In 1999, the Sun Peaks Bike Park, operated by Sun Peaks Resort LLP (SPR), opened with a small crew and hand-built trails on Tod Mountain. Now, the park boasts 83 kilometres of terrain, offering locals and visitors space to grow their skills and progress, and professionals the opportunity to show their talent.
Sun Peaks Independent News chatted with Christina Antoniak, SPR’s director of communications, to gain a better understanding of where the bike park started and how it became the biker’s delight it is today.
Twenty-five years in the making
1999 – The first year of operation for the Sun Peaks Bike Park “kicked off with lift access to operations on Tod mountain,” Antoniak said. “Back then it was a small selection of trails, a small crew and hand-built trails.”
Steep and rugged, these hand-built, single-track, technical trails using the mountain’s natural terrain is what SPR’s bike park became known for in the mountain biking world, Antoniak explained.
2005 – Route 66 became an iconic trail that took machine-built trails in Sun Peaks to new heights. While this helped diversify the terrain at the bike park, Antoniak said the next few years were focused on competitions and races, with the Canadian Downhill Mountain Bike Championships hosted by SPR from 2014 to 2016.
2017 – This year saw record-breaking summer visitation and the expansion of the alpine cross-country trail.
“That was the first time we had access for people to take bikes into the Alpine, being able to ride the chairlift with your bike and not do the downhill mountain biking trails, but actually go up into the Alpine, to the top of Tod Mountain and out to Tod Lake.”
2018 – Trail development kicks into high gear, with a nine-kilometre green progression trail from Sunburst down to the Village base.
“That was the first time we had a really nice, smooth, purpose-built trail for folks that were new to downhill mountain biking,” Antoniak said.
The progression park also opened in 2018, offering a small zone of trails intended to increase the use of the trail network for new mountain bikers.
“We use this progression park for a lot of our lesson programming — for new riders coming in and even for skill development for people who are seasoned mountain bikers — to just be able to do quick laps, and go through different trails from green, blue and black.”
2019 – This year saw a $350,000 resort investment for three new machine-built trails off Sunburst lift.
“That really started to change the shape of Sun Peaks Bike Park now having machine-built flow trails in addition to all those technical, more advanced single-track trails,” Antoniak said. “It was a huge summer and really changed the image of the bike park in the marketplace. We started seeing a lot of new people come to Sun Peaks.”
2020 – Sunburst chairlift gets an upgrade with a 30 per cent increase in capacity.
“That was to meet the increase in demand,” Antoniak explained. “After opening those three new trails, we had an increase in demand of people coming in to ride the bike park.”
2022 – Sun Peaks Bike Park sees a $1.5 million investment in trail development, opening Sundance Mountain.
“For the first time ever, we had two mountains and two chair lifts operating for mountain biking,” Antoniak said. “With Sundance Mountain coming on board, that was an additional 31 kilometres of trails. They are all machine-built, smooth-flow trails, and that took our trail count up to 83 kilometres in the downhill mountain bike park.”
What to expect this year
After the hard work from 1999 to today, this year is for celebrating the achievements of those whose hours went into building the bike park, including trail crews, volunteers, SPR and the community.
“This summer is all about inviting people up, experiencing the bike park and what it has truly become as a nod to mountain biking culture, and Sun Peaks in the community,” Antoniak said.
The bike park trail crew, made up of 18 people according to Antoniak, will have the opportunity to polish and perfect the trails this summer, rather than spending energy developing new trails.
“They’re just really excited to get out there this season and perfect all these little areas on the trails that they haven’t been able to get to in the past few years, and really make a product that’s going to set us apart and elevate that experience for riders coming in.”
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