Ski and surf at Canada's most easterly winter sports resort

Former Royal Canadian Air Force pilot Matt Wallace is chatting loudly over the thud of his Bell Long Ranger helicopter blades, high above the semi-frozen Atlantic coastline, on the continent of North America’s eastern edge. “Alexander Graham Bell spent his last 30 years down there,” says Matt, as we swoop over Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia. The island’s remoteness feels extreme: a smattering of wood-clad homes and patches of fir, beech and maple forest amid wild, rocky terrain that reaches out into a vast ocean. Perhaps being so cut off helped motivate the scientist to invent a way to communicate with the outside world. I’m in Cape Breton to explore its new ski destination, Cape Smokey, and getting here turns out to be part of the fun.

Before my sea-skimming 35-minute helicopter journey from the island’s former capital Sydney, there is a one-hour hop from Halifax in a light aircraft flown by a father-daughter team. The most novel way to reach Cape Smokey is also the quickest — the alternative is a five-hour drive from Halifax along solid Canadian highways. Soon, I get my first glimpse of this far-flung ski hotspot. Peering from the window, I have a perfect bird’s-eye view of its gladed ski trails, but the most James Bond-esque moment is yet to come. Just a few minutes up the coast is the clifftop accommodation where I’ll be staying for the next few days, which just happens to have a perfectly flat roof. Red Head is a growing hamlet of lodges hidden among the cliffs which hold the record for Nova Scotia’s most expensive property — one was valued at a cool C$12.5m (£6.75m) in 2017 — and its position over iceberg-laden waters makes for a thrilling landing spot.

Sea and snow go hand in hand in Cape Smokey — as well as skiing and snowboarding, this mountain playground offers a host of other winter activities. Along with the small, curious group of Nova Scotia novices I’m travelling with, I tick yes to everything: a snowmobile safari, backcountry ski touring, snowshoeing and cross-country skiing. More unexpected additions to our itinerary are surfing and standup paddleboarding — naturally, I jump at the opportunity to ride a wave past an iceberg.

Cape Smokey’s reimagining began in 2019, when a small group of investors paid the Crown C$370,000 (around £220,000) for the land. A ski area had operated here between 1971 and 1983 but since then the community, centred around the village of Ingonish, had relied mostly on fishing and summer tourism. During warmer months, the major draws are whale-watching and the Cabot Trail, a scenic 185-mile driving route through Cape Breton Highlands National Park.

Now, led by 30-year-old former Czech World Cup ski racer Martin Kejval — originally enlisted to run a new European ski area for Cape Smokey’s investors before they stumbled on this opportunity — the resort has undergone a complete overhaul. A state-of-the-art gondola and luxury accommodation are already in place, with plans to add more over the next few years. Completing the picture are new restaurants, shops and a fish market, where guests can pick up fresh ingredients for seafood chowder, a local staple.

It’s the perfect fuel for my second-ever surf lesson — and my first in water the consistency of a slushie. An instructor zips me into a 6mm-thick wetsuit complete with hood, booties and gloves and I plunge into the zero-degree sea water, trying to remember the Wim Hof method. As I dodge blocks of ice bobbing among the waves, shock soon gives way to exhilaration. I try standup paddleboarding, too, managing to stay balanced on the surprisingly stable boards.

Back on land I join a snowmobile tour — my motorised beast is also unexpectedly easy to drive — and the network of tracks that begin at Cape Smokey soon open out onto a vast wilderness. It’s possible to go for hours without seeing another person, but wildlife sightings are virtually guaranteed. As well as moose and deer, Nova Scotia has the one of the world’s largest populations of bald eagles.

After all this novelty, I ski, enthralled by the uniqueness of descending blue and red trails that face the Atlantic Ocean and end just metres from its edge. The top elevation is around 300 metres, but there’s plentiful snow and perfect conditions on these expertly groomed slopes. Though there are few other skiers in sight, powder days offer more adventurous types almost-limitless backcountry terrain.

In the evenings, Cape Smokey’s ski lodge is as popular with locals as it is visitors; the tight-knit community — which has strong Scottish roots — offering a warm welcome as well as craft beer and live music. On my last night, writer and musician David Doucette performs acoustic guitar-based blues and rock for a cool, young-ish audience and, during a break, I ask him what he loves about living here. “To be below the eagles and above the sea with no stop-light in existence, just you, the clouds and the road,” he says. “Real peace, real quiet. With seasonal change and wildlife change and light change — every time you look out the window.”

Later, I video call my daughter and show her the snowy slopes and frozen sea; silently thanking Alexander Graham Bell for creating the technology that allows bedtime stories to be told at a 2,000 mile-distance.