Corn Fest

I almost forgot how much fun Spring skiing at Red can be. With cool nights and warm sunny days, the whole mountain has become a consistent velvety canvas of corn, making for effortless ripping. Without the urgency of chasing diminishing powder, we wait for friends, ski in packs, drink beers in the chair, and even [...]

There’s no such thing as bad snow, just bad skiers.

With the aphorism looping in my conciousness like a mantra, I’ve negotiated snow with every variation of soft, sticky, rotten, and re-frozen over the past week. I enjoyed a couple of afternoon sessions in Spring corn on the face of Red, some soft and consistent lines on Jumbo and the Ledges, and a few shallow [...]

Local Wandering

Despite the less than ideal (warm and wet) snow conditions I’m still keen to be out touring, trying to maintain my momentum for the big traverse. Yesterday I caught last chair on Granite, and toured into the Shambala cabin to meet up  and spend the night with Brigitte, Jordy, Sally (11) and Cody (14), out [...]

Mt Sir Sandford

An extended backcountry ski traverse is the culmination and highlight of my ski season. This year we (Andrew, Trevor, Dan and I) are planning to take 12 days to ski from Roger’s Pass to Mica Creek through the Northern Selkirks. Along the way we’re hoping to make a ski descent from the summit of Mt [...]

Dirtbags endangered @ Red

Red: Dirtbag No More. So reads the headline of an article (if you can call the regurgitated press release an article) in the latest (Vol.21#4) Ski Press Magazine. It claims that Red is on the verge of being transformed from a retro, experts especially ski area (Ski Press are creative manglers of prose), to a [...]

Urban Immersion

“The modern city is just a shopping mall with live-in customers”
I’ve just spent 10 days in Vancouver, that damp and dreary City, assessing the mountain biking trails on Fromme Mountain for the District of North Vancouver. I was choked that I missed a few huge powder days, but that’s what happens when you allow your [...]