March finally arrived and Phil, Amy, Chris and I were getting pretty pumped about heading on our road trip into the interior of British Columbia. Unfortunately March also bought with it the "Pineapple Express" weather system. These systems are named as such as they involve a large amount of moisture coming up from the Pacific, along with very warm temperatures.
This set the tone for the conditions on the entire trip. The day we left the alpine in Whistler had been closed for 3 days, with over 80cm of snow falling. Most of this was heavy and wet, but there was a nice layer on top and we decided to delay our leaving for half a day to enjoy the conditions. After waiting an hour at the base of Blackcomb, and then another 2 at the 7th Heaven lift we got some of the first tracks.
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| Glad we were at the front of this line! |
It was by far the busiest day of the mountain all season, so after 3 runs it was already 1pm and we were ready to go! We headed home, packed up the truck and hit the road.
Spirits were high and we were happy to be on our way. Revelstoke was about a 6 hour drive from Whistler and we were hoping to be in town just after dinner. Unfortunately, even though we had checked the road conditions the night before, the weather that had bought such good skiing also bought with it some risky avalanche conditions. Only an hour north of Whistler (just past Pemberton), our route through the mountains to the interior was blocked.
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| Highway 99 |
Avalanche control work had triggered a considerable slide that had crossed the road. Information was sparse, but after over 4 hours of waiting we were finally on the road again. Now we were driving at night, so unfortunately there wasn't much to see (except the avalanche, it was taller than the truck!). We arrived at Revelstoke closer to midnight, and while everyone was pretty tired we were still determined to make the most of the trip.
The Super 8 motel we stayed at wasn't the most luxurious of accommodation, and the "free breakfast" was certainly lacking. However, we still made the opening of the Revelstoke gondola on our first day. Conditions were pretty similar to Whistler. No champagne powder this trip, but we still got some excellent turns as some of the alpine had been closed the day before because of the storm. Revelstoke certainly has some fantastic terrain, and I can certainly see myself heading back there to ski again.
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| On top of 'Powder Assault' |
Everyone was pretty tired after a solid day skiing, and the long trip the night before. So after one of the best burgers I've had my entire 6 months here (It was called a 'farmyard burger', and literally had half the farm in it) we turned in for an early start.
The next day we were on the road again heading for Kicking Horse. This time a leisurely 2 hour drive from Revelstoke through the fantastic Rogers Pass. This area is very well known for avalanche activity, so much that they built tunnels on the road on regular paths to save the need of constantly clearing them.
The views were so spectacular that we even forgot about the speed limit and the nice police officer was happy to remind us! He did however forget to point out that we were changing time zones, as we had aimed to be there for the gondola opening and instead arrived at 10am. It didn't matter though as they were having a 'quiet day'. To give you an idea of the number of people were are used to at Whistler, a quiet day would be under 10,000 people. The idea of a quiet day at Kicking Horse was 900 people! Yes, it is smaller (about 1/4 the size of Whistler) but we hardly saw anyone all day!
Again we were lucky enough that some alpine areas had been closed and we managed to score some fresh lines. Kicking Horse reminds me a lot of Craigieburn back home. Heaps of steep chutes and hiking opportunities make this a fantastic place to get in soft snow. However, there is only 1 gondola that runs from the bottom to the very top.. so each run is quite lengthy! I think I'll be visiting again one powder day in the future.
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| Terminator Peak (Yes we did hike it!) |
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| Access to the 'White Wall' which was untouched from the storm |
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| Drinks at the lovely restaurant at the top of Kicking Horse |
It was about this part of the trip that the group realised I had a fondness for 'earning my turns' and hiking towards good areas. However, they always seemed to follow me and enjoy the way down! Never the less it provided much entertainment over the trip (along with Phil's love for tree wells).
Thankfully, the next part of the trip involved no hiking at all! Stay tuned for heli-skiing!
