A last minute trip to the Canadian Rockies to use my MAX pass. Having to choose between Fernie and Kicking Horse is a happy conundrum any skier can have. 
I've been warned by multiple pugsters Kicking Horse is steep. And I've also been told by many the view from the top is spectacular.
I can believe the view part, as I've been to Lake Louise and Sunshine. Kicking Horse isn't too far from it, so I expect somewhat similarly jaw dropping vista. But I was passe about it. I've seen some good scenery in my ski travel. I expect to be impressed, but not surprised. In fact, I half suspected I might find it under-whelming, due to possibly too much hype.
Skiing-wise, steep isn't my strong point. I can comfortably ski a lot of terrain, but I don't have much practice in skiing steep. And it's something I half anticipated to work on but also half worried about enjoying a mountain that's known for steeps.
Day 1 -- 1/5, Friday
The forecast was for it to be cloudy the entire time I'll be there. I was kind of worried. From the trail map, looks like the whole top half of KH is wide open alpine bowls. It'll be challenging to ski that kind of terrain in any sort of flat light.
I dashed up the mountain today because that's the only day the forecast calls for a sunny & semi-clear afternoon. I wanted to get a good look at the terrain before the cloud envelopes it.
As I'll be there for 5 days, I took the free mountain tour first thing. Although I know they don't go into any challenging terrain, but I also known they're supposed to SHOW you the more interesting lines duding the tour. I showed up 15 min before the tour time, saw 3 hosts and no other guests. One of the host took me up as a private tour. On the ride up the gondola, she started showing me the lines and how to get to them...
We got out of the gondola with sunny ski but some thin clouds came in just enough we couldn't quite see the surrounding area, though the inbound ridges were still visible. "Too bad the cloud came in, the view is really spectacular", my host said. "Yea, yea, yea, I'm sure it's fantastic, but I came to ski" I thought to myself, little did I know what I was missing. So she pointed out more of the routes, AND THE LANDMARK to find the entrance of the few easier lines. That, proved to be invaluable the next 3 days, for I would not have much visibility beyond the next tree!
She also warned I should be careful on many of the lines as some of the entrance may be tricky. She suggested I try to hook up with any local in the gondola to show me how to get to a specific line. The second part turned out to be more tricky than expected. Not because the locals are not helpful. But because what the locals consider "easy" or "no problem" is of their own standard!
Another suggestion she offer was to sign up for a high level lesson, with a good chance I may get a private. That echos the suggestion from one of the poster here when I first asked about Kicking Horse. So I gave that more than just a passing thought. This would work to my hope of working to improve my steep skiing ability.
So an hour with the locals, for free, with a lot of useful information.
After the free mountain tour, I went up the Stairway to Heaven chair to the top of Redemption Ridge. Visibility wasn't exactly great, but there were plenty of trees. So I went down the cat track to Tower 10 to take a look at the famous "easy" line into the far side -- Fuez Bowl, without going down it. I didn't want to go all the way down to the bottom just yet. I wanted to lap that chair a bit first. Snow was good but a bit firm on the open. The more sheltered lines IN the trees were in better condition. That's probably the best "high intermediate/advance" terrain pod. One can duck in and out of the tree with a 10 yard traverse.
Then I was ready to go over to Fuez Bowl. Tower 10 looked reasonably "easy" from the chair and from the first look at the entrance. So I went down the cat track again to tower 10 and turn left. The first 3 turns were not too steep, just some good size mogul, albeit soft. Then, it started to drop a bit more seriously. I made the mistake of stopping to decide which way to go, and realize it's just STEEP and a LONG way down in the same pitch! I paused for a moment to collect myself. It's too late to change my mind about going down. I'm committed! The moguls became more rounded and wider apart, and soft. So it's actually a delight to ski. Except a thin cloud drift in and out. So one moment I can see my lines forward and the next moment I can't even make out where the next bumps are! It's pretty unnerving skiing a bump field without being able to see the bumps. Then, as I get close to the bottom, visibility got even worse. I stopped again trying to make out where I need to go in that vast white open space. There's nobody else around to give me any hint on where the lines are. I gave up trying to navigate and just blindly trust I'll get out of the valley if I just keep pointing my ski forward. I can't say I skied it well on that first run down Tower 10. It was tentative part of the way.
Back up the gondola. It's now well past 3 (the gondola closes at 3:30) The cloud lifted enough that I can see how to get to Terminator. So that's what I decided to head to. Except when I exited the gondola and made a left towards it, I could barely see the edge of the cat track. I gingerly followed it till my nerve gave out. And found the next "reasonable" entrance into the main bowl. The main bowl isn't quite so steep as the Fuez Bowl. So I made some good turns down. But at some point, I got a bit disoriented and lost my focus. Hit a bump the wrong way and one the binding released. The ski were right next to me so I got it back on. But now I found myself standing in the middle of this huge featureless bowl with no reference whatsoever, not even which way is up and which way is down unless I put my hand out to touch the snow. I looked back up the hill, the gondi was still running but no one's coming this way... I knew it's late, there may not be anyone skiing down. I was on my own again to make my way "down" without even knowing which direction "down" is! Slowly I made my way down, and surprise, a group of boarders flew by at some distance! They provided just enough reference of the landscape that I can orient myself which way is "down" again! I sped up as much as I dare to keep in sight of the boarders and finally found myself below the tree line. Relieve...
That concludes my first day at Kicking Horse. I'm taking the warning of STEEP more to heart now that I've sampled a few of its "easier" single black lines. It's definition of single black would be double black in 90% of the mountains in the lower 48...
I'm also giving more thought to the suggestion of signing up for a group lesson in some of my days. at $89 Canadian for 2 hrs, an instructor as guide would be quite valuable in this kind of condition. Plus, a supervised practice of skiing some steep stuff would do me good too.
I've been warned by multiple pugsters Kicking Horse is steep. And I've also been told by many the view from the top is spectacular.
I can believe the view part, as I've been to Lake Louise and Sunshine. Kicking Horse isn't too far from it, so I expect somewhat similarly jaw dropping vista. But I was passe about it. I've seen some good scenery in my ski travel. I expect to be impressed, but not surprised. In fact, I half suspected I might find it under-whelming, due to possibly too much hype.
Skiing-wise, steep isn't my strong point. I can comfortably ski a lot of terrain, but I don't have much practice in skiing steep. And it's something I half anticipated to work on but also half worried about enjoying a mountain that's known for steeps.
Day 1 -- 1/5, Friday
The forecast was for it to be cloudy the entire time I'll be there. I was kind of worried. From the trail map, looks like the whole top half of KH is wide open alpine bowls. It'll be challenging to ski that kind of terrain in any sort of flat light.
I dashed up the mountain today because that's the only day the forecast calls for a sunny & semi-clear afternoon. I wanted to get a good look at the terrain before the cloud envelopes it.
As I'll be there for 5 days, I took the free mountain tour first thing. Although I know they don't go into any challenging terrain, but I also known they're supposed to SHOW you the more interesting lines duding the tour. I showed up 15 min before the tour time, saw 3 hosts and no other guests. One of the host took me up as a private tour.
On the ride up the gondola, she started showing me the lines and how to get to them...We got out of the gondola with sunny ski but some thin clouds came in just enough we couldn't quite see the surrounding area, though the inbound ridges were still visible. "Too bad the cloud came in, the view is really spectacular", my host said. "Yea, yea, yea, I'm sure it's fantastic, but I came to ski" I thought to myself, little did I know what I was missing. So she pointed out more of the routes, AND THE LANDMARK to find the entrance of the few easier lines. That, proved to be invaluable the next 3 days, for I would not have much visibility beyond the next tree!
She also warned I should be careful on many of the lines as some of the entrance may be tricky. She suggested I try to hook up with any local in the gondola to show me how to get to a specific line. The second part turned out to be more tricky than expected. Not because the locals are not helpful. But because what the locals consider "easy" or "no problem" is of their own standard!
Another suggestion she offer was to sign up for a high level lesson, with a good chance I may get a private. That echos the suggestion from one of the poster here when I first asked about Kicking Horse. So I gave that more than just a passing thought. This would work to my hope of working to improve my steep skiing ability.
So an hour with the locals, for free, with a lot of useful information.
After the free mountain tour, I went up the Stairway to Heaven chair to the top of Redemption Ridge. Visibility wasn't exactly great, but there were plenty of trees. So I went down the cat track to Tower 10 to take a look at the famous "easy" line into the far side -- Fuez Bowl, without going down it. I didn't want to go all the way down to the bottom just yet. I wanted to lap that chair a bit first. Snow was good but a bit firm on the open. The more sheltered lines IN the trees were in better condition. That's probably the best "high intermediate/advance" terrain pod. One can duck in and out of the tree with a 10 yard traverse.
Then I was ready to go over to Fuez Bowl. Tower 10 looked reasonably "easy" from the chair and from the first look at the entrance. So I went down the cat track again to tower 10 and turn left. The first 3 turns were not too steep, just some good size mogul, albeit soft. Then, it started to drop a bit more seriously. I made the mistake of stopping to decide which way to go, and realize it's just STEEP and a LONG way down in the same pitch! I paused for a moment to collect myself. It's too late to change my mind about going down. I'm committed! The moguls became more rounded and wider apart, and soft. So it's actually a delight to ski. Except a thin cloud drift in and out. So one moment I can see my lines forward and the next moment I can't even make out where the next bumps are! It's pretty unnerving skiing a bump field without being able to see the bumps. Then, as I get close to the bottom, visibility got even worse. I stopped again trying to make out where I need to go in that vast white open space. There's nobody else around to give me any hint on where the lines are. I gave up trying to navigate and just blindly trust I'll get out of the valley if I just keep pointing my ski forward. I can't say I skied it well on that first run down Tower 10. It was tentative part of the way.
Back up the gondola. It's now well past 3 (the gondola closes at 3:30) The cloud lifted enough that I can see how to get to Terminator. So that's what I decided to head to. Except when I exited the gondola and made a left towards it, I could barely see the edge of the cat track. I gingerly followed it till my nerve gave out. And found the next "reasonable" entrance into the main bowl. The main bowl isn't quite so steep as the Fuez Bowl. So I made some good turns down. But at some point, I got a bit disoriented and lost my focus. Hit a bump the wrong way and one the binding released. The ski were right next to me so I got it back on. But now I found myself standing in the middle of this huge featureless bowl with no reference whatsoever, not even which way is up and which way is down unless I put my hand out to touch the snow. I looked back up the hill, the gondi was still running but no one's coming this way...
I knew it's late, there may not be anyone skiing down. I was on my own again to make my way "down" without even knowing which direction "down" is! Slowly I made my way down, and surprise, a group of boarders flew by at some distance! They provided just enough reference of the landscape that I can orient myself which way is "down" again! I sped up as much as I dare to keep in sight of the boarders and finally found myself below the tree line. Relieve...That concludes my first day at Kicking Horse. I'm taking the warning of STEEP more to heart now that I've sampled a few of its "easier" single black lines. It's definition of single black would be double black in 90% of the mountains in the lower 48...
I'm also giving more thought to the suggestion of signing up for a group lesson in some of my days. at $89 Canadian for 2 hrs, an instructor as guide would be quite valuable in this kind of condition. Plus, a supervised practice of skiing some steep stuff would do me good too.
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