I could not NOT ski yesterday morning, given that it was a powder day. I thought I would try and do something I have not done since before my accident and in over a decade, and try to get first lift. I thought I had done quite well by arriving at the parking lot at 7am, when the first gondola started at 8.30am. Obviously, there were many people with the same idea.

The line ahead of me. You can see the lines goes down and then starts snaking around and around

It was actually not trivial walking up to this point in the snow/slope for me. I did feel slightly self-conscious as I moved up the slope slowly.

The line behind me by the time I got to the snaking around part of the gondola line

I did not get first tracks, but the snow was still pillowy soft, and lots of it. Skiing in powder is definitely the hardest type of snow for me, because I have to keep such a light touch on the outriggers/hold them out of the snow, and really accentuate the up-down action with my leg. This was tough on my third ski day in a row.

It was difficult to capture how beautiful the mountains in the distance were in this light.

The 6.5 hour drive from Revelstoke to Whistler was very tiring because of slippery road conditions a lot of the way. There were two occasions where I was stopped because cars had to be pulled out of trouble.

The bluff around Salmon Arm made me think of Squamish. There seems to be a ton of great rock between Revelstoke and Salmon Arm.

As I drove along BC-99 in the arid rain shadow of the coastal mountains, I was reminded of the rain shadow between the Sierra Nevada mountains and Rocky Mountains in the U.S. A lot of the landscape reminded me of parts of Nevada and Utah. Actually, my main thought as I drove along BC-99 was, oh, the Canadians are just as good as the U.S. at leaving First Nations people with shitty land to live on :(

I arrived in Whistler safely and took a rest day on New Years Eve. I have mixed feelings about being in such a resort-y skiing destination. I loved Revelstoke because it had world-class terrain and conditions without all the apres and resort village shops, but I know Whistler-Blackcomb is bloody huge and will be great to ski at too. And it is nice to have amenities (although I do think one can live without a Lululemon store in the ski village).

The temperatures are uncharacteristically low for these mountains, and will continue to drop as a cold front moves through.

So so stoked on Revelstoke. I have been fortunate enough to ski at quite a few really top areas, and I have to say, Revelstoke just might be my favourite. I love it when there are so many good skiers on a mountain, so many skiers tour, so many rip. I love that it still has a locals feel to it, maybe because it is just 5 lifts (2 might be kiddy ones, too). And yet, because I am the anomaly at a place like Revelstoke, so many people were genuinely curious about me  (“Do you switch ski mid-day?”) and so so stoked for me (I haven’t been a total slouch either). The cultural differences between the U.S. and Canada are apparent. Everyone has been uniformly polite and respectful (“Can I ask…”, “Do you mind if I ask…”), not automatically imposing their curiosity/bombasticity (I just made up that word) on me, yet being so so psyched for me, especially when they see me tear it up.

Of all the bloody days to leave my GoPro in the car, and have my phone go cold on me, today was it. But I did manage to salvage a few.

I was really stoked to be able to manage to get to the North Bowls on my own, and hold my own on the terrain there. Even runs like “Snorkel Glades” i.e. two of the hardest things for me on a ski and outriggers – deep deep powder and trees – were fine and fun.

The aptly named route which takes you over to the North Bowls.

About to launch over/through this and down

More goodness

At one point in this area, an Austrian instructor came up to me to congratulate me and ask me what was up. At the end of the conversation he said “You are here. It is perfect.” I could not have agreed more (even though with his accent, I was chuckling internally, thinking this felt like something out of the Eiger Sanction. I had to include the link because I feel like I’m at an age where there are people younger than me who do not get this reference!)

View from about 1/4-1/3 of the way up the mountain

28cm of snow expected tomorrow, so it will be full on snorkel weather. I had been thinking of driving to Kicking Horse, to the East in Golden. But with this much heavy snow in the forecast, highway warning already in effect between Eagle and Rogers Pass, I am questioning whether this is a good idea or not.

It just keeps coming

You can see the drive between Revelstoke and Golden falls right along the stretch of highway under warning

One thing I did last night was make an improvement to my left boot setup too. I used thicker cord, tied a different knot, used that rubber attachment from the bottom of a screamer to keep the point between the cord and biner rigid for easier clipping; and be able to clip the biner to the loop on my Sorel so that the biner no longer makes a clanking sound when I walk or risks getting lost.

Necessity is the mother of invention, I suppose

Lake Louise, even though you started off at around -32 degC (with wind-chill) this morning, I still like you. A lot. As usual, I was one of the first people to arrive so that I could score as good a parking spot that did not require any special fees or permit.

There was not much in the way of new snow; just a few cm, which made for hard pack, even in the back bowls. I still find it amusing how signs stating “Marginal Conditions” or “Closed” out West are, like, the best conditions ever on the East Coast. And, sadly, I’m finding that I ski well in such shitty conditions.

I really like how the mountain and vertical drop are big (991 m (3250 ft) vertical drop, longest run of 5 miles, Lake Louise is the largest ski resort in the Canadian Rockies), yet the main base area has an old-school cafeteria/ non-swanky resort feel to it. Indeed, lift-ticket prices here are considerably cheaper than lift tickets in the U.S., and even more so if you take into account the current favourable exchange rate. I wonder why that is. Are operations more efficient here? Are the owners just less into price-gouging than other ski-group goliaths?

Striking views every where.

I thought the ski area was well laid-out too. I did not encounter any cat-tracks, shitty ski-outs, choke points for accidents to happen at the end of the day when every one is returning to the main base area on a narrow trail, weak on their legs, racing to get to the bottom (I’m looking at you, Sunshine Village).

View around mid-mountain, on the way back to the main base

Yes, it looks like a ski fell off a foot

Can a girl get a break?

I’m feeling pretty worked but I guess this is good preparation for Revelstoke, which boasts North America’s largest vertical drop of 1,713 metres (5,620 ft). I’m bloody intimidated by this, and by how deep it is going to be and get over the next few days, as I still struggle in deep powder with my ski and outriggers. It seems like I am very good at blocking out the sun wherever I go.

The forecast for Revy.

It seemed like the temperature rose a good 10 degC the moment I crossed into British Columbia. It was 22 degF when I rolled into Revelstoke, and I was positively sweating.

The drive from Lake Louise to Revelstoke is exactly how I imagined driving into the interior of British Columbia would be: misty and starting to snow. For some reason I thought that the Mountain and Pacific time zones followed the BC and AB province boundary, but they do not, and I liked how there was a sign along the Trans Canada highway indicating the point where the time-zone changed.

I find it interesting that the legislated time-zone boundaries and observed time-zones do not always coincide (Source: http://www.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/obj/doc/services-services/time-heure/TZ06BWE.png)