Silver Star, Day 43

It was barely below freezing when we were greeted at 8.30am by a virtually empty Silver Star car park, on a clear Saturday morning. Silver Star is not a mountain I know in detail, and there’s been two new lifts added since we last skied here. So there was plenty of terrain to explore.

We warmed up lapping the Vance Creek chair on well prepared groomers. Next we played on the more gentle terrain in the new Silver Woods area. While cruisy, there’s been some nicely designed glading to create a few intermediate tree runs. The off-trail was softening by this time, so there was fun to be had.

Next we headed to the new Attridge area. There’s several exciting, if short, black runs here, but most were bullet-proof hardpack as they remained in the shade. So it was soon time for lunch and then over to Putnam Creek, where Silver Star gets very interesting indeed.

The Powder Gulch chair serves close to 600m vertical of predominantly steep, treed runs. My favorites, like Stardust and 3 Wise Men, are narrow filled-in creek beds, requiring quick turns on true double-black diamond descents. I absolutely love the skiing over here, its an advanced terrain paradise. Like Apex or Red, its possible to spend days hitting a different run or line.

The only downside of Putnam Creek is the long traverses that are needed to get to some of the runs, and then to get back to the chair. These probably explain the small number of snowboarders that are sighted around here. But it’s no real drama on skis.

One thing marred an otherwise excellent spring skiing day, and that was the fact that about half the double-black diamond runs in Putnam Creek were closed. I’d checked the web site that morning, and all runs were purportedly open. I even, ahem, ‘got lost’ a couple of times in the trees and ended up accidentally traversing in to closed runs like Chute 5 and Russty Whistle. The cover was excellent, the snow soft and inviting.

There was no explanation for the closures, and I enquired with one patroller who said they didn’t know why either. There may well have been a good reason, but it sure wasn’t apparent. And it’d be nice if the Web site snow report reflected reality.

Season totals: 43 days, 17 powder days, 336,400 verts

Black Bear (beer) is back!!

I was weaned in Stockport on various dark milds that my brother Alan introduced me to. Dark mild was typically a low-ish alcohol brew, very easy to drink and especially suited to a cold UK winter. There’s not many milds left in the UK now, which is real loss.

So you can imagine how delighted I was to re-discover my favorite Canadian ale, Black Bear, up here at Sun Peaks. It’s brewed in Kamloops by the KB Brewing company.

Black Bear takes me back to my youth. A smooth, dark and slightly sweet beer, it slides down delectably easily, and leaves me calling for another round before my glass is empty. It’s a little heavier than the dark milds of my memories, moving towards porter territory with a hint of mocha and alcohol warmth.

A very fine ale indeed, and perfectly sampled after a hard ski day in Bottom’s Bar at Sun Peaks!

Spring has sprung …

It’s back to riding my bike to work in shorts, longer sunny days and temperatures regularly over 15C. But while its springified down here in the Columbia Valley, there’s still a deep snowpack in the mountains.

We headed up to Schweitzer for the weekend with the Desert Ski Club. The forecast was less than promising, but Saturday turned out to be a fun day. It was foggy, but not prohibitively so, and while off-trail was ‘rugged’, the groomers were slick and soft.

Schweitzer winch-cat groom several long black-diamond groomers, which make for top skiing even when venturing in to the trees is a risky business. Especially with the bandits like this lurking in the trees. This is the wild west, remember!

We racked up 9700m verts by 2.30pm, before deciding to retire to the hot tubs and prepare for trip organizer Brenda’s excellent wine and cheese party. As you can infer from the photos, it was a fine party that strangely seemed to induce an infection that affected people’s lips.

As promised, the rain started late Saturday night. Sunday dawned somewhat damp, windy and unappealing, but not bad enough to stop Kathy and me from racking up 2000 verts on Chair 1. It had actually snowed 4 or so inches of soggy goop up high, which we wore our legs out on, carving down one of the steeper groomers. Not a ski day, but entertaining in a slightly masochistic sort of way.

Spring in the valley is nice, but my fingers are crossed for another searingly cold blast or three of winter before the month is out.

Season totals: 42 days, 17 powder days, 328,200 verts

March in the Canadian Rockies

March is a good month up in the Canadian Rockies. It’s warming up, it snows more, and on a great season like this, the base is deep and the rocks all covered.

We arrived at Lake Louise with 4 inches of new reported. There was much more than 4 inches up high and in the back bowls though. It was consequently a day spent frolicking on steeps like the Ptarmigan Chutes that I’d never seen open before, and ripping through untracked lines in the glades between Ptarmigan and Paradise. Bumps, trees, chutes, light powder and Lake Louise scenery – a perfect day in the Rockies really.

Next was Sunshine, with a reported and accurate inch of new. It was darn cold, and by 11am it started dumping, with waves of massive snowfalls rolling in from across the valley. We’d get an hour of snow, 20 minutes of sun, another hour of snow, more sun. You get the picture.

We spent the whole afternoon on Goats Eye, with the powder building up on every run. Visibility up high was dodgy, but fine once you hit the tree line. Freefall was superb fall line bump skiing, and some of glades were in top condition, loaded with wind-blown snow.

Late in the afternoon, in a sunny break, I traversed around to the South Side Chutes for a cruise down ankle deep freshies on a 40+ degrees slope. A perfect way to end a day. Goats Eye has extensive, varied skiing, fast lift access and decent vertical off one chair. It’s a very fun place to visit indeed.

Trip details: 3 days, 8900m, 8600m 7900m

Season totals: 41 days, 17 powder days, 316,500 verts.

Bump-a-rama

Panorama has a reputation for being a firm, icy ski hill. This was certainly not the case when we visited in late February. The snowpack was deep and extensive, the groomers perfection, and as long as you were careful on the steeps to avoid any exposed rocks and trees, all terrain was skiable.

And there were bumps everywhere. Mostly well-formed mogul fields that were relatively easy to pick a line through. If it wasn’t groomed, it was bumpy, and fine bumps there were too.

With no lift lines and cold, sunny, clear weather, we spent the day ripping around the mountain, linking different top-to-bottom runs of over 4000 vertical feet. My highlight was a descent of B2 in Taynton Bowl. A previous hike to Taynton Bowl a few years back was in early season, and a lower snowpack meant far fewer options. This day the potential was enormous, with tracked but powdery snow, and of course, bumps. Taynton Bowl is exceptional terrain when the conditions are like this.

Our legs gave up not long after 3pm, and with 9100 vertical metres on the watch, beer was rather prominent on my mind. I have an urge to spend a few days at Panorama, staying on hill and luxuriating after a hard day skiing in the tempting hot pools that overlook the lower trails. If the snow holds, this might be the year to satisfy the urge.

Season totals: 38 days, 15 powder days, 291,100 verts.

The Great Schweitzer Chainsaw Massacre

If you’re a tree at Schweitzer (unlikely if you’re reading this, I know), I’d be afraid. Very afraid. There’s lots of folks in the Idaho Panhandle who have chainsaws and know how to use them. And many seem to be practicing their skills at Schweitzer.

In the three years since we were last there, the number of trees that have been removed from the ski hill is remarkable. Areas that were once dense, impenetrable forest are now wide open glades, perfect for linking cruisy turns around well-spaced trees in the protected, soft snow. This has increased the ski hill size, and potential fun factor, considerably.

We arrived with a reported 4 inches of new snow and cold temperatures. A dense fog had settled on the top ridge line, so we quickly headed over to the lower Stella lift, and hopped around in some excellent fluffy snow before the crowds followed us. Crowds are a relative thing in Idaho though – meaning a 4 minute lift line!

By lunchtime it had started snowing, the fog lifted, and we lapped the Great Escape finding new gladed slopes and fresh, light snow everywhere. While the visibility held, we took the new T-bar over to Siberia and explored a couple of the new tree runs and trails that were accessible from the ridge line. The snow was hardly tracked and the terrain a mix of steep-ish glades and groomed, fall line trails. This is definitely a zone of the hill to poke around a lot more.

This was a great day of skiing at one of the Pacific Northwest’s finest hills. With new glades and a new high-speed quad promised next year, it’s enough to make me want to move to Spokane!

Day 37 – 9000m vertical

Season totals: 37 days, 15 powder days, 282,000 verts.

Avoiding wannabee roadkill

We do a lot of driving in the Pacific Northwest, and luckily have had no close encounters with the abundant wildlife that roams the valleys and mountains. We did once have a black bear run across the road in front of us, but I’d seen it coming so it was no danger. Especially as we were in a car!

Last weekend we drove from home, through Idaho and British Columbia, to Banff, where ICCBSS 2007 was being held. As the road wanders through the Selkirk mountains in northern Idaho, it starts to get very remote and rural. Which means animals are lurking.

The first encounter was with a suicidal squirrel, which ran across the road in front of us. Moderately hard braking saved the little thing from becoming flattened. A few minutes later, as we approached the Canadian border, we rounded a bend at 70mph only to see a deer stood in the road. Very hard braking and some quick footwork from the deer saw it slip past the driver’s door unharmed. This certainly made me slow down a little.

Once in to Canada, the road gets quite windy and driving slower anyway. As we climbed a hill, a large Rocky Mountain sheep was spotted, fortunately on the other side of the road.  I slowed down and  crawled carefully past this  particular beast – it was certainly of a size I didn’t want to collide with. But this was nothing compared to what we saw as we sped around a corner at high speed further north in the Columbia Valley near Invermere.

Elk can be big animals, and the one stood right in our path was a monster. I slammed the brakes on, and we came to a halt about a metre in front of what was actually a small elk herd. I’d been concentrating on stopping so hadn’t really noticed the others. Through the windshield we got a close up view of the elk’s butt as it cooly turned around and continued on it’s merry journey. Our truck stands pretty high, and this animal was at least as tall – it would’ve been a fraught and messy collison for both the elk and aNissan Xterra.

Hopefully we got out quota of close animal encounters out of the way for a while on this trip. We have to drive home yet though …