Forget Whistler, this Canadian resort is an expert skier’s heaven

Terrace, British Columbia – chances are you’ve never heard of it, but if you’re looking to ski limitless powder it should be on your bucket list.

A 90-minute flight north of Vancouver, this unprepossessing rail and lumber town on the banks of the glittering Skeena River is the access point for some of the best and most varied skiing in Canada, especially if off-piste is your thing.

The area is home to three tiny ski hills – Shames Mountain outside Terrace, Hudson Bay Mountain and the Hankin-Evelyn backcountry ski area near Smithers (another remote lumber town) along with Terrace-based Northern Escape Heliskiing (NEH), winner of the World’s Best Heliski Operator at the World Ski Awards for the past three years, and one of the few carbon-neutral heliski operations around.

Award-winning adventure

NEH has access to a staggering 3,373 square kilometres of off-piste terrain (almost 100 times the size of Whistler Blackcomb, North America’s biggest ski resort), all accessed from the operation’s cosy Yellow Cedar Lodge, just outside Terrace.

From the lodge’s porch, an eight-person Koala helicopter (pilot, guide and six clients) can have you on the snow within five minutes of lifting off, as I discovered on my first morning, when we landed on a ridge of the evocatively named Sleeping Beauty Mountain, easily visible from downtown Terrace.

Our guide Troy Grant – for whom the adjectives “droll”, “laidback” and “laconic” might have been invented – advised us to simply “Follow me; and have fun!” as we set off on our first descent – 3,000 vertical feet of untracked powder on a run called Line King.

A high, wide alpine snowfield allowed each skier to choose their own line, some tracing tight curves through the snow, others – myself amongst them – preferring the big, fast, arcing turns that modern fat skis (provided by NEH) allow.

NEH opened in 2004, although its founders’ heliskiing experience dates back to the 1980s, when you really did need to be an expert skier to tackle the region’s deep powder on the era’s long, skinny skis. They were drawn to the location – midway between central British Columbia and Alaska – because every winter it receives a mind-blowing 100-feet of snow, usually of the powdery variety. Unlike the other top heliski destination, Alaska, this part of Canada also has world-class tree skiing in beautiful old-growth cedar forests, which can be accessed in all conditions by snowcat when the weather prevents helicopters from flying.

Fortunately, on my stay this wasn’t the case. We had five days of unbroken sunshine, revealing the area’s immense glaciers, deep bowls and challenging couloirs in all their glory.

Hitting the jackpot

We began each day around 9am at Yellow Cedar Lodge, a superbly relaxed establishment providing a winning combination of warm, comfortable rooms, magnificent food, super-friendly staff and – an absolute essential – two large hot tubs for après-ski tall tales with beer.

Each day we’d clock around 11 runs and between 19,000 to 26,000 feet of vertical, every single foot of it on untracked snow. Recent warm weather, along with strong winds at altitude, tested our guides’ local knowledge when it came to finding the best snow conditions – and on my final day we really hit the jackpot.

On a hunch that the best powder may be 50-kilometres away, at the far northern end of NEH’s tenure, in a sector named Promised Land, we made flight in the bright early morning sunlight. The journey took a mere twenty minutes, skimming across endless forests and over sharp mountain ridges.

And when we got there Promised Land lived up to its name, providing us with a full day of slicing through smooth, shin-deep powder. After being dropped off on various alpine ridges in a rotor-fed mini-blizzard we created our own lines down huge powder fields to the top of the tree line, with the final run – the eclectically named Whistle Punk – being a 2,700-feet descent to the headwaters of the Kitsumkalum River, which had only ever been skied once before.

A ski safari

This marked a fitting end to a ski safari in British Columbia that had started two weeks earlier with a road trip to visit the aforementioned three small ski hills – since none are more than 2.5 hours’ drive from Terrace.

Shames Mountain, established in the early 1990s as Canada’s first non-profit ski co-operative, is just 45 minutes out of town, and at the opposite end of the scale to NEH, with just two lifts, a score of marked runs and a mere 1600-feet of vertical. But where it does boast superlatives is in the phenomenal snowfall of around 40-feet a year and the remarkable backcountry – all easily accessed from either the lifts or via an uphill route for anyone prepared to hike for their powder fix.

Further afield, some 200-kms south-east on the Yellowhead Highway is Hudson Bay Mountain, which sits above Smithers. The town’s small population of 5,000 and its relative isolation mean that despite there being but one three-person chair, two T-bars, 44 runs and just 1750-feet of vertical, the slopes rarely see lift queues. I had the slopes to myself, and by the end of the day I was on first-name terms with the Australian lift attendant.

Finally, a locally run, non-profit operation 45 minutes north-west of Smithers accessed down rough and icy dirt roads, Hankin-Evelyn is a ski hill without lifts, the brainchild of local enthusiast Brian Hall in 2008. A series of runs were cut through wild forested terrain in 2010, and can only be reached by skinning up a marked trail; there is no trail grooming and there are no facilities other than a warming hut at the top.

I joined four local skiers – Hans, Jordan, Brian and Ian, and we were the only skiers on the mountain. The descent was challenging due to less-than-ideal snow conditions, but it was worth the effort for the sensation of being out in the Canadian wilderness, surrounded by nothing other than mountains, forests and new-found friends.

Unlike heliskiing, this little jaunt had cost me nothing other than sweat and aching muscles, and proved that British Columbia’s backcountry can be accessed by any adventurous skier, whatever the size of their wallet.

Essentials

What to book

Alf was a guest of BC Tourism, Northern BC Tourism and Northern Escape Heli Skiing, who offer packages starting from CAD$6,099 (£3,377) for three-days, including accommodation and meals, guiding, ski and avalanche gear hire.

Where to stay

Stay in Smithers at the Bulkley Suites from CAD$129 (£71) per night and in Terrace at Skeena River House from CAD$130 (£72) per night.

How to get there

Flights from London Heathrow to Terrace via Vancouver cost from £985 with Air Canada. Hertz at Terrace Airport offer a mid-size SUV for CAD$503 (£279) for four days.

For more information visit hellobc.com