Beautiful British Columbia was the last province to join the Dominion and encompasses an area bigger than the states of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Utah and Nevada united. Most of this substantial territory is covered by rough mountains that are home to more than thirty premier skiing areas, rivaling those of Colorado, Utah and the European Alps.

Skiing resorts are to be discovered all the way through the province, not only on the mainland but on Vancouver Island as well. One of the most well-known resorts, Mount Washington, is a year round resort with easy access to economical vacation rentals such as the Cona Hostel, with rates ranging from only $23 (CDN) for dorm accommodations to $55 for private rooms.  More luxurious accomodations are to be had at one of Canada’s bed and breakfasts or cabin rental accommodations.

Most of British Columbia’s most popular and easily accessed skiing areas are on the lower mainland, where over half of the province’s 4.1 million residents live. Whistler-Blackcomb is perhaps the best known outside of B.C., but Grouse Mountain, Mount Seymour and Express Bowl are in Metropolitan Vancouver’s back yard, within close driving distance and convenient to Seattle as well. Sun Peaks Mountain and Harper Mountain are also near a main B.C. city, Kamloops, which is located in the province’s Cariboo Region but still inside 250 miles of the U.S. and Canada boundary.

To visit different B.C. skiing resorts, it will be essential to trek much more but you are likely to find the expedition well worth it. Northern B.C.’s distant skiing resorts,which involve Murray Ridge, Tabor Mountain and Purden near Prince George, and Powder King Mountain, located in the northeastern Mackenzie area, highlight skiing for all skill levels from beginner to semi-pro, in an environment that is virtually unspoiled and a good thousand kilometres or more from the nearest major population centres. There are lovely bed breakfasts all through out this region as well.

British Columbia’s distant northern skiing areas also have a couple of new variations on this very old sport, known as heliskiing and catskiing. This has replaced the conventional chairlift, gondola or rope tow with a helicopter transport and gives veteran downhill skiers and snowboarders the chance to ski on slopes unavailable to practically everyone else. Some of these are available near Vancouver while others offer three and four day tour packages in some of the most remote and scenic regions of B.C.