The Canadian Ski Council, a not-for-profit organization, is offering a Snow Pass to children nine and 10 years old for three lift passes at any of the 150 participating ski resorts in Canada.
Randy Swain, Snow Pass coordinator at the Canadian Ski Council, said that nine and 10 year olds are at an age when they start to really make decisions about what they like and what they want to do as they grow into teenagers.
“[Snow Pass] is a grassroots development program. It is to encourage skiing and snowboarding among Canada’s youth and really to spark the skier life style at an age we feel [is when] they can really get going with what they’d like to do,” Swain said.
Nine or 10 is also around the age that children are going on class skiing field trips or beginning ski lessons, according to Swain. He said it’s a good age to introduce children to winter sports.
“We found [Snow Pass] is effective at increasing participation among those kids and actually showing them a new, interesting sport that gets them active during the winter,” Swain said.
Snow Pass is in its 19th season and this year they have sold 17,000 passes already. The pass costs $30.
B.C. has 31 participating resorts, including Whistler Black-comb, Big White, Grouse Mountain, Manning Park, Mount Seymour, Powder King and Sun Peaks.
“We’re always trying to increase the number of resorts in the program,” Swain said. “It’s just a matter of reaching out to them and getting them to sign on.”
Swain added that there are insurance hurdles and a little bit of red tape involved in incorporating ski resorts into their program.
The Snow Pass can be purchased online at www.skicanada.org. There is also a full list of participating resorts on the website.
