I've personally found that Panorama has a nice mix of trails and is an excellent starting point to tutor your not so mountain-inclined friends into joining you on the trails. If the vibrant scenery is not enough, the chairlift whisks you along at a much more brisk speed then Calgary's old chairlift (painful but good memories). Although, Panorama's trails (in my experience on the intermediet/Black Diamond) seem to be quite a bit more consistantly steeper then the other competing hills. There's also a nice drop park and some sturdy, pretty creative "North Shore" inspired stunts. What I tend to find myself overindulging on (when not totally eroded from the rain) is the 4x track near the bottom because of the excellent flow. The bike rentals that they have are updated fairly frequently and I've never had any problems replacing a bike that I had demolished at their on-hill bike shop. Overall, I'd recommend Panorama to anyone from Alberta who longs for the omega awesome Whistler but cannot afford the accomidations/travel there. P.S. Accommodations in the Village at Panorama is REALLY affordable. We found some package deal on the back of a telephone book up here that gave us a 2x Gold Executive Studio rooms for only $90 a night each.