Finding the locals' hills...

I almost don’t want to write this.  I had so much fun that I want to keep these places secret.  But in reality, I recently got back from one of the best ski trips I’ve been on in a while. And I don't even think it was because we had such a short and marginal season in the East.

Where I was and why you should go:

It’s easy to fly into Spokane.  Make sure you have your passport to cross the border on the 2 ½ hour drive to the picturesque yet lively town of Nelson, British Columbia.  They love their coffee and food here.  Perched on an improbably beautiful lake – Kootenay Lake, in the mountain range of the same name, the locals resort – Whitewater - is a mere 20 minutes from town.   You’ve never heard of it, right?  Me either before I started my planning in February.

Kootenay Lake

I love Whitewater.  With three somewhat rickety lifts - all repurposed (read-as – bought from other resorts), a beautiful day lodge, reasonable ticket prices ($70/day – the Canadian dollar is even with USD right now), amazing lodge food (seriously, they’ve printed an award winning cookbook) and a locals only vibe – it makes up for the lack of grooming and a treacherous access road rutted and muddied by spring melting. The locals are spoiled, so I found no lift lines on a bluebird Saturday with a few inches of fresh fluff on top. 

Can you find the safety bar?  It's there!

I did find friendly local knowledge, though, and wound up spending an entire afternoon at the boundary line in Catch Basin, a bowl sorta like Powder Paradise at Snowbird… a 10 minute hike along the traverse (skis on) led to run after run of nearly untracked powder with the local gal I hung out with all afternoon.

I didn't stop and photograph the steep untracked lines. 

Did I mention the food?  On separate occasions at Whitewater, I had falafel with salad and homemade dressing, a St. Patrick’s day cupcake, and a green chicken curry bowl.

Chicken green curry bowl.

They’ve got some steep pitches, too.  The Glory basin access improved from sidecountry to inbounds two years ago with the addition of the Glory chair – over 2000 vertical feet.  Some great open treed blues in there and a heap of very steep tight double black lines as well.  The exposure and trees keep the snow dry, though the tree wells are a little deeper than you’ll find at most US resorts because of low skier traffic.  I hear that backcountry access is also pretty stellar there, so consider taking your skins and beacons.

What it looks like tracked out. Sorta Snowbird-esque.

Staying in Nelson is a great bet.  I can recommend the Cloudside Inn – Chris and Sally are super nice and breakfast is outrageously good.  There are several good ski shops in town and about 40 restaurants.  Seriously.  It’s not that big of a town.

Breakfast at Cloudside Inn.  Then there were eggs. And a muffin.

A mere hour and fifteen minute drive away is Rossland with it’s own locals resort – Red Mountain, about 3 hours from Spokane.  This place had more of a family feel, has some lodging at the base, and is substantially bigger than Whitewater.  With decent snow, which they often have, it would be easy to spend a week at Red.   One word of warning – it’s substantially lower than Whitewater in elevation.  So if the temperature is marginal, they do get rain more frequently.

View across canyon at Whitewater. Grey day at Red = no pics.

Composed of three peaks in bounds (and, again, a plethora of touring options in the sidecountry), Red has something for everyone.  A lower mountain with sweet greens and blues.  An upper mountain bowl with groomed and ungroomed bowls.  Sustained north facing pitches on Red Mountain and Granite Mountains – the latter are treed, steep, and somewhat unforgiving in the really good way.  For the more adventurous, a snowcat operation based at Red does single day trips for intermediate and advanced skiers.

There’s also lodging in the sleepy town of Rossland, where I saw more than one youngster walking home with ski boots over their shoulders and a couple of guys commuting to the hill on their mountain bikes.  I stayed at a B&B (Black Bear) in Rossland – the owner drives a snowcat.  A decent little place, but with a family the smart move would be to stay in a condo on the hill.  If you’re also skiing Whitewater and like the off-piste more than the groomed, I’d consider commuting from Nelson – but that’s just me.

Powder smile!

Again, lift tickets were reasonable ($72/day with a 4 pack of spring passes for $200), the food in the lodge was okay and the vibe was perfect.  These Canadians really love their skiing.

I also spent a few days in the backcountry with a snowcat operation – White Grizzly.  That incredible experience deserves it’s own post.  Their motto is “Ski Good or Eat Wood”… as in, very steep, very deep and very treed. 

A note to ski instructors – consider the lower ticket prices good karma.  They like their CSIA certifications and were nice to me, but don’t typically extend courtesies to PSIA certified instructors from small hills in Pennsylvania.