Still Winter in the Kootenays, Evening Ridge ski - VIDEO
Maybe that taste of spring we had at the end of March was just that, a taste? This weekend saw freezing levels near valley bottom here in the Kootenays and skiing up around Whitewater Ski Resort (which is now closed) was better than some turns we had way back in February.
We thankfully left no too early on Saturday morning or else we would have never made it up the Whitewater Access Road as it had not been plowed yet. I have never had face shots while driving my car but that was a unique experience thanks to the 25cm that was on the road. We made it to the Hummingbird parking area (barely) while others ventured further up to the closed ski hill runs. One our skins were on and we were climbing we quickly realized that we had the entire face of Evening Ridge to our selves as no one else bothered to follow us up our skin tracks and numbers over all this day were quite low despite it snowing in Nelson that morning.
The snow at the bottom of Evening Ridge was fluff on crust but a mere hundred feet higher and the base disappeared and it was pretty much bottomless with 25cm of ski penetration. Needless to say the turns were the best of the month and we did two full laps before heading home for lunch with rather large smiles on our face and our powder appetite satiated.
It looks like the cooling trend is with us for a few more days so if you can skip work or call in sick I would highly recommend it.
Check out the route details here and all the numbes on our Suunto Moves Count page here.
So anyone else get out over the weekend?