Sunshine Village

Sunshine Village
Sunshine Village ski resort
Location	Banff National Park, Alberta  Canada
Nearest city	Banff
Coordinates	51°04′43″N 115°46′56″W / 51.07861°N 115.78222°W / 51.07861; -115.78222 (Sunshine Village)
Vertical	1,070 m (3,510 ft)
Top elevation	2,730 m (8,960 ft)[1]
Base elevation	1,660 m (5,450 ft)
Skiable area	13.6 km2 (3,360.6 acres)
Runs	107 20% easiest 55% more difficult 25% most difficult
Lift system	1 gondola (8) 9 chairs - 6 hi-speed quad - 2 fixed-grip quad - 1 double 2 magic carpets
Lift capacity	20,000 / hr[2]
Terrain parks	1
Snowfall	914.4 cm (360.0 in)
Web site	SkiBanff

Sunshine Village is a Canadian ski resort, located on the Continental Divide of the Canadian Rockies within Banff National Park in Alberta and Mt Assiniboine Provincial Park in British Columbia, Canada. It is one of three major ski resorts located in the Banff National Park.^[3] Because of its location straddling the Continental Divide, Sunshine receives more snow than the neighboring ski resorts. The Sunshine base area is located 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) Southwest of the town of Banff, Alberta. By car, it is about one hour and thirty minute drive from the city of Calgary. The Sunshine exit on the Trans Canada Highway is 8 km (5.0 mi) west of the town of Banff.

Sunshine Village ski runs and lifts are accessed via an eight-person high-speed gondola. The gondola takes people from the parking lot (or bus terminal) to Goat's Eye mountain in 10 minutes and to the upper Village area in 18 minutes. There are 10 chairlifts and 107 trails within the alpine valley formed by the three mountains (Mount Standish, Lookout Mountain, and Goat's Eye Mountain) that constitute Sunshine Village.

History

The first explorer through the Sunshine area was Governor George Simpson of the Hudson Bay Company. His party passed through the area in 1841 seeking new quicker routes into the Columbia District. His diary noted "Hole in the Wall" (Goat's Eye mountain and he left a blaze in a tree that has since been preserved in the Banff Natural History Museum. The next significant exploration party was the Palliser Expeditionin the late 1850's; Mt. Borgeau, is named for one of its members one of its members.

Everything changed with the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway and its arrival in Banff in in the late 1880's. Bill Peyto may have been the first person to bring real tourists through the Sunshine area.^[4] The eccentric Peyto was a trapper and prospector. He was also a competent guide, as his rugged life gave him the skills required to face the often harsh realities of nature. In the 1890s Peyto would guide tourists through the Sunshine Meadows to the base of Mt. Assiniboine, the highest peak in the Southern Continental Ranges of the Canadian Rockies.

By the 1920s, Sunshine Meadows had become a popular camping site. Pat Brewster, the youngest son of dairyman John Brewster, was the first to regularly bring tourists for overnight camping at Sunshine Meadows. This area was nicknamed Tee Pee Town on account of the many tents that overnight campers would set there.^[4] Upon reaching the top of the Tee Pee Town chair lift today, one is looking over the same Sunshine Meadows that were busy with campers those many decades earlier.

In 1928, the Canadian Pacific Railway built a log cabin lodge for the use of The Trail Riders of the Canadian Rockies, a club of horse enthusiasts who were sponsored by the tourist friendly railway.^[4] This cabin was certainly not the first lodge built in the region (Bill Peyto’s cabin near Simpson’s pass was built more than 30 years earlier), but it is now the oldest building at Sunshine Village and is known as the Old Sunshine Lodge. Housing Mad Trapper's Saloon and Bruno's Bistro, the OSL is situated at the timberline above what was then known as Wheeler’s Flats and just below a vast expanse of high alpine meadows.^{[citation needed]}

In March 1929, Cliff White and Cyril Paris, two local extreme sports enthusiasts, created a plan to use the CPR cabin as an overnight point in their ski trek over the great divide. Unfortunately they could not find the cabin that night and were forced to sleep in a dug-out in the snow. Upon waking in the morning they discovered that they had only just missed the CPR cabin. These two men were the first to ski what is now known as Sunshine Village.^[4]

In 1934 Jim and Pat Brewster leased the cabin form the CPR and began offering ski vacations. They bought the lodge in 1936. In 1939 they hired Swiss guide Bruno Engler as the first ski instructor. In 1941 a rope tow was built. The Brewster's owned the area until 1951 when it was sold to George Encil, who also owned nearby Mt. Norquay. He added "Village" to the name and made numerous improvements including the addition of a "Ski-Kuli" lift.

In 1961 the resort was purchased by local Banff businessman Cliff White, Jr. and his wife Bev. Their vision has shaped the resort. Partnering with Power Corporation Resorts, they built the Sunshine Inn (now Sunshine Mountain Lodge), the Daylodge and opened up the slopes of the Continental (Great) Divide Chairlift. He ushered in the modern era with the opening of the first gondola, which replaced bus access to the ski area, in 1980,

In 1981, the resort was purchased by Ralph T. Scurfield of Calgary. Since his passing in 1985, his sons, Ralph, Sergei, and John have run the resort and made many improvements, including modern high-speed lifts and the opening of Goat's Eye Mountain. The popular resort now hosts some 500,000 skiers and snowboarders annually over a ski season that stretches from early November to late May.

Popular culture

Many movies and TV specials have been filmed in the Sunshine area. Sunshine Village was utilized as a task destination for the season ending episode of the popular American reality television show The Amazing Race 5 (original broadcast date September, 2004). In the final 13th leg of this race, the three remaining teams took taxicabs from the Calgary International Airport to Banff’s Sunshine Village. After riding the gondola to the base of Lookout Mountain, the contestants donned snowshoes before making the approximate 2,000 vertical foot hike to the top ridge of the Great Divide (elevation 8,900 feet). Sunshine regularly host the Marjoe Gortner Celebrity Sports Invitational charity ski events to raise money for charities such as the Dream Foundation and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.'s Waterkeeper Alliance.

References

External links

• SkiBanff