Reading fan

We are currently loooking to emigrate to Canada and the whole family love skiing. My question is really for fellow skiiers who live within a one hours drive of accessable skiing and have lived in Canada for a few years (you know reality/everyday living set in)- hand on heart have you skiied as often as you imagined you would ? or does it amount to your annual skiing holiday in Europe? Cheers for any answers

R I C H

I live 45 mins from Sun Peaks in BC. I ski on 25-30 days per season, including 2 or 3 overnight stays up there.

Mountain Girl

I live about 50 mins away from the nearest hill and have skied a lot more than I ever thought I would. We have massive choice of ski hills to visit in Alberta. It has become part of my weekend routine. In London I would have just gone to the gym, here I ski.

leepee

We are about an hour from Banff and a little more to Lake Louise....My husband's company payed for his season pass (sorry but this isn't the norm!!!) He and my four yr old have gone pretty much most Sundays since the season started....I guess you just go as often as you want to??!! Not so easy next yr as younger boy has started to feel left out!!
Hth
L

gloveman

We live about 30 mins from Mount Washington and OH went skiing at least one day every weekend of the season and the odd night skiing. He would have gone more but work got in the way.

Mountain Girl

Oh I must add that here in Alberta the season has been known (06/07 winter) to run from November 15th through to the May long weekend. So we had 6 months of the white stuff to take advantage of. This season saw a bit of a late start.

Robski

Hee hee, i couldnt resist replying to this one.

I live a 25 minute drive from the hill, and i ski 5 or 6 days every week...




... Oh Yeah, its my job now so i guess i have to

tallperson

We had never skied before we came here. Had a couple of private lessons the 2nd winter, sent the kids with the school and did the occasional weekend skiing the 3rd winter and this last winter went every weekend. Even with a young baby we managed it. It's a 50mins drive for us to St. Sauveur.

bazzz

Most weekends for at least one day. Local mountains are a 30 minute drive; Whistler is about two hours. We had three weekends away; twice in Whistler once in Sun Peaks. I haven't looked too closely at our finances, but I suspect the costs do rack up a bit once you take into account things like buying equipment, car rental, eating out, etc.

bandit

On my recce to Vancouver in January this year, I very gratefully was taken by another member form this site, who didn't know me, and we went night skiing. as far as I can make out, I will be getting a night pass to Grouse when I arrive in Vancouver, and plan to have it as part of my w/end regime!!!

I guess you can go as often or as little as you want, and it's up to you to get organised and make the most of it!!

ann m

We have friends here who ski'd most weekends throughout this season - and thoroughly enjoyed it - but they have no kids and it was fairly easy to get up and go. She is, however, glad of a change and looks forward to a few more lazy weekends and a couple of lie-ins ....

We have two kids, and although we bought the Marmot cards for the adults(which give discounts and free days thrown in) we haven't managed to use all those free days up. Hubby got a few extra days in during weekdays when he was off work but I've only been 5 times I think since December.

One does need to consider the costs of the tickets, the petrol to get there and sometimes we simply could not justify it. It's not a cheap hobby, even when you live here. And I think you need to be really dedicated to spend the money on an annual pass and get full use out of it. Add to that the kids routine of parties, other activities and working shift commitments, socialising and the need to carry on with painting the house, and the weeks just fly by.

So - no - we have not ski'd as much as we had hoped to - but we are delighted to have managed what we did - and it fills us with enthusiasm for next year - and hey, I managed to ski out to the car park at Sunshine on Monday so I'm finishing this season on a personal high

Solarfish

The season ain't over yet! With the snow and low temperatures at the weekend I can see a few more trips before we put the equipment away

For the record we have been out on average once a week since mid November. Both kids did a ten weekend course which forced us to go. We did skip a couple of the busiest times like Family Weekend and we skipped at least one day because of excessive cold, however we went out several times over the Christmas break when we had friends visiting from the UK.

If I compare this with years in the UK then we have gone from about 12 days per year to about 30. I do expect this to increase a little next year as I hope to have finished some of the work on the house that has taken up some of our time. I am also signing up to be a ski-host (volunteer guide) which will mean a commitment to one day every weekend, but it is not realistic to ski both days every weekend.

Alberta_Rose

I'm in much the same situation as Ann m. We have Marmot cards, but with one thing and another we haven't gone as much as I should have liked to.

However, there's no way we ever could afford a ski holiday in Europe, and I hadn't skied at all until we came here!

This is my third season and I am just about getting parallel turns .... sometimes ..... but then again, I am incredibly old and very nervous!

The boys have been a couple of times on their own on the bus from COP.

Hubby has hardly ever got a day off at the weekend, and he seems to be making his mind up that he can't do it anyway!

ann m

Yes, I know - and this weekend's snow must surely have bolstered the resort for a few more weeks. Don't think we'll get up there again in at least the next three weeks though unfortunately. Enjoy !

Rob_999

We live in Vancouver, about 1.5-2hrs from Whistler, and 20 mins from local hills. This season I did about 30+ days at Whistler, 10 evenings/afternoons on the locals, and a 5 day cat skiing trip to Nelson (one hours flight).

The real benefit isn't only the easy access, it's the quality of skiing. You can pick and choose the days to ski at the last minute, which equals way more powder days than an annual trip to Europe....