Blog

WHISTLER, BC, February 26, 2009 – Skiers and riders have enjoyed consecutive powder days all this week as a heavy storm bombarded Whistler Blackcomb with the best snowfall of the season in what has been described as the resort’s very own stimulus package. The mountains have been blanketed with 82 centimetres (32 inches) of snow in four days – a season record!

Greetings from Aspen/Snowmass, 

In typical Colorado style, a storm has dropped 16 inches (40 cm) of new snow and now the sun is back out!  Yesterday was another amazing day on the four mountains of Aspen/Snowmass with tons of fresh snow for everyone.  There is still a lot of time left in the season and with the incredible deals and specials we have in the resort, there has never been a better time to come to Aspen/Snowmass.  Below are some shots of the abundant powder from yesterday.

Chace Dillon

International Sales

Aspen Skiing Company

CMH Early Booking Credit: put a deposit down on any area and program (with the exception of the Kootenay regular program) for the 2010 season by June 15, 2009 and receive a guest lodge credit of $100 per day booked. A 7 day trip would result in a credit of $700; a 5 day trip would be $500 and so on. Guests who have already booked at this time will receive the credit as well (there is no need to reconfirm with CMH) and you can spend it on whatever you want: the bar, massages, extra metres and the shop.

Well, we’ve been here in Canmore, Alberta for 5 days now and have skied 3 days at Sunshine, there’s been 3cm of new snow in the valley in that time and some very fond memories and friendships renewed and dinner parties attended. Having worked here at Sunshine as a Ski Patroller almost 20 years ago I made some very close friends and many life long relationships. My old boss Chevy is now the Mountain Operations Manager here and most of my old buddies are still in town - Canmore rather than Banff now though. This season at Sunshine and like much of Western Canada has been a tough one in terms of snow, their snow pack being almost 30% down on an average year but the majority of the terrain is well groomed and open with the exception of Delirium Dive and The Wild West, which isn’t a bad thing! Banff has changed radically in 20 years and has become the expected tourist trap with wall to wall souvenir shops and tacky restaurants, although very pretty - Queenstown take note! Canmore on the other hand has flourished to become a well balanced functional ski town and is rapidly moving out from beneath Banff’s shadow. As I sit here in town resting up for tomorrows trip to Lake Louise with the crew it’s snowing steadily, with 20 - 30cm forecast for this region over the next 24 - 48 hours I have no doubt that it’s going to be a powder day tomorrow and the next…. We decided to extend our trip by 5 days based on the current forecast and by the looks of things it’s going to pay off - check out www.snowforecast.com for the best, most accurate and up to date snow forecasts anywhere in the world! We’ll ski at Sunshine again on Wednesday and make a day trip to Kicking Horse on Thursday and Friday before heading home to NZ on Sunday. The ski / road trip of a lifetime ( 6 weeks / 10 resorts ) has been a blast, the family are in awe of this beautiful country, it’s people their hospitality and the wildlife - we saw Moose yesterday! It’s not over yet though, with the snow still falling, fresh tracks on the menu and the vertical meter still ticking, by the looks of things we’ll leave here with memories, renewed relationships and friendships that will last a lifetime for the next generation too! The Goat. 

Hi Lianne,Yep the trip was good. Couldn’t fault it except for maybe a bit more snow….The Mountaineer Lodget was really nice and new. Now the skiing…. Kicking Horse is fantastic. I can only imagine how good it would be if it had one more lift and more snow. It is definitely a hard mountain. Every day I skied I could only push through until 2:30 or so from 9am. The legs were jelly. Even at Whistler I could ski all day. Shamiram liked it but didn’t do most of the extremes that I did. I want to definitely go back next year…so if you are arranging a bulk deal count me in. 

On Revelstoke, well it doesn’t compare with KH. Long long mountain and got great potential but for complete rawness KH is perfect.

Albert

We arrived here in Fernie ( A little town with a big reputation and the curse of the Indian Ghostrider ) two days ago after a 4 hour drive from Nelson B.C, snow was falling as we crossed the Salmo/Creston Pass and continued throughout the night. We checked into our 2 bedroom condo at The Sanford Inn to find that we had been upgraded to a three bedroom place with both a pool table and a ping pong table, a nice surprise and a great location half way between town and the ski hill, plus believe it or not a fantastic Indian restaurant to top things off! We awoke the next morning to 17cm of fresh snow and snow still falling. We had the benefit of a personal guide to show us around the mountain, my old ski patrolling buddy Robin is now the mountain operations manager here at Fernie and after 35 years working on the hill we couldn’t be in better hands. We got to ski those secret lines that only those with local knowledge know about with repeats again today. Fernie is a fantastic, well run, well resourced, immaculately presented resort on a par with some of the better resorts in Europe and the US. With amazing skiing across 5 separate bowls, the in bounds terrain is steep and varied plus there’s plenty of groomed runs to keep everyone happy and a well laid out and very efficient lift system and friendly professional staff. The little things really make the difference to a great trip, and this resort has got the little things right, combined with Sarah’s attention to detail on the accommodation front this road trip has been a pleasure. With a week left and Banff in our sights tomorrow we’ll head north through Radium, a compulsory stop and a soak at the world renowned hot springs should fill the tanks for the upcoming encounter that Sunshine Village, Lake Louise and the local gang will no doubt have organized! The Goat.    

Hi Sarah,Finally back to normal but have our marvellous photos to remind us. We thoroughly enjoyed our stay in Lionshead although we were doubtful if we were going to get a chance to ski as on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday morning, it did nothing but snow, however, the afternoon arrived with its brilliant sunshine and off we went. 

The accommodation was very adequate and being right in the middle of the “town” was just what we wanted.  -  We are now convinced Helmet and Goggle wearers as was just about everyone else on the USA slopes. We hired Helmets while in Vail and brought our own when we returned to New Zealand. The exchange rate was pretty high and what cost around $NZ100 for a Helmet here was double that in the USA.  

Overall, a great trip, good accommodation, excellent snow and we wish Vail wasn’t so far away. Oh yes, the altitude didn’t cause us a problem but we didn’t push the quick walking etc, everything relaxed.

Thanks Sarah for all your help,pleased your Japan trip went well and who knows, we may see you again especially if we win LOTTO, as we have promised the whole family we will take them to Vail and travel Business Class on whatever airline it is we fly.

Regards Sue & Ken. 

Today’s efforts at Whitewater were undertaken on an empty tank due to yesterdays cat skiing efforts and the previous three weeks accumulated vertical catching up with me! Whitewater ( WH2O ) is a small resort with yet another big reputation for it’s powder, it’s set in a dead ended valley beneath the towering Ymir Peak and a 20 minute drive from beautiful Nelson B.C. There are two old slow double chairs similar to those at Red Mountain, one accessing each side of the valley. Today was a sunny Valentines Day Saturday and not so cold thus everyone was out and about, the car park was full BUT the mountain empty. The done thing here at Whitewater is to buy a lift ticket and use the chairlifts to access the backcountry, ski the back bowls, chutes and trees and hitch a ride along the access road back up to the ski hill and repeat until you can’t walk. Again and as per most of the Canadian resorts so far, this winter by their standards is down on snow, we found some untracked two day old snow amongst the trees and had a great time. This resort has an equally big reputation for it’s on hill catering and is consistently voted North America’s best, complete with it’s own cookbook; we weren’t disappointed. All in all yet another great ski hill with wicked lines, amazing backcountry and some extremely daunting chutes and cliff drops of 50m plus that tower above the resort on the face of Mt Ymir, all of which get skied on a regular basis. We’ve enjoyed Nelson, it’s quirkiness and colour so can highly recommend this as a great base to explore the West Kootenay region and all it has to offer. Off to Fernie tomorrow, hopefully to fresh snow. The Goat. 

Hi Lianne,

We’re here in Nelson, a very pretty, quaint Victorian town nestled beside Lake Kootenay in Southern B.C, Nelson is geographically not unlike Queenstown in many ways. It’s home to many artistic types, ski bums, hippies and draft dodgers; it’s also the gateway to some of B.C’s best skiing at both Red Mountain and Whitewater. The last two days have been spent skiing at Red and Cat Skiing with Big Red Cats, based at the foot of Red Mountain Resort. Red Mountain is an old resort with a big reputation for deep snow, steeps and excellent tree and glade skiing, with a definite 1970’s feel to it enhanced by the old slow long chair lifts ( The Motherlode & Red Chairs ) that literally disappear into the clouds! Once atop this mountain the choices are endless with some extremely steep double black diamond treed runs and some wonderfully groomed endless black / blue runs returning you to the base area that have you looking forward to the restful slow ride back to the summit. Unfortunately we’ve skied here in not such a great snow year but the 5cm of fresh snow that fell on our first day was enough to freshen things up and give us a peek into what might be, waist deep powder is not urban myth here at Red Mountain and the apologies from the locals on this seasons snow conditions have been endless. This is a resort that deserves it’s reputation, doesn’t pretend to be something that’s it’s not and will have us returning in the future. To enhance things here at Red Mountain there’s a cat skiing operation at the base of the mountain ( Big Red Cat Skiing ) which boasts one of Canada largest cat ski tenures, with terrain across 5 mountain peaks! I skied with them yesterday in untracked boot top / knee deep powder that had accumulated over the previous five days, the nine runs that we skied were ALL very steep, tight treed runs averaging 750 - 1000 vertical meters. Canadians love to ski in the trees and 50 year old business men are not to be underestimated when it come to this and taught me a lesson or two! Our Kiwi based US guide did a great job in finding us fresh tracks all day long and ensured our safety on some avalanche prone cliff riddled terrain. If you’re looking for value for money and a hard out day skiing in the trees with excellent cat transport then Big Red Cats in Rossland / Red Mountain are worth the trip, be warned the Advanced / Expert group that I skied with today was no easy ride, you need to have your wits about you and be confident in tight trees and very steep terrain. Warning - Don’t over estimate your ability as you’ll spend half the day sitting in the back of the cat as one of the paying guests did today! In regards to accommodation here in Nelson we have been lucky enough to stay in what must be one of Canada’s best B & B’s ( The Cloudside Inn ) it comes highly recommended by Lonely Planet, The Canadian Tourist Board and us! We hit Whitewater today then off to Fernie tomorrow. The Goat.