Looking for info on skiing in Canada

Don't forget to bring frosted flakes and mouthwash; both items are very expensive up north. Personally, I'd skip the ski areas and go touring or maybe go chase goats instead.

You're killing me man. I was reading this while drinking tea and sprayed the whole mouthfull over the floor. Funny stuff.

Thanks for the kind words. I too love tea.

If you like history, take a step back in time and visit Salmo. Last feb. we were heading towards Nelson on a thursday (I think, I know they're open one night a week) night and saw a small skier sign along the highway, pointing to the south. Not seeing a ski area on the map we wondered what that was about and kept going only to round a spur ridge and see what seemed to be a big ski hill lit up with lights.

Getting to the small town of Salmo, we looked back at the lit runs, looked at each other, laughed, and decided to check it out. Cranking Mountain Girl (my trusty '89 AllTrac, purchased here on TAY, thanks Kenji!) into a 180 I pointed her back up the highway and took the indicated turn off and followed the road through the trees. Coming to a clearing we saw a few cars parked in front of a modest day lodge and the bottom of a ski run that was obviously covered in boilerplate ice.

We almost didn't bother getting out of the car, but figured we'd better at least look since we'd driven up there. walking around and confirming the icy conditions we stumbled upon a couple ski patrollers who told us about the mountain. It's a community owned hill, prices a kept low so everyone can ride, open weekends and one night a week, and has one t-bar with about 1000' vert. Looking around we saw kids and families, the old lodge, and decided to try out the skiing even though the conditions sucked and we only had about one hour til closing; the patrollers telling us it would be ok to pitch our tent for the night sealed the deal.

I wish I could say the skiing was epic, but it wasn't. At the top there was a bit of tracked fresh but it quickly turned to ice about 100' down. It was quite surreal to ride a long t-bar in the dark, (the lift runs off to the side, through some trees and there's no lights except at the mid mtn. offloading station and at the top) and we really enjoyed the whole experience even though the skiing was marginal.

Eventually we were the only ones skiing but they kept the lift running til closing after which we enjoyed a burger and the ambiance of the day lodge before setting up the tent and crashing.

It's definitely not for everyone, but for us it was one of the highlights of our trip which included Fernie, Kimberely, Red Mtn, and our other favorite: Whitewater. For us it was great to see an old school, modest ski hill. We plan on going back next time we're in the area to see what it's like in the day and hopefully with good snow.

We saw Salmo too on the way to day-ski Whitewater from our perch at Red. At least I think that's what it was, but we didn't have the time to check it out. It was all lit up on our return that evening and makes quite an impressive picture. Epic or not, those kinds of ski areas epitomize skiing and what it should be. Accessible, affordable family fun. I understand there are several similar hills on the road between Vancouver and Red.