The two day stay in Fernie was a chance to relax from last week’s exams and to compare Kicking Horse Resort with some of British Columbia’s more famous ski areas.

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Fernie

Fernie has had a great season so far with a three-metre base and too many powder days to count. So all the newly qualified instructors had a really enjoyable time, whether they spent it exploring the mountain, taking tours or simply enjoying Fernie’s vibrant nightlife. The luxury of Alpenrose was swapped for the funky Raging Elk Hostel in the centre of Fernie, while restaurants and bars provided evening entertainment. The snow dumped down, added to some impressively enormous snowdrifts in town and further burying vehicles and houses! This translated to ‘hero’ riding conditions at the resort, and the boarders and skiers were showing themselves to be worthy instructors, riding steeps, trees and powder fields with all the confidence that the conditions allowed.

Kimberley Alpine resort

Kimberley Alpine resort, just over an hours drive from Fernie, provided contrary condition replacing snow filled cloudy skies with brilliant sunshine, powder with groomers and much mellower terrain. So the scene was set for a lazy fourth day of the mid season break. Nick and Paul swapped their skis for boards but still kept up with the pace as the group shredded and played together enjoying the social riding and skiing, the ideal setting to try tricks and things that the extreme Kicking Horse terrain just doesn’t allow! An entertaining day resulting with people jumping, falling, riding backwards and jibbing all over the place!

A chilled out Saturday afternoon in the revamped terrain park and on various kickers around Kicking Horse was spent by Ben, Andrew, Tigger, Jake, Frankie, Chris and Karen as they progressed their freestyle skills and worked hard on looking cool!

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Our seasonnaires formed a team along with ACMG mountain guides Scott Belton and John Red to experience the backcountry to the north of Kicking Horse Resort in Rudi’s Bowl.

This was a first experience of a touring day for nearly the whole group and a chance to use their skills from the Recreational Avalanche Course in true avalanche country. The list of first time experiences for the day increased with Chris, Jake and Ben dropping Whitewall in Feuz Bowl to get to the resort boundary line. Ducking the rope and turning transceivers on, putting on snowshoes, or skins on skis/split-boards were also new experiences as the team left the hustle and bustle of Alberta Family Weekend lift queues and entered a more natural setting for the day.

Scott and John gave a safety brief and discussed avalanche conditions and backcountry survival before the hike upwards into Rudi’s Bowl started. The conditions were perfect for the day with blue skies and fresh snow as we broke free from the resort, finding our own path through the tree-line and alpine terrain. The group soon mastered their equipment and were enjoying nature’s spectacular scenery with no distractions, reaching the top to enjoy stunning views of the Molar and Dogtooth Ranges.

After a look at the dangers of cornices, the first descent into Rudi’s Bowl let gravity work for us for a change, as the adrenaline flowed and powder flew under perfect blue skies! Then the team split, with some opting for another lap of Rudi’s Bowl with Scott while John took the rest to build a snow cave.

Backcountry touring offers a chance to switch off to the routines of daily life to find peace and tranquillity, with the soul intent of earning your turns by means of an environmentally sensitive method of transport. With this ‘taster’ day completed and enjoyed by all, the group can build upon their experience to travel further a field and into more challenging terrain.

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The seasonnaires entered their level one exam week on the back of a Sunday spent in and around Panorama Mountain Resort. Ben, Jake, Nick and Pete decided to hit the kilometre long terrain park while another eight Powdertrippers spent the day dog sledding and snowmobiling in the backcountry.  

Panorama Terrain Park and Pipe

The week has been a successful one for the snowboarders with most of them bagging their first rail, and opening the door towards becoming Park Instructors on top of their CASI certificates. Panorama provided an enormous terrain park to practice the skills they’d been working on this week. Nick joined the others as the token skier to prove that two planks fly just as well as one! 

Dog sledding

The less park-orientated Powdertrippers were sliding on sleds rather than rails as they experienced driving packs of dogs on a more traditional snowy transport. About thirty dogs pulled three sleds through the spectacular alpine environment for the morning, showing that they were not only cute but also extremely strong and fast.

 Snowmobiling

A BBQ lunch was welcome relief before the group upgraded their dogpower to horsepower in the form of snowmobiles. A safety brief and driving lesson taught them snowmobiling and backcountry skills. Then Inkeri, Jack, Chris, Karen, Andrew, Frankie, Lynne, Tigger and David were let loose and told to ‘go for it’ in a huge alpine bowl! Speeds of 50mph were reached as the group clung to their ‘sleds’ and became motor-heads for the afternoon. Andrew discovered that getting air on a snowmobile is just as scary as getting air on a snowboard, while a few people found out that falling off is pretty tough too! 

Radium Hot Springs

All the group met at the end of the day to share stories and relax in the three pools at Radium Hot Springs. With temperatures plummeting as evening kicked in, the outdoor hot mineral water pools steamed as tired muscles recovered ready for another six days of intense skiing and boarding at Kicking Horse.

The snow started falling yesterday to end this week’s ‘drought’ and this made the Revelstoke day trip a powdery one! With Canada’s newest and most ambitious resort only a month old, it was an interesting time to check out one of tomorrow’s giant resorts in it’s infancy. So our trip 2 hours west along the ‘Powder Highway’ had freshly fallen snow and bluebird skies to let us appreciate Revelstoke in it’s full glory.

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The gondola and chairlifts that have been installed to the former cat-ski operation are incredibly quick and well thought out and despite being a powder day and a Sunday, the whole mountain was quiet except for whoops of delight from powder-riders shredding hidden lines somewhere in the trees! With minimal queue time, everyone’s legs were burning by lunch as the group recovered from their powder day high.

The resort has been designed by snow riders for snow riders and the potential for future years was not lost on Paul, Andy, Caroline and James as they tested their legs on North America’s longest vertical descent. Revelstoke revels in similar ‘Champagne Powder’ to Kicking Horse; wonderfully dry and smooth to ride through, and their annual snowfall is just staggering! The day ended far too quickly, leaving everyone truly ‘stoked’ – watch out Whistler, you’ve got competition!

The preceding weekend started with a visit to the Northern Lights Wolf Centre, just outside of Golden. Wiley, Aspen, Tuk and Maya howled away to their hearts content and put on a great show for the group.

Sunday night proved to be hotter than some could handle, with the Moberly Pub suicide chicken wing challenge taking another victim. Andy gave it his very best setting an early 2008 record of 5 wings (10 short of the overall record) while everyone else enjoyed a tasty dinner.

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Chuck and Ryan showed the boarders that snowboards aren’t just for riding, with a selection of extraordinary warm-ups. Shane and Josh turned up the heat in a different way, pushing the ski group to the limit in this week’s fresh powder snow. Levels of bravery and balance were also put to the test with nerve-wracking tube runs (especially for Jake) and snow-skating on the Jelly Bean nursery slope.

Thursday night’s ski tuning demonstration provided an hour of information and a chance to fix and wax/edge some skis in Selkirk Sports Shop. Inkeri, Mike and Tigger got stuck into making those shabby looking skis ready to shred while everyone else looked on.

There was no weekend break for those tired legs with the Recreational Avalanche course beginning with an in-depth Friday night theory session and then continuing in -20 degree conditions on the resort. Kyle and Sean provided the group with an eye-opening and sobering experience with their first hand Ski Patrol knowledge into the dangers of winter activity in the mountains. The skiers and boarders were given a tour of the terrain with avalanches in mind and lots of hands-on sessions digging snow-pits, using transceivers and participating in a rescue scenario with the aid of an avalanche rescue dog. The seasonnaires can now take their newly learned skills into the backcountry on the upcoming heli-ski, sledding and backcountry days.

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With this year’s Powdertrippers mostly arriving in swanky style courtesy of David at Pure Travel, spirits were high as Sunday and Monday saw last week’s champagne powder illuminated by beautiful bluebird skies. These conditions provided a heavenly backdrop for the future ski and snowboard instructors to begin exploring Kicking Horse Mountain Resort.

An all-star line-up of level 3 and 4 instructors introduced themselves on Monday morning and were soon putting the group through their paces to see how challenging everyone’s season would be! Caroline gave them an early scare, showing up on day one without ski boots but the problem was soon resolved and the 2008 season was underway. Jack had the best ‘jumble sale’, falling down Think Twice to the amusement of the watching ski and snowboard groups.

So with typical Kicking Horse snow conditions, great weather, some of Canada’s best instructors and the Alpenrose hospitality, the new seasonaires are buzzing and looking forward to Golden times over the next 12 weeks.

With a 100% pass rate for our skiers and a near perfect score for our snowboarders there was lots of celebrating to be had.

The afternoon ended with drinks at Extreme Peaks on the hill and the evening started at the Eagle’s Eye Restaurant at the top of the resort with some awesome food and plenty of wine and cocktails.

Here is just a small selection from the great night had by all….

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