Ski Resort Series: Revelstoke

March 7, 2026March 6, 2026 / Maria / Leave a comment

I finally skied Revelstoke! This mountain has been on my bucket list for a long time. I’ve been doing an annual ski trip with my friends since 2016 and we had booked an awesome chalet in Revelstoke in 2021 that we ended up having to cancel. Because of the distance from Revelstoke to Vancouver, it’s been hard to find enough time to make the trip, but this year I was determined to finally ski it.

As a result, this was our 9th Annual Ski Trip, so I feel like we need to do something big for next year! To make the planning a bit easier, we didn’t rent a large chalet this time and just booked a series of hotel rooms. A few of us stayed at the Sandman Hotel because we were able to get a really good discount by booking early, and some others stayed at the Swiss Chalet Motel. The price of hotels has definitely gone up a lot in recent years, so it does require some advance planning.

Revelstoke is a well known resort in BC and much beloved by a lot of the locals. It seems to also have a pretty big reputation among Americans and international tourists, which surprises me because it’s not located next to any major airports. It’s ~6 hours if you’re coming from Vancouver, and ~5 hours if you’re coming from Calgary. But it is known for getting a lot of snow, and we were not disappointed in that regard.

Unlike a lot of other major ski resorts, Revelstoke doesn’t have much of a village. The town of Revelstoke is located right next to Revelstoke National Park, and while it’s only a 15 minute drive from the ski resort, there’s not a lot of accommodations at the base of the mountain. This is why we opted to stay in town, but this could change soon as there has been considerable construction of new condo buildings near the resort. That said, I didn’t mind staying in town because there are a lot more restaurant options (although it is still somewhat limited).

We visited over the family day weekend in mid-February, so we were expecting the mountain to be busy, but honestly, it wasn’t too bad. There were a lot of people, but it was not crowded like Whistler, or even Cypress. The bigger challenge was finding a restaurant to eat in, so I definitely recommend making advance reservations. We made reservations for Chesterfield on the first evening, and then waited in line to eat at the Village Idiot (they don’t take reservations), on the second evening. We also visited Monashee Distillery and Old School Eatery. Chesterfield had the best food, the Village Idiot had the best vibes, and the Distillery had the best drinks! Personally, we didn’t love Old School Eatery.

If you live in BC or ski a lot, you’ll probably know that a lot of the North American resorts struggled with snow in 2026. After a truly phenomenal December and early January, it was extremely warm and dry, with a lot of resorts having a shortfall of fresh powder. From what I understand, it was much worse in the US and some of their resorts didn’t even open. So we were a little concerned about what the ski conditions might be like, but fortunately the resort got 20cm of fresh snow just before we visited! The base of the mountain was still bare, but the skiing at the top was great.

Revelstoke has a reputation of being an advanced mountain. I can kind of see how it gets the reputation – there is a lot of steep terrain at the top of the mountain – but in my opinion, there’s still sufficient terrain for intermediate skiers. Aside from the gondola, there’s two main chairs; the Ripper Chair and the Stoke Chair. If there’s snow on the bottom half of the mountain, you could do a lot of beginner and intermediate skiing from the gondola, but when there’s not a lot of snow, you are limited to the other two chairs.

In my opinion, Ripper Chair is a great option for intermediate skiers. There’s lots of nice terrain next to the chair, including many blue and green runs. We spent a lot of our first day on the Ripper Chair and I had a great time. If that sounds boring to you, there’s also a lot of open gladed terrain that you can ski in this area, so it’s easy to find more challenging runs if you don’t want to do groomers.

Stoke Chair also has a few options for intermediate skiers, but tends more towards steeper terrain. I could see this chair not being very enjoyable without good conditions. The far east side of the mountain was icy when we visited, so we mostly avoided that area, but the west side of the chair still had lots of fresh powder, which in my opinion, reduces the difficulty of steep runs. I felt pretty comfortable on this part of the mountain because of the powder and ended up having a great time on both chairs. Plus there’s all kinds of fun hidden artwork around the mountain, so keep your eyes open because you’ll never know what you’ll find!

There’s lots of gladed areas that you can ski on Stoke chair too. I’m not very experienced with glade runs. They make me nervous if they’re too narrow and I’m not always sure where they will come out. So I could see how Revy might get a reputation about being challenging because of the number of glade runs. But many of them are located in the middle of the resort and pop out on other runs, so you don’t need to be too worried about going out of bounds, and you can usually exit early if you’ve had enough. My friend Victoria loves skiing glade runs, so on our second day, I did a lot of glade runs with her, which really helped to get my confidence up when skiing in the trees.

The real highlight of Revelstoke is the North Bowl At the top of Stoke Chair, there is the option to do a small bootpack further up the slope to access more terrain. Bootpacking is when you take your skis off and carry them in order to access terrain that isn’t skiable directly from the lift. I have done some bootpacking at Whistler, but it’s a fairly new concept to me. It sounds tiring, and it is, but we only had to walk for ~10 minutes in order to access the bowl at Revelstoke, and in my opinion, it was well worth it. In fact, we loved the bowl so much that we ended up hiking up there twice!

On our first attempt at the north bowl, Victoria thought we could access a run called Sweet Spot, which drops into the lower part of the bowl and bypasses the bootpacking. We gave it a try, but me and Brandon didn’t stay high enough on the traverse and ended up at the top of Vertigo Ridge instead. Victoria did manage to access the top of Sweet Spot via the traverse, so if you want to access this run, just stay as close to the rope as possible (which is located below the bootpack trail) until you get to the entrance.

We opted to just ski Vertigo Ridge instead. There are a few other runs that drop down the backside from the ridge, but it’s not part of the main bowl and it looked a bit steep for my tastes, so we ended up just skiing Vertigo Ridge the whole way down until you enter into some glades and eventually pop onto a main run. Vertigo Ridge was fantastic and even the glades I didn’t mind, but it is a long run, so I was happy when we finally left the trees. There’s no way to get down without going through the glades, so keep that in mind if you do any bootpacking or bowl skiing.

On our second attempt, we ended up just doing the bootpack, which is ~5-10 minutes of climbing uphill until you reach a little apex where you can put on your skis and traverse across to the main “Drop In”. The entrance is named after the first run down the bowl (Drop-In), but it’s really just an entrance to a traverse from where you can ski to any of the bowl runs indicated on the terrain map. There’s no formal runs back here, but you can ski across the bowl as far as you want and then drop in where you feel comfortable.

I was nervous about the drop in to the run, but I ended up being very comfortable with it. We thought that Sweet Spot was supposed to the easiest drop-in to the bowl, but I think it probably depends on the year and the conditions. The entrance to Sweet Spot was pretty narrow and steep, whereas the entrance to Drop-In was really just a narrow, but flat traverse. Steepness generally only intimidates me when the runs are narrow or icy. But because there was lots of powder in the bowl, which is obviously incredibly wide, I found it easy to drop into the bowl.

The thing about the bowl is that, once you drop in, you are committed to riding it the entire way down to the base of Ripper Chair. The main bowl funnels into one run called Big Woody, which involves a lot of glade skiing. I loved riding the bowl, it was honestly a dream, although we did spot a drop into a crevasse near the bottom, which was scary to see. But once you hit the bottom, you are committed to skiing out through the trees. I’m sure there are multiple routes you can take, but there’s definitely a natural path through the trees that most people seem to follow. I didn’t mind it at first, but the further we got, the busier it got (from more runs converging), and the more chewed up the snow was. The last section had a lot of exposed tree roots and rocks and a lot of the powder was brushed away. I managed okay, but I was really glad when we exited the trees.

But because we had so much fun in the bowl, we decided to go back for one last run to do Sweet Spot, which is on the far side of the main bowl and has an alternative exit that spits you out near the top of Ripper Chair instead of the bottom. We still used the Drop-In entrance, but then kept to the left side of the bowl so that we wouldn’t get forced back onto the Big Woody Run. I really like this section of the bowl too and we had some nice skiing until we hit the trees again.

Overall, there’s a lot less glades on this run and it’s much shorter, but it was also a lot more of a challenge for me. It was the steepest run of the day and because it was so steep, a lot of the powder had been brushed away and there weren’t a lot of choices for how to get down the run. It’s only a very short narrow section before you drop back into a wider run, but it was one of the scarier runs I’ve done. I relied almost entirely on a sideways slide to get down the steep section, which still worked for me, but I was definitely sweating! Victoria cheered me on from the bottom and Brandon cheered me on from the top and eventually I made it out to the wider part of the bowl. It was still very steep, but easier to actually ski. I felt very relieved when I got back to the groomed run.

I decided to call it a day after the second bowl run, so overall on my second day, I only skied 4 runs, but the runs were so long and involved that each one took the better part of an hour. I definitely felt accomplished by the end of the day. Brandon and Victoria decided to ski a few more runs without me. We had a bit of an incident on our first day. Originally there were 5 of us skiing, but we got separated almost immediately on the first run when Me and Kristine went one way, and Brandon, Victoria, and Tess went another way. There’s no service on the mountain, so Kristine and I skied the Ripper Chair all morning before learning that poor Tess had caught an edge on her first run and had to be stretchered out. Fortunately, she was okay and Seth came to pick her up at the base and take her to the hospital for some tests. But Brandon and Victoria lost a whole half day, so they were keen to make up time.

They didn’t take a lunch break on the first day, but I took a lunch break on both days. There’s really only one place on the mountain to eat, a small cafe at the top of the gondola. It pretty much only sells burgers and fries, but they are very delicious burgers! The problem is that the cafe is inadequately sized, so you will have to queue for a while (it moves fast), and more problematic, there’s almost no indoor seating. We ate outside at the picnic tables on both days. It was sunny when Kristine and I ate there on the first day, so it didn’t bother me to eat outside, but on the second day I found myself getting quite cold. There’s a small warming hut, so we crammed in there for 10 minutes after eating to warm up again. Since Revelstoke is growing a lot in popularity, I think it would be very advantageous to expand some of the on-mountain infrastructure. There are several warming huts, but in worse conditions, I would be concerned about staying warm and taking breaks on the mountain.

Overall, I enjoyed skiing Revelstoke a lot more than I expected. I was worried about the lack of snow throughout the season and that the mountain would be too advanced for me. I’m a nervous nelly when it comes to skiing, but I have been expanding my skills in recent years, especially since I took up backcountry skiing. I really enjoyed skiing groomers on the Ripper Chair with Kristine on the first day, and had an equally fun time skiing the back bowl with Victoria and Brandon on the second day.

I would love to return again in the future, but cost is definitely a concern. Skiing has always been expensive, but as more and more resorts fall under the ownership of big American conglomerates, it seems to have gotten prohibitively expensive. Shockingly, Whistler is actually one of the cheapest mountains I ski because I buy the 5-day edge card, which greatly reduces the cost per visit. I was shocked to learn that resorts like Revelstoke and Kicking Horse now cost $200 a day for a lift pass! Like any resort, the key is to buy your passes earlier rather than later.

We thought we were going to have to pay $200 a day to ski Revelstoke, but we did discover a local hack by using the Sunshine Super Card. It’s a ski card targeted around the Sunshine Village Resort in Banff, but it includes Revelstoke in its promotion. Basically, you buy the Sunshine Card for $120, which includes your first, fourth, and seventh days of skiing free (which includes Revelstoke). So basically, we got our first day for $120 instead of $200, and then all subsequent days are 20-25% off. So if you skied up to 7 days at participating resorts, you would get one day of skiing for $120, 2 free days, and 20-25% all remaining days. So overall it saved me ~$120. Despite the cost, I definitely recommend the resort and I’m so thrilled to finally cross it off my bucket list after 12 years in BC and 9 years of group ski trips! Where should I go for the big 10th anniversary trip?

Assiniboine Park Backpacking Guide

February 28, 2026February 27, 2026 / Maria / Leave a comment

Mount Assiniboine is located in Mount Assiniboine Provincial Park in BC and is one of the more iconic peaks in the Canadian Rockies. It’s been a few years since I hiked this trail, but there are a lot of options for how to do this trip, and I wanted to share my knowledge in the form of a backpacking guide to the trail. At the time that I hiked the trail in 2021, I wrote a 4-part trail report, which you can read starting here. Reservations for the 2026 season release at 7am PST, 3 months in advance of your planned start date.

The Park

Mount Assiniboine is located in the middle of Mount Assiniboine Provincial Park, but is surrounded by Banff and Kootenay National Parks, as well as Spray Lakes Provincial Park in Alberta. If you plan to hike there, you’ll have to go through one of the National Parks, with Banff being the more popular access point. There are two routes through Banff and one route through Kootenay, but they are all at least 25km long, so it is a big hike just to get into the park.

If you’re looking for a more direct approach to the park, it is possible to fly in from the Mount Shark trailhead via helicopter. This is a popular option if you want to maximize your time in the core area of the park. The core area of the park encompasses Magog Lake, Sunburst Lake, and Cerulean Lake, as well as the popular day hiking trail up to the Nub (or the Nublet/Niblet if you prefer a shorter option). The Nub is well known for its phenomenal sunset views of Mount Assiniboine, when the adjacent Sunburst Peak lights up orange as the sun goes down (see photo below).

There are limited options for where to stay in the park, which will likely be the restricting factor of your trip. The cheapest option is to stay at the Magog Lake Campground, if you can score permits. Otherwise you’ll have to pay more to stay in either the Naiset Huts or Assiniboine Lodge, both of which are privately owned and not cheap. The lodge is catered, but I’m not sure about the huts. There is another campground at Og Lake, but it’s approximately 5km away from the core area of the park, so it’s not ideal.

If you have limited time, I recommend flying into the park, but if you can spare a few extra days, you can do either a there-and-back trip or a thru hike. I opted to do a thru hike along the two access points in Banff National Park and it’s a very scenic hike. It’s best if you have 2 days each way (with a night spent halfway between), and then another 2 days to explore the core area of the park (6 days in total). Another option could be to fly in and then backpack out through Wonder or Assiniboine Pass, to experience the best of both options.

PSX_20210714_102546 — Sunburst Mountain and Mount Assiniboine at sunset from the Nublet

Time of Year

The best time of year to hike Assiniboine is in the Summer or early Fall. There may still be some snow on the trails if you go in late-June, but the later you go in the summer, the more likely that your trip might be impacted by wildfires. While most people prefer to backpack in the summer, late September is also popular due to the colourful larch trees through Wonder Pass. However, you should be prepared for snow and cold conditions at this time of year. I hiked the trail in late June and there was no snow, but it was during the early season heat wave of 2021, which melted remaining snow very quickly.

Getting There

There are 3 primary ways to access the park: the Mount Shark Trailhead, Sunshine Village, or the Simpson River Trailhead. Unfortunately, the park is not accessible by public transit. Similar to other popular Canadian parks, the easiest way to access is by driving. If you’re flying in, Calgary is the closest major airport.

Mount Shark: If you plan to fly into the park or hike in via Wonder or Assiniboine Pass, you will need to take Spray Lakes Road out of Canmore and drive to the trailhead at Mount Shark. There are two parking lots here, one for hikers accessing the trailhead, and another for those taking the helicopter. A National Parks Pass is not required to park here since the trailhead is technically in Spray Valley Provincial Park. However, you will need to pay for a Kananaskis Conservation Pass from Alberta Parks in order to park your car.

Sunshine Village: In my opinion, the Sunshine Village access is the easiest way to hike into the park. You can hike along the Citadel Pass Trail at the top of the Sunshine Village gondola. You park at the base of the ski resort, at the end of Sunshine Road off of Highway 1, and have the option of paying to the gondola to the top of the mountain. I highly recommend this as it will save you 5km of hiking and over 500m of elevation gain. A National Park Pass is required to park at the base as it is located in Banff National Park.

Simpson River: This is the least popular access point to the park as it’s the least maintained trail and the longest route to Magog Lake, as well as one of the lesser scenic routes. However, it is a great option if you’d like to avoid crowds or are unable to get permits to one of the halfway camps on the other routes. The trailhead is located off Highway 93 in Kootenay National Park, so a National Park Pass is required to park.

Using my thermarest to float on Sunburst Lake

Permits

Like most popular hikes in the Rockies, securing your camping permits will likely be the hardest part of your trip. This is a popular destination and while more people prefer to fly in rather than hike, it is challenging to get camping permits in the core area of the park. I’m not sure how difficult it is to book the lodge or the huts, but if you want to get camping permits, then it’s important to mark your calendar with the appropriate permit release dates. Unfortunately, because there are many different access points to the park, depending on your itinerary, you may have to obtain permits from both BC Parks and Parks Canada.

The permit release date for Mount Assiniboine Provincial Park is 7am PST, 3 months in advance of the start of your trip. They are released through BC Parks (camping.bcparks.ca) in a rolling window. These permits are considered “backcountry reservations” and they will likely sell out as soon as they release. So if you want a permit for July 1, you will need to be online at 7am on April 1 to make your reservation. Reservations are available for Magog Lake, Og Lake, and Porcupine Campsite. Bookings are $25 per person, per night (plus a booking fee).

If you are planning to hike in or out via Wonder or Assiniboine Pass, you may also want to make a reservation for one of the Parks Canada Sites (https://reservation.pc.gc.ca/), either Marvel Lake or McBride Camp. These campsites are all located in Banff National Park and the release date for 2026 was January 26, 2026 at 8am MST. Bookings are $15 per person, per night (plus a booking fee). Once booking opens, select “backcountry” in the tabs along the top of the booking page, and then select “backcountry zone”, followed by “Banff, Kootenay, and Yoho Backcountry”. The appropriate access point is “Bryant Creek Trailhead”. If you can’t get one of these sites, there are two more alternative sites, Big Springs or Allenby Junction Camp, though they are not located at the midpoint of the trail.

There are no reservations required if you are hiking via the Simpson River Trail in Kootenay National Park, but there are 3 potential campgrounds: Surprise Creek, Rock Lake, or Mitchell Meadows.

Here’s a few tips for getting your camping permits:

For permits from Parks Canada, get on the booking website 15 minutes early using as many devices as possible (computers, phones, ipads, etc). At release time, everyone on the website is entered into a random generator that assigns you a position in the queue. All of your devices will be assigned a place in line, then proceed to book your permits on whatever device has the shortest queue.
For permits from BC Parks, there is no queue, so there’s no benefit to using multiple devices. To save time, create and login to your account before 7am and check the system time at the top right corner of the page so that you click reserve right at 7am.
If you don’t see availability for your preferred date, keep refreshing for at least 15 minutes. With so many people trying to book campsites, dates are always disappearing and then becoming available again. Be flexible with dates.
If you can’t get the dates you want, you can track cancellations on Schnerp, which will notify you when a site opens up.

PSX_20210712_155042 — Mount Assiniboine and Magog Lake on the way down from Wonder Pass

Campsites

There are 3 backcountry campsites in Mount Assiniboine Provincial Park and 4 backcountry campsites along the Wonder/Assiniboine route in Banff National Park. There are 3 backcountry campsites in Kootenay National Park, but they do not require reservations. There is only 1 campsite in the core area of the park, Magog Lake, so this should be your priority booking. I’ll discuss itineraries below, but here’s an overview of the available campsites.

Magog Lake – This is the most centrally located campsite for your visit to the core area of Assiniboine Park. This should be your first priority for bookings and I recommend at least two nights at the campsite. It has 40 tent sites and a large open-air shelter, which you must use for all cooking. The campsite also has several outhouses and grey-water disposal, a water tap, and bear lockers next to the cooking shelter. Book this campsite through BC Parks, $25 per person, per night.

Og Lake – This campground is technically located in the core area of the park as well, but it is 5kms from Magog Lake and the Nub hike, so it’s not as ideal as the Magog Lake Campsite. It’s an alternative option if you can’t get into Magog Lake or a good stop on the way to Magog Lake via the Citadel Pass Trail from Sunshine Village. It has 10 tent sites, an outhouse, bear lockers, and grey-water disposal. There are picnic tables for cooking and water is available from the lake. Book this campsite through BC Parks, $25 per person, per night.

Porcupine – This campground is located near the midpoint of the Citadel Pass route between Magog Lake and Sunshine Village. This is the best option for camping if you are backpacking in or out of the park along this trail. It has 10 tent sites, an outhouse, bear lockers, and a cooking area. Book this campsite through BC Parks, $25 per person, per night.

Marvel Lake – This is one of 2 campgrounds located at the midpoint of the route into Mount Assiniboine from the Mount Shark trailhead, also sometimes called the Bryant Creek trailhead. This is the best campsite if you’re hiking in or out via Marvel Lake or Wonder Pass. Book this campsite through Parks Canada, $15 per person, per night.

McBride – This is one of 2 campgrounds located at the midpoint of the route into Mount Assiniboine from the Mount Shark trailhead, also sometimes called the Bryant Creek trailhead. This is the best campsite if you’re hiking in or out via Assiniboine Pass. Book this campsite through Parks Canada, $15 per person, per night.

Big Springs – If you can’t get a reservation at Marvel Lake or McBride, there are two alternative campgrounds. Big Springs is located at km 7 of the Bryant Creek Trail from the Mount Shark trailhead, also sometimes called the Bryant Creek trailhead. This is a good alternative camping option regardless of which route you’re taking (Wonder Pass or Assiniboine Pass), since it’s located before the trail junction. Book this campsite through Parks Canada, $15 per person, per night.

Allenby Junction – This campsite is located at km 17 of the Bryant Creek Trail from the Mount Shark trailhead, also sometimes called the Bryant Creek trailhead. It would be my last choice if I couldn’t get reservations at Marvel Lake or McBride. The campsite is located along the Assiniboine Pass route, so it can’t be used if you plan to hike via Wonder Pass. Book this campsite through Parks Canada, $15 per person, per night.

Surprise Creek, Rock Lake, and Mitchell Meadows – All 3 of these campsites are located along the Simpson River Trail in Kootenay National Park. I haven’t visited any of these campsites, but I’ve heard that Mitchell Meadows is the most popular. If you can’t get bookings at any of the other campgrounds, consider taking this route instead as there are no reservations required. However, the trail is not as well maintained as other options and I highly recommend doing further research to ensure it is an appropriate route for your party.

PSX_20210715_134511 — The view along the Citadel Pass Trail from Sunshine Village

Itineraries

With so many access points, there are many different ways to plan a trip to Mount Assiniboine. So I’ll try and keep this as simple as possible with a few different hiking strategies.

Helicopter Access: Helicopter into the core area of the park and spend as many days as desired camping at Magog Lake and exploring the core area of the park. Plan for a day hike up the Nub, as well as some time exploring around to the many lakes. If you have enough time, day hiking up to Wonder Pass is also incredibly scenic! (recommend 2-3 nights)

Half Thru Hike: If you want to experience backpacking, but don’t have enough time to commit to a full thru hike, plan to take the helicopter one way and backpack the other. This way you can experience the beauty of the backcountry, along with the core area of Assiniboine Park. My recommendation is to fly into the park from Mount Shark and then hike back via Wonder Pass. This works well because it’s a net elevation loss on the way out, your pack will be lighter after eating your food, and your car will already be parked at the Mount Shark Trailhead from taking the helicopter. (recommend 3-4 nights)

Full Thru Hike: If you have the time and access to two vehicles, it’s well worth it to commit to doing an entire thru-hike, enjoying a few days in the core area of the park in the middle of your trip. As discussed, there are 3 access points into the park, but my recommendation is to hike in via Sunshine Village along the Citadel Pass Trail and out via Mount Shark along the Wonder Pass/Bryant Creek Trail. Stay at Porcupine Camp on the way in and Marvel Lake Camp on the way out. This is the most ideal route because you can bypass a lot of elevation gain on the way up by taking the Sunshine Gondola, and it’s a net downhill hike through Wonder Pass. Hiking in through the Simpson River Trailhead is also an option, but it’s a lot of elevation gain and not as scenic as Citadel Pass. (recommend 5 nights)

Loop Trail: Another great option if you can’t afford the helicopter or don’t have access to two vehicles is to do a loop hike from the Mount Shark Trailhead. There are two ways to access Assiniboine along this route: Wonder Pass or Assiniboine Pass. Both trails share the Bryant Creek Trail for ~10kms and then branch into two different trails. The Wonder Pass trail goes along the edge of Marvel Lake and up over Wonder Pass, whereas the Assiniboine Pass Trail follows an easier route up through the valley. I haven’t done the Assiniboine Pass route, but would recommend hiking in along that trail since it has less elevation gain, and then hiking out through Wonder Pass. Just make sure to check for any trail closures as sometimes part of the Assiniboine Trail is closed for breeding and conservation. (recommend 5 nights)

Fast Packing: I have no experience with fast packing, but for those who travel ultralight or are experienced trail-runners, some people do visit the park by completing the entire backpacking access trail in a single day rather than over 2 days. In some instances, hikers have paid to have their backpack carried in by helicopter, enabling them to move faster and complete the hike with only a day pack. I don’t recommend this option unless you are experienced, but it is something you can consider. (recommend 3-4 nights)

PSX_20210709_104136 — Wonder Pass in early summer (2021)

Day Hikes

There are several great options for day hiking in Mount Assiniboine Provincial Park. At the very least, I think everyone should hike up to the Nub or the Nublet and explore around the lakes, but there are several other options if you have the time. Here’s the trails I would recommend:

The Nub – If you want to get a birds-eye view of the park, this is one of the best day hikes. There is quite a bit of elevation gain from Magog Lake, but it’s well worth it for the incredible views. From the campsite, it’s a ~9km roundtrip trail with 600m of elevation gain.

The Niblet/Nublet – I highly recommend this trail for sunset. If you’re hiking up to the Nub, you’ll have to hike over both the Niblet and the Nublet, but if the Nub is too ambitious for you, these are great alternatives. The view from all of these locations is phenomenal at sunset as Sunburst Mountain turns orange when the sun goes down, but it is a long way down in the dark from the Nub, which is why the Nublet or the Niblet are great alternatives. From the campsite, it’s a ~7km roundtrip trail with 375m of elevation gain.

Wonder Pass – If you fly into the park or hike via one of the other access points, I highly recommend taking the time to hike up to Wonder Pass as a day trip. It’s much easier coming from Magog Lake than from Mount Shark. It’s a ~9km roundtrip trail with only 275m of elevation gain, so technically one of the easier hikes on this list. At the right time in the summer, the trail will be filled with wildflowers, and if you visit in the Fall, the larches will be turning yellow on the way up to the pass. From the top of the Pass, there’s an add-on hike up to Wonder Peak, but it’s fairly steep and not recommended for beginners. Please do additional research if you decide to attempt it.

The Lakes – There are 5 lakes in the core area of the park, not including Og Lake. If you have time to visit them all, I’d definitely recommend it, but at the very least, you must visit Magog Lake, Sunburst Lake and Cerulean Lake. Gog Lake and Elizabeth Lake are nice add-ons if you have the time. I made it my goal to swim in every single lake and I was successful! In my opinion, Sunburst Lake is the most scenic.

Og Lake – If I flew into the park, I would prioritize the other day hikes on this list over Og Lake, but if you have the time and are not hiking past it already, it is a fairly easy hike to go out and back to Og Lake from Magog Camp. It’s a 12km roundtrip trail, making it one of the longer hikes on this list, but there’s almost no elevation gain and it’s all through open meadows, so it’s not challenging. In the middle of the summer, there should be lots of wildflowers along this route, but keep in mind that on a hot day, the trail is completely exposed. There’s also the option to branch off and visit O’Brien Meadows if preferred.

Mitchell Meadows – I haven’t done this hike, but it’s an ~11km roundtrip trail to Mitchell Meadows, with minimal elevation gain, so it could be a nice hike if you have the time.

Mountaineering Routes – There are several mountaineering objectives in the area, which I will not discuss because I don’t have mountaineering experience and they shouldn’t be attempted by those without proper equipment. But other options for further research include Sunburst Peak, Mount Cautley, Naiset Peak, Cave Mountain, or Og Mountain.

PSX_20210708_222155 — Hiking around Marvel Lake on the way through Wonder Pass

Ski Resort Series: Manning Park

February 21, 2026January 13, 2026 / Maria / Leave a comment

I’m really excited to be writing about my experience skiing in Manning Park, because it took 2 attempts for me to get it right! If you’re familiar with my blog, you’ll know that I love E.C. Manning Park and I’ve spent a lot of time snowshoeing and snow camping there. But there’s limited accommodations inside the park, so it can be a bit of a challenge to visit it without driving all the way from Vancouver and back in the same day. In 2024, we booked a big cabin at the resort with a bunch of friends and we planned to ski the resort over the weekend.

Unfortunately, if you remember the ski conditions in 2024, they were not good. We just didn’t get a lot of snow that year and the weekend that I visited Manning for my ski trip, there was only one run open in the entire resort! I did buy a half-priced pass to ski for a day, but it didn’t feel right to write about the experience when I had barely skied any of the mountain.

I went back to Manning Park in late December 2025, while my parents and sister were visiting for Christmas, and I finally got the opportunity to ski more of the mountain! BC was inundated with snow in the mountains in December, so all the runs were open when we visited, although our trip coincided with a bluebird day, so there wasn’t actually a lot of fresh powder when I skied there. But the conditions were still quite nice and I feel like I got a good sense of the available terrain.

In contrast to my first trip, this time we drove up and back on the same day. I live in Coquitlam, so I figured it would be similar to driving to Whistler and back, which I do all the time. However, even from Coquitlam, it is a longer drive to go to Manning. We left early, at 6am in the morning, and it took us ~2.5hours with a breakfast break at McDonalds. I found we couldn’t drive quite as quickly to Manning as to Whistler because the road through the park is very winding. But we still arrived just in time for opening.

Manning remains pretty affordable when a lot of other ski resorts have significantly increased their prices. I’m planning to ski Revelstoke and Kicking Horse later this year, and I was shocked to discovered that it’s almost $200 for a single day lift pass! I know Manning Park is a lot smaller than those resorts, but I paid $90 for my pass during the Christmas rush. This is the most expensive time of year to ski there, it’s normally priced closer to $75 on weekends, and even less on weekdays.

Manning Park has two main lifts, as well as a few T-bars along the bunny hill. I didn’t venture onto the bunny hill, but it had an interesting set-up as it was located below the main resort. Arriving at 8:30am, we didn’t have any trouble with parking and got a premium spot right next to the resort. It was a decently busy day, but we never waited longer than 10 minutes for the lift, so it was very reasonable. The views from all over the resort are incredible! You can see the iconic Hozomeen Mountain from the top of the chair, as well as all the surrounding mountain peaks while you’re skiing.

The two lifts are the Bear Chair and the Blue Chair. The Bear Chair is the main lift servicing most of the terrain. It’s a quad chair – it feels a little bit slow, but speedy compared to the Blue Chair. From the top of Bear Chair, there’s a nice green run on the west side of the chair that you can take all the way to the bottom, or there’s several blue runs going down the front and east side of the chair. There is lots of black terrain on the east side of the chair as well, but it’s a little more challenging to access. The black runs that cut off from the main green run on the west side are simpler to get to.

Since I was with my family, we mostly did the green and blue runs, but I went back later in the afternoon to check out some of the more challenging runs. There are some really nice wide gladed runs on the east side of the mountain, but I’m not sure if you might have to do a bit of boot packing to reach some of them. I tried a few of the more easily accessible ones. There’s a blue run that bisects the black runs about half way down, so it’s a good exit option if you’ve had enough.

Blue Chair is a two person chair that moves quite slowly. There’s less terrain on this side of the mountain, but I ended up really liking this area. The conditions were slightly better on this part of the hill when I was there and I liked that the mountain was fairly open, so you could easily choose your own adventure. There’s a long green run that wraps around the backside, but if you go down the large area of the front of the mountain, you can choose between more mellow blue terrain and steeper black terrain. So I spent more time skiing over here than I expected.

We took a break for lunch and ate in the resort cafe. We didn’t have too much trouble finding a place to sit down, but I thought the food was a bit expensive for the quality. It was pretty much the same price as Whistler food, but they mostly just had burgers. We had a nice break and ended up skiing most of the day. My mom hadn’t been skiing in 10 years and was very nervous, so we were expecting her to quit after lunch, but even she ended up skiing almost all day.

We were able to make it back to Hope before it got dark again, so at no point did we have to drive the winding Manning Park roads in the dark, which was nice. I had a great time and I think Manning Park and Sasquatch are both great alternative skiing options for those living in Vancouver. They’re not much farther away than Whistler and they don’t have the crowds of the local mountains. I ended up having a great time and I would definitely go back!