Red Mountain, January 14th & 15th, 2008
Fernie, January 16th, 2008
Island Lake Lodge, January 17th thru 20th, 2008
I went to Red Mountain on the way to Island Lake Lodge this year, with a day at Fernie in-between. It was just two of us (me and Peter) at Red, and we met up with the rest of the crew at Fernie. We drove ~1150 miles from Carnation to Red Mountain, to Ferine, to Island Lake Lodge, and back again. 7 days of riding with 108,060ft of vertical over 77 runs. The longest drive was from Island Lake Lodge back to Carnation: 8.5 hours.
Red Mountain January 14th & 15th 2008
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.
Ferine January 16th 2008
We pulled into Ferine on the evening of 1/15, and awoke to clear skies and very cold temps the next day. I didn’t take a lot of pictures, and only skied for the first half of the day. Got first tracks into Cedar Bowl, which had been closed since the storm that dropped 27cm.
Overall: 14,720ft in 11 runs.
Island Lake Lodge, January 17th thru 20th 2008
Island Lake Lodge is a phenomenal experience. Over 7,000 acres of privately owned terrain. Total luxury all the way: rooms, lodges, food, service, bar, wine, and spa. Three brand new cats this year. Newly gladded runs. Our guides this year were excellent, and the pow was plentiful.
Over the whole trip I think the high temp was -10c. Last day was -22c. A little new snow on the third night, but not much. Mostly clear the entire time, we hunted down the untracked powder from the last storm that dumped over 30cm on the entire area. Snow quality was excellent the entire time: super light and fluffy, with a little wind slab here and there.
We filled a whole cat this time with our own crew of 12 guys. It was a great group and we racked up more vertical than ever before at ILL (averaged 15,703ft and 12 runs per day instead of 13,373ft and 10.63 runs per day over two previous trips with random people in the cat.)
Overall: 62,810ft in 48 runs over 4 days.
Here are some shots of me riding on the second day.
Day 4 – Island Lake Lodge
Mostly clear with high clouds, and quite cold. Every now and then a cloud would roll through.
Day 5 – Island Lake Lodge
Nice and clear again. I've included a few shots of the food and bar, too.
Day 6 – Island Lake Lodge
Low clouds here and there. We had some fun burning down two dead trees on one of the runs. They consider it a good way to remove fuel for potential forest fires in the summer... that, and it's just fun.
Day 7 – Island Lake Lodge
Not much to say at this point, except that it was -22c. Still found great tracks on the last day.
