Evacuation Epic

The sun was shining from a clear blue sky, the skiing through hoar frosted powder as good as it gets, a group of ripping skiers laughing and sharing an incredible day. I watched a relatively minor miscalculation and fall onto an unfortunately positioned concealed rock, and in a moment was faced with evacuating a hurting [...]

Set-up at Wildhorse Catskiing

Trevor from Wildhorse Catskiing was spending the day driving and packing down his snow-roads, so in exchange for some shovelling and our company Michelle and I got to ski a bunch of the runs, including a short tour to the summit of Wildhorse peak (pic above). With clear skies and cold temps, the previously reactive [...]

Another Powder Day …. Ho hum.

In this season that keeps on giving, we had another 32cm of new snow to enjoy today. The holiday crowd made for a huge line-up, and avy control kept us waiting till 9.45 before loading on the Motherlode chair, but it was actually stupid deep (Red’s new marketting catch phrase) in places. I had plenty [...]

Christmas Day

Woke to 15cm of fresh snow and sunshine on the mountain. Ripping it up in the powder with my friends is what I want for Christmas every year. I didn’t feel like stopping (Camo and Don wouldn’t have waited anyway) so my only pic is of the first chair ride up, an untracked expanse of [...]

Old Glory Tour

With hordes descending upon Red for free skiing day, and sunny stable conditions, a tour up Old Glory (the highest peak in the Rossland Range) seemed a reasonable plan. Jordy, Steve, Marty and I made quick time in ideal travelling conditions, about 3 hrs to the summit, including a short ski into Essling creek. The [...]

Microwave Recollections.

I snapped this pic from White-wolf ridge yesterday, on my way out to a couple of runs off Mt Record. I was struck by the contrast between the sunlit corduroy perfection of Southern Comfort and the dark, steep, and uber technical Microwave Face in the background. That skiing at Red encompasses such a range of [...]

A Week of Powder at Red

I’m only just recovering from a week of incredible powder skiing at Red. It started dumping started about midday on Monday (Dec 11th) laying down 17cm that afternoon. With 30cm overnight, Tuesday was a classic Kootenay powder day, with few people and endless  untracked lines. 12cm overnight filled everything in for Wednesday, but strong winds [...]

Red Mountain Resort – Public Meeting

Red seems committed to keeping the local public informed via periodic open meetings. Last night’s meeting was significant for the noticeable lack of pre-publicity (I was told about of it only that morning by resort CEO Howard Katkov) and not coincidentally the lack of any real interest amongst local skiers.
I’ve always been impressed by Howard’s [...]

Bugaboos to Roger’s Pass Maps

As part of my thorough planning for the Bugaboos to Roger’s Pass ski traverse I completed last Spring, I prepared the following maps of the route. I had them laser printed on both sides of 8″ x 11″ paper, and then laminated. The text blocks are from Chic Scott’s summits and Icefields.

Hauling Wood

Spent the day slogging up an overgrown trail towing a load of 1″ x 6″s on a plastic childrens sled, in warm, wet, sticky snow, and minimal visibility. Helping out some friends on a below the radar project deep in the local backcountry. No time for any real skiing, although the alder infested luge track [...]