Sun Peaks

Sun Peaks Resort, situated some 56.6 kilometres northeast of Kamloops in British Columbia’s Shuswap Highlands, commands a domain of sixteen square kilometres of skiable terrain and hosts a permanent community exceeding four hundred residents. At its zenith, the summit reaches 2,080 metres above sea level, yielding an 882-metre descent to the base; its slopes receive an annual mantle of 5.6 metres of snow and bask in over two thousand hours of sunlight each year.

From its inception on the flanks of Tod Mountain in 1959, Sun Peaks has unfolded across four peaks—Tod, Sundance, Morrisey and Orient—each bearing witness to chapters of ambition, adversity and adaptation. During a serendipitous return journey from SilverStar, Donald Whyte and Donald Munro discerned in the broad contours of Tod Mountain the promise of a world-class ski domain. Their subsequent ascent, accompanied by lawyer Reginald Humphreys, ski operator Sam Warmington and Dr. James Osborne, led them to what is now the West Bowl—an amphitheatre sculpted by ancient glaciers, its geology ideally suited for chairlift installation. Within two years, the McLellan-engineered Burfield chairlift, at 2,800 metres the longest in North America at its inauguration, began ferrying skiers up rudimentary clearings christened Crystal Bowl, Ridge, 5 Mile, Chief and 7 Mile Road.

Yet, seven winters hence, the resort confronted its first crucible when a welding spark ignited the diesel-driven summit machinery, severing the lift line and obliging a two-season intermission. In the intervening years, Drake Cummings’s Highland Development assumed stewardship, only to witness tragedy in June 1971 when Harry Burfield—architect of the original lodge that still stands at the Burfield chair’s foot—perished in a plane crash bearing prospective investors aloft. The lodge and lift were thereafter christened in his memory, and “Harry’s Run” cut near the site as a testament to his pioneering zeal.

The early 1970s ushered the Shuswap Chairlift and an eastward expansion that presaged the village’s later prominence. Yet financial headwinds—compounded by scant snowfall—plunged the resort into receivership by 1976. Subsequent stewardship under Calgary-based investors yielded the Crystal chairlift (1979), and throughout the 1980s Tod Mountain hosted Pacific Western’s Pro Ski Tour, Canadian Masters races and the Velocity Challenge, wherein skiers angled into aerodynamic “tucks,” surging down Headwalls Run at velocities up to 175 km/h. These events, beyond their sporting cachet, sustained the resort’s reputation and coffers.

By the decade’s close, the locus of activity had shifted toward the nascent village at Shuswap’s base. Improved road access in 1982 prompted the emergence of dining, equipment rental and ski instruction facilities around the Shuswap chair, while new runs and flagged alignments multiplied recreational possibilities. A Christmas Eve fire in 1989 tested resolve yet again: the Crystal chairlift’s engine room succumbed to flame, but by the following February, under Fred Ahrweiler’s engineering oversight, operations resumed.

The most transformative chapter commenced in April 1992, when Nippon Cable and Ecosign Co. acquired Tod Mountain Developments. A renaming contest the following year yielded Sun Peaks Resort, shedding the Germanic connotation of “Tod.” Doppelmayr-constructed lifts followed in rapid succession: the Sunburst Express, a bubble-enclosed high-speed quad on Tod Mountain; a fixed-grip Sundance quad; the extended Sundance high-speed quad; and the village’s Magic Carpet. The old Burfield double gave way to a fixed-grip quad in 1997, and work began on an alpine village, integrating ski-in, ski-out residences.

The turn of the millennium saw Sun Peaks’s ambition extend beyond winter sport. Summer 1999 witnessed the inauguration of mountain‐biking trails, now forming a park with 2,500 vertical metres of terrain—permanent host to BC Downhill Cups and national championships. Concurrently, a network of 37 kilometres of Nordic ski trails around Mount Morrisey bolstered the resort’s four-season appeal, complemented by an 18-hole golf course—at 1,200 metres elevation British Columbia’s loftiest—completed in 2005, and recreational tubing introduced in 2003. The banked-slalom course of 2016, nestled alongside Sundowner and Suncatcher runs, further diversified the mountain’s offerings.

Yet even as Sun Peaks matured into Canada’s second-largest ski domain, it found itself enmeshed in a protracted struggle over Secwepemc title and rights. Nippon Cable’s 1992 acquisition proceeded without addressing Indigenous claims to unceded territory—a lacuna that would fuel a land-defence campaign from 1999 onward. Secwepemc land defenders, invoking the 1997 Delgamuukw Decision, decried clear-cut logging on adjacent peaks, contamination of waterways through artificial-snow chemicals, and disruption of traditional harvesting grounds. Arrests, injunctions and solidarity protests—both domestic and abroad—punctuated the years, while appeals to provincial and federal authorities went unheeded. The establishment of the Skwelkwek’welt Protection Centre in 2000 and clashes with RCMP officers underscored tensions that the Supreme Court of British Columbia ultimately refused to ameliorate. The campaign garnered support from national and international justice organizations, yet the resort’s expansion plans pressed on.

Notwithstanding contention, infrastructure continued its advance: the elevation quad of 2006 spawned a dedicated race centre, attracting the Austrian national ski team in Olympic pre-games preparation. The West Bowl Express, planned in 2021 and completed in 2024, threads a 1.58-kilometre high-speed quad through freshly logged runs, linking remote terrain to the village. The replacement of the Crystal triple with a fixed-grip quad in 2020–2021—and subsequent installation of loading conveyors on both Crystal and Elevation lifts—reflects a continual refinement of skier throughput. The Burfield chair, at 2,900 metres the longest fixed-grip chair in North America, remains emblematic of the resort’s capacity.

Today, Sun Peaks’s nine-lift fleet—all Doppelmayr—spans three mountains, from the bubble-clad Sunburst Express on Tod Mountain to the Orient quad serving Mount Morrisey and Sundance Ridge. Magic carpets and platter lifts furnish beginner zones, while Nancy Greene Raine, Olympic champion turned Director of Skiing, oversees programming and instructive excellence.

At the village level, a labyrinth of accommodations, restaurants and retail outlets coalesces around pedestrian thoroughfares, rendering personal vehicles superfluous within its bounds. In winter, ski-in, ski-out access prevails; in summer, bicycles suffice. The community’s incorporation as Canada’s sole resort municipality in 2008 formalized its dual identity as living enclave and recreational hub.

Seasonal climate patterns reinforce Sun Peaks’s character. The resort records mean winter temperatures hovering near the freezing point, with nightly lows around -10 °C, and summer days ascending into the high twenties. Annual snowfall averages 5.6 metres, while the village itself sits at 1,255 metres above sea level, beneath slopes that culminate at 2,080 metres.

Approach options mirror the resort’s accessible remoteness. By automobile, Tod Mountain Road branches from the Yellowhead Highway, descending from Heffley Creek to the village in forty-five minutes; Kelowna lies two and a half hours distant, Vancouver four and a half. A year-round shuttle to Kamloops operates on a first-come basis, while seasonal service extends to Whistler. Kamloops and Kelowna airports afford air links via Vancouver or Calgary, and Via Rail’s Canadian makes nocturnal and daytime runs to Kamloops, whence shuttle transfer completes the journey.

Within the resort, trails converge at central nodes, and provision for adaptive mobility ensures universal access. Beyond downhill and cross-country skiing, guests may board groomers on guided mountain tours, helm sled-dog teams through silent forests, or thread snow-shoe tracks into secluded glades. Summer activities range from equestrian trail rides and angling expeditions to photography clinics conducted by resident professionals who coax dawn’s golden hour into luminous prints.

Sun Peaks Resort’s trajectory—from a single chairlift atop Tod Mountain to a four-season destination spanning three peaks—embodies a synthesis of engineering, entrepreneurship and environmental stewardship. The resort’s ISO 14001 certification underscores a commitment to sustainable practice, even as parks and fairways secure its place in the pantheon of Western Canada’s alpine retreats. Balancing community livelihood, recreational innovation and the enduring rights of Canada’s First Peoples remains an ongoing enterprise—one that reflects both the summit heights attained and the troughs yet to be navigated.