I’m alone for my Canada trip this season and came via Spokane since I got RT air from Burbank for $246. So heading north Red Mt. is the first stop, and particularly worthy of notice this year due to the Grey Mt. expansion.
With the unusual weather pattern of the early season Red got shortchanged, getting barely half the snowfall of Fernie and Whitewater vs. a normal 2/3 to ¾. This included an inversion a few weeks ago that reduced the base on upper sun-exposed terrain by 1-2 feet. Fortunately it has snowed every day for the past week, totaling about 2 feet with 3 inches overnight.
I headed up about 9:15 and the upper half of Motherlode chair was in fog, not quite as soupy as last year, but enough for me to take my warmup runs in the trees of intermediate pitched Paradise. Paradise faces south but the past week’s weather had long buried any crust or refrozen snow. The powder was smooth and creamy but not particularly deep.
So I next wanted to explore the Powderfields area, Red’s more densely treed answer to Jackson’s Hobacks, sharing a similar SE exposure which is why I haven’t been in there much on prior visits with less cooperative weather. First try I didn’t get too far and ended up in trees skier’s left of Southern Belle, but next try I got to Jumbo. The top of Powderfields is accessible only from Motherlode, not the Paradise chair.
Next time up Motherlode the cloud finally rose above the top of Granite.
With the just improved visibility I took a powder run mostly skier’s left of the chair before having lunch at Paradise Lodge.
Top of Paradise chair after lunch.
It was now time for me to check out the new Grey Mt. Locals were less than enthusiastic due to the low snowpack not yet covering up some of the debris from last summer’s chair construction. Nonetheless terrain is quite open near the lift with lots of room to avoid the obstacles.
I took my first run down the lightly tracked liftline, next time traversing out the ridge skier’s left. View profile of the very steep and still closed north side of Grey Mt.
I skied the other way down this open slope, eventually merging into the liftline
Both Red and Granite are visible in background here.
Zoom view of north side Granite.
That is still intense skiing over there, steep, often confined by rocks, trees or bumps, even with the soft snow today.
Last time up Grey I went skier’s right. Some people there while I’m on the lift.
I took one final run up Motherlode, this time going for the top of Powderfields. View from there wth Red in background.
24,600 vertical, 8K of powder. Red Mt. is now huge with 3 separate mountains. The addition of Grey has done little so far to make it more intermediate friendly. Some of this is perhaps due to the low snowpack. But the main fall lines on Grey are steeper than Paradise and partially south facing.
Red Mt. is still the best advanced/expert lift served tree skiing area I have ever seen. It’s a very demanding mountain and quite powder dependent for good snow conditions.
With the unusual weather pattern of the early season Red got shortchanged, getting barely half the snowfall of Fernie and Whitewater vs. a normal 2/3 to ¾. This included an inversion a few weeks ago that reduced the base on upper sun-exposed terrain by 1-2 feet. Fortunately it has snowed every day for the past week, totaling about 2 feet with 3 inches overnight.
I headed up about 9:15 and the upper half of Motherlode chair was in fog, not quite as soupy as last year, but enough for me to take my warmup runs in the trees of intermediate pitched Paradise. Paradise faces south but the past week’s weather had long buried any crust or refrozen snow. The powder was smooth and creamy but not particularly deep.
So I next wanted to explore the Powderfields area, Red’s more densely treed answer to Jackson’s Hobacks, sharing a similar SE exposure which is why I haven’t been in there much on prior visits with less cooperative weather. First try I didn’t get too far and ended up in trees skier’s left of Southern Belle, but next try I got to Jumbo. The top of Powderfields is accessible only from Motherlode, not the Paradise chair.
Next time up Motherlode the cloud finally rose above the top of Granite.
With the just improved visibility I took a powder run mostly skier’s left of the chair before having lunch at Paradise Lodge.
Top of Paradise chair after lunch.
It was now time for me to check out the new Grey Mt. Locals were less than enthusiastic due to the low snowpack not yet covering up some of the debris from last summer’s chair construction. Nonetheless terrain is quite open near the lift with lots of room to avoid the obstacles.
I took my first run down the lightly tracked liftline, next time traversing out the ridge skier’s left. View profile of the very steep and still closed north side of Grey Mt.
I skied the other way down this open slope, eventually merging into the liftline
Both Red and Granite are visible in background here.
Zoom view of north side Granite.
That is still intense skiing over there, steep, often confined by rocks, trees or bumps, even with the soft snow today.
Last time up Grey I went skier’s right. Some people there while I’m on the lift.
I took one final run up Motherlode, this time going for the top of Powderfields. View from there wth Red in background.
24,600 vertical, 8K of powder. Red Mt. is now huge with 3 separate mountains. The addition of Grey has done little so far to make it more intermediate friendly. Some of this is perhaps due to the low snowpack. But the main fall lines on Grey are steeper than Paradise and partially south facing.
Red Mt. is still the best advanced/expert lift served tree skiing area I have ever seen. It’s a very demanding mountain and quite powder dependent for good snow conditions.
on Red's reporting.