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Sadly, this week marks the end of our Snow Scene season.
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Most ski and snowboard areas in the Canadian Rockies have either closed for the summer or will do so in the next week or so, which means it only makes sense for us to move on until next winter.
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At Sunshine Village, though, the end of the season is still so, so far away.
Skiers and riders will still be ripping down the slopes at the Banff resort a month-and-a-half from now.
And here in our little Snow Scene offices, we think that’s sort of amazing — especially because Sunshine’s in the midst of a glorious spring where the snow’s been coming down hard.
“The snow has just kept coming and coming,” said Kendra Scurfield, vice-president of brand and communications at Sunshine Village. “We went into Easter long weekend and it was dump after dump. Sometimes you would go outside and the snow would just cake in your hair so fast.
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“It was really this amazing momentum of changing the momentum of our spring season with that thick snow landing and giving us that really solid base that will take us all the way to the May long weekend.”
Yep, as it does every year, Sunshine is planning on staying open right until the long weekend that marks the traditional beginning of summer around these parts.
No other winter resort in this area is open that late, and it makes Sunshine a special place in the spring.
It does, however, require snow. And while it’s true that Western Canada had a slow start to the season, we’re going to take this opportunity to once again reiterate that conditions have been good since late January or early February at the very latest.
And the snowfall actually seems to have picked up at Sunshine over the past couple weeks. A week ago, they were hit with 42 cm over a seven-day period and the 25 cm that’s fallen since last Wednesday has provided another boost.
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The season total is sitting at 513 cm and there don’t seem to be any concerns about Sunshine having enough snow on the ground to carry everyone through right until the resort’s closing day on May 20.
And to put it as plainly as possible, there’s a lot going on between now and then.
“Essentially, we’re in event season at Sunshine,” Scurfield said. “Every weekend until our closing weekend, we’ll have live music and we’ll have DJs, we’ll have food samples, we’ll have park and terrain events and just that great vibe where you can come say hi to your friends and make new friends, too.”
There are too many events for us to list them all here. But if you’re looking for live music, the Untracked Concert Series will be bringing bands and DJs from across Canada to the Coors Light beer garden at the Mad Trappers Saloon every Saturday and Sunday, there’s a Bacon Fest on May 4, a big Cinco de Mayo celebration on May 5, and Holy Bowly — one of the more creative snowboarding events around — goes down April 29 to May 5, .
And then it all ends with Slush Cup Weekend on May 20. The pond-skimming competition is always an end-of-year highlight for what seems like the entire skiing and riding community, and this year there will also be a SlushShine Rail Jam on May 18 and a Watergate Banked Slalom on May 19.
It’s a chance for everyone to come together and celebrate an incredible winter, and who wouldn’t want to do that?
“It’s a reminder of why we love winter and the Canadian Rockies so very much,” Scurfield said.
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