On a clear day, according to my ski instructor, you can actually see sailboats on the Strait of Georgia — also known as the Inside Passage, that salty waterway that stretches up the coast to Alaska — and all the way to the Coast Mountain Range on the British Columbia mainland. You can also look down into the Comox Valley, home to the region’s three main towns, Comox, Courtenay, and Cumberland, all located within a 30-minute drive from Mount Washington.

“You can ski and golf or sail in the same day here,” said Paul Laperriere, my telemark instructor. “I don’t know how many people actually do that, but that’s what sets us apart.”

What also sets the ski resort apart is the staggering amount of snow it receives. The mountain has averaged 53 feet of snow a year over the past three years and, as of Christmas, had a 15-foot snow base. It plays leapfrog with Mount Baker in neighboring Washington state for having the deepest snow pack of any ski resort on the planet.

“We get that moist front coming in across the Pacific and this is the first mountain range it hits,” says Brent Curtain, the resort’s marketing manager. “It’s this ‘perfect storm’ for getting tons of snow.”

The epic snow conditions, along with the mountain’s tucked-away location, drew a handful of teams here to train right before the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games.

“Mount Washington was insane,” recalls Sudbury native Tyler Jewell, a member of the 2010 US Snowboarding Team. “It was raining at Cypress,” the Vancouver ski area that hosted the Olympic snowboarding competitions, “but it had just dumped at Mount Washington. It had more snow than any [other resort] in the world.”

The prodigious amount of snow also drew my family of four to Mount Washington for four days last March. We knew the resort would be less crowded than other local ski areas, so my 3-year-old daughter could have her first ski experience without being swarmed by other skiers, I could take a telemark lesson and practice day or night, and my snowboarding husband could challenge himself on the expert terrain.

Additionally, we had heard the resort had

new covered magic carpets in the beginner area (these are airport-style movable walkways for whisking skiers up the hill), a real laid-back, no-frills vibe, and surprisingly affordable tickets. It costs $68 for a full-day lift ticket, and just $29 from 3:30 to 10 p.m.

The location may have that end-of-the-world feel, but you can actually drive from Vancouver to Mount Washington and back on just one tank of gas.

To get there, we hopped a two-hour ferry from Tsawwassen, just south of Vancouver, to Nanaimo, a small but charming city on Vancouver Island’s southeastern coast (keep an eye out for orcas during the crossing). From there, we drove for about an hour and a half north along a well-maintained but relatively deserted two-lane highway, called Route 19, where we saw few cars, lots of signs for deer and elk, an impressive mountain range to the northwest, and virtually no development. Then we hung a left just after the town of Courtenay and followed a steep, windy mountain road 10 miles up to a snowy paradise, passing three chain-up areas for when snow levels really drop. As we drove up about 2,000 feet, we watched the outside temperatures plunge from 46 to 33 degrees, and the totally dry ground transform to a 13-foot snow base.

We stayed at Bear Lodge, one of only two slope-side lodges at the mountain, so we had easy access to the restaurants, base lodge, and lifts. This worked well when Sam, our 1-year-old, got sick and we took turns staying with him.

The resort has 81 named ski runs on 1,700 acres that take you from an exposed summit down through gladed bowls and wide-open trails, and then through lightly forested areas to open run-outs at the bottom. More than 50 percent of the terrain targets advanced skiers, while 35 percent suits intermediates and 14 percent is geared to beginners.

The resort invested $3 million in its beginner area last year, regrading trails, adding two runs, and installing four covered magic carpets. Easy Acres, as the beginner area is called, now has seven runs, all of which are lighted at night.