Skiing out 2015.

It seems the endlessly snowy weather pattern we’ve been enjoying has come to its inevitable end.  With high pressure entrenched, the sun is shining above valley cloud, cold temps and light winds are preserving deep light snow on all aspects, and unlimited powder skiing is there for the taking.

About to drop into the north face of Mt Elgood, earlier today.

Post skiing sauna.

Sun-dog from the Grey chair.

My nephews are becoming little rippers.

Laps on the Red chair.

These are the days.

These are the days. Those we dreamed of, and will look back on with nostalgia. A substantial solid early season base covering and adhering to every obstacle, blanketed with a well bonded consistent cushion of soft stable medium density snow, then topped by a succession of cold storms. With more terrain at Red than anemic pre-Christmas crowds could track, a never before seen extent and quality of summer clean-up and brush clearing, and a sunny windless Christmas day to top it off, it’s been a wonderful time to be healthy and skiing.

Cam, lift serviced skiing on Christmas Day.

Snowghosts above a Kootenay Sea.

Elise, dropping into the Orchard’s cliffs.

Almost no need to walk, but the backcountry is in prime shape..

Third Slide, topped up and empty on a quiet weekday.

The day after.

A quick couple of laps, dropping pillowed ridge-lines on Robby.

Opening Weekend

 

Fields of white on Grey (A.M. photo).

 
I don’t actually recall each and every opening day from the past 25 years. There were almost certainly some days of deep trenching, but many more and most in recent years were spent ducking ropes and poking around in marginal conditions. So to have the entire mountain open on day one, with a confidence inspiring solid base covering every rock, is an incredible start to the season. Kudos to Red Mountain and their summer grooming program, as apart from some recent windfall much of the terrain is as brush free as it’s ever been, and Grey feels like an entirely new mountain with fields of easy angled powder to explore rather than a mine-field of slash piles. Waking to 27cm of new snow on Sunday morning capped it off. Apologies if I’m gushing, but charging my favourite lines on Granite in backcountry like conditions really is as good as it gets. 

Just Go.

After recent rain into the alpine, conditions could have been a lot worse today at Kootenay Pass. Trail breaking was as easy as it gets, and with 5cm of new snow  accumulating atop a deteriorating crust, turns were a little challenging in the flat light, though predictable and still fun. Jordy and I have long realized that if we wait for perfect conditions we won’t get much done in the mountains, so we almost always just go, and deal with whatever we find.

Short Laps

26cm of new snow overnight at the Pass, and dumping periodically through the day. Just a couple of cars in the lot. We trenched in and lapped our up-track, each run better than the last.

Slides

A few cm of snow overnight made for some soft turns on Slides.  The summer grooming looks great, but there’s not really enough coverage yet through the rock band.

Pogonip

With nothing but clear skies in the alpine and persistent valley fog under an inversion this past week, claiming 5cm of new snow seemed at first just  typical  marketing BS by Red Mountain Resort, or perhaps a new policy to count the results of snow-making into their results. But the weird thing is, there actually is that much new snow all around the base area. I did some research into what might might be going on, and the closest I tell is that we’re experiencing unusually heavy pogonip. The word pogonip is a meteorological term used to describe an uncommon occurrence: frozen fog. The word was coined by Native Americans to describe the frozen fogs of fine ice needles that occur in the mountain valleys of the western United States in December. Interestingly researchers in the UK found that most cases of the frozen fog were linked to some sort of human activity, like a local factory or plant–that released moisture into the freezing sky and that became snow. Given that Red’s snow making guns have been running 24/7 of late, it’s not that much of a stretch to conclude that in these atmospheric conditions, Red’s snow making is seeding the fog and actually producing snowfall across a much wider area than ever intended.

Early Season Shenanigans

While we’re still another significant snowfall away from being able to open, I’ve been  finding places to wiggle around in the sunshine.

Main Run.

Perfect coverage on Southern Comfort

A bit thin on Back Trail

Old Glory from the Air (poached from the Facebook).

The new Lepsoe cabin at sunset.

Topping out on Grey.

The Rossland Range.

Silverlode in the mist.

Getting above the clouds.