Ripping the Steeps at Red Mountain

A weekend simply isn’t enough to explore the wonders of Red’s unrelenting terrain. If you don’t like steeps, trees and bumps, this is probably not a mountain you want to hang out at for too long. But if you do, it is virtually without peer, packing a punch way beyond its moderate statistics. There are good groomers. We even ripped a few. But there aren’t many.

Saturday dawned chilly and bluebird. Glorious, soft deep snow has blanketed the mountain this winter, creating magnificent conditions. In fact there was as much snow here as I’ve seen on our many visits. We warmed up on Red’s epic fall-line groomers, and then dipped into War Eagle Glades to test out the off piste. Rocks were covered, shrubbery was covered, hell – even most of the cliff bands were covered. What a great run.

I’ll let the pics tell the story of the day.

War Eagle Glades

War Eagle Glades

War Eagle Glades

Third Slide

Brutal Saturday lift lines 😉

Gray Mountain

Alder Gully

Jumbo

Fantastic bumps

Sunday wasn’t quite so photogenic, or chilly. There were still wonders to be had though, especially on the shady sides of Granite and Gray. If you avoided anything that had seen substantial sun the day before, the snow remained mostly in primo condition. Of course the north facing areas on Granite – Beer Belly, Booty’s Run, Captain Jack’s Trees – held up best, delivering the fear inducing, exhilarating experiences that  Red Mountain Resort dishes up in spades.

Fraternizing with the locals

Trees in Paradise

There’s a sign!!!

Beer Belly

Booty’s Run

Unknown Legend

Backside of Granite

Captain Jack’s Trees

This is a great year to visit Red. I’m not sure we’ll make it back unfortunately. I just hope next year that Ullr is equally generous.

Saturday 8000m, Sunday 8100m vert

Season Totals: 34 days,  281,400m vert, 8 powder days

Mid January at Red Mountain

It’s a bit of a hike from Pittsburgh to Red Mountain, BC. Massive terrain expansions are tempting things though, especially at a place like Red where some of the best lift-served ski terrain on the planet can be found. The Grey lift adds a whole new 360 degree-ridable mountain of rolling, wide open terrain with plunging vertical north facing chutes that can scare the crap out of most people. They looked particularly terrifying this particular weekend as Red was maybe a foot or so short of being fully open, leaving some of the more precipitous lines unskiable except for the few superfolks that roam around resorts like Red.

Luckily, a little knowledge, gathered on many previous visits, goes a long way at Red. Especially when sun trashes anything south-facing, inducing a freeze-thaw cycle that renders a good chunk of the mountain glacier-like until at least early afternoon. Luckily, there a bounty of north-ish facing terrain to play on, where cold temperatures kept the snow in extremely good condition. The whole mountain required care to avoid ski-grabbing twigs protruding from the snow, like mine-laden snowmariner periscopes waiting to take down the unsuspecting rider.

On Granite, lines from Beer Belly around to the 3rd Slide were skiing well, with packed powder and only low down shrubbery to avoid. Powder Fields was pretty decent too, if a little exposed on the cliff front in places. I scored an excellent late afternoon run down Jumbo, when day long sunshine had created conditions more reminiscent of late March than mid January.

On Grey, from late morning we were finding soft lines down the front side. Red Mountain blue runs (ungroomed, bumpy) they were, in the finest tradition. In normal winter conditions, this terrain would offer boundless opportunities for exploration. One day, when the snow is deep.

On Sunday, ironically, the sun did not arrive. We stayed on north-facing runs – Captain Jack’s Trees and Roots Meadows were especially excellent – and we even shredded the odd Paradise groomer for high-speed, tree top dodging practice. After lunch, we ventured over to the venerable Red Chair, laying out laps on the steep smooth blues as well as the bumps around War Eagle and the lift line, which were skiing particularly well. With reluctance, we got our last chair about 2.45pm, and started the journey back to Spokane. It had been an excellent weekend, and really just served to convince me that a return visit, for a week or more, with mid-winter conditions, has to be high on the priority list. So much epic terrain. So few people.

8200m, 9200m, 7800m vertical

Season Totals: 19 days, 150,000m vert

Whitewater and Red Mountain weekend

With a high pressure sat over most of the northwestern US, it was time to head north. Weaker sun, less daylight, colder weather – all ingredients to keep existing snow in best conditions possible. Schweitzer to Whitewater is less than 3 hours, so it was a natural destination, especially as the base was deep and mostly northern aspects would keep the conditions tasty.

It’d been the best part of a decade since our last visit to Whitewater, and the prospect of exploring the terrain served by the new triple chair was as attractive as episodes of Swamp People. And we weren’t disappointed. The new area was a 2000 feet vertical mix of cruising groomers, bumpy and gladed single black diamonds, and steep-as-crap tight trees that were Red Mountain-esque in nature. A novelty, and great skiing, was the lower ungroomed blue runs that mostly involved hopping around massive, snow-covered boulders resting between filled in creek beds.

I dream of being here on a mid week powder day. One day maybe.

Conditions at Red Mountain weren’t dissimilar. Anything vaguely north-facing held stryofoamy, packed powdery snow that skied beautifully. Huge bumps. Tight trees. Scary no-fall zone steeps. The base was as good as I’ve ever seen, with most of the usual messy cliff bands covered and easily negotiable. So we did the usual exploring, poking around in trees, never quite knowing exactly where you are until you find epic lines buried in the woods. I suspect the locals like it this way.  And I don’t mind it either.

Whitewater 8800m, Red Mountain, 8100m, 8200m vert

Season Totals: 40 days, 18 powder days, 373,200m vert

Annual Red Mountain madness

Trip report format from Snowheads. Read on …

Date: Jan 16-19th 2012

Our mob: A bus load from the Desert Ski Club

Website : here

Basics : 5 miles over the USA border, above the town of Rossland, BC, sits the towering Red Mountain.

The skiing: Steeps, trees, bumps, often combined in a single run. That’s Red Mountain. The real fun is on Granite, the larger of the two lift-served peaks, both of which can be skied 360 degrees. There’s some fun groomers off the Paradise and Red chairs, but head any direction you feel like off the top of the Motherlode chair and plunge down the few marked and mostly unmarked runs, and be prepared to get your butt kicked by some of the best lift-served terrain I know.

Conditions were good and calm Friday, and after 20cm+ of snow Friday night, Saturday was excellent, albeit busy all morning. Sunday was colder, with a 5cm top up and wind-blown pow creating a gem of a ski day. We mined pow in trees all day long, and maybe, just maybe, skied the famed Cambodia. It’s hard to know on Red. With a 1.5m base mid-mountain, Red skies pretty well everywhere.

Off-piste : Extensive. Epic. Hidden. Watch out for cliff bands lurking beneath the freshies. Follow locals, Be careful.

The resort: In the last 6 years, a good collection of condos has appeared at the base, all basically within 250m of the lifts, and most ski back. Rafters bar in the base lodge is a buzzing but basic apres ski bar. There’s a couple of good restaurants too for evening dining. But if you want lively nightlife, get the free shuttle to Rossland, where several excellent pubs and restaurants are found. But you come here for the skiing, not the crazy night-time options.

Food : Gypsy at the base is an excellent, mid-priced bistro. The lamb shanks are great. Gabriella’s, just around the corner, is good Italian. On the mountain, the base lodge is an OK self-serve cafe. Over the back, Paradise Lodge has tasty soups, burgers and cookies. Not a huge range, but good quality. Paradise is small though, so think about timing at weekends.

Hotel: We stayed in the new condos 100m from the base, and ski back. Really nice place. Hot tub on deck, views of Granite peak. Hard to beat.

Costs: Not an expensive place, as it’s too far from civilization and major airports to get crowded. There’s usually excellent stay-and-ski deals, especially mid-week.

Conclusion: Best tree skiing on the planet (with Revelstoke!)

Skiing stats:

3 days: 8300m, 6800m, 6800m vert

Season Totals: 27 days, 207,700m vert, 11 powder days

February – Where’s the pow, La Nina?

The first half of February saw a slow return to cold, winter conditions. But moisture was still hard to find, just a smattering of snow here and there. Mostly where we weren’t, to be honest, despite last minute decisions of weekend venues dictated by weather conditions. Finding pow was as hard as getting agreement on the Federal budget in Congress. And then some …

It’s not all been grim though, by any means. An excellent cover, forgiving conditions and on Sunday a daytime dump, made for a weekend of steep exploration at Red Mountain. We had several excursions in search of the legendary Cambodia, and had a superb time failing. We got close though. The terrain around the back of Granite is as steep, and in places, the trees as tight, as anything I’ve ever skied. I love Red Mountain. Unmarked cliff bands and all.

Next, the forecast promised decent new snow at Schweitzer. About 6 inches did fall Friday night, but 50 mph winds closed down all but the two lifts up the Basin. With quite a few folks around, it made for a slow-ish day. But long traverses across to the terrain served by the Great Escape chair brought rewards aplenty. The wind loaded trees yielded untracked booty that last the whole afternoon. At last, a powder day! We racked up big horizontal and big vertical metres that day.

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The cold weather persisted into Sunday, giving a really fine day. With most of the mountain closed Saturday, we plundered some delicious snow in Lakeside and North Bowl. My run-of-the-weekend was Pucci’s Chute, a run of red Mountain calibre steepness. And an unmarked cliff.

Snow through the next week freshened everywhere up, and a tight work schedule for me necessitated a local Mission Ridge weekend. Cold, windy, clear and fast summed up the skiing. Soft in places, hard pack in others, it was a typical Mission mix. My new Fischer Watea 84s loved it on Sunday though. I think I quite like those skis!!

Red Mountain: 7800, 8200m vert

Schweitzer: 7300, 9400m vert

Mission Ridge: 8100, 8300m vert

Season totals: 34 days, 11 powder days, 274,800m vertical