For the third year running, Liz and I skipped Christmas gift giving and put our money towards a ski trip in early January. Early January is a good time for us because Liz, currently a grad student, is still on Christmas break, and things it's an easy time for me to escape work. Pus, lodging is less expensive than Christmastime, and crowds have mostly died down.
We went to Skoki Lodge, near Lake Louise two years ago, Whistler last year, and chose the Rossland/Nelson area this year.
We started out on New Year's eve. We had spent the last week with her Family in Ontario, and just got back to Calgary the night before. Our plan was to sleep in, and drive out to creston to ski Kootenay Pass on New Year's Day, but Castle was reporting 73 centimeters over the last 36, and fridid temps were keeping most skiers at home. We decided to stop at Castle on our way.
The morning was a cold one.
It actually hit -38 further along on the drive.
Fortunately, the forecast was calling for an inversion..and sunny skies.
We pulled into an almost empty lot, with temps reading a "balmy" -25 at the base. We were assured that the morning temp at the top was -15 and it would be warming up throughout the day. We headed straight for the top.
The southside chutes were closed at the start of the day. I am not sure if they opened at all during since the big storm. We settled on Drifter, the run closest to the chute's rope line. Drifter's offers the longest continuous fall line skiing in Canada. It isn't a steep black diamond, but the pitch is consistent. Wind drifts make the skiing pretty interesting. We found the snow to be good, very deep in spots, but the wind had beat us there.
The drifts on drifter.
We tried the trees on the far north side of the hill for some sheltered snow. The northern trees were amazing. Deep, dry, light powder. We made fresh tracks, days after the big storm. Coverage was good, top to bottom, and we were able to stay in the fall line and in the glades all the way to the north road collector. I hit a few stumps and downed logs, but nothing that caused damage to me or my skis.
By our third lap, the chutes opened. We had first tracks on Lone Star. Great fall line skiing! I missed all the rocks too.
We spent the rest of the day alternating between chutes (finding rocks on High Rustler and Desperado) and the North Trees. All and all a great start to the vacation!
After leaving Castle we drove on to Creston. We stayed at the Downtowner...a cheap motel on the main drag/highway.
We had a new year's eve beer in the hotel room, and prepared for a tour in Kootenay Pass for New Year's Day.
I will update this a bit later, but our plan was to ski Kootenay Pass, Red Mountain, Red Mountain Slack, Whitewater, and Whitewater Slack. With a bit of a tricky snowpack, and some close to home incidents, we bailed on our slack days and doubled up on the resorts.
We went to Skoki Lodge, near Lake Louise two years ago, Whistler last year, and chose the Rossland/Nelson area this year.
We started out on New Year's eve. We had spent the last week with her Family in Ontario, and just got back to Calgary the night before. Our plan was to sleep in, and drive out to creston to ski Kootenay Pass on New Year's Day, but Castle was reporting 73 centimeters over the last 36, and fridid temps were keeping most skiers at home. We decided to stop at Castle on our way.
The morning was a cold one.
It actually hit -38 further along on the drive.
Fortunately, the forecast was calling for an inversion..and sunny skies.
We pulled into an almost empty lot, with temps reading a "balmy" -25 at the base. We were assured that the morning temp at the top was -15 and it would be warming up throughout the day. We headed straight for the top.
The southside chutes were closed at the start of the day. I am not sure if they opened at all during since the big storm. We settled on Drifter, the run closest to the chute's rope line. Drifter's offers the longest continuous fall line skiing in Canada. It isn't a steep black diamond, but the pitch is consistent. Wind drifts make the skiing pretty interesting. We found the snow to be good, very deep in spots, but the wind had beat us there.
The drifts on drifter.
We tried the trees on the far north side of the hill for some sheltered snow. The northern trees were amazing. Deep, dry, light powder. We made fresh tracks, days after the big storm. Coverage was good, top to bottom, and we were able to stay in the fall line and in the glades all the way to the north road collector. I hit a few stumps and downed logs, but nothing that caused damage to me or my skis.
By our third lap, the chutes opened. We had first tracks on Lone Star. Great fall line skiing! I missed all the rocks too.
We spent the rest of the day alternating between chutes (finding rocks on High Rustler and Desperado) and the North Trees. All and all a great start to the vacation!
After leaving Castle we drove on to Creston. We stayed at the Downtowner...a cheap motel on the main drag/highway.
We had a new year's eve beer in the hotel room, and prepared for a tour in Kootenay Pass for New Year's Day.
I will update this a bit later, but our plan was to ski Kootenay Pass, Red Mountain, Red Mountain Slack, Whitewater, and Whitewater Slack. With a bit of a tricky snowpack, and some close to home incidents, we bailed on our slack days and doubled up on the resorts.