Fact or Fiction?

As well as I can recollect the story goes something like this: Some-time recently at Red Mountain, two local snowboarders loaded onto each side of the Motherlode chairlift, along with a stranger. The snowboarders proceeded to spark up a joint of Kootenay’s finest, passing it back and forth across the stranger sitting between them. Apparently [...]

Cliff dropping and Fence Jumping

Pete Golden taking the icicle cliff variation left of Roxanne.
Only 5cm of new snow overnight, but the sun was shining, with no wind, and I hooked up with a crew of happy rippers to ski and share many of my favorite steep lines and drops.
We’ve all seen the huge chain link fence that [...]

Orchard’s Cliffs Closure

Stewart Spooner – Dropping the cliffs circa 1999.
The Orchard’s Cliffs, located about two-thirds the way down the Powder Fields at Red Mountain, is one of my favorite areas on the mountain. With at least a dozen classic steep short lines and drops, and one of the few cliff areas with an open [...]

Winter Carnival

It’s Winter Carnival time again in Rossland. Last night’s parade on Columbia Ave was notable for the public dissent at Red Resort’s expense. The golfing ladies (pictured above) were having fun ridiculing Red’s development priorities, while the Stupid Deep guys mocked the hyperbola of Red’s recent marketing slogan, with a reality check on the rarity [...]

Kootenay Pass Shenannigans

Kootenay Pass from the Camel’s Humps.
Just over an hour from Rossland, at an elevation of 1775 meters is the local ski-touring playground of Kootenay Pass. With such a variety of aspects and elevations, it’s always possible to find great skiing. Strong North-Westerly have scoured many slopes, but on another cold clear day yesterday we found [...]

OK Mountain

Michelle Laurie dropping into the top of the OK Main Chute
With strong northerly winds having scoured many of the usual quality lines in the Rossland Range, a cold (-14 degrees C), clear, windless  morning called for some alternative thinking. The East facing main chute of OK mountain (visible from the highway down to Patterson) often [...]

Randy’s Poles

My brother Cam has been ranting for years about the limited function of his ski pole’s, and we’ve imagined all sorts of additional features that could be incorporated. I guess we’re not the only ones, as Randy from Orange County was sporting these home modified poles at Wildhorse recently. That’s a compass and a temperature [...]

Bluebird Powder

20cm of light fluff over night, with sunshine, and cold temperatures made for perfect conditions and some pretty stoked skiers (including yours truly) at Wildhorse today.

Old Glory

Andrew Gross – Old Glory Summit.
Yesterday being the first clear calm day (above the valley cloud) in weeks seemed like a perfect time for skiing Old Glory. A check of the snow-pack on the Unnecessary Ridge headwall was confidence inspiring, so we continued to the summit in the lifting clouds.

East Face of Old Glory. [...]

Wildhorse Air

I skied at Wildhorse cat-skiing today, with an enthusiastic group of young guys keen on launching everything in sight. We all had a fun day in soft and stable conditions.