Since its inception, Sun Peaks Resort has provided a gateway for many to embrace the winter lifestyle, offering a playground for generations of skiers and boarders to hit the slopes.
But for the population of those who don’t partake in the winter ritual, there’s another opportunity to see the mountain the same way thousands do every day.
Sun Peaks’ very own Snow Limo Tours offers just that incentive with three separate tour packages that take people across the mountain on a custom-engineered sit ski, an impressive apparatus that allows bundled up guests to sit while their guide navigates from the back of the chair.
“The [guests] all like it once they understand what it’s all about… getting people who don’t ski or board that opportunity to go up on the mountain and experience what other people are doing, without endangering themselves or having to put on ski gear,” said owner and operator Michael Pfeil.
The history of the sit ski is one rooted in accessibility and equal opportunity, a parallel which brought the tour program to Sun Peaks in 2012 starting as a fundraising opportunity for Adaptive Sports at Sun Peaks.
Now owned by Pfeil for several years, he enjoys ferrying new and repeat guests across the mountain. Pfeil hopes to book over 300 tours this season.
“It’s a blast doing the tours. You never get disappointed,” Pfeil said.
It’s an experience that’s brought many non-skiers joy over the years. Pfeil recalled a time when a ski instructor friend asked if he could bring her mother along for a ride.
“She could never get her mom on the mountain,” Pfeil recounted. “I took her down… she was happy, she was crying and she remembered that until the day she died. Her daughter always mentions it.”
First time guests to Snow Limo Tours get to experience a half-hour tour, which begins on the Sunburst chair, followed by a run down 5 Mile.
Snow Limo’s hour-long tour sees two runs off the Sundance chair, as well as an hour and a half tour that incorporates the Crystal chair for a full mountain experience.
“People want to see the mountain. The top tour was introduced last year when they put the new Crystal chair in and it’s been a popular tour,” Pfeil said. “[Guests] get to see what their friends get to see.”
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