Monkey

I went to Red Mountain on the way to Island Lake Lodge this year, with a day at Fernie in-between. It was just me and Peter at Red (we would meet up with the rest of the crew in Fernie.)

Red Mountain is really two mountains: Red & Granite. We didn’t ride Red too much and stuck to Granite. It’s is all about the trees here. From the top of Granite one face (Paradise chair area) has a number of groomers, but otherwise you take a traverse out to the rest and find your way through the trees down to one of two collector cat roads that take you back to the main lift (Motherlode chair). The tree riding was excellent, with a wide range of tree density and pitch.

The mountain has a small feel to it, and is setup for a pretty low number of skiers each day. The main lift is a very slow, fixed grip double, and the two lodges are pretty small. Overall, the facilities and lifts are smaller than what’s available at, say, Mt. Baker, but the terrain is large, so you end up with a lot of solitude when you’re on the hill.

The food on the mountain was fantastic. The French toast for breakfast was excellent, and the lunches were also large and tasty.

Overall: 30,530ft in just 18 runs over two half-days on the hill.

Day 1 – Red Mountain

Foggy up top, and quite windy. The main chair was put on wind hold in the afternoon, so we cut the day short and didn’t get to explore all that much. Still, we got a good feel for the mountain and could tell it had potential.

Day 2 – Red Mountain

We awoke to bluebird skies, a few inches of fresh with lots of movement due to high winds overnight, and without any sign of clouds and only light wind. Super cold, with excellent snow quality. Not much of a crowd, with no lift lines after everyone loaded up the first time. Scored first tracks down Shoulder, and spent some quality time exploring the entire mountain.

Pics