Panorama, BC - Panorama Is Skiing’s #LifeHack. Actually, so is all of B.C. outside of Whistler.

[ChrisC]

Thought this was a worthwhile article about the joys of skiing in British Columbia, specifically Panorama, which gets overlooked even when it's having a good snow year.

It also mirrors some of my thoughts on our current metro skiing in Colorado, Utah, and California. (For example, I might never return to Solitude due to expensive parking, unlimited Ikon Pass usage/crowds, access road traffic, and costly lift tickets compared to its inception-to-2010s/ski shop deals.)

Panorama Is Skiing’s #LifeHack​

Actually so is all of B.C. outside of Whistler​

Stuart Winchester
Aug 04, 2025

Colorado is over. Utah is over. Tahoe is over. America racks 60 million skier visits per winter and nearly half of them are in these three places and probably 90 percent of these are at 20 ski areas. I don’t need to name them because you know them because everyone knows them. Even your aunt Joan who chain smokes Virginia Slims and still records her soap operas on VHS and hasn’t left Kentucky since 1973 and names her plants and has never skied and won’t because she’s “afraid of breakin’ somethin’” though apparently her lungs are crafted from adamantium knows what Vail is.

American skiing’s not over but mostly it is. Oregon and Washington? Forget it. Too many people, not enough ski areas, nowhere to stay on the hill anyway. We have to consider the environment you know and buildings even thoughtfully and densely constructed would be a catastrophe unlike the floating traffic jam known as US 2 when 5,000 Epic Pass holders migrate up to Stevens Pass every Saturday morning.

There is one low-crowd, big-mountain American ski alternative but you wouldn’t like it. Montana and Idaho are stuffed with 2,000-acre ski areas so empty you can ski onto the lift all day even when the pow’s stacked up to your roofrack. But they’re far from everyone and everything and the chairlifts are old and slow and none of them are on your Ultimate Powder Monster Ski Passport so you’ll have to pay $45 cash for a lift ticket and we just can’t be throwing money around like that and who at this point can even remember their ATM pin code?

But if you want the hack here’s the hack: Canada. Up North yonder. I know it sounds crazy but they still build things up there. An outrage! Here in U.S. America we fight housing like we’re invading Iwo Jima and push the timeline on what should be a simple village development out to decades and make sure it can house one-third as many people as initially proposed which was already 90 percent less than what we needed and celebrate our ability to get nothing done like we’d just invented the lightbulb. But in British Columbia the government decided 30 or so years ago to clear bureaucratic obstacles so that small ski areas could become large ski areas with high-speed lifts and large trail footprints and lodging tucked against the mountain and what do you know: the province has sprouted nine ski areas nearly the size of Keystone and just as nice. But not just as crowded. Because with the exception of Whistler which is also over no one skis in British Columbia.

So for Presidents Week 2025, my family went there.

Panorama Is Skiing’s #LifeHack

Actually so is all of B.C. outside of Whistler

www.stormskiing.com

 

[Tony Crocker]

Stuart makes some interesting ski choices. When he finally tries western Canada he skis only at Panorama (and the very modest Fairmont Hot Springs), nice area, but would anyone rate it in the top 5 of the region? Then on a 4 day trip Stuart flew into Seattle Jan. 13, skied Alpental 2-4PM, then drove the 4 hours to Spokane. He skied Silver Mt. Jan. 14, then on Jan. 15 skied 49 North during the day and Mt. Spokane in late afternoon/evening. On Jan. 16 he drove back to Seattle, skiing Snoqualmie Summit on the way, and presumably flew a redeye home.

Admittedly the Panorama trip was with family and the Seattle rental car marathon was solo, racking up 5 ski areas in two full days plus two half days. It seems to me that interior Northwest areas stuffed with 2,000-acres so empty you can ski onto the lift all day even when the pow’s stacked up to your roofrack deserve at least a full day each rather than a few very incomplete hours.

I'll mention here that in the extremely rain-plagued 2015 season, Panorama had the best conditions in western Canada when Tseeb and I were there in late February. But were on a road trip and figured that out on the fly. I would never place that bet booking in advance of the season.

 

[jimk]

There's a chance I'll get to ski Panorama for the first time next March, maybe Red Mtn too. Will report back

 

[Sbooker]

The writer seems a bit negative toward the mainstream US ski areas. My family were at a few of them last Christmas holidays. Whilst it was busy lift lines weren't bad at all. We had a great time. Better than the week or so later skiing in Canada in the freezing fog.

 

[MarzNC]

The writer seems a bit negative toward the mainstream US ski areas. My family were at a few of them last Christmas holidays. Whilst it was busy lift lines weren't bad at all. We had a great time. Better than the week or so later skiing in Canada in the freezing fog.

Stuart grew up skiing in the midwest. He's been based in New York City and skiing in the northeast for a while. While he can appreciate what destination resorts provide he clearly likes the vibe of independent, family-owned ski areas more. The cost difference for a family ski vacation during school holiday periods with a couple kids can be astonishing.

Have you ever listened to one of Stuart's podcasts with a leader at an Ikon/Epic resort? His writing style and his interview style are different. I happen to enjoy both.

 

[ChrisC]

Stuart makes some interesting ski choices. When he finally tries western Canada he skis only at Panorama (and the very modest Fairmont Hot Springs), nice area, but would anyone rate it in the top 5 of the region?

I think it is fair game to critique his ski resort choices. He is not running a labor of love site like NYSkiBlog, New England Lost Ski Areas Project, BestSnow, or SkiVT-List.

"The Storm" is intended to be a ski industry analysis and a for-profit site. I am sure all the travel is work-related and tax-deductible. As such, Stuart has a duty to visit both large, medium, and small resorts to better understand and report on their offerings, especially some of the mega-resorts that the majority of skiers frequent.

Again, I am unsure about his ski resort 'research' choices, as he is trying to cover the overall ski industry. Also, he should get to Europe before wasting time on more small mole hills, since that is the majority of the ski industry, despite his preference for tree-lined runs. Asia is the growth engine.

If you want to publish for fun, sure, go ski Blue Hills, Nashoba, and Yawgoo Valley, but these Metro Boston resorts in MA/RI are relatively unimportant in the scheme of things. I lived around 20-40 minutes from two of them, but I could barely be interested unless the roads were horrible with 12-20 inches of snow.

The reality is that he is simply publishing Indy Pass propaganda and highlighting/visiting the smaller mountains on it. The Indy Pass is most relevant to relatively small resorts on the East Coast, the Midwest, and the Pacific Northwest, including BC.

An Indy Pass story I would like to know more about: the Black Mountain Co-Op/Non-profit is currently only looking for 'Accredited Investors' (those with a net worth of more than $1M, Excluding Real Estate, or an annual income of more than $200K/yr or $300k/yr combined) to invest. Perfect for New Hampshire residents to support their local area. Definitely an excellent example of the Indy Pass ethos.


This Pac Northwest trip seems cursory at best.

en on a 4 day trip Stuart flew into Seattle Jan. 13, skied Alpental 2-4PM,

This barely allows you to ride each lift once at Alpental - let alone understand why it's the best expert day area in North America with legitimate side/backcountry terrain.

More time was spent at 300 vertical feet, Blue Hills, MA, versus the monster that is Alpental: 400"/yr, 2250 ft vertical, 900 inbounds acres/500 sidecountry acres.

on Jan. 15 skied 49 North during the day and Mt. Spokane in late afternoon/evening.

That's almost a 1.5-2 hour drive between 49 North and Mt. Spokane. I guess you could ride each lift in each area once.

On Jan. 16 he drove back to Seattle, skiing Snoqualmie Summit on the way, and presumably flew a redeye home.

Snoqualmie Summit operates on a limited weekday schedule, so this is not the optimal day to visit. Snoqualmie East is closed midweek except on Friday. Snoqualmie West is closed until midweek evenings. Only Central is open, so you are missing a lot of the resort.

Stuart can cover what he wants, but he is too narrowly focused on small, independent North American resorts to be of value as a ski industry consultant. His brand is too narrow to be lucrative, likely.

Again, his unique value is Industry Podcasts. No one else does it. I told the PeakRankings team to start doing the same thing for their Channel. Everything is Podcasts and YouTube. (SnowBrains and Unofficial put no effort into facts/research, and would be too unprepared for any extensive interview. Stuart's journalistic background definitely helps him sit down for a respectable hour. )

 

[tseeb]

I have to question his snowfall data with Revelstoke and Timberline tied for no. 2 at 540” each. He says “U.S. snowfall totals sourced from bestsnow.net. Canadian snowfall totals as claimed by resort.” I didn’t see Timberline at bestsnow, but I didn’t look everywhere. I did see bestsnow has Revelstoke at 368”.

 

[Tony Crocker]

Again, his unique value is Industry Podcasts. No one else does it.

Yes. It' s interesting that the podcasts are free in their entirety but the articles are abbreviated unless you subscribe.

Stuart can cover what he wants, but he is too narrowly focused on small, independent North American resorts to be of value as a ski industry consultant. His brand is too narrow to be lucrative, likely.

That's true for the articles but not so much the podcasts. He had one with Rob Katz immediately after he was rehired as CEO of Vail. I've listened to Rusty Gregory podcasts too.

I have to question his snowfall data with Revelstoke and Timberline tied for no. 2 at 540” each. He says “U.S. snowfall totals sourced from bestsnow.net. Canadian snowfall totals as claimed by resort.” I didn’t see Timberline at bestsnow, but I didn’t look everywhere. I did see bestsnow has Revelstoke at 368”.

I'm always annoyed when someone with that high visibility accepts "brochure quote" snowfalls at face value. Stuart published a list of snowiest US ski areas in late May relying on brochure quotes. I sent him a lot of info, which he did not see until June 8; we eventually had a phone conversation June 25. It was wide ranging, mostly covering personal ski histories. I listed to his personal interview podcast #200 first to be prepared. Nonetheless I ran a bit afoul of one of his pet peeves, people who don't lower safety bars. This was coincident with our thread on the topic.

I downloaded Stuart's U.S database and went through every area for snowfall claims as I had a decade or more ago for Zrankings. By late July Stuart used the numbers I provided for most but not all US areas. I sent a followup e-mail about the 43 areas which he had not changed, and he said he "would get around to it," but has not yet.

As for Canada Stuart has not invested the time chasing down the details he has in the U.S. For that Panorama article he had to whip something up, so of course he used brochure quotes for snowfall. I sent him corrections for those, but Canada is still tangential for him, not that high a priority IMHO.

For both Zrankings and StormSkiing I have to make educated guesses for ski areas where I don't have data. Timberline is surely the highest snowfall area where I do not have data, even though I've tried to get it IN PERSON twice. I'm inclined to believe the 540 because mostly east facing Hood Meadows (extensive data, average 439) was almost completely melted out when we skied still well covered south facing Timberline in June/July 2022.

Stuart's big summer project, which had to be a massive time suck, was to trace the ownership history of every US multiarea ski ownership group, past as well as current.

Stuart also keeps track of all the pass products, their cost and to which areas they apply.

 

[jamesdeluxe]

20-ish years ago, I mentioned on Epicski that I wanted to go to Panorama and asked for feedback. The general response was a dismissive "Don't bother; it doesn't get much snow." Of course, I wouldn't fly across the country primarily for a ski area that averages in the 170s but I wanted to keep it in the mix if/when I got out there. I ended up skiing five days at Banff's "Big 3" in 2007 and plan on returning to the Great White Northwest at some point in the future when I have more time.

 

[ChrisC]

20-ish years ago, I mentioned on Epicski that I wanted to go to Panorama and asked for feedback. The general response was a dismissive "Don't bother; it doesn't get much snow." Of course, I wouldn't fly across the country primarily for a ski area that averages in the 170s but I wanted to keep it in the mix if/when I got out there. I ended up skiing five days at Banff's "Big 3" in 2007 and plan on returning to the Great White Northwest at some point in the future when I have more time.

I skied Panorama on my first trip to interior BC & Alberta in March of 2001 (or 2002?). At this stage:

• Intrawest expanded Panorama to its present vertical 4200 ft+ with new expert terrain
• Receives the same snowfall as Lake Louise/Sun Valley. Not bad, but not great. Suffers due to neighbors close to 300-400"/yr.
• Located near the introductory heli ski operator, RK Heliski
• Revelstoke did not exist
• Kicking Horse just opened/expanded. Did not yet have the upper Quad. Still unknown.
• Good midway stop on the way to Fernie from Banff.

Overall, I liked Panorama; it has Sun Valley-like (i.e., Challenger) 3,000 vertical feet of high-speed, north-facing cruisers that are best skied early in the day before they degrade in the afternoon, despite few Skiers. Also, the high-elevation expert areas were legit - Extreme Dream and Taynton Bowl.

On our Heli day at RK Heliski (2nd day), Panorama received 0" of new snow/partly cloudy, while the RK Heli Tenure, located 5-10 miles further west, was in a snowstorm with 8-16" of new snow, eventually clearing, allowing higher elevation terrain to be skied.


20021-22 - Terrain Expansion in Place, Lift Improvements - not yet. HS Quad to slow double to 2 slow T-bars.

Improved Lift System 2023-24

Even more terrain today 2024-25

 

[MarzNC]

So Panorama developed initially in the 1960s with local ownership. Then Intrawest built out the base. Back to local ownership in 2010.

History of Panorama | Panorama Mountain Resort | Panorama Mountain Resort

Discover the history of Panorama: From humble beginnings to becoming an international destination renowned for long descents, incredible hot pools & much more.

www.panoramaresort.com

Reminds me of the evolution of Snowshoe and Silver Creek. Intrawest made a difference for a decade but the ski areas started as two private businesses. Difference is that Intrawest had kept Snowshoe so Alterra became the owner.

There are Aussies who fly to Canada regularly who like Panorama, in combination with other mountains in the region.

 

[Tony Crocker]

Panorama is an obvious stop on the "Calgary loop" road trip, which was my first into that region in 1999 and which I still recommend. Split a week between Fernie/Castle and Banff/Lake Louise. Panorama is in the middle of the 4-hour relocation drive.