Doug McKenzie
New member
Smithers (town) is about 2 hours to the East of Terrace (Shames)(when the road is dry and you don't have to drive a car rental with 4 season tires on a snow covered highway :roll: ). Stayed at a nice hostel, the Smithers Guesthouse. Meet and skied with a ski instructor from Bristol NY. Found out that Mike was in Smithers for 2 weeks. He was an instructor back at here in 1975. He gave me a tour of his old hill.
The Smithers ski area's vertical is 1,800 ft and sits higher in altitude on the massif Hudson Bay Mountain. Main lodge and side is South facing and is at approximately 1400m and served by two t-bars. The North side base is at 1100m and has a triple chair. Most expert and long runs are on this side. Runs like Cold Smoke and Holy Smoke definitely deserved their double black status.
Although it snows less at Smithers than Shames, the snow quality of the groomer was generally better than the previous days at Shames. Only the steep parts were slightly hard (by Western standards). Backcountry options with summit of Hudson Bay Mountain next to area is not to be minimized.
The first day, we got nice and sunny conditions. Great for pictures.
The second day, the car rental had a hard time making it up the hill.
It was snowing hard. The report mentioned a fresh 4cm of new snow, but snow started falling harder as the day passed. The top of the t-bars (slightly higher than chair) is above treeline. Visibility got worst as the day moved on and got me to quit 15 minutes before the last ride up before I thought I was going to be sick (that was the only day that it wasn't first to last lift on this trip).
So the day started on fresh tracks, not bottomless. You could still feel the base at first, not so much at the end of the day. Cold Smoke and Dahlie's Double only had 2-3 set of tracks on them in the afternoon.
Finally, I got my first real day of fresh snow at day 6 of this trip. Only one day left, I was going to be at Shames before heading back home.
Difficult drive toward Terrace (damn car rental). Weather in Terrace was light rain. Probably snowing on the ski hill. Ah yes, mountain is closed Monday-Tuesday. Tomorrow is Wednesday. \
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The Smithers ski area's vertical is 1,800 ft and sits higher in altitude on the massif Hudson Bay Mountain. Main lodge and side is South facing and is at approximately 1400m and served by two t-bars. The North side base is at 1100m and has a triple chair. Most expert and long runs are on this side. Runs like Cold Smoke and Holy Smoke definitely deserved their double black status.
Although it snows less at Smithers than Shames, the snow quality of the groomer was generally better than the previous days at Shames. Only the steep parts were slightly hard (by Western standards). Backcountry options with summit of Hudson Bay Mountain next to area is not to be minimized.
The first day, we got nice and sunny conditions. Great for pictures.
The second day, the car rental had a hard time making it up the hill.
It was snowing hard. The report mentioned a fresh 4cm of new snow, but snow started falling harder as the day passed. The top of the t-bars (slightly higher than chair) is above treeline. Visibility got worst as the day moved on and got me to quit 15 minutes before the last ride up before I thought I was going to be sick (that was the only day that it wasn't first to last lift on this trip).So the day started on fresh tracks, not bottomless. You could still feel the base at first, not so much at the end of the day. Cold Smoke and Dahlie's Double only had 2-3 set of tracks on them in the afternoon.
Finally, I got my first real day of fresh snow at day 6 of this trip. Only one day left, I was going to be at Shames before heading back home.
Difficult drive toward Terrace (damn car rental). Weather in Terrace was light rain. Probably snowing on the ski hill. Ah yes, mountain is closed Monday-Tuesday. Tomorrow is Wednesday. \
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