Skiing the Powder Highway: Red and WH20

Family day weekend 2020. BC government finally acquiesced to the demand to move the stat day to match the rest of the country and the holiday in the USA. Which translates into one very busy weekend at Whistler. After hearing stories about the powder highway, the search was on for a suitable destination for the long weekend. It just so happened to fall on valentine’s day, so a reasonably nice hotel/restaurant was required as well. Luckily I had remembered reading about the Josie hotel in the Globe and Mail. Found a well priced flight to Castlegar, booked the rental, added a night in Nelson and we were all set. It was after this that I started hearing about “cancelgar”. After nervously watching flights get cancelled in the days leading up to the trip we lucked out and only had a short delay. The rental car facility at the airport was sold out of snow tires (note for next time, needs to be booked in advance ). After a short drive along the Columbia river we arrived at Red mountain. Check-in, valet, luggage was very seamless, better more enthusiastic service than anywhere in Whistler. The lobby is particularly photogenic. Food at the Velvet restaurant/lounge was solid, drinks were quite impressive. We booked a lesson (about ½ price of Whistler) which was easily organized by the ski concierge. We were a little nervous navigating some of the trees/off piste as heard Red is a tough mountain and easy to get lost in. Our instructor was great, threw in a few tips/drills but mostly just took us through the trees. We got lift line priority too, hate to wait in line behind 5 people. Started off in the paradise area after a quick warm up. Skied some great tree runs. Then off the other side of granite into Doug’s run, decent snow at the top not the best lower down. Doug has a nice little cabin on the hill back in the trees on this run. We had to ski up and out from topping creek chair region as it was down, did a run in the grey zone beforehand. Back at the hotel checked out the beautiful slope side saunas, then back to the restaurants for drinks and dinner. Next day we were on our own. About 3 inches of snow had fallen overnight. We started on the old school two-person chair on red mountain, took a back route (more uphill skate skiing) to get to motherload chair and avoid the lineups at the bottom. Hung out on the bumps at the side of the groomers. Did about four runs then headed back to the mountain via Jumbo. Ended up taking a wrong turn to one Yatri’s disgust, played around in some nice challenging tree area finally hitting the cat track that took us back to the hotel in time for another sauna before checking out. Our legs were feeling it a bit from the day before and I had been negotiated down to a half day on day 2. Stopped in for a deli sandwich at the acclaimed local grocery store, Ferraro, before heading over to Nelson. Nelson is set on a beautiful spot aside the west arm of Kootney lake. We stayed at the presitage on the lake, nice views from the room, the Hume is a nice heritage property in town might check out next time. The local bookstore was great, as was Oso Negro. I got myself sorted for the ski day (did a half day lesson that was again quite reasonably priced), relaxed in the hotel with our new books then off to dinner. Lots of great options in Nelson, but we were really pleased with Pitchfork. Warm atmospheric room, great cocktails and electric menu. The old fashioned comes with a smoked cedar block, like a sauna in a glass. My ski partner had a change of heart and decided to join me on the last day. We got up early for the 25 minute drive (drove a bit slow with our all seasons) to the hill. There was a dusting of snow overnight, but snow quality was still great from the foot of snow they had the day before. We did a black off glory ridge, then over to summit, a couple laps there. In the trees there was tones of deep fresh snow. Then over to the backside for some tree runs off of glory chair. The cut up deep snow tires the legs pretty fast so it worked out that we were out of their by 1230 in order to make our flight home out of Castlegar. We had some time to spare, restaurant we chose in Castlegar was closed but the airport café was actually really good. Short smooth flight home after a great weekend of skiing.

When my enthusiasm for the sport was starting to waiver this kind of trip picked it right back up and then some. I loved both Red and Whitewater. The tree skiing options at both were phenomenal. Red has tones of terrain it would be easy to spend a week there and the Josie is a treat to stay at. Whitewater gets more snow because of its unique microclimate, and has a better food option on the hill. For someone who’s more of an advanced rather than expert skier I’d probably give the edge to Whitewater skiing wise because of the snow. The drive in from Nelson wasn’t bad at all and the restaurants options there were great. Overall, I’d recommend both, maybe with at least an extra day on the hill at each. Hopefully I can make it back next year, maybe add in a cat ski day as well.