Nordic skiing wasn’t always the prevalent sport as it’s seen in Sun Peaks today. As of this season, nearly 40 kilometres of cross-country ski tracks are groomed and traversed. But in the early 1990s, Sun Peaks Resort was strictly a downhill skiing destination. This ultimately changed in 1994 with the arrival of Phil Youwe and an energetic group of cross-country skiers who would change the trajectory of the sport in Sun Peaks forever.
Growing up in Kamloops, Youwe always considered Sun Peaks to be his home mountain, with downhill skiing becoming a large part of his life early on. He competed with the Tod Mountain Racing Team for a period in the late ‘60s before heading to university. This would be where a group of friends introduced him to Nordic skiing, setting up a cross-country trip to Lightning Lakes in E.C. Manning Provincial Park.
It wasn’t long before Youwe sparked a passion for the sport, competing in a Nordic marathon that spanned 50 kilometres from Lac la Hache to 100 Mile House.
“I went out there in my touring skis and finished it in six and a half hours, and I thought, ‘this is a great sport,’” Youwe said.
Youwe later moved to Heffley Lake in 1987 where he taught his kids to ski. He would become a mentor not only to his own family, but to many other children in the budding Sun Peaks Community.
The beginning of the Jackrabbit program
With many young families calling Sun Peaks home in the early ‘90s, a new generation of skiers was emerging. With Youwe’s own kids beginning to ski the mountain, he took inspiration from Overlander Ski Club’s junior development program at Stake Lake and took initiative to organize his own on the mountain.
“Nordic really wasn’t a part of the mountain before I came in ‘94. It was an opportunity to start to expand it because I’d grown a love for Nordic,” Youwe said.
Running the Sun Peaks rabbit program on Sundays, a day after Stake Lake’s Saturday class, Overlander volunteers could participate in the brand new program. Borrowing a tracksetter from the resort, Youwe laid the first course where the 18th hole of the golf course sits today. This began the first of many Nordic programs on the hill.
“Within a year or two we had 30 kids. We didn’t have a lodge or a little hut or anything. After our session we would walk the kids over to the Alpine Club cabin, which is over there in P3. We’d have our hot chocolate and cookies. [The program] took right off,” Youwe explained.
Interest builds for Sun Peaks Nordic
Interest in Nordic began to steadily increase throughout Sun Peaks in the late ‘90s. A core group of cross-country enthusiasts began to emerge around Youwe, instructing Nordic, telemark skiing and the rabbit program.
In 1998, Youwe created a Nordic host program, which saw a group of volunteers become ambassadors for cross country skiing on the mountain. They’d interact with visitors, relay grooming schedules, maintain trail signage and generally advocate for the sport.
During this period, cross country loppet organized by Youwe also started, with courses spanning the Morrisey Connector right down to the Village Day Lodge.
“It was definitely growing well. There was a period there when I was running two loppets a year. We had a Kookaburra Loppet which was to celebrate some of the Aussies coming up here in January. And then we had the Sun Peaks Loppet later in March.”
Youwe remembers the tremendous support from early sponsors, resort events coordinators and volunteers.
“That guy loves prizes,” Glenn Bond laughs. “Phil was great at talking to suppliers. I’ve been around events a long time but the Sun Peaks loppets had the most prizes of any event I’ve ever seen.”
Bond, who was Nordic Manager at SilverStar Mountain Resort at the time, became an instrumental part of Nordic event coordination with Youwe, later starting his own ski camp outfit that still coaches today.
“We still didn’t really have a Nordic presence, in the sense that we didn’t have a club or anything at that time. From the mid-’90s through 2000 we ran almost ten loppets in a row. We made a few real firsts in B.C. where we decided to run dual loppet events. That meant we could run a classic race and a skate race all at the same time.”
Much of this foundation and passion for Nordic skiing in Sun Peaks steadily increased over the next 10 years. Trails became groomed more frequently, annual events were indicating support and word was getting out that Sun Peaks was a great destination for Nordic enthusiasts. But this was only the beginning.
From retirement to Nordic Coordinator
In 2011, Youwe made the decision to retire after working for 35 years in range management for the Ministry of Forest. With more time on his hands, Youwe set out to create a robust Nordic program for Sun Peaks.
Bouncing ideas off his friend, Christopher Nicholson, Youwe created a five-year plan which highlighted increased revenue opportunities for the resort, established more loppet events, detailed the creation of an official Nordic club and described the job position for a Nordic Coordinator.
That fall, Sun Peaks Resort LLP (SPR) hired Youwe for that exact position.
“So that took off. And then I realized that in order to really start growing the sport of Nordic skiing in an alpine resort, you’ve got to create some awareness,” explained Youwe. “People didn’t really know what equipment to buy, how to dress for Nordic skiing… So I started running lectures.”
These lectures were guested by gear outfitters, nutritionists and other friends of Youwe that shared their experiences in the sport with guests.
More winter camps had also become available with Bond’s arrival on the mountain. Taking inspiration from Youwe, Bond introduced SilverStar coaches to the Sun Peaks Mountain, later educating and developing a strong team of local coaches.
Loppets had also grown alongside Nordic education. The Holy Cow had competitors starting at the top of the mountain, racing down to the valley below in an exhilarating twist on cross country racing.
“Holy Cow is an appropriate name for that trail, and the fact that we put an event on that… this is wild,” laughed Bond.
“We did a lot of new things in that sense. At that point, you could really start to see the growth of Nordic and the attention that Nordic was receiving,” Youwe said.
The legacy of Phil’s Way
Now, after 30 years of pioneering Nordic skiing on the mountain, Youwe is once again retiring. But as his impressive and extensive collection of skis indicates, he won’t be stepping off the trails anytime soon.
“I’ll continue to be a presence up there on the trails,” Youwe said. He’s looking forward to working more closely with the Nordic club he established as he steps away from the role of Nordic Coordinator.
It’s a legacy that can best be celebrated by the recent opening of Phil’s Way, part of 2.7 kilometres of new Nordic trail opened this season, named in recognition of Youwe’s service to the sport.
“That’s a very humbling experience, to have a legacy like that, to have a trail named after myself. I thank the resort for doing that. We have a few other trails on the courses – Heinz’s Way and Siggy’s Shortcut named after two of our groomers. It’s good to see that the resort is recognizing some of the players that have brought cross-country skiing to the resort.”
Looking back on his personal history, Youwe credits many that stood by him over the course of his time at SPR. From event marketers to volunteers and even the alpine grooming team that evolved to become expert Nordic trail groomers.
“You only have to go up to the cabin and read the log books we’ve had there over the years,” Youwe said. “People love it.”
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