Banff blags Olympic chairlift

“Sunshine Village’s Strawberry Chair”… Doesn’t that sound like a fairy-tail place of joy and happiness? In reality though it’s a 35 year old, painfully slow chair lift that provides access to Sunshine’s Green and Blue runs. This summer though, the Strawberry Chair will be passing on to the great bean-stalk in the sky, as Sunshine have just secured a deal to replace it with a fancy new high-speed four-man. The new lift was built to transport spectators for the Winter Olympics Whistler and is no longer needed there.

As well as recycling on a massive scale by reusing this unwanted chair, this move will help to reduce Sunshine’s environmental impact, as the chair uses the latest technology to achieve the greatest possible efficiency.

Worryingly though, in Whistler the chair is currently called “Timing Flats lift”… BORING! Hopefully Sunshine will be changing that name and putting a happier Banff spin on it. Maybe something like “The Gingerbread Man Chair”.

For more info about the move and for comments from the resort, check out banff.com.

Before installing the new chair, though, winter has to end! Believe it or not, Sunshine is still open for another week and apparently the spring conditions are sick. If you’re around this weekend, pop along for the Bikinis for Breast Cancer event. More info here.

Ski instructor and improvement camps in Banff.

Snowboard instructor and improvement camps in Banff.