Freeski Academy Intro Day

Canadian Ski Quest offered a free introduction training day today to skiers aged 10-13 who are considering participating in the Red Mountain Academy next year. Dylan organised everything and it turned out to be a great day. Dylan started the day with partnering the 10-13 year old prospects with the 16-17 year old current athletes.

Dylan partnered one of the young ones named Jacob with Academy star Todd Loukras. I had an entertaining lift ride with the two of them. Jacob was somewhat star struck by Todd asking him questions for the entire lift ride. "Are you a professional skier?" "Are you sponsored?" "What do they give you?" "Can you backflip off that?" and on and on. Unbridaled enthusiasm from Jacob and now Todds has another fan. To Todds credit, he spoke with Jacob as an equal and was an outstanding role model. It was a great "pay it forward" type day.

Photo is Todd Loukras taking a drop in Papose Bowl.

8 cm of new snow last night, I had a couple of great powder runs, Lynx line skiers left, no one is touching it.

Assault on the Red Mountain Vibe

Red Mountain is developing, while in one sense this is great for ensureing we continue to have a place to ski and in regards to the fact that improvements are now made to the resort every year. The down side is that Red is now attracting some visitors who are more into themselves than into being part of the Red Mountain experience. In the past week I have been the unfortunate witness to two lift line incidences that I would not normally associate with Red Mountain. The first involved a woman in a Vail type suit who told a polite man in the singles line to "BACK OFF" when he suggested he ride the chair with their group of three. The other happened today and was similar. Two women on the Motherlode chair aggressively dismissed a Ski Patroller who professionally and politely moved to share the chair with them. Patroller was flabbergasted! As was I! What can we do when visitors bring their nasty attitude to our paradise?

The negative vibe was soon lost and forgotten with the next run down Lynx Line. It was my first real powder experience of the season. Yesterdays snowfall did not bring the epic conditions that were anticipated but 14 cm did fall, this combined with the previous dumps made for very fine conditions. Today's skiing was my first taste (this season) of what Red Mountain is all about. My skiing found its flow.

Snowing hard

It started snowing at about 10:00 this morning and has been coming down steady ever since. Anticipation around the lodge is high.

I was out with the Freeski Academy this morning. Doing the very smooth backflip is Alex Berg. I was thinking of doing it myself but didn't trust Alex with the camera, so I let him do the skiing.

Nancy Greene Ski League

Today was day one for the Nancy Greene Ski League at Red Mountain. Lots of kids out, all full of of excitement at what is to come through the season. The nicely centered coach in the foreground of the photo is Grant "The Dart" Rutherglen.

We had another 2 cm last night which had a positive effect on the groomers. It seemed to bond the existing snow somehow. It snowed lightly all morning giving way to sunshine in the afternoon.

Three Snow Caracteristics That Don't Belong Together

Yesterdays forecast was amazingly accurate with 15 cms measured on my skating rink. My inner skier just had to get off the well beaten path today. Regretfully my logical self followed the suggestion. The snow off piste was completely unskiable (by me anyways). Not only was it heavy but it was incredibly dense. The strange thing was that the snow has these two qualities while offering zero support to a skier. Upon skiing into the untouched snow my skis immediately dived to the bottom of the snow pack, I then exerted about 30 seconds of hard labor to free one but then when I put my weight on the free ski to work on getting the other out the once free ski sank to the bottom of the snowpack, and so on and so on. It did cross my mind that I would be stuck. I can't imagine how the Ski Patrol could perform a rescue in those conditions.

The run of the day was Rino's Run.

Still Early Season at Red

I actually did get up Motherlode Chair today. Fresh tracks looked to be waiting all over the place. It was a brochure quality scene, but if it looks to good to be true.... Most of the runs on Red and Granite are still closed, officially the resort is at 17 out of 87 runs open. We have had some amazing snow over the past week but unfortunately there is no base to support it. A lot of people have been ducking the ropes and making tracks, but is still looks a little to "early season" for my liking. The Christmas spirit prevails on the mountain, everyone seems to have a positve outlook on the situation. Possibly because the forecast looks promising. We are expecting 15 cm tonight. About 4 cm has fallen so far and it is still coming down strong.

Thigh Deep Pow (for Simon)

Christmas Eve. It has been snowing all day, the type of snow where there is no resistance noticed as you walk through it. I am not sure exactly how much we got but Simon (four years old) was thigh deep a lot of the time today and he was LOVIN IT!! and that is just the snow that has fallen since 9:00 this morning.

I had a great little video clip of this but had trouble uploading.

Since I was skiing with the kids all day I did not get to experience Granite Mountain in its entirety. Reports from up high varied, some said it was great, while others complained that there was no base under the pow. Personally, I would not have ventured far off piste for safety sake.

Rossland is a Christmas postcard tonight, it is minus 9, snowing continuously and there is not a breath of wind. I can't imagine a more perfect place to be at Christmas.

Merry Christmas everyone,
Mark