A couple of weeks ago I had a bunch of days off...so I figured I'd go tour some of Canada.
I rode 6 different areas and one back country spot in 11 days. But I got 11 straight days of riding in.
I stopped by Silver Mountain on my way to Kelowna (Big White). I wanted to check it out since I had never been there. I tend to have a rather negative picture of most Northern ID ski areas...probably from just being familiar with Lookout Ski area, which is like women I tend not to date...small, short and flat. Silver wasn't any of those. I enjoyed it a lot actually...it has some nice steeps and while the runs aren't super long...they weren't that bad either. And it's spread out over a decent area so you can find different aspects to ride if sun/temps are an issue. As most of you know...I ride in hard boots...but I'm *not* one of those hard booters that lives for the cord carving...I could care less about carving. Well...I'm getting off one of the lifts and where I'm gliding over to, to clip in and drop there's another hardbooter doing the same. I'm just trying to have a mellow day and enjoy a new place...I don't want to talk to the guy...so I try and pull in behind him where he can't see me. Sure enough he notices me and the inevitable conversation starts: him: "Hey...another hard booter!" me: "Yeah...I'm keeping the 80's alive." him: "no man...lot's of people are doing it now..." Me: *give him queer look* him: "Yeah...I've been trying to arrange an Expression Session awhile now..." As soon as he said 'expression session" I give him that extra queer look like: So You're The One That's Been Giving Hard Booters a Bad Name All This Time.....he sees the look and starts back tracking...about how he was trying to arrange it at Lookout ski area but how he got fired for 'political' reasons...etc...I basically take this as an opportunity to leave...and say something along the lines of good luck..have a good season...and take off. Dude...just ride the mountain...leave me alone. Either way...It was fun using the term 'expression session' for a lot of things during the rest of the trip.
View of Silver Mountain:
Mid Day Powder at Silver:
I eventually leave Silver and continue the drive to Kelowna deep in central BC. I get delayed at the border...apparently the lighter I had in my car smelled like something the border guy didn't like...so they detained me for about an hour while they went through my car looking for illicit goods. Of course there wasn't any...Only idiots bring coal to Newcastle.
So I stagger in to Big White, where a few friends from Calgary had a couple of condo's rented, at about 2 or 3 in the morning. Their still up drinking. I get settled in, have a beer or two and go to sleep. The next day I ride a 1/2 day at Big White. Mostly I just tour the hill trying to get a feel for the terrain. There's some good stuff for sure...but mostly it's a family oriented ski hill...lot's of high speed quads (My opinion...worst things ever for a hill!) and a high speed 6 pack right next to a high speed quad that drops people off at the same area essentaily. it just pours people onto the slope. Freakin people are everywhere. Yuck.
Big White View:
Big White Sunset:
Big White Chairs:
Big White lift line:
I ride a full day the next day and get a tour of the recent slide that happened there, killing a boarder, from a very nice ski patroller. Pretty interesting scene for sure. The bowl that slid, parachute bowl, was a very obvious slide zone...that even with all the 'control' work they did was pretty sketch. Looked like some really fun lines though. Of course it was still closed while I was there. Probably since it slid to the rock underneath and it needed new snow to pile on before it could be skied again. I end up riding three days here and meeting a friend from Tahoe who drove up.
Part of the face that slid at Big White - Top of Parachute Bowl:
Slide path and debris apron - notice the groomer trenches in the run out at the bottom:
Obviously the chair out of parachute bowl hadn't run in awhile:
Remember kids - be safe out there:
After my Calgarian friends head home, me and my Tahoe buddy drive to Nelson to stay with some friends there.
My Nelson buddy has built a sweet outdoor ice rink, so we spend plenty of time staying up late in the cold putting water down and generally talking smack about ice rinks and what not. We ski a half day at White water the next day. Don't really get after it since Whitewater is a good hike hill, and I'm leery of the back country snow pack, but short and small if you're not hiking and just riding the lifts. We park the car lower then the base area, and hitch up, so for the last run of the day we can do a little OB ridge hike and ride down to the car on a run called 'the backside' I guess. Good powder and a fun line for sure. Not to mention how pretty Ymir peak is at Whitewater..incredible place really. Very scenic.
Ymir Peak trying to come out of the crystal fog:
Some Chutes at Whitewater...if you're into that sort of thing:
One of the only pictures taken of me during the trip when my friend took my camera. Yeah...he was a bit early for the photo:
Atmospheric phenomena at Whitewater/A Sun Dog:
A winter time rainbow at whitewater?
The next day we get up early and drive the 4-5 hours to Revelstoke to ride Revelstoke Mountain Resort...it's first year in existence. My God! 4,734 vertical feet of steep ladies and gents. Wow. We arrive fairly late and don't get to check the place out much before it closes (3:00...damn that's early!) but get a quick feel for the place. We ride a full day the next day and hike the peak once. Another incredible place for sure. Basically a gondola that takes you up a bunch of feet and then one lift that takes you with in about 200-300 feet of the peak. If you miss that lift skiing down...it's 4,734 vertical feet later that you get to get back on something that takes you up. I do one run of non-stop just to do it. It wasn't that hard since I was riding wimpy and not charging...it would be hard to charge 4,700 feet unless you knew your line...and I didn't. Either way...great place with it's 4,700 feet being pretty much steep the whole way. The woods need to be cleaned out a bit to really open up some lines...but it is the resorts first year so...give it time. With Revelstoke and Kicking Horse all "close" by...that area is quickly becoming a vertical skiers dream come true. After our full day we drive back to Nelson for the night.
View from the base of Revelstoke:
My buddy getting stuck behind a skier, while hiking to the top of revelstoke...yes...the base is way down there in the clouds:
View from the 'top'...at the real top of Revelstoke peak, again...if you're into that sort of thing:
The top of Devils Club...below the fog, 4,734 feet down, is the lift:
Picture from the ferry on the drive up to Revelstoke:
That night I wake up feeling weird and end up puking my guts out for most of the night. Good times. It wasn't even for anything fun like partying or anything...just some weird bug I seemed to get. The folks we were staying with said their kids had the same thing a week or so before we got there.
Anyway...I get up the next morning feeling a bit spent but it's time to drive home. I stop for a half day at one of my favorite resorts out there...Red Mountain. It's cold and dumping out...so I'm having trouble staying warm..since I didn't have *anything* in my belly. I do three runs and call it good...still a long drive ahead of me and the roads are hell...so i leave one of my favorite places, with the lifts still spinning and the snow piling up. Seems like they rearranged the lifts at Red since the last time I was there...no longer is it one lift from top to bottom...now you have to take two lifts to get to the top...if you ride to the bottom...which is kind of a bummer...but good if you're intermediate and want to avoid the steeper stuff or just stay lower on the mountain. Lame if you want to ride all the vertical feet and then do it again...and again! Either way...the three runs I do are great...gotta love being caught by your own sluff in the trees. Yes...it's that steep.
Some trees at Red, and my track:
Poor picture of an old four door beast car, in Red's parking lot, with a great pillow on top of it...hard to see:
My Nelson buddy getting ready to play goalie on his rink:
A late night drunk photo of his rink...with the lights of Nelson in the background:
I don't have any problems getting back into the states despite only having my drivers license with me...I forgot my passport *DOH!*. I ride the next day at my home area and then the next day doing snowmobile assisted powder laps at a local haunt.
The bod held up well to 11 straight days of riding, sore lower back by the end of it and a strained neck from a viscous cough fit in nelson...go figure! I can't claim to have charged first chair to last at each place...but I did cruise most all the terrain, most of the places offered and got a good feel for their terrain. Gotta love checking out places...how they've changed and/or just new places all together.
I got to ride at two places I'd never been (Silver and Revelstoke) and enjoyed both places.
There's just something about Canada that makes the riding nicer then the states...people are more friendly and the terrain is usually 'bigger'...the whole vibe is just different over all. Not really sure how to express it...it's just a different scene altogether.
I'd recommend the same tour/the resorts I went to for anyone interested in any of the places. I probably won't go back to Big White (long way away and not that great an area compared to what else I could get to)...but I had been there before and went back...so who knows. I will be back at some point to the others though.
[Edited by ult on 2/7/2008 at 7:28 AM]
