Ski Mountains near Vancouver

What are the best ski destinations near Vancouver? Canada’s west coast has some of the world’s best skiing and snowboarding, but finding a mountain to match your budget can be a big challenge during peak season.

To help you plan the perfect ski weekend, HomeToGo has gone off-trail and into the deep powder to bring you a list of the best ski slopes within a day’s drive from downtown Vancouver.

The Vancouver Ski Index ranks the best slopes nearby, based on a few key factors: The price of a lift ticket, equipment rentals, lunch on the slopes, overnight accommodation, and an après ski caesar cocktail. For hardcore ski enthusiasts, we also collected data on the size of each mountain, lift capacity, and average annual snowfall. See below for the full methodology.

Mapped: The Best Ski Destinations Near Vancouver

Ski Affordability

Total Cost = Transportation Cost + Lift Pass + Lunch + Drink + Accomodation + Equipment Rental

Transport = [Km from downtown Vancouver * 0.07L/km] * [$1.29/L].

Fuel prices were provided by CAA and were calculated on Jan 8, 2019. Fuel economy is based on the average highway fuel economy for a new 4 cyl. SUV as reported on NRCAN. Please note that these prices do not include the cost of ferries, toll roads, or bridges.

Lift ticket prices are for a full day adult lift ticket, purchased from the ticket window on a typical Saturday during the 2019 season (not including promotional pricing for advanced purchase or multi-day passes).

Equipment rental prices are for intermediate skis, boots, and poles for one day.

The accommodation price is the average price per person per night to stay in a 4-person vacation rental found on HomeToGo within 10km of the ski mountain. Prices are for one night between the dates of Jan 1st, 2019 and April 20, 2019. Our own metasearch data provided this information.

Lunch & drink prices are based on the cost of a regular poutine and caesar cocktail from a restaurant located on the mountain or at its base. The data was sourced using online menus and does not include special pricing for restaurant happy hour or promotions.

All prices in CAD. Please note that this is a forecast and that prices may change between now and the upcoming season. When prices for 2019 were not available from the resorts, we based our price forecasts on last season’s prices. Prices exclude sales tax. For additional information, please contact [email protected].

Ski Experience

Score(i) = 5 * [ ( x(i) - x(min) ) / ( x(max) - x(min) ) ] + 5

We examined dozens of ski destinations within an 8 hour drive from Vancouver. We then created a shortlist of top ski destinations based on the experience categories listed below. The data for each of these categories was collected from each mountain's website in January 2019. To calculate the total score for experience, we used the equation above to get a representative numerical value between 5 and 10 for each category - with 5 representing the lowest data point and 10 representing the highest data point. We then added all of the category scores to get the total experience score for each mountain. The hypothetical "perfect score" would be 60 out of 60.

The six experience categories for this index include:

Skiable Vertical: Vertical elevation from the base of the mountain to the highest point accessible by ski lift.

Skiable Area: Hectares of terrain that are patrolled and designated for skiing.

Lift Capacity: The maximum number of skiers that can be transported up the mountain per hour.

Annual Average Snowfall: Average annual snowfall as reported on the ski resort website.

Night Skiing: Based on the number of ski lifts open after 4 p.m. on weekends.

Visitor Rating*: Average visitor rating of each ski resort collected from Google Maps on January 8th, 2019.