Blog

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. 

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.