March 31, 2009 Whitewater, BC

Whitewater is a powder magnet and one of these days I’m going to ski here in the sun and see all the terrain at the end of this box canyon. On the way to the area we stopped at Kootenay Pass. I’ve wanted to tour here for years -- tour back to the hut and ski Baldy Rocks. I found a skin track and saw a couple of old lines. We’ll be back in a couple days. Hopefully someone will return and break trail for me.

It’s about 6 miles off the main road up to Whitewater. We found the overnight lot just as snow flurries began in the fading light. The only other rig was a 20’ Bigfoot camper. It had smoke coming out of a stove pipe from a wood-burning stove, 2 adult huskys and a puppy, 2 kids plus mom and pop, and skis and snowboards propped against the nearby snow bank – cozy.

Early in the morning I heard the snowplows working around the van and I looked out to see 6” of dust and a light snow fall. Ahhh – this is Whitewater at its finest. We were the first ones in the main lot and learned that the area opens at 9:30 not 9. Sat inside the lodge and watched a steady stream of old folks, like us, arrive. There’s still only 2 chairs serving the 1300vf of in-bounds terrain. But Whitewater is a touring mecca. Beacons, probes, shovels and skins are standard accessories. We skied fresh lines for 3 hours within the area and decided to stop and save some energy for Kootenay Pass tomorrow. Drove down to Nelson, found the Rec Center (Nelson Community Center) and soaked in the hot tub for awhile to cleanse all the impurities from the system. I love Whitewater!

Good work!
GF's parents live in Nelson and it is a regular haunt. They have a good deal with Red, 3 days for $89, often at Warren Miller or at 7-11 in Spo-Vegas pre-Jan 1.
If you can find it, pick up some of the Oso Negro Coffee and the crazy, weird african HOT sauce. Gotta love the Kootenays.
But watch out fot he "soap dodgers"!

Yea, Telemack and I skied there on a road trip once . He spent the night UNDER the lodge and I slept in the pickup bed.
Very cool touring and the food in the lodge is superb, they even have a cookbook you can purchase!
There is also a very cool shop in town where herbal medicines can be obtained( if you like that sort of thing).
It is identified by a large picture of Peter Tosh on the outside!!!!!!!
We tried to tour up to the top of Ymir peak but potential wind slab stopped us.

My son, Owen, and I and Sierra buddy, Frank, road tripped there last season, too. Our motto over 10 days was 'a new hill every day'. You gotta like Whitewater, and I think they may have the best logo going. The cafeteria and apres ski are well attended and the resort owners are the chefs! As for nearby Nelson, it's kinda fun to drive by the pharmacy there - not that there's anything wrong with that - We stayed at the motel just across the river and left a geocache of herbs for Franks buds' due to arrive for a hut trip a few days later. Red Mountain was equally laid back. Following were Kimberly and Fernie ~ nice skiing but rather resortish. We considered Kicking Horse, but went back to 49 North for two feet of new. You remember late Jan. into Feb. last season ~ the northern tier saw no less than a foot of new every day for nearly two weeks.