|
Scurfield History - 80s and 90s
The year 2011 marks 30 years of ownership for the Scurfield family at Sunshine
Village. Calgary businessman, Ralph T. Scurfield
purchased Sunshine Village in 1981, and
carried forward upgrades that had begun with previous owners. And his sons,
Ralph Scurfield, John Scurfield and Sergei Scurfield, have continued this
mission to enhance the guest experience at the Sunshine Village Ski &
Snowboard Resort.
In 1984,
the Wheeler Ridge double chairlift at Sunshine Village, which was named for Arthur Oliver Wheeler, a principal founder of the Alpine Club of Canada, opened to the public. The year was a busy one at Sunshine
Village, with the inauguration of the interpretive
centre and Rock Isle self-guiding interpretive trail.
In the
mid-1980s, the Women’s World Cup Downhill was held several times at Sunshine
Village, new trails were built, the Standish chair
lift was rebuilt and the renovations at the then-Sunshine Inn were completed.
In 1988, the Angel chair at Sunshine Village was
replaced with a high-speed quad, the first of its kind in Banff.
In an
interview with snowseekers.ca, Ralph D. Scurfield,
president of Sunshine Village, was asked
what he was most proud of. He said: “Goat’s Eye Mountain and the installation
of the lift system there, as it really opened up a whole new world for skiers
and snowboarders.”
With a 575-metre
(1,900-foot) vertical high-speed quad, Goat’s Eye Mountain opened in 1995,
nearly doubling Sunshine Village’s
skiing and boarding terrain.
“The
other thing we are most proud of is the access system we have created,” said
Scurfield, “We appreciated how much effort it was to use a T-bar with a
snowboard, so, in the mid-90s, we removed our last surface lift, installing the
WaWa quad chair.”
The
expansion of skiable terrain continued in 1998 with the opening of the popular
Delirium Dive free ride zone and the addition of a terrain park on Lookout
(Continental Divide/Brewster) Mountain.
The
changes the Scurfield family made in the 1980s and ’90s at Sunshine Village
paved the way for major modernizations over the next decade.
Read on or contact Sunshine Village to learn more about the resort.
|