Table of contents for Buyer's Guide 2025 in Ski Canada

SURVEY SAYS! According to a survey by Snow Season Central, these were the top three ski etiquette violations in Australia last season: 1. Budding in the lift line. 2. Skiing too close. 3. Disrespecting the environment. The study also named Melburnians as the country's worst-behaved skiers. With walk-up lift ticket prices soaring (see story page 16), the temptation is there to pay up front for an all-you-canski multi-resort pass. But how often do pass holders actually get on the hill? Remarkably, most either fail to break even or barely get there. According to a study conducted by the Denver-based Langston Company during the 2022-23 season, 53 percent of people in the study who hit the slopes three to five days purchased a pass—which is typically around the break-even point—and 37…

Early on in my ski journalism days, I discovered an essential truth: Never confuse skiing, the sport you love, with the ski industry, which seeks to make money. While it's happily true that the vast majority of ski industry professionals I've met strike me as fair traders and square dealers, I've never taken on the risk of ordering $80,000 worth of skis on a line of credit to wallpaper a retail shop, nor have I had to sharpen my pencil to do the math on how much to discount hotel rooms in a low-snow year. Paul Green, longtime publisher of this magazine, was a businessman first and a skier later. After graduating from the University of Toronto in 1970, Green found a job selling print ads for Special Interest Publications,…

To ski the glades a skier must be able to see the trees from the forest. In a way we are doing the same thing writing this buyer's guide. We consider all the media events and launches, press releases and catalogues, marketing speak and lofty promises and spend our winter and spring hacking at the brush to find the solid wood, the stuff that matters. A big part of that is identifying the trends shaping the future of ski gear. The biggest trend is sustainability. In every category of ski gear there's a move toward using cleaner energy, reducing carbon emissions and cutting chemicals. Almost every brand is integrating more recycled materials. For instance, Head's ReThink project is a collection of ski gear, including goggles, bindings and boots, that is…

ANDERMATT GOES EPIC What was the biggest news in the European ski universe last year? First Andermatt, then CransMontana; Vail Resorts now holds controlling interest in two storied Swiss resorts. Have the famously independent and isolationist Swiss finally decided to open up to outsiders? After ski resorts, what will they sell next? Chocolate? Little red knives? Basel? Driven by an unwavering commitment to serve the best interests of the (literate) skiing public, convinced long-time Ski Canada editor Iain MacMillan to join his trusty travel passepartout (me) on our first of several snowy adventures last season. Destination: Andermatt, Switzerland. Andermatt sits at the western end of the largest ski area in central Switzerland. It connects with Disentis and Sedrun—both unique destinations in their own right— for a total of 33 lifts…

SHORT TURNS Canada's best-known climatologist rarely makes guarantees, but looking ahead to this winter, Environment Canada's David Phillips is confident enough to make an exception. “Clearly, it's going to be a better winter for skiing than it was last year,” he says. Climate change and El Nino conspired last season to set a record for the warmest winter ever in Canada and leave B.C. with nearly half its usual snowpack. With the disappointment still fresh and global warming lurking in the corner, we're wondering what skiers should make of Phillips’ assurance, La Niña forecasts and the future of winter? Winter weather comes in one of three flavours: neutral, El Niño or La Niña. It's driven by the El NinoSouthern Oscillation, or ENSO, a recurring climate pattern related to water temperatures…

1. Get your tickets early Women's World Cup GS races will be held Dec 7-8. Book tickets online, the event sold out last year at 15,000 spectators. Tickets start at $20 for general admission plus $75 for gondola ride, lunch and access to the stands. For $1,000, VIP's gain admittance to the lounge at La Forge, featuring snacks, drinks and unobstructed views of the finish area. Ski club kids: wear your team jackets for prime finish-line access. 2. Splurge on merch Televised giant slalom races start Saturday, but the real action begins Thursday. Watch training runs and course prep. Thursday is also a good day to stock up on souvenir cowbells, hats, shirts, scarves, even Flying Mile trails signs. 3. Meet and greet Thursday at 5 p.m. is your chance…

Joel Freeman is core no more. After taking his wife and two daughters on at least one North American ski trip every winter for the last decade—placing the family firmly in the Canadian Ski Council's “core” demographic—the forty-something Toronto resident didn't ski last season. The final straw came when a Reddit thread (among other sources) persuasively demonstrated that it was cheaper for Coloradans to take ski vacations in Europe than in their home state. “Everyone in my family wanted to go skiing, but the cost barriers kept rising and rising until we finally decided to go to Hawaii instead,” Freeman tells Ski Canada. “We don't ski enough to buy season passes for the whole family, and walk-up prices are getting out of control.” Skiing has never been a cheap sport,…

BUYER'S GUIDE 2025 ALL-MOUNTAIN + CARVING SKIS Sometimes the testers get tested. Running a ski test always brings uncertainty. Do we have the right skis? The right testers? These are annual questions, but last year there was one more. A late-January deluge during an already warm winter in B.C. made us wonder if there would be snow to ski on. In the end, everything fell into place. Operations wizards at Mount Washington Alpine Resort worked magic to get the resort back on track. A record number of skis arrived. On time, even. The resort held a contest to invite a select group of keen locals to join our usual pool of ski instructors, patrollers and expert skiers. And the test days coincided with some of the snowiest weather of the winter.…

WHY WE SKI ASPEN Aspen, Colorado: elevation 2,438 metres, 41 lifts, 2,298 skiable hectares. Put on the map by Jerome B. Wheeler, an 1870s industrialist intent on riding the silver mining boom. Blank canvas of Walter P. Paepcke, “maker of modern Aspen”, whose post-WWII community vision was to nourish “the whole man” through art, sport, music and thought. Home of hippie celebrities, notably: gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson, who once firebombed the sky to wish Jack Nicholson a happy birthday; and Stevie Nicks, who sang at commencement ceremonies at the local high. Aspen: Sixth on an online list of top names for golden retrievers—immediately preceded by Summer and Maui. Namesake of at least one car: a 1976 Dodge sedan. A town described alternatively as “candy-ass” and “the cocaine capital of…

YOUR RUN You don't haue to bend a knee to address us. Please drop us a line anytime at info@skicanadamag.com I read Steven Threndyle's column (Why I Once Cared About Tele, Winter 2024) and had to chuckle. “Swooping … like a hawk, lifting your arms like wings…” Is this person figure skating? Yes, we have seen a decline in tele skiing. We cannot, however, blame the gear. The gear is amazing. So is the feeling of making tele turns. And no, we are not swooping like hawks or making wing movements with our arms. We are carving tight turns, putting the ski on edge on hardpack, floating through bottomless powder after a big storm. Why is tele likely declining? It is hard to learn and very hard to master. The…

CROSSHAIRS TRIPLE THREAT When I first met Dylan Siggers a decade ago, he was barely out of his teens. I was in Fernie, B.C., for a story and asked him for a tour around some of the sprawling terrain that inspired Burrrlapz, a locally legendary series of grainy ski edits that he had made mostly with his Fernie homies (his word) Josh and Brody McSkimming. As we followed Siggers, I immediately liked what I was watching, not that I understood it. His ski pants were baggy, of course. His poles barely topped his kneecaps. They were more like disposable fashion accessories than anything with practical utility. He skied switch, at high velocity. When arcing a turn in pow he sometimes leaned at an impossible angle, weighting the inside ski and surfing…

You've skied in the same boots for years—the duct tape, the missing buckle, the dings and scrapes, all of it tells a story. You've had a long time to get to know your boots and now that you do, you feel as if the three of you are married. Your skis are another matter. Skis are so fun and playful, you'll want to get acquainted quickly. But you still need to take enough time to get to know them thoroughly—everything from shape and sidecut, to profile, length and camber. There's a lot to learn in a short time. Here are a few drills to help you get comfortable. TOPPLE TURNS Topple turns create a pure carve, enabling you to get used to the sidecut and turn radius of your new…

SKILL SCHOOL LATERAL BALANCE How we balance between our skis. DRILL: Lift one foot, place it back down, then lift the other. Repeat, so that you're stepping while alternating skis. Do this while static first, then while sliding. Start by only stepping in between turns, then start to step as you finish your turn. Finally, step all the way through your turns. RESULT: This will remind your body and brain of the movements we make (bending and straightening the legs) as we adjust our balance between the skis. FORE/AFT BALANCE How we balance along the length of the skis. DRILL: Again, do this while static to start, then while sliding. Rock forward from the ankles so that your shins push against the fronts of your boots. Then rock back, so…