On November 17, 2024, we went up to Sunshine Ski Resort. We rode the gondola and then took a ski lift to the top of the resort. There, we skied out of bounds, into the backcountry. Because we used the gondola and the ski lift to access the backcountry, it is Sunshine “slackcountry” skiing.
The conditions were good for early season. The snow was fluffy and there was enough to cover a lot of the grasses, bushes and little trees. We managed to find a few good slopes to ski down, all in the general areas of the Standish Viewpoint.
Our route is the purple line on the map below, recorded using GaiaGPS. We started at the top of the Strawberry Express Quad chairlift on the right side, bottom half of the map. We skied down and around a ridge that was too steep to go over.
Ideally we would have gone up the Standish Express Quad instead of Strawberry but Standish was not open yet.
Trip Report
Dan is setting an uptrack, heading out away from the top of the Strawberry Express Quad chairlift.
We skied around the bottom of a small steep ridge.
We got to the base of this hill. The Standish Viewpoint is over this hill and to the left.
We decided to skin up this short, gentle run and ski down for our first run of the day.
It turned out to be a great warm-up. We skinned up and skied it a second time.
Then we skinned up a third time and carried on to the Standish Viewpoint, a wooden platform with stairs.
We skied down past the Standish Viewpoint and around to the left, where we could see the lake down the valley.
The lake is in the distance. We skied the left side slopes in the photo. It was a great run and we went up to ski it a second time.
Then we crossed the valley away from the Standish Viewpoint and skied a couple of laps on gentle slopes.
We stayed in glades with scattered trees and avoided the open slopes which seemed scoured by the wind. The snow was better in the trees.
From those slopes, we looked across the valley at the ski resort.
Standish Viewpoint is on the left, out of sight.
After our second run here, we skinned back to the resort and jumped on the gondola to head back down. There was not enough snow yet on the ski out to get to the parking lot.
That ended our Slackcountry Day. This area has a lot to offer in that it is easy to access through the resort and there are many little slopes, some gentle and some steeper, to explore in the valleys around the Standish Viewpoint. I hope we will get a chance to ski here again this year.
Return to the main backcountry skiing page.
Have you skied Slackcountry? If so, what is your favourite resort for accessing the backcountry?
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