B.C.’s Highway 3 along the border is a tortuous road but still the most direct route from Rossland to Vancouver. I broke up the 8 hour drive by stopping by the local Mt. Baldy on the way and spending the night in Princeton, 3 hours short of Vancouver, where Liz arrived at noon Thursday.
Mt. Baldy has B.C.’s highest base elevation at 5,800 feet, but is in a relatively dry sector of the province. Oliver and Ossoyos at the southern end of the Okanagan Valley west of Mt. Baldy have a Great Basin type desert climate. The primary mountain also faces south.
I was blown away by the walk up ticket price.
Yes, that’s 10 bucks on Tue/Wed/Thu in March!
The original Eagle chair climbs the south face of 1,300 vertical feet.
That chair is reminiscent of that other Baldy some of us know well.
Weather was cool and windy, cool enough that the 8 inches new snow from Monday did not form a crust on top. The more open terrain up top did have wind irregularities but also some blown-in spots. The few places that rolled over to a steeper pitch had a firm subsurface. Overview of the Eagle terrain from the Sugarlump chair:
The lift does not go to the top but to that horizontal line of trees. I suspect there would be a lot of wind holds if the lift went farther up.
Sugarlump is a fixed quad of 750 vertical feet with several groomed runs, in background here viewed near the top of Eagle.
Sugarlump faces west so the wind was in my face skiing most of those groomers, two before lunch and three late in the day.
On Eagle only one blue run Dividend is groomed from the top. A couple of others are groomed about ¾ of the way up with the open terrain at the top left in its natural state. Far skier’s left the terrain is gladed about half way down to a runout groomer. I went over there three times.
The lodge at Baldy had a typical display of retro skis. The Marker bindings here are the same as on my first skis bought used from the other Baldy in 1976.
The Rotomat heel binding was considered a safe design, but when it released the springs separated into two pieces that needed to be put back together, hence the nickname “Explodomat.” A later Rotomat design kept the springs together upon release.
It was also interesting to see this poster in Baldy’s lodge.
I wonder how many other people have skied both Mustang and Baldy on the same trip.
Total for the day was 15,000 vertical, and Mt. Baldy B.C. was my 212th ski area. I arrived at Baldy from the southeast on a 19km gravel access road. I exited the 35km road west to Oliver, of which the bottom half was paved. Just past Oliver I made an unscheduled stop here.
Inniskillin is noted for its Ontario icewine, but they now own vineyards and make wine in the southern Okanagan Valley too. I tasted some and bought their Dark Horse Vineyard Meritage and Cabernet Franc.
Mt. Baldy has B.C.’s highest base elevation at 5,800 feet, but is in a relatively dry sector of the province. Oliver and Ossoyos at the southern end of the Okanagan Valley west of Mt. Baldy have a Great Basin type desert climate. The primary mountain also faces south.
I was blown away by the walk up ticket price.
Yes, that’s 10 bucks on Tue/Wed/Thu in March!
The original Eagle chair climbs the south face of 1,300 vertical feet.
That chair is reminiscent of that other Baldy some of us know well.
Weather was cool and windy, cool enough that the 8 inches new snow from Monday did not form a crust on top. The more open terrain up top did have wind irregularities but also some blown-in spots. The few places that rolled over to a steeper pitch had a firm subsurface. Overview of the Eagle terrain from the Sugarlump chair:
The lift does not go to the top but to that horizontal line of trees. I suspect there would be a lot of wind holds if the lift went farther up.
Sugarlump is a fixed quad of 750 vertical feet with several groomed runs, in background here viewed near the top of Eagle.
Sugarlump faces west so the wind was in my face skiing most of those groomers, two before lunch and three late in the day.
On Eagle only one blue run Dividend is groomed from the top. A couple of others are groomed about ¾ of the way up with the open terrain at the top left in its natural state. Far skier’s left the terrain is gladed about half way down to a runout groomer. I went over there three times.
The lodge at Baldy had a typical display of retro skis. The Marker bindings here are the same as on my first skis bought used from the other Baldy in 1976.
The Rotomat heel binding was considered a safe design, but when it released the springs separated into two pieces that needed to be put back together, hence the nickname “Explodomat.” A later Rotomat design kept the springs together upon release.
It was also interesting to see this poster in Baldy’s lodge.
I wonder how many other people have skied both Mustang and Baldy on the same trip.
Total for the day was 15,000 vertical, and Mt. Baldy B.C. was my 212th ski area. I arrived at Baldy from the southeast on a 19km gravel access road. I exited the 35km road west to Oliver, of which the bottom half was paved. Just past Oliver I made an unscheduled stop here.
Inniskillin is noted for its Ontario icewine, but they now own vineyards and make wine in the southern Okanagan Valley too. I tasted some and bought their Dark Horse Vineyard Meritage and Cabernet Franc.
