About Ski Canada

Ski Canada

Overview

Ski Canada is a Toronto-based consumer magazine devoted to alpine (downhill) skiing, published four times a year in print and supported by a continuously updated website at skicanadamag.com. In its 2026/27 media kit, the magazine bills itself as "Canada's most read ski magazine," a claim it supports with audited circulation data (see Audience and Reach). Each issue combines an annual buyer's guide and on-snow ski test with resort and travel features, gear reviews, technique instruction and ski-culture commentary, covering Canadian destinations from Whistler and Revelstoke to Quebec's Charlevoix and Mont Edouard alongside international trips to resorts such as Ischgl in Austria and Les Trois Vallées in France. The magazine entered its 55th volume in the 2026/27 season, making it one of the longest-running ski titles in the country. It should not be confused with Alpine Canada, the national sport federation, or with the defunct SBC Media ski titles that once competed with it.

History

Ski Canada was launched in 1972 as Ski Canada Journal, founded by Colonel Terry Whelpton. The publication began in a newspaper-style format with a primary emphasis on ski racing. In 1974 it transitioned to a magazine format and adopted the name Ski Canada (ISSN 0702-701X). In 1979 the title was acquired by Maclean Hunter Ltd., then one of Canada's largest publishing companies, which held it through the 1980s. In 1990 it was sold to Solstice Publishing Inc., a Toronto-based independent publisher, beginning a 32-year run under Solstice. Publishing responsibilities were transferred from Solstice to Wigwag Media Holdings Inc. in 2022, with Wigwag first appearing as the listed publisher in the Fall 2022 issue (Vol. 51, No. 2). Volume numbering has continued uninterrupted across every ownership change: the Winter 2026 issue was Vol. 54, No. 4, and the 2026/27 season opened with Vol. 55. Over the decades the editorial focus broadened from competitive racing coverage to encompass gear testing, resort travel, instruction, interviews, adventure skiing and ski culture, while retaining the large-format mountain photography for which the magazine is known. That photography has attracted scholarly attention as well: sociologist Mark Stoddart's 2011 study of the magazine in the International Review for the Sociology of Sport analysed how its imagery frames alpine skiing as a domain of athletic, risk-seeking masculinity — a sign of the title's place in Canadian ski culture well beyond the newsstand.

Content and Coverage

The publishing year is anchored by the annual Buyer's Guide, the first issue of the season, which in 2026/27 assessed 40 of the year's top ski models through what the magazine describes as the continent's longest-running and most comprehensive on-snow ski test. The remaining three issues of the 2026/27 season are a Fall travel and resorts issue, a December/January powder and all-mountain issue, and a mid-winter issue that introduces the magazine's Freshy Awards, a new award of excellence for resorts, restaurants, groomers, guides, lodges and lifts. Regular departments include Short Turns, a news column covering resort sales and industry developments; Slide School, an instruction feature; and A Numbers Game, editor Iain MacMillan's column. Recent features have covered heli-skiing in British Columbia with operators such as Stellar Heli-Skiing, a three-day introductory backcountry course in Revelstoke, off-piste stays in Quebec's Saguenay and Charlevoix regions, and travel to the Caucasus Mountains of Georgia and to Ischgl, Austria. The Winter 2026 issue ranged from a luxury trip to Verbier and a guide to Panorama Mountain Resort to Indy Pass itineraries in Eastern Canada and a profile of a Quebec ski designer. Gear coverage extends beyond skis to boots, apparel and accessories, with tested reviews published in print and online through the season. In its reader survey, the magazine reports that readers rate its resort coverage, gear reviews and photography most highly, in that order, ahead of instruction and columnists — a ranking that matches the editorial weight of each issue. The magazine situates itself in a substantial national market: its media kit cites 2.91 million Canadians aged 12 and over as alpine skiers and 7.8 million annual skier visits in Canada, figures it uses to describe the audience its advertisers are buying into. The fall issue's resort coverage is deliberately national: the 2026/27 media kit lists Quebec's Eastern Townships, Mont-Sainte-Anne, Tremblant and Mont Grand Fonds; Alberta's Castle Mountain and Nakiska; and British Columbia's Kicking Horse and Whistler among the resorts its senior writers and editors cover, while the December/January edition leads on backcountry gear, heli-skiing and cat-skiing in British Columbia, and slackcountry cabins in Quebec's Saguenay region.

Audience and Reach

All current audience figures are the publisher's own, published in its 2026/27 media kit and attributed here as such. The media kit claims an average of more than 135,000 total readers per issue, citing the CMCA (Canadian Media Circulations Audit) annual statement, and more than 30,000 paid and audited circulation, of which it says 98 percent is paid, split between subscriptions and newsstand sales. The kit also claims more than 5,000 digital magazine subscribers, an average of roughly 32,500 unique website visits per month, and combined annual impressions of about 1.13 million across print, web and social channels. The paid-circulation geographic distribution published in the kit (CMCA statement, July 2022) skews heavily west: British Columbia 37.8 percent, Alberta 25.3 percent, Ontario 23.6 percent, Quebec 5.2 percent, Atlantic Canada 2.3 percent and Manitoba/Saskatchewan 1.2 percent, with 4.6 percent in the United States and abroad. A reader survey commissioned by the magazine reports that its readers average 25 ski days per season and that 89 percent rate themselves advanced or expert skiers. No independent readership measurement beyond the publisher's CMCA-audited circulation claims was relied on for this profile.

Digital Presence

The magazine's website, skicanadamag.com, publishes gear reviews, columns and travel features on a rolling basis through the year, with new material posted as recently as October 2026 — including an October 2, 2026 feature on heli-skiing and Iain MacMillan's photography column — and print-issue content flagged as "Our most recent issue." Digital editions are sold through Zinio and Pocketmags; Pocketmags listed the Winter 2026 single digital issue at $4.49 and an annual digital subscription at $13.99. The magazine also maintains social media channels, which its media kit credits with roughly 233,686 impressions per year. The website carries contributor guidelines inviting story and photo pitches from freelance writers and photographers.

Ownership and Organisation

Ski Canada is published by Wigwag Media Holdings Inc., which took over publishing responsibilities from Solstice Publishing Inc. in 2022. The magazine's editorial office is in Toronto. Iain MacMillan is the editor; his A Numbers Game column has run in the magazine for many years, and he contributes photography and features in addition to editing. Gear and ski-test coverage is produced largely in-house, supplemented by a roster of long-standing contributors that includes technical editor emeritus Martin Olson and writers such as Ryan Stuart. The magazine operates without a dedicated photo editor, working instead with ski photographers from around the world, according to its own contributor guidelines.

Contact and Availability

Ski Canada's office is at 89 Brooklyn Ave., Toronto, ON M4M 2X4. General enquiries can be sent to info@skicanadamag.com or made by phone at 1-800-263-5295; story pitches are directed to the editor through the website's contributor page. Print subscriptions and single issues are sold through the magazine's website and newsstands, and digital editions are available through Zinio and Pocketmags. The 2026/27 print season runs from the Buyer's Guide (publishing the week of August 24, 2026) through the mid-winter issue (publishing the week of January 25, 2027).