Intermittent sunshine, high temp somewhere around the mid teens, and 2-4 inches of dust on ... a soft, packed-powder base, on all aspects (including the south-facing Goat’s Eye chutes) and at all elevations (right down to the gondola base). There was plenty of ankle-deep untracked snow to be found in the tree islands and on some of the further-out chutes. The Dive was closed.
Sunshine Village, AB/BC, APRIL 2, 2018
- Thread starter flyover
- Start date
I always wonder why Sunshine gets so many "meh/wouldn't go back" reviews from destination visitors. I thought that it was worthwhile for two days even without WW or DD and I didn't find it disjointed, as many claim.
jamesdeluxe":2m3wq5ww said:
I agree. I wouldn't want to stay at the hotel at Sunshine and ski there all week, as I do prefer LL when the conditions and weather are good. However, I think Sunshine has a lot to offer anybody willing to do just a little bit of nosing around and exploring. A lot of the fairly large tree islands accessible off Teepeetown, Great Divide, Standish, and Wawa get tracked out very slowly. Similarly, IMO the chutes and trees accessible off of Goat's Eye are pretty underrated. I have found that just a little effort there can lead to very lightly-tracked snow days after a storm. I also think the resort is actually somewhat nicely laid out for family skiing. Its easy to split up for skiing and meet up to ride the lifts together. For example, I have often lapped more challenging terrain off of Goat's Eye or Teepeetown while my wife and daughter have skied groomers or bumps and we have all met at the bottom and rode the lifts together.
Off topic, I have very much enjoyed all of your posts from Europe this season.
People spend an entire week at SSV? I would be happy redoing my itinerary from 2007: two days at SSV (three if you include DD/WW), two/three days at LL, and one day at Norquay.flyover":3kslv5x9 said:
Thanks about the Alps reports.
I am one of Sunshine's critics.
At Louise the steeps face north and preserve snow extremely well. The front side south facing intermediate terrain is more easily mitigated with grooming and snowmaking. Sunshine's advanced Goat's Eye faces SW, and it can melt/freeze, even in February. Sunshine is a very cold mountain, so sometimes with sustained cold weather and snow refreshers, you can get lucky like flyover with overall packed powder conditions, even in April.
Nearly all of Sunshine has west exposure (NW on Continental Divide and SW on Goat's Eye) into the prevailing wind. Go visit Castle Mt., which faces leeward of that same prevailing wind, and you'll be a lot less impressed with Sunshine.
At Louise the steeps face north and preserve snow extremely well. The front side south facing intermediate terrain is more easily mitigated with grooming and snowmaking. Sunshine's advanced Goat's Eye faces SW, and it can melt/freeze, even in February. Sunshine is a very cold mountain, so sometimes with sustained cold weather and snow refreshers, you can get lucky like flyover with overall packed powder conditions, even in April.
Nearly all of Sunshine has west exposure (NW on Continental Divide and SW on Goat's Eye) into the prevailing wind. Go visit Castle Mt., which faces leeward of that same prevailing wind, and you'll be a lot less impressed with Sunshine.
jamesdeluxe":2mvoofqq said:
Apparently so. Not my cup of tea. I talked to two families of spring breakers, one from somewhere in rural Alberta I have never heard of, and the other from Saskatchewan. They were doing just that.
Also, somewhat interestingly (and I understand this has no scientific value whatsoever), I overheard a much wider variety of languages spoken at Sunshine than I did at Lake Louise this year. Languages overheard, in no particular order, included: French ( I am not qualified to tell you whether it was Quebec or continental), German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Japanese, British English, Australian English (of course) and South African (I asked) English.
Tony Crocker":2mvoofqq said:
I can’t really argue with any of that, except to say that I’m not so much “impressed” by Sunshine as that I think it gets a little more criticism that it deserves (especially for being “disjointed”) and that it has some attributes which seem to get frequently overlooked. I think my experience there has been a little bit colored by visiting late in the season, as ice has seldom been an issue. Castle is very much on my list, but it is out-of-the-way.