Easter Weekend at Sunshine
Jim K
Yesterday was a good snow day at Sunshine. They‘d had several centimetres recently and temperatures were a couple of degrees below freezing. That was close to perfect because there wasn’t much sign of snow that had refrozen overnight. The visibility was good too; we needed our sunscreen and I skied with my shades instead of my goggles all day.
I’d hoped that weekend crowds might be thinning out by this time. I was disappointed. We drove into the parking lot and got one of the last few spots. We put on our boots quickly enough to catch the shuttle bus just as it was filling up. The lineup at the gondola was a shocker for anyone who hadn’t skied on a weekend yet this year. I hadn’t taken into account that this was a long weekend.
We rode up with a guy from Singapore and had a chat with him about skiing in Asia. He says there’s very good skiing in Japan and also some in Korea. We jumped out at Goat’s Eye. This was Darryl’s idea. He suggested that skiing in the morning at Goat’s Eye and moving to the Divide in the afternoon was the way to beat the crowds on busy days. I hadn’t tried this before, but it worked quite well.
A few kids were skiing in shorts, the first time I’ve noticed it this year.
One thing I’ve had trouble getting used to is the new lockers in what used to be Guest Services at the base. A small locker is $7 for the day. You can open and reclose it as often as you want. My boot bag fits into this one but a second boot bag can’t be crammed in. The $10 locker is better value. It holds a couple of boot bags and maybe a bit more. You can find more info about the new lockers and the old lockers up at the Village on the Sunshine website under Sunshine Village/Guest Services.
Up in the Daylodge and in the basement of Trapper’s you will still find the old style coin-operated lockers. Lockers the same size as the new $7 ones cost a loonie for a one-time lockup. For a toonie you get the $10 size. If you’re willing to tote your stuff up the gondola, this is worth taking advantage of. I suspect we’ll soon be remembering these prices as a memory of the good old days.