The ski area for Jasper in the Canadian Rockies, quieter and less developed than Banff to the south, which is exactly the appeal. It has the highest base elevation in Canada and a very light, dry snowpack because of it. The terrain spreads across a wide face with a genuine spread of levels, and the upper bowls give open alpine skiing without much of a crowd. Queues are close to non existent even in high season. There is no lodging on the mountain. You stay in Jasper, twenty minutes away, which is a working railway town in the middle of a national park with elk on the streets in the evening. The Icefields Parkway between Jasper and Banff is one of the great mountain drives, and it is worth a day in itself.