We arrived in Vancouver en mass, my Nephew and Grand Nephew from Auckland direct, and me via Brisbane and the Spirit of Queensland train from the Whitsundays.
After collecting ski bags and a simple immigration check we took delivery of a brand new all-wheel drive Subaru Wagon (on obligatory snow tires) and with a ski rack from the owner of our TURO RENTAL in the hustling Drop Off lane.
With half a tank, all doco’s signed and the GPS streaming we took-off to collect Jed who had arrive 3 days earlier, eventually turning south-east towards our first stop at sleepy Keremeos in the Similkameen Valley.
It’s a comfortable 4 hour trip from Vancouver International, mostly on Hwy 3 and over the Cascade pass into the rugged and rustic region of vegetables, fruits, wine, cider, and organic everything basket of Canada.
Our accommodation was spectacular in the Tree to Me Inn with a very comfortable four person suite and included healthy cooked breakfasts served in the restaurant.
It’s well patronised by the locals for breakfasts and brunches and the romantic choice on their Valentine Day evening promotion.
APEX MOUNTAIN Resort is a 20 min (via the short cut) drive from the Tree to Me Inn. What a find! With three Terrain parks, a 2000 ft drop and 55% being Advanced-Expert runs. Better still, it had enjoyed a metre plus ‘pow dump’ the previous day and the groomers and steeper tree runs were either cut pow or still pristine un-tracted.
All basking under Blue sky’s and cold crispy temps.
Puffing from a couple of ‘dialling in’ runs we returned to the popular Edge Bistro, gulped a hot chocolate and accepted a familiarisation tour with a local hot shot
Two hours of demanding skiing and steep snowboard cut bump lines was a great intro to their best runs and the various snow conditions.
And the craft beers tasted good in the busy Gunbarrel Saloon after this memorable first day. Many thanks Scotty.
Day two was a blast! Everyone took a hit somewhere in the steep and deep moguls and we all learned the importance of knowing where the sun had baked ‘crusty pie’ in the chutes above Grandmothers Trail.
From the top of the Quick Draw Quad there are endless steep lines off Grandfathers Trail…or after slithering down the ridge line to the Wild Side area, you can take your poison in “Tooth n’ Tusk” or enjoy the freshies in Granny’s Glade or Any Which Way to Stocks Chair.
Eventually finishing the day with a late ‘snack attack’ and Cin Cins in the Edge Bistro.
Apex is well supported by the Penticton community around Lake Okanagan (an easy 40 minute drive), including Freestyle-Freeride training and comps, Ski racing, Mogul bumping and interesting weekly ‘Special Events’ hosted by the Resort.
Accommodation options at the village base include Lux Chalets, a Ski in-out Hotel, Mountain Lodges and private BnBs. For more info contact… ApexResort.com
We completed our stay at Keremeos with an excellent meal at the Benja Thai Restaurant, enjoying authentic choices and friendly service by the family owners. Other memorable suppers must include “BoBoys” New York style Pizzas.
It’s in the middle of Keremeos on 7th Ave. Our vote…the best ever, anywhere!
RED MOUNTAIN Resort is a 3 hour drive south of Keremeos and being 12 ks from the USA border it’s becoming a popular Sports Meca independent of historic Rossland.
We stayed in the squashy private room at the Shadow Mountain Hostel. It’s easy to find, being above the popular and some what interesting Jeffrey’s Cannabis Shop. Dope is legal in Canada and every shopping-commercial centre is book ended with all manner of creative weeds and paraphernalia?
Opposite, the Alpine Grind Cafe became de-rigour for breakfast with great coffee and fresh scones and muffins. The 10 minute drive from Rossland usually put us in the top car park at RED and with an easy walk to the cafeteria to boot up.
The chairs are frustratingly slow…but the layout of the four interlinked mountains RED. GRANITE. GREY. and KIRKUP ensures minimal queuing at the 8 lifts.
With a 890 metre drop and nearly 4000 skiable acres, including some lift accessed Backcountry and Big Red Cat Skiing from Kirkups crown …you won’t get bored!
From the Get Go we took a free Mountain Guided Tour. Simon was an excellent Host and in addition to showing us the Key Lift connections and Signature runs we skied an Off Piste glade to an original and restored private Mountain Hut.
During this Pow-Pow cycle there was not much grooming on the mountains, except the Silverlode Chair and the T Bar slopes above the Base, with cat track runs off Granite and Grey peaks and the Paradise Area being perfect for confident intermediates +.
On mountain, the Paradise Lodge Restaurant consistently provided good coffee, tasty soups, and the usual Burger n’ fries or Poutini baskets. Always busy, good fun and cheerfully presented.
“Apres” is at the RAFTERS BAR (above the Day Lodge) and where the crowd gets rowdy after a hard days skiing in the trees, glades, or dealing with the ginormous powder bumps below the Buffalo Ridge Traverse.
Best value and always friendly service, goes to the staff at the espresso and breakfast bar KEEN, slope-side of the Conference Centre.
The heart of Rossland is Columbia Avenue and most of the shopping and evening gourmet cruising is on this busy artery. We enjoyed craft beers at the ‘bizzy n’ blokey’ Rossland Brew Company and the creative Mediterranee menu and interesting company in B&Ts Hard Knock Cafe. (Highly Recommended).
Other good nosh…try the Flying Steamshovel Pub (with rooms), yummy Tempura and Sushi at Aka-Dake on Columbia, or Gabriella’s italiano in the Prestige Hotel.
Best in town…the authentic Mook Thai with Singha Beers in the historic fire station on Queen Street. For take-outs, it’s Misty Mountain Pizza.
After 3 Bluebird days another storm cycle developed, making the open faces off the top trails difficult, with marginal visibility and no ski-out options until dropping onto a traverse trail. Moving over to the Paradise slopes helped and gave the boys better tree skiing before Harry ejected and created a major ski hunt for a buried ski (eventually found by a local). Thank you.
three mountains – family of three
red shutter inn – red shutter inn
Our last day at RED was bonza…with more pow, better viz and endless fresh tracks off the Paradise Chair and into Granite Bowl. My day finishing after pounding the runs around the Topping Creek Chair and a late bite from FLYING PHIL’S cute Taco Truck.
There’s plenty of accommodation choices in the compact RED Mountain Village, with a mash of contemporary styling and walking access to the base lifts.
The “Nowhere Special Hostel” provides an interesting and modern mix for savvy travellers, or enjoy the cool kama of JOESIE’s, a classy and modern boutique hotel anchoring the evolving resort. It’s stylish and modern decor, immaculate ‘luxe’ facilities and professional-friendly staff offer a world class Ski in-out experience.
Driving to up to NELSON while dodging snow ploughs on the highway was exciting, as it ensured there would be fresh pow at our next ski resort WHITEWATER.
Historic Nelson sits above Kootany Lake and our private room at “The Dancing Bear Inn” on Baker Street was the perfect location.
With comfortable social areas, boot and ski storage and off-street parking making it the ideal choice for travelling skiers seeking good value.
We started this 6 day ski-safari with a late brunch at trending Empire Coffee on Vernon street, enjoying great service, tasty cafe foods and their busy vibe. (Recommended).
Early “Apres” began with craft ‘beer flights’ with the locals in the Backroad Brewing Company and finally…was balanced with tasty choices in the iconic Main Street Diner.
WHITEWATER is a 20 minute drive from Nelson and with priority parking for 3 or more passengers, we parked near the large and busy Day Lodge.
Still snowing and with merky vizz above, we joined a free Guided Tour for familiarisation on Silver King face and eventually up the Summit Chair to Glory Lodge before returning to the main base.
After lunch we separated and I took a “Village Ski Hut” ski test opportunity.
Specifically to try the new Fisher Curv 76 (with interesting triple radius and titanial-carbon construction) on the scoured and slick cat tracks off Ravins Chair.
testing tents
3 lads ski slope
VILLAGE SKI HUT in Baker Street is the Go-To ski shop in Nelson and owned by stylish Heather Renwick. They are friendly, have great mountain gear and know how to tune Skis and fit Boots. Many thanks.
Whitewater in a Pow Pow Frenzie and poor viz is tricky, unless you know the entry’s and the freshie tree lines or are on a protected and open run. ie Ignitor and Blast under the Summit Chair. (in full view)!
Or through the gate off Ravin Chair to Fall Line, Tram Line, Trolly Tracks and Whole Lotta Love for their challenging wind blown steeps.
I preferred the various blacks off the Summit Chair as their bumps were manageable and the lower trees had enough space for fast and flowing un-tracked exits.
Three days of unrelenting snow and sketchy vizz, except on the lower slopes was tough. Everyone was on powder skis or boards and eventually with some Ave-work completed, the locals (and our boys) started moving into Back County from the Summit Chair, or traversing over to the Enchanted Forest and Catch Basin chutes.
Back in town (Baker Street) life was Fun and with a focus on finding the best beers and tasty foods with that ‘Canadian Cool’.
Beauties Pizza was our winner, closely followed by its neighbour Broken Hill Restaurant-Bar (with the immaculate retro and mixed gender wash rooms).
And on our day off skis…the truly eccentric Vienna Cafe was enjoyed with the die hard locals. Mike’s Place pub in the Hume Hotel was a pleasant surprise and their gigantic chocolate dessert… “took the cake”.
On our travel day from Nelson to BIG WHITE RESORT we dropped Jed at Kelowna Airport, then backtracked to snowploughs clearing the sprawling village roads.
Yes, it is BIG and can be very WHITE!
Now a family of three (3 generations) we snugged up in the large, very friendly and well managed Urban Retreat Lodge above the Village Centre, the pulse of B.W.
From the road its a quick glide to the Information and Ticket Office and the very helpful ‘down under’ (kiwi and aussie) staff were very welcoming.
Breakfast in the Village Centre Cafe was fast n’ tasty and by 9 am we were following the crowd under the tunnel and up to the top of the Snow Ghost Express in howling winds. Going higher on the Powder Chair was even more exposed and after two runs down Corkscrew and Flagpole Glades, miserable!
With the Summit faces closed we regrouped at the top of Snow Ghost, lowered our expectations and eventually found great pow using the Bullet Express and the Black Forest Quad. It was a tough first day, but as we had all learnt to ski on Mt Ruapehu, the kiwi mantra of “just go for it”…worked well.
Our “Apres” and dinner in the Black Diamond Bar (not the dinning room) was very social and chatty bro-ha-ha about everything! It was good fun and very much a “please feed us” with your regional best. Thanks barman.
On day two I kept the hammer down in un-tracked pow around the protected Forest and Bullet chairs, and warmed with delicimo hot chocolates in the Black Forest Day Lodge. Harry and Todd took the ultimate challenge and skied heavy pow in poor viz down to the Gem Lake Warming Hut on Big White road. Bravo team Marsh! Regrouped, we eventually found the Kangaroo Highway and finished the exhausting day at Urban Retreats front door.
Our final supper was at the Bull Wheel Restaurant. Perhaps eating at the bar is the key, as we enjoyed the ‘blokey’ fare and local beers while chatting about Plan B?
Was it back to RED then across to Vancouver, or up to Silverstar, Sun Peaks and down past Whistler to Vancouver?
ROCK CREEK TRADING POST is a gem. A former gold mining town about half way between Big White and Red Mountain, offering Organic Coffees, hearty Panini’s (with juicy pickles an’ cucumber) and fresh home made cakes.
All tastefully entwined with unique clothing and local art n’ crafts in the cafe and the treasure trove-gallery over the road. STOP. and Enjoy.
It’s also the closest accommodation to Mt. Baldy the phantom ski resort we missed?
After driving over the Nancy Green Pass in heavy snow the SURESTAY Motel in Rossland was a very welcoming stop. And the delivery of Misty Mountain Pizza’s and cold beers to the communal Hot Tub completed our travel day.
Snowploughs scrapping the road is music to every skiers ears, and with our car covered in fluffy meringue our breakfasts became roadies as we slithered up to RED Resort. Parking, loading lift cards and booting up for first tracks…worked a treat.
Still snowing but with improving vizz, running the Motherlode Chair on Granite satisfied our needs, with steeps n’ the trees and down Powder Fields or fresh tracks and bumpy moguls off the Ridge Road return. Starting a run close to the trees at the top and dipping in and out of the trees worked well too, until the lower pow became stiff with the warming temps.
“Apres” was FUN in ‘Rowdy Rafters’ and after a decent soak in the hot tub we enjoyed a social evening hanging out in the Hard Knock Cafe.
Our last day at Red was refreshingly calm with breakfast in the motel and us securing the last spot in the lower car park.
Harry’s Free-Ride choices were challenging. Starting with glade and tree shots on Grey Mountain and then the steep n’ bumpy Doug’s Run and Beer Belly off Granite Ridge. After enjoying a casual burger lunch in Paradise Lodge and then a run down Ruby Tuesday, my quads cried “Enough”…and my day was done.
Eventually the family ‘hard core’ arrived at the Keen Cafe exhausted but smiling.
It was a great “Plan B” as returning to RED for two powder days was epic.
All Tubbed Up and refreshed we enjoyed our “Last Supper” in the eclectic Mook Thai Restaurant, with the gracious owner presiding over our menu choices.
The drive from Rossland to Vancouver International took 7 hours. Including a stop at “BoBoys” in Keremeos for coffee n’ pastries and finally the excellent PIT LANE.
‘Hand Wash’ in Richmond (near the airport) to return our TURO Rental pristine.
boboys pizza – Me missing the bus to Whistler Blackcomb by 5 minutes…..that’s another story.
Murray Sandman.
Gypsyskitravels.com