Calgary

Calgary, a cosmopolitan Alberta city with numerous skyscrapers, owes its rapid growth to its status as the centre of Canada’s oil industry. However, it’s still steeped in the western culture that earned it the nickname “Cowtown,”

Lake Louise

Lake Louise is a hamlet in Banff National Park in the Canadian Rockies, known for its turquoise, glacier-fed lake ringed by high peaks and overlooked by a stately chateau. Hiking trails wind up to the Lake Agnes Tea House for bird’s-eye views. There’s a canoe dock in summer, and a skating rink on the frozen lake in winter. The Lake Louise Ski Resort features a wildlife interpretive center at the top of a gondola.

Revelstoke

The city is situated on the banks of the Columbia River just south of the Revelstoke Dam and near its confluence with the Illecillewaet River. East of Revelstoke are the Selkirk Mountains and Glacier National Park, penetrated by Rogers Pass used by the Trans-Canada Highway and the Canadian Pacific Railway. South of the community down the Columbia River are the Arrow Lakes, Mount Begbie, and the Kootenays. West of the city is Eagle Pass through the Monashee Mountains and the route to Shuswap Lake.

Halcyon Hot Springs

Halcyon Hot Springs, also known as Halcyon Hot Springs Resort & Spa, is a popular travel destination in British Columbia, found 35km north of Nakusp, BC on the Upper Arrow Lake. Halcyon Hot Springs Resort & Spa is open to the public year round and has two natural hot spring pools, a cold plunge pool and a seasonal swimming pool, located directly on the beautiful Upper Arrow Lake. The Resort is equipped with a full service restaurant, ‘The Kingfisher’, that is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. There is a spa on site and 45 cabins, cottages & chalets dotted in the trees around the lake.

Nelson

Known as “The Queen City”, and acknowledged for its impressive collection of restored heritage buildings from its glory days in a regional silver rush, Nelson is one of the three cities forming the commercial and population core of the West Kootenay region, the others being Castlegar and Trail. The city is the seat of the Regional District of Central Kootenay. It is represented in the provincial legislature by the riding of Nelson-Creston, and in the Parliament of Canada by the riding of Kootenay—Columbia.

In the winter, skiing and snowboarding are Nelson’s primary outdoor activities. Thirty minutes south of town is the Whitewater Ski Resort, which provides access, (via one triple chairlift, two double chairlifts and a handle tow), to 396 vertical metres of beginner to advanced terrain. The resort also provides access to hundreds of kilometres of off-piste skiing and back country touring. The Nelson area is home to over 20 cat-skiing, heli-skiing and ski-touring operators, and hundreds of kilometres of cross-country trails are available for the Nordic skier. In 2012 Nelson and Rossland, a small city south-west of Nelson, were jointly voted best ski locales in North America by readers of California-based Powder Magazine.

Ainsworth Hot Springs

Whether you experience Ainsworth Hot Springs in the pool or cave, you are sure to enjoy an experience like no other. The hot springs are nestled in the Kootenay region of British Columbia, overlooking the majestic Kootenay Lake.

Kimberley

Home to the Kimberley Alpine Resort, a ski area and Kimberley’s Underground Mining Railway that features a 750-foot-long (230 m) underground mining interpretive centre complete with operational 3 ft (914 mm) narrow gauge railway equipment. Recreational pursuits include world-class skiing, snowboarding, snowmobiling, fishing, whitewater rafting, kayaking, biking, hiking and golfing on championship golf courses. The city has the largest urban park in Canada. At 1,977 acres (800 ha), the Kimberley Nature Park is the largest incorporated park in Canada.

Fun fact: The city has the “largest freestanding cuckoo clock in Canada”.

Lake Louise Ski resort

The Lake Louise Ski Resort is a year-round resort destination located in Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada.

Revelstoke Mountain Resort

Currently, the resort has a 1713m (5620ft) vertical drop, Revelstoke has the longest vertical descent of any ski resort in North America. In terms of size, it is about the same as other major resorts, such as Breckenridge and Panorama, and about a third the size of Whistler-Blackcomb. When completed, it will have 10,000 acres (40 km2), which will make it the largest in North America.

Whitewater

The Selkirks receive plentiful, dry snow, and the location in a high alpine bowl provides an annual snowfall average of approximately 12 m (472 in; 39 ft). The elevation of the parking lot is 1,605 m (5,266 ft) and the highest lift accessed point is 2,000 m (6,562 ft). While Ymir Peak is not included within the ski area boundary, lifts climb both shoulders of the bowl and provide easy traverse routes along ridges to the top. In addition to its snow, the resort is renowned for its tree skiing and steep runs; only 20% of the runs are beginner, while 40% are intermediate and the remaining 40% are advanced. Areas surrounding Whitewater, including West Arm Provincial Park, are renowned for easy access for backcountry split boarding and ski touring.

The resort consists of three lifts: one triple chair lift (installed in 2010), one antiquated double chair, a fixed grip quad chair (installed in 2017), a handle tow, 13 km of Nordic trails, and a lodge with an-award-winning cafeteria, a rental shop and guest services.

Balfour Kootenay Bay Ferry

The Kootenay Lake ferry runs across Kootenay Lake, 35 kilometres east of Nelson on Highway 3A, between Balfour (west side) and Kootenay Bay (east side), 70 kilometres from Creston on Highway 3A.

Kimberley Alpine Resort

It is located in the Purcell Mountains, on the east face of North Star Hill. The ski season starts in mid December and runs until early April.

The resort maintains 80 runs (with 20% beginner, 42% intermediate and 38% advanced trails) and 5 liftsystems: a high-speed quad chair lift (the North Star Express), a triple chair (the Easter), a double chair (the Tamarack), a T-bar (the Owl) and a magic carpet, leading to a total lift capacity of 6,452 skiers per hour.