Panorama national training centre receives $850K injection from provincial government

Some good news for ski racing in Canada.

Panorama resort announced this week an $850,000 funding boost to the alpine training centre to improve snowmaking and safety infrastructure.

The funding injection will allow Panorama – the site of the FIS Alpine World Junior Ski Championships in March 2022 – to continue to grow its capacity to host training and racing. Panorama has been home to many ski racing clubs around the world, particularly with its reliable early-season conditions and also in late spring, a typical low-volume period for ski resorts.

The grant, which totals $863,730, is as part of the B.C. government’s Community Economic Recovery Infrastructure Program, which is supporting 54 new tourism projects throughout the province of B.C.

“This investment by the B.C. government is huge for the resiliency and continued development of tourism in the Columbia Valley,” said Steve Paccagnan, president and CEO of Panorama.

The funding will also create local job opportunities and provide the two local alpine ski clubs – Windermere Valley Ski Club and Team Panorama – extended training opportunities and exposure to more high-performance teams and ski clubs.

“The is a great opportunity for us to develop more and better athletes at the club and provincial level,” said Anders Hestdalen, CEO of BC Alpine. “One of our challenges is having access to great training with snowmaking and [at Panorama] it’s a world-class setup for training and racing.”

Panorama is already considered one of the best ski racing venues in Western Canada, according to Hestdalen, and the improvements will give an additional boost to the development system. “European teams are always looking for great places to train in North America for early season,” he explained. “So the better the training and racing infrastructure that we have here in B.C. the more attractive it will be, which will bring the level up for everybody which is exactly what we want,” he said.

The economic recovery program is injecting nearly $55 million towards tourism recovery.

Work on the Panorama training centre will begin this spring with upgrades expected to be completed before the start of the 2021-22 ski season. This will be the first time the prestigious world juniors will take place in Western Canada.