Let’s say you’re living easy on a lake in Alberta, and you get an itch. You've spent the morning teaching standup paddle boarding and this afternoon you’ll carve up the calm lake surface like a hatchet to ash while waterskiing. Still, there's that itch you can't seem to scratch. Lake life is cool, and all, but the mountains are calling. You’re 35, established, living the dream, as they say, but...oh, that itch?

Bodie Sandro decided to scratch the snow and see what he found. A former professional on the waterski circuit and, more recently, a competitive stand up paddle boarder, he was ready for a new adventure at the age most of us relish the familiar.

“My family and I were ready for major life shift,” he recalls. “But where to go? When I heard about everything going on at Sun Peaks, well, it was a done deal." 

Sandro is hardly the first transplant to Sun Peaks, a ski resort that in recent years has gained legitimacy as an incorporated town with a school and, next summer, a full-service medical center. Nancy Greene, ’68 Grenoble Olympic Gold Medalist and Director of Skiing, arrived in 1994 from Whistler, drawn to Sun Peaks potential.

"I figured I'd snowboard since it was the easiest transition from waterskiing," Sandro explains, "But I wanted to teach Maddie, my daughter, to ski so I figured I’d better learn that as well.”

Having a boot up on the snow from his watery past, Sandro learned pretty quickly to tackle all 4,270 acres at Sun Peaks from the Mt. Morrisey steeps like “Tumble Dry” and “Spin Cycle” to Gil’s side country. Gil’s 500 acres were recently incorporated “within the ropes,” catapulting the resort to second largest ski area in all of Canada. The value, acre by acre that Sun Peaks offers is outstanding, especially for Americans enjoying a solid exchange rate against the Canadian dollar. Check out packages here.

“I really took to skiing,” Sandro told me during our 15-minute boot pack into Gil’s, where we find a broad untracked meadow, even though it hadn’t snowed in two days. “But I wanted to do more, so at 47 years old I began training to become a lead backcountry guide.”

Five years later Sandro splits his time between a prominent heli-ski operator (He shorn his surfer’s waist-length golden locks for the gig.) and running the Off-Piste Camp at Sun Peaks, a one-of-a-kind backcountry prep class for skiers who plan to heli, cat or tour in the future. Learn more about Sun Peaks’ lessons, camps and programs here. 

“Everybody wants to ski in the backcountry these days,” he reflects, as we tighten our boots to drop into the “Main Face” glades. “It’s crazy to me how many people are unprepared to do so. It’s like waterskiing without a PFD, only even more life threatening.”

Ever the teacher, Sandro looks me over, reminds me to unstrap my poles, “if your pole catches a tree, you separate a shoulder, or worse,” hoots a couple of times, then slips into the trees with the ease of someone at peace with his environment.

Check out SnowSeekers.ca to learn all the reasons Bodie Sandro chose Sun Peaks.