January skiing in Canada

Hi. My wife and I are planning a ski holiday in Canada between 6th Jan to 20th Jan and would like to hear from people who have any useful info to help guide us to a nice place to stay and ski. We won't be skiing for that whole period but hope to stay in one place (5 to 7 days) for skiing.
My wife is a medium Blue level and I am a conservative Black level so we don't normally ski a lot together but it's a good bet that she won't let me out of sight in a strange land on a strange mountain
We are not looking for a budget holiday and nightlife is not a priority, although a few nice restraunts would be nice. Ski in/out would be great but not a priority
We are from Australia and I have read in this forum that it can be very cold in the inland mountains. How far under freezing temp should we expect in these regions. We normally ski in minus 3 to minus 5 under freezing temp.
Steve

Welcome Steve. I've been to Banff Canada in January and the temps were between -20 and -38c in other word fookin cold! No cotton and lots of layers! -)
Ski in/out is not that common in Canada you deffo can on Sunshine but there is literally nothing there other than a couple of hotels/skiing/1 pub There might be more in other Canadian resorts I have no experience of.
Banff is nice though, 3 ski areas on one pass, Lake Louise which has some nice bowls and narrower tree skiing as well as some decent runs your wife will enjoy, the larch area if memory serves correctly.
Sunshine which is wide open, lovely in the sun but damn nippy when its windy, probably the best area for you to ski together though as you could be doing reds next to your wife on blues and be able to see each other throughout. The run out is a nice long run (pica?)green/blue, bet your wife would enjoy it. Goat eye area has more challenging runs which she would probably not enjoy!!!
Norquay is the smallest area, bit steeper and you could do it all in a day but nice and small mountain friendly, as a result it is usually pretty quiet though January is pretty quiet anyway because its so cold.
We stayed in the Ptarmigan in Banff itself, clean, friendly, jacuzzi, sauna, bar, decent food, and ready to do deals on longer stays etc..
Plenty of places to drink/eat/shop for souvenirs. Irish pub served great stews and stuffed yorkies. Magpie and stump for mexican food and beer served in jam jars, steak available everywhere, huge portions, I mean HUGE, either share or take a doggy bag!
It is quite possible to do an ice hockey match, ice climbing and all sorts off mountain if you wanted a day off the slopes. It's about an hour and a half from Calgary airport by car. Have fun x

Steve,
Best advice for skiing in Canada is to go west ... say to British Columbia. Search the various ski centers. Sun Peaks has always been a favorite of some friends of mine. They are booked for a 21 day visit there this year. Skiing is all about the snow and this it the best snow they have found ... including a trip to Zermatt.
Mike

Thanks Lily and Mike. I appreciate the kind advice.
We visited Zermat 23 years ago as we drove from Switzland to Italy.
I drove our camper van right up into the town square, and we commented on how quiet the town was. No traffic. Then a H R Puffinstuff type electric fire truck went quietly whirring past us and we thought it looked comical. I walked over to a policeman to ask where we could park, and he said in broken English, no cars in the town. We must drive back out of town to a two story car park and park the van there. Avalanch precaution.
We quietly idled out of town.
Thanks again.
Steve

Big White has the best snow in the world according to the skiers in my family and they've ski-ed all over the place including the very lovely Zermatt.

I have skied all over Canada and the most consistent snow is Silver Star in Vernon BC.
Sun Peaks is also good for what you are looking for. The cool thing about these areas is that you can get a taste of both of them as they are all about 3 hours from each other.
Big white is good - but not many high speed lifts and it can be very poor visibility.
Enjoy your holiday!
Kathi Bridge

Thanks for the advise.
Regards Steve

We have just booked to go back to Whistler at Easter - we are staying at First Tracks with our two kids.
Before we had a family we would ski in January and early February, we have found that Whistler is alot warmer compared to Banff at this time of year.

We got a good early booking deal as we have booked before November 15th with a Whistler/UK based company called Cold Comforts. We arranged our own flights this year but got a great deal on accommodation and ski passes through them.
I hope this helps, Alice.