Great holiday, but poor ski school and WAY TOO EXPENSIVE
Written by Stephen a Skier from Sydney, Australia
29/2/2012
BC was a sharp contrast to our previous ten days at Copper Mountain. In summary, the extra 30% you have to pay at "the Beave" is not justified. The place is pretty, and the village more attractive than Copper, but the place is very expensive. Specific comments as follows:
- Highlands Slopeside was extraordinary. Really luxurious lodging, right on the slope. Ski out of the boot room right onto the slope and down to the ski school, lifts etc.
- The kids loved the skiing, particularyl Jack Rabbit Alley. The green runs and some of the blues are on top of the mountain, and all the trails are immaculately groomed. Overall I found the mountain quite confusing, but I got used to it after a few days. We spent a day at Bachelor Gulch which was cool.
- The ski school was dreadful. Seriously. Apart from being exorbitant ($750 for a private!), the grading process was a shambles, and there was no maximum class size. The instructors were fine, but it could take more than an hour before you were actually skiing because you were faffing around doing little test runs.
- the kids classes are hyped as "the best in the country". All talk. The first three days the kids didn''t get a ski report (until we asked for one), the "nutritional food" claim is nonsense, and again, no maximum class sizes.
So all up, while we loved the apartment and did some great skiing (we had a lot of powder) we didn''t think that BC justifies its very elevated prices for food, lessons and accommodation.