit: Sun Peaks Resort

“A lot of people had ridden in Sun Peaks in the past and I think it had a reputation for being quite a gnarly bike park,” Sleziak says. “With a lot of the new development they’ve put in, it caters to a broader swath of humanity than it has in the past. Everyone that comes up says [Sun Peaks] is their new favourite bike park.”

Sun Peaks is also hosting two national mountain biking championships, starting with the Canadian National Downhill Championships.

“That’s on the August 9-to-11 weekend,” Antoniak explains. “We’ll have hundreds of riders here from across the country and it’s just a great exposure opportunity to bring people to Sun Peaks who haven’t been here before to experience the whole destination. We also have the National Canadian Enduro championships, and that’s at the end of September.”

The summer season officially kicks off Friday afternoon (June 14) at Sun Peaks Bike Park with a special event for season’s pass holders from 2:00 to 7:00 p.m. On Saturday, the first chair starts at 10:00 a.m. and runs until 7:00 p.m.

While there are limited trails open at this time due to cool, wet spring weather, there is something for riders of all skill levels.