Andrew, Colin and I took a skiing
trip to the BC interior in January
2008. We stayed at Panorama,
near Invermere, and planned to
take a day trip to Kicking Horse,
about 100 km North.
Panorama was nice; we arrived on
New Year's Eve, and after dark
enjoyed watching skiiers take a
torchlit run down the hill. That was
followed by a very impressive
firework show.
Starting on New Year's Day, we had
some good runs, but we found that
we had to search for good snow. In
some places, coverage was still
quite poor, and we have the gouges
on our skiis and boards to prove it.
It started snowing on the second
day, and by lunch time,
accumulation was probably near 10
cm. We had a great run down
fresh powder on Stumbock's, a
black diamond run on the edge of
Taynton Bowl. The new snow,
however, was quckly scraped off
the groomers, leaving some runs
very icy.
On the third day, Andrew and I got
in a couple of runs on B2nd and
Ktunaxa, both double blacks in the
Taynton Bowl. The top of the bowl
was steep, and covered in fresh
powder, but as the runs converged
on Funnel, the rocks began to show
through. I tried to ski around a bare
section, caught my ski tip and
ended up, on my back, upside
down on the slope; my remaining
ski got stuck in a small tree, which
was the only thing keeping me from
skidding even farther down the
slope.
On day 4 we drove to Kicking
Horse, a newer resort than
Panorama with a much smaller
village at the base. The skiing was
amazing. On our very first ride up
the gondola we met a very friendly
guy from Toronto who skied the
first run, 4000 feet of vertical, with
us to help us get our bearings.
With the sun shining, the entire
mountain blanketed in fresh
powder, and a great mixture of
steeps and cruisers, we fell for the
place - virtually every run starts with
a steep drop, in the trees or in an
open bowl, and ends up on a
groomed cruiser at the bottom.
We liked it so much that we went
back to Panorama to sleep, but
returned to Kicking Horse for our
5th and last day of skiing. There
was even more snow on our
second day there.
I'm not sure what it would be like to
stay at Kicking Horse - there
doesn't seem to be much variety for
restaurants and other activities. But
we went to ski and snowboard; and
after two days we felt like there was
lots of mountain that we hadn't
even tackled. That means it is
definitely on our list of places to
return to.
