British Columbia Ski Resorts Ranked & Mapped
British Columbia has the second most ski resorts/areas in Canada behind Quebec. We ranked British Columbia the best Canadian province for expert skiers.
Ski Season in British Columbia
The best time to ski in British Columbia depends on a variety of factors, including your personal preferences, your ability level, and the specific ski resort you are planning to visit.
In general, the ski season in British Columbia typically runs from November through April, depending on the weather and snow conditions. British Columbia is known for its cold winters and ample snowfall, which make for excellent skiing and snowboarding conditions.
If you are looking for the best snow conditions, January and February are often considered the best months to ski in British Columbia, as the snowpack is usually well established and the skiing and snowboarding conditions are at their best. March and April can also be good months for skiing and snowboarding, as the weather tends to be more stable and the ski resorts are often less crowded.
List of All British Columbia Ski Resorts
Skiing can get expensive. Besides equipment rentals, ski lift passes are expensive and really add up if you have a family. To combat this, multi-resort, multi-day lift passes were created to help offset this cost a bit. Buying lift pass days in bulk will usually net you around a 20% discount.
Mountain Collective and IKON each have 3 British Columbia resorts in them. EPIC only has one, stemming from their purchase of Whistler in 2016. However, the most common multi-resort pass in British Columbia is INDY, with four.
| Resort | Pass | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Apex Mountain | INDY | Hedley, BC, V0X |
| Baldy Mountain Resort | Oliver, BC, V0H | |
| Bear Mountain Ski Hill | Dawson Creek, BC, V1G | |
| Big Bam Ski Hill | Taylor, BC, V0C | |
| Big White Ski | Kelowna, BC, V1P | |
| Clearwater Ski Hill | Clearwater, BC, V0E | |
| Cypress Mountain | IKON | West Vancouver North, BC, V7S |
| Fairmont Hot Springs Resort Ski Area | Fairmont Hot Springs, BC, V0B | |
| Fernie Alpine Resort | Fernie, BC, V0B | |
| Grouse Mountain | North Vancouver, BC, V7R | |
| Harper Mountain | Kamloops, BC, V2C | |
| Hart Highlands Ski Hill | Prince George, BC, V2K | |
| Hudson Bay Mountain | Smithers, BC, V0J | |
| Kicking Horse | Golden, BC, V0A | |
| Kimberley Alpine Resort | Kimberly, BC, V1A | |
| Little Mac Ski Hill | Mackenzie, BC, V0J | |
| Manning Park Ski Area | INDY | Manning Park, BC, V0X |
| Mount Cain Alpine Park | Port McNeill, BC, V0P | |
| Mount Seymour | North Vancouver, BC, V7G | |
| Mount Timothy Ski Area | Lac la Hache, BC, V0K | |
| Mount Washington | Comox-Strathcoma, BC, V9J | |
| Murray Ridge Ski Area | Fort St. James, BC, V0J | |
| Panorama Mountain | COLL | Panorama, BC, V0A |
| Phoenix Mountain Ski Area | Grand Forks, BC, V0H | |
| Powder King Mountain | Fraser-Fort George, BC, V0J | |
| Purden Ski Village | Fraser-Fort George F, BC, V2L | |
| RED Mountain | IKON | Rossland, BC, V0G |
| Revelstoke | IKON,COLL | Revelstoke, BC, V0E |
| Salmo Ski Hill | Salmo, BC, V0G | |
| Sasquatch Mountain | INDY | Agassiz, BC, V0M |
| Shames Mountain Ski Area | West Terrace, BC, V8G | |
| Silverstar Mountain | Spallumcheen, BC, V1B | |
| Sovereign Lake Nordic Center | Vernon, BC, V1B | |
| Summit Lake Ski Area | Nakusp, BC, V0G | |
| Sun Peaks | COLL | Sun Peaks, BC, V0E |
| Tabor Mountain Ski Resort | Prince George, BC, V2L | |
| Troll Ski | Quesnel, BC, V2J | |
| Whistler Blackcomb | EPIC | Whistler, BC, V0N |
| Whitewater | Nelson, BC, V1L |
Explaining Our ‘Difficulty Score’
Parks & Trips created a proprietary Difficulty Score that is generated by looking at the number of easy-intermediate-expert slopes by acreage and the maximum vertical drop of the overall resort.
Our algorithm compares each resort’s metrics with all others in North America, then gives each a Difficulty Score, which we use to rank them accordingly. Resorts with a lower score are easier than those with a higher one. However, a high score does not mean that the resort does not have any easy slopes, or vice versa. This is just an overall score given to the resort based on all its metrics grouped together.
The Most Difficult British Columbia Ski Resorts
Not only is Revelstroke is the most difficult ski resort in British Columbia, but also the entire country. It is tops in just about every other important skiing metric as well. Kicking Horse is located near the Alberta border and actually has the most expert-rated trails in the province.
Whistler Blackcomb was the site of the 2010 Winter Olympics skiing events, and comes in third place here.
| Rank | Resort | Green Trails | Blue Trails | Black Trails | Difficulty ScoreTM |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | Revelstoke | 12% | 43% | 45% | 100% |
| #2 | Kicking Horse | 20% | 20% | 60% | 90% |
| #3 | Panorama Mountain | 15% | 35% | 50% | 87% |
| #4 | Whistler Blackcomb | 20% | 53% | 28% | 87% |
| #5 | RED Mountain | 17% | 34% | 49% | 72% |
The Easiest Ski Resorts in British Columbia
All the easiest ski slopes in British Columbia are all community ski ills, some of which are run by teams of volunteers. Clearwater Ski Hill probably is the easiest of the major hills in BC.
| Rank | Resort | Green Trails | Blue Trails | Black Trails | Difficulty ScoreTM |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | Hart Highlands Ski Hill | 100% | 0% | 0% | 1% |
| #2 | Little Mac Ski Hill | 67% | 33% | 0% | 10% |
| #3 | Summit Lake Ski Area | 75% | 25% | 0% | 11% |
| #4 | Big Bam Ski Hill | 60% | 35% | 5% | 14% |
| #5 | Clearwater Ski Hill | 49% | 38% | 13% | 27% |
The Largest Ski Resorts in British Columbia
Choosing the largest ski resorts is a bit of a tricky proposition. Do you look at just the summit elevation? How about the total acreage, most trails, or steepest vertical drop?
Well, we decided to combine all four of those metrics into one ranking to get the best idea, although we fully admit this is completely subjective. We’ve given you all the data in the following table to make your own decision.
Whistler Blackcomb is the largest ski resort in BC. Yes, it has the most trails, but it also has an insane 8,100+ acres of skiable terrain. While this metric can easily be inflated with a few mental gymnastics, there is no denying this resort is huge. Revelstroke comes in second, primarily due to it having the second most acreage, but also the steepest vertical drop by almost 200 m.
| Rank | Resort | Summit Elevation | Base Elevation | Vertical Drop | Acres | Trails |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | Whistler Blackcomb | 2,284 m | 675 m | 1,609 m | 8,171 | 200 |
| #2 | Revelstoke | 2,225 m | 512 m | 1,713 m | 3,121 | 75 |
| #3 | Kicking Horse | 2,505 m | 1,189 m | 1,315 m | 3,486 | 120 |
| #4 | Panorama Mountain | 2,450 m | 1,150 m | 1,300 m | 2,975 | 135 |
| #5 | Fernie Alpine Resort | 2,134 m | 1,082 m | 1,052 m | 2,504 | 142 |
