Snowboard instructor Nick Coates explored Sunshine Village last winter and gives us a Resort Review!

FYI-Sunshine Village is looking at November 10th to open up the 2011/12 season.

Delirium Dive at Sunshine Village is not a green run…

Myself and a few buddies headed over to Banff, Canada recently to get a taste of their celebrated champagne powder…and let me tell you, it did not disappoint!

After a pretty pleasant flight and of course after making the most of duty free, we collected our bulging bags of snowboard equipment from the excess baggage area. We stepped out into the cool Calgary evening air and from there took a relatively short transfer up to the picturesque mountain town of Banff. As the transfer bus meandered closer to Banff the Rocky Mountains grew larger on the horizon… and what a sight they are, huge and snow-capped, the excitement was palpable as we drew closer and closer!

It was a bit of a boy’s trip so we’d chosen to stay up at The Banff Alpine Centre; having just spent a fair whack of cash on new equipment we decided this place would offer the best mix of value for money as well as a great place to party. We weren’t disappointed! Once we’d unpacked… well I say unpacked… what I mean to say is once we’d unzipped our bags we headed straight over to the onsite bar – The Storm Cellar - for a couple of cold beers to kick off our stay in Banff.

We woke the next day, with slightly fuzzy heads, pulled our jackets and pants on as quickly as possible, grabbed our boards and ran outside… a fresh dump had come in overnight! With big smiles on our faces we jumped on the bus up to Sunshine Village. The bus was full of excited chatter about the snowfall over night. There was a group of guys who we’d met the night before sitting behind us, they were all taking snowboard instructor courses and were super excited as their instructor’s had promised them a ride down “Delirium Dive”, quite possibly the gnarliest run in Canada, once the next snowfall had arrived.

Delirium Dive at Sunshine Village is not a green run…

We didn’t dare follow them… it was only our first day this season! We took things easy to start with, warming up down Creek Run just off to the side of the Standish Express chair, where there were loads of big natural rollers to hit and play around on, we took a few laps of this and noticed a wind lip just off to the side of the run. We were feeling good so we did a few drops into the fresh powder! Nothing like it to get the legs back… After some mixed success (and a few awesome bails too) we headed down to the Wawa Quad Chair, we took a right and ducked into an awesome patch of trees, there were wide open lines and some tighter ones too so we rode that until there were no more freshies to be had!

Having worked up a decent appetite it was time to head back up to the main station to refuel. We headed over to Trapper’s bar where we grabbed a massive plate of nachos to share between a few of us as well as the obligatory Poutine and a pulled pork sandwich for good measure… Now that’s good eatin’!

Feeling good after lunch we took the Angel Express we cruised down a couple of blues from there, just to warm the legs up again, and then we were off up the Continental Divide chair. This chair briefly crosses the state border to B.C. so you can say you’ve ridden in two states at the same time… neat little factoid for you there! From the top we carved down to the Rogers terrain park where all sorts of rails, boxes, jibs, and kickers awaited us – this place is sick!

After a good session in the park and feeling a little bruised, we headed over to Goat’s Eye Mountain with the tail end of the afternoon fast approaching. Lapping the Goat’s Eye Express chair we cruised down the long and winding Sunshine Coast, grabbed some late afternoon pow in the trees through Big Woody (we liked the name), and then cruised down Banff Avenue to finish up.

Goat’s Eye Mountain peeks out from behind ‘The Shoulder’ at Sunshine Village

Our first day at Sunshine Village was over and it was time to head back to Banff feeling pretty wiped but extremely contented all the same.

We jumped off the bus in town, explored the delights of the local shred shops: Rude Boys and Unltd, after that we grabbed a beer and a big plate of ribs at the Elk & Oarsman, delicious! And had just enough time to head back to the Banff Alpine Centre for a quick shower before we headed over to Mel’s for their famous $2.75 highball night!

About the Author: Nick Coates is a CASI level 2 snowboard instructor and recommends SnowSkool for Ski and Snowboard Instructor Courses in Banff.