Feb 14 - 15, Revelstoke Ski area

Morning line up for the Gondola

Woke up to 9 inches of new snow.  Great way to start the day.  Had to dig out the car from a winddrift.  The city of Revelstoke has a 1.2 million dollar budget for snow removal.  This January they have already spent 600k. 

They open the lift at 8:30am, and we left for the hill at 7:50am, as we are only 5 minutes away from the ski hill.  One thing we remembered  from the last time we were here, was the Gondola line was huge on powder days.  When we arrived, it was much longer than our last trip.   I think it's pretty standard to have a huge line-up for powder days.  The only way to access the mountain is the one gondola.   Rumor was we needed to be in line by 7:30 to be up front.

As we traveled upward on the second gondola, we could see there was still plenty of untracked powder.  With a vertical of 5,400 feet, longest in north america, there is a lot of space to spread out.  Had a great day with the claimed 9 inches of new skiing more like a foot.

Rest break.  

Day 2 saw sunny weather.  Skied the North Bowl and then headed to the huge sidecountry on the south side. .  Didn't really hike.  Traversed into some nice snow.   Another great day.

Francine in North Bowl,  took the Lemming entrance and traversed into bowl.

Gondola shot at coffee break

Side-country skiing.  Lots of fresh powder
protected by bad visibility in the morning.   Would have been perfect to skin for a little better ski lines.

POW

Still lots of fresh snow

Lunch in the sun

Birds were aggressively swooping for food

Another side country shot

Feb 11 - 13, Panorama BC

Nice views and cold weather

We made the 9 hour drive to Panorama BC in great weather.

Our first ski day is Sunday.  Panorama had great groomers, and was real cold.  -24 Celcius, which is -11.2 Farenheit.  We were bloody cold.  Our feet suffered the most.  The strange thing, is the other people on the hill didn't seem to be as bundled up as we were.

On Sunday 2/11, we made a trip out to Taynton Bowl.  But we definitely had the wrong wax for -10 Degrees Farenheit, yes minus 10 degrees Farenheit.  The snow was real sticky and funky.  Francine couldn't even drop into C-Spine in Taynton bowl, without serious poling.

On the lunch break, we dropped our skis off at the rental shop for a wax job.  Still, we were sticking at the top of the mountain.

Monday 2/12, was slightly warmer, starting the day at only -20 Celcius, which is only minus 4 Degrees Farenheit.  Still bloody cold!!!  But the sun was out today.  It would take a few hours before it came over the top and actually shined on the slopes we were skiing on.

At the end of the day, we did make our way out to Taynton Bowl, hiking to Never Never land.  Here, the snow was nice and made us think we should have tried the bowl a little earlier.

We went out to dinner at The Cabin and had a lazy evening.  The next day, we had a delayed exit from Panorama, as we evidently left the dome light on in the car, and had to have security come jump us.  The battery was so dead, that they had to call in the big gun battery jumper.  We drove thru blowing snow thru Rogers Pass on our way to Revelstoke.  Hoping for 8 inches of snow in the morning.

Dropping into Taynton bowl

Francine skies out of Taynton Bowl

View from one of the small on hill warming huts.

Feb 7, Grand Ridge

Still raining at Snoqualmie Pass.  Dropped down to Issaquah for some warm and dry weather.  Trails were in great shape at Grand Ridge.

Feb. 3 Mattawa

It's been raining.   A lot.   Had fun in the rain yesterday, snowboarded at Alpental, but need sunshine.  Thankfully got the invite from Sean Courage to go find sunny weather.   Broke the dirt bike out of storage, and headed for sunny Mattawa, above the Columbia river.   With temps over sixty degrees it was the break from rain that I needed.  Trails were in great shape.   Mattawa is the kind of place where you end up riding in circles eventually, but for a mid-winter ride it works well.