The founding of Tod Mountain Resort In 1958, while commuting back to Kamloops from a day of skiing at the
SilverStar ski resort in
Vernon, Donald Whyte and Donald Munro spotted Tod Mountain from a rise on
Highway 97 near where it meets
Barnhartvale Road. On 9 May 1959, both paid a visit to the village of Whitecroft, at the base of Tod Mountain. On 16 May, Munro, Whyte, lawyer Reginald Humphreys, ski resort operator Sam Warmington, and doctor James Osborne once again drove to Whitecroft. A nearby ranch owner rented the men horses and led them up the towering peak. An hour and a half after setting off, the party reached what is now known as the West Bowl, on the northwestern side of Tod Mountain. The group spent two nights in a shepherd's cabin. Once they set out again, they trekked to the crest of Tod Mountain, now known as the Top of the World (the location of the current Burfield and Crystal chairlift top terminals). Ahead of them lay the Crystal Bowl, pristine and bearing ideal geological features for a chairlift and ski resort. on the original Burfield (at the time called Tod Mountain Ski Lift) chairlift. Constructed in
Vancouver by Murray-Latta, surveying and design was carried out by McLellan and Company, and Bregoliss Construction, based in Kamloops, was awarded the contract for clearing of the runs and lift line, construction of the top, midstation, and bottom terminals, and the erecting of the lift poles. Donald Munro was appointed President of the two resort companies. In November 1961, Tod Mountain ski resort opened. The original chairlift was a double-person capacity, diesel powered system with a capacity of 400 people/hour. At the time, it was the longest chairlift in North America. Five runs had been cut: Crystal Bowl, Ridge, 5 Mile, Chief, and the latter half of what is now known as 7 Mile Road.
Closure of the resort 1968–1970 In July 1968, seven years after the opening day, a crew was conducting maintenance work on the top terminal of the Tod Mountain Ski Lift, when a spark from a welding job flew into the sump pump, causing the wooden building housing the machinery to alight. The fire ignited the diesel drive which was directly linked to the
bullwheel, causing the entire lift line to part from the wheel, dropping to the ground. Although the weight of the chairs dragging and colliding with the ground and obstacles arrested the motion of the rampant lift cable somewhat, significant damage was inflicted upon the lift. Repairs and insurance matters prevented the re-opening of the resort until the 1970–1971 ski season.
Construction of the Shuswap Chairlift and expansion east In 1972, the Shuswap Chairlift was installed. These three main events which commenced in the 1980s not only helped to keep the resort afloat, but also boosted the reputation of Tod Mountain. Throughout the 1980s, a noticeable shift in main operations had been transpiring. The base of the Shuswap Chair, the proposed site of the eventual village, was quickly becoming the "place to be". After the road was extended past the base of the Burfield chair to the base of the Shuswap in 1982, the "restaurant" quickly gained popularity as a food supplier. A rental shop and the relocated ski school also formed up near the chairlift. 5 Mile (then referred to as Dynamite), the run from the top of the Burfield/Crystal chairs to the base of the Shuswap Chair, gained popularity. Between 1986 and 1989, almost 10 entirely new runs, branching from the top of the Shuswap Chair, were cut and another 20 were flagged as future development. In late 1992, the new owners held a renaming contest for the resort, using ballot boxes, as "Tod" in German translated to "Death". Over 2000 ballots were deposited. On 13 August 1993, the new name was announced: Sun Peaks Resort. Sun Peaks Bike Park is a permanent fixture on the BC Downhill Cup Series and has hosted the BC Downhill Championships and the Canadian National DH Championships in the past. This is in addition to a luxurious 18-hole golf course (completed in 2005), a massive residential/guest oriented ski-in village, and many more amenities built under the guiding eye of Nippon Cable. In 2006, the Elevation fixed grip quad was constructed on Tod Mountain, running from a point midway down 5-Mile to an unload location adjacent to Sunburst Lodge. This and further run-cutting opened up a brand-new race center. The Austrian National Ski Team signed a five-year contract in 2005 to train at Sun Peaks in preparation for the
2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Nippon then initiated a 70 million dollar expansion plan that would clear-cut three more mountains (at the time Sun Peaks only encompassed two mountains), double the golf course, expand a drainage basin for commercial and residential real estate, and add over 24,000 more beds to the resort. In 1998 the Neskonlith Secwepemc people appealed to Masayoshi Ohkubo, then President of Sun Peaks Corporation, to respect their title and rights. They also appealed to the Federal Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs, Rover D. Nault, who claimed that the land dispute with Sun Peaks fell under provincial jurisdiction. Asserting that the Sun Peaks Resort undermined their ability to exercise their inherent rights to land-use and occupancy and constituted a violation of Aboriginal title, Secwepemc land defenders launched a years-long campaign to oppose Sun Peaks expansion in 1999. The campaign opposed Sun Peaks expansion, the
2010 Winter Olympics, and called for boycotts of both Sun Peaks Resort and
Delta Hotels. Secwepemc land defenders argued that clearcut logging on three mountains to expand the resort ruined the habitats of deer, moose, bears, beavers, lynx, bobcat, cougars and wolverines; that traditional foods and medicines the Secwepemc have relied on no longer grew in the area; and that lakes and rivers had been polluted by chemicals used to make artificial snow and maintain golf courses. In 2000, land defenders established the first Skwelkwek'welt Protection Centre. In 2004, Indigenous leader George Manuel Jr. was arrested along with two others by the RCMP, who were enforcing a court injunction ordering Indigenous activists and supporters to leave the area. The arrests were condemned by the
Council of Canadians and
Union of BC Indian Chiefs. Between 1999 and 2005, 54 Skewelkwek'welt land defenders were arrested. In addition to arrests, a traditional cedar bark lodge and cabin were burned down in 2001 and racist youth gangs incited violence against Indigenous youth in Chase in 2001. In 2001
Neskonlith Indian Band Chief
Arthur Manuel held negotiations with the province through BC Attorney General Geoff Plant, which Manuel explained as failing due to Plant insisting that the Skwelkwek'welt Protection Centre at Sun Peaks and land defence camp at McGillivray Lake be dismantled. The Secwepemc Native Youth Movement also protested the installation of
Nancy Greene Raine as first chancellor of
Thompson Rivers University in
Kamloops. Federal and provincial governments refused to acknowledge Secwepemc title in cases relating to the protests, which land defenders pointed out violated the Supreme Court of Canada's recognition of Aboriginal Title in the 1997
Delgamuukw Decision. The anti-Sun Peaks campaign garnered national support, including from the
Assembly of First Nations,
KAIROS: Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiative Additionally, there were solidarity protests held in Germany.
Recent expansions In 2014, the previously out-of-bounds area known as Gil's was added to the in-bounds area of the resort, making Sun Peaks the second largest ski resort in Canada. On 23 December 2018, a new fixed grip quad was added in the East Village area. The Orient lift starts across from the base of Morrisey Express, and runs to a point just uphill of the East Village Ski Way, and improved ski-back access from the Mount Morrisey side of the resort while also providing ski-in-ski-out access for hundreds of homes in the East Village, as well as opening up large possibilities for future expansion. For the 2020-2021 season, the 41-year-old Crystal triple was replaced by a fixed grip quad. The Crystal quad boasts a 20% uphill capacity increase and follows a different alignment that ends adjacent to where Burfield unloads, eliminating the need to ride Burfield to access Top of the World and the West Bowl area. The Burfield chair is the longest fixed grip chairlift in North America, and is the 9th longest in travel length (.
Nancy Greene Raine is the Director of Skiing at the resort. ==Ski lifts==