Apex Mountain Resort

Apex is Penticton's home mountain, a short 30-minute drive from town — 33 km, and 23 km from Penticton Airport — with 2,000 vertical feet and 1,112 skiable acres of north-east-facing terrain that catches the region's dry champagne powder, about 500 cm of it a year. Its 85 runs break down as 11 novice, 27 intermediate and 43 advanced, served by a high-speed quad, a triple chair, a T-bar and a magic carpet, and four terrain parks step up from the kids' Little Nuggets through Okanagan and Prospector to the big-feature Claim Jumper. Friday and Saturday nights are Apex's signature: from 4 to 9 pm the T-bar and Magic Carpet run under lights for night skiing on the Okanagan Run and the lit Okanagan Terrain Park, the tube park glows for night tubing, the skating loop is open late from its new Skate Shack, and the Gunbarrel Saloon — voted Canada's best après-ski bar ten times running — sits at the bottom of the run; Friday nights come with half-price lift tickets and rentals. Off the slopes, the Tim Hortons Tube Park and the kilometre-long Adventure Skating Loop through the trees each have their own page on Okanagan Roam, and Nickel Plate Nordic Centre is 6.5 km further up the road. When you arrive, take a left at the Y for the main parking lot; a winter shuttle runs from Penticton on weekends. Apex operates in winter only.