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| Snowlife Tours in the Sun Peaks snow ghosts |
This winter, they plan to do two
sessions of three weeks for ski visitors – the first in January and second
in March. Darren will ‘commute’ back and forth to Sydney to run his container
business there. And their two daughters Mackenzee (18 and already a Level 1
instructor) and Georgia (15) go back for school and university at the end of Jan. Tennille
gets to stay in the resort throughout, starting from Dec 10, running operations from their apartment right
on the slopes in the Coast Sundance Lodge.
Their fledgling company,
Snowlife Tours, is all about “family
fun, making memories, mastering the mountain and hassle-free adventure packages,”
says Tennille. They have partnered with Sun Peaks which is the hub of their
operation but also connected with other BC resorts in order to create away
trips in the future. “In the future, we plan to have a multi-resort 16-day tour, with guests flying into Vancouver and then on
to Kamloops,” Tennille describes. “Skiing Sun Peaks to get the legs ready, we’ll then go off
to Revelstoke and Kicking Horse, and finally Panorama Resort for the therapeutic hot
springs experience. Darren will accompany the guests on this tour and there
will be an ambassador in each resort to help coordinate the skiing.”
So,
how do you launch a business like this in the first place? It all starts with
ski instruction, says Tennille who is a Level 3 instructor, Level 2 race coach and Level 2
adaptive instructor. “I’ve had 15 years of experience working in Whistler,
SilverStar, Australia, and Deer Valley, Utah.” The couple actually met in Silver Star when Darren was a ski
technician. He later became a ski instructor and worked with her in Utah. “We saved our
tips during our Deer Valley seasons
and were able to put down a deposit on a house back in Australia,” Tennille
recollects.
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| Tennille (right) with me |
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| Ice Hockey night at Kamloops |
As well as their expertise and experience in
instruction, they are also intent on collaborating with the Sun
Peaks Sports School. “I’m trying to work closely with the ski school and
the resort to develop new ideas and get them to bend to a new set-up,” says
Tennille. “It’s an exciting opportunity.” As Snowlife Tours attracts more guests going into the future, Tennille has a host of creative ideas to customize and add to the
experience. Previously, they've included ice hockey in Kamloops in their après ski
options as well as dogsledding around the resort. “I would like to set up a champagne on the ice
event for adults at the same time as a disco in the Cahilty for their kids,” Tennille
suggests. “I know my daughter, Georgia will want to curate the music selection.”
Another innovation would be a VIP area for Snowlife Tours with a white picket
fence around it right on the snow for NYE celebrations. “And I’m trying to work
with Bottoms Bar for my guests.
Perhaps an adult happy hour inside while the kids are using the nightskiing
lift which runs until 7pm,” Tennille adds. Her vision also includes a sunset
Pop Up bar in Sun Peaks village
and ice bars and picnics on the piste.
Clients so far have been
mostly from Australia but they've also hosted a group of Texans in the past. “We’re
getting an increasing amount of UK traffic to the website,” adds Tennille. As a
skiing family themselves, they are promoting snowsports as the best way to wean
kids off the digital and into the downhill. “There’s nothing better than a
family ski holiday,” she contends. “Everyone has to talk, play together on the
slopes, have dinners together later, and then the whole family is equally enthused
- and tired - at the end of the day.” Her mountain modus operandi has been for
her own family to try out all the activities on offer at Sun Peaks in order to be able to
promote the right things to her guests. “I tried the ski
bikes with my girls and it was a real success,” she says. “I wasn’t that
sure about doing it but I did it for the
girls who were very keen to try it. And I actually loved it!” After various descents
down runs like Cahilty and Rambler, they even progressed off-piste into the
trees. This could be added to their guests’ après ski menu.
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| Snowlife Tours at Bottoms Bar Sun Peaks |
With the majority of
guests from Sydney, they are expanding their Australian
marketing to Brisbane, Melbourne and beyond in the future. “We attend the Shanghai Expat Expo. It’s
something we do every year for our container business but it’s also an
opportunity to promote Snowlife Tours among Australian, British, and
American expats,” says Tennille. “These are expat workers who are living in
Shanghai with their families and who currently go to Niseko or to the USA for
skiing as they are earning American dollars.” The Expo includes tourism, food,
beauty and every other product or service that expats need. “I’m also working
on being the New Zealand contact for Sun Peaks,” she adds.
Although the business is
something the couple are passionate about, it’s not all roses. There are
considerable difficulties in
setting up an internationally-based hospitality business, particularly in
regard to insurance. Snowlife Tours has its own insurance, and benefits
from the resort’s coverage, but as the company grows they will have to expand their
insurance system. “It’s even more difficult when you do tours that include both
BC and AB because of the different insurance and healthcare systems in each –
they’re like different countries,” says Tennille. Admin headaches are worth it,
though, as she sees Sun Peaks as an ideal environment for
entrepreneurs and innovators.
A fun side project while she was there during the 2019/20 season was
helping a friend who owns a lodge in Thredbo
and was theming the guest rooms after different ski resorts. There’s a Whistler
room,
and now a Sun Peaks room thanks
to Tennille’s input: “It’s a great ad for Canadian skiing!”
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