Big Red

The snow has finally started falling and the mountain operations have finally opened. Missed the opening weekend due to a quick but important visit to Winterpeg (it was good to finally feel a real cold though) and a quick week of working have left me without a full day to actually explore the mountain. Hopefully that will change tomorrow and I will be able to shred it up!

But when there is a month between being hired and the mountain opening, one gets antsy to actually ski regardless of the effort that it takes. Time to get the hiking boots and shoulder geared up for some boot packing trips to the top!

The first picture is verrry early hike up. The mountain there is Red Mountain, we (Christine and Todd from the Hostel in Rossland) hiked inbetween two mountains, that was enough hiking...

But ended up with a good pair of rock skis as the snow was all powder and no base....

But that did not detere us from another gallop up the mountain, this time to the very top of Granite Mountain beside Red which offers much more terrain. Erik is the other fellow in the picture, the freestyle pro roomate here in Trail.

 So a 3.5 hour hike up the hill along the ski out brought us to the top of Granite Mountain.

Oh right and of course Naomi stopped by for a visit and was the official photographer of this trip.


But after 3.5 hours, spirits were still great, perhaps it was from walking past all the untracked pow on the runs on the way up, or the fact that it was actually snowing, or maybe it was the fact that we actually had hot coffee when it was -15 around us, but most likely spirits were high because no matter what, it was going to be a great ride down after the effort it took to get to the top.

And it was a great 30 min ride to the bottom, well the last half was quite icy and chunky, but nothing beats untouched pow! no matter how bad we skied. So Erik and I actually did a couple of trips like that, you know it kills a whole day, which counts for something. But now that the lifts are open, it only takes 20-30 minutes to get to the top and much less walking, but there is a greater appreciation shared among all of us of innovation in the ski industry from 100 years ago when the Rossland ski club first started skiing on Red Mountain. Before all those lifts and parking lots and money for lift tickets.

Anyways... so that is how I spent a few days lately, work has taken over but yea will hopefully make it up tomorrow! Would love to hear from anyone reading this! if anyone is reading this.... Thanks!