BC Ski trip - January 2023
Hello all - here is a recap of my ski trip up to BC in late January.
Shames Mtn Coop - Terrace BC
Last year I started hatching a plan to ski every area in BC. I’d hit many of the big places in BC with the kids over the years (Silver Star, Sun Peaks, Revelstoke, Whistler, etc), but if you peer a little closer at the map you’ll find many more that are off the beaten path.
BC is over twice the size of California, and the distances were starting to look intimidating. But a lunch visit with Art (a co-conspirator for trips like this) over some maps proved fortuitous. We hatched a plan for a giant clockwise loop up Vancouver Island, continuing north to Prince Rupert via BC Ferry before heading east towards central BC and back to Seattle.
So, in the second half of January, as the storm track pointed towards western BC, I headed north, prepared to sleep in the Subaru if needed, with a list of indy ski areas that I really hadn’t heard of until a few weeks earlier.
Photos (a few pasted below): https://photos.app.goo.gl/m4GdXbdXqgS8QFdE8
Map: https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1_VOdxe9__a7akqCDRMmw9YGrMHjR_gg&usp=sharing
Blog: Links to other stuff
Day 1: Mt Washington, Vancouver Island. Base elevation 3500’. 1700’ vertical.
After leaving Seattle around noon and catching the Tsawassen ferry to Nanaimo, I spent the night in the small town of Courtenay. The next morning, it was 30 minutes to Mt Washington which had received 16” two days earlier. The visibility was the best of the trip with peekaboo views of the Vancouver Island mountains, and coast range to the east.
Mt Washington had recently been bought by a large corporation and I got a quick update from a local woman on my first chair ride describing what happened next: lifts not opening, ticket prices escalating and crazy crowds on weekends. Indeed a day ticket was $130 (CAD) and they were just starting to dig out the backside chair to open it for the first time of the season (in late Jan).
Best run: I’m sure my favorite would have been the backside “Outback” if it were open as the zone reminded me of Alpental. But my favorite was the glades off the Sunrise Chair, or West Basin off the top of the Eagle Express.
Looking towards the BC coast from Mt Washington
Day 2: Mt Cain
After a full day at Washington, I headed north, stopping for supplies, hot tub and shower at the Campbell River aquatics center and arrived in the Mt Cain parking lot around 8pm after a steep dirt road climb up to 4300’.
I got out of the car and started talking with my neighbor who pointed out the bathrooms and legit ski bar that was packed with people, with mugs hanging from the rafters, history books dating back to Cain’s founding in 1980 by local loggers, and a roaring wood stove.
I’d first learned about Cain after watching this movie two years ago, which fairly accurately described this unique place. Mt Cain is one of those places where with just a bit of effort, you fit in just by being there, similar to Meany Lodge which has been my family’s home mountain for the last 10 years.
There is a lower and upper t-bar. When it’s not a blizzard a lot of touring takes place off the top t-bar. Cell phones don’t work at Cain. At the end of the parking lot, there is a mini trailer park (each with snow roofs built over them) called ‘the ghetto.’ There is a spot to fill water jugs and a ‘water person’ in charge of maintaining it. The guy next to me had a wood stove in his van. The lot has kids, dogs and snowmobiles running around.
Around midnight it started snowing and by the morning there was 12” of new. As I lined up for the t-bar to open, someone I had met at the bar yelled out: “Hey Seattle, good morning!.”
I had to leave by 2:00 pm to catch the ferry to Prince Rupert because it only runs once a week, departing at 6:00 pm on Saturdays. So as they were setting up the beer garden at the end of the lot, I reluctantly packed the car at 2 and headed off to Port Hardy.
Mt Cain: Ski Patrollers getting towed up behind the snow cat at dawn.
Big dog at door of cafe
Day 3: Ferry to Prince Rupert
Port Hardy Ferry Terminal
The ride from the north end of Vancouver Island to Prince Rupert (which is just a few miles from SE Alaska) is 22 hours. The ship, the “Northern Adventure” felt more like a cruise ship to me and makes two stops along the way at Bella Bella and Klemtu in the middle of the night.. There is a big cafeteria, large carpeted areas, multiple decks and outside areas. The first few hours was wavy as the boat crossed the channel towards the inside passage, then things calmed down.
I slept by the window on the carpet. We passed some orcas, but the biggest surprise for me was the white sided dolphins. One group came right up to the side of the ship and put on a show in the waves.
This ferry route had a terrible accident in 2006, when the ship hit a rock and sunk in deep water. Two people died of the 101 passengers and the local First Nations village played a big role in rescuing people. There is controversy about what was happening on the ship bridge that night. Here are a few articles, and a song.
https://www.timescolonist.com/islander/the-sinking-of-queen-of-the-north-4643144
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpLfHOMhNnQ
Boarding (reminded me of a certain James Bond movie)
Day 4: Shames Mountain, Terrace BC
I woke up in the parking lot at Shames Mountain in a blizzard and 12” of new after enduring the giant loader plowing the lot (and almost my subaru) at 4:30 am.
Shames is another co-op ski area and Powder magazine had a good article about it. In a nutshell, it was founded in 1990 but threatened to close in 2011. The town panicked at the thought of the long winters without the ski area, and formed a co-op to buy it.
The Blue chair takes you up to the Red t-bar where many ski touring routes take off. It was a blizzard all day so people weren’t straying too far. It was fun to see a few cars in the lot with Quebec plates. I guess they head west, then start skiing when they hit the Pacific.
Best run: Junior’s Jingle from the top of the t-bar through the steep trees all the way to the bottom.
Shames Upper Red T-Bar
Digging out Subaru
Day 5-6: Smithers, Hudson Bay Mountain
It’s a 4 hour drive from Terrace to Smithers along the Skeena River, ground zero for steelhead fishing. I took my time stopping at some fishing outfitter shops and learning about the history of the Yukon telegraph (originally planned as a telegraph to Russia), gold rush and even crazier stories of how they kept the telegraph cabins (spaced every 20-30 miles over 1500 miles) resupplied.
Smithers is on the east side of the Coast Range and a bit drier than Terrace, and has the usual parade of trucks with snowmobiles, plus some outdoor stores, a great B&B/Hostel (Smithers Gueshouse) and a nice brewery that happened to be showing an outdoor film festival that night called “Skeena Wild.”
About 15 minutes away is Hudson Bay Mountain, 8400 feet. Two t-bars and a triple chair are perched on the side of it, providing excellent touring access. In the warming hut at the top of the chair, I ran into the crew who I’d met at the film festival the night before and skied a few runs with them. They pointed out the various tours that were possible when the weather was better.
There was a cool crowd of lifties, patrollers, and locals at this area, and some really good skiers. Like the guy with the orange helmet doing tricks and flips on huge inverted camber skis.
Best run: Alpenhorn or the lift line off the triple.
Warming hut
5th grade playing around lodge.
Day 7: Murray Ridge
Murray Ridge has the longest t-bar in North America, at 1.25 miles and 1700 vertical feet. What’s with all the t-bars in BC you ask? Here’s a worthwhile article. (https://finance.yahoo.com/news/t-bars-aren-t-relic-140052400.html)
I rolled into the parking lot after sleeping at one of the many convenient rest areas you find on two lane roads in BC. The guy parked next to me was there to see his granddaughter ski with the local 5th grade. He was First Nations and we had a great talk about growing up in the bush running trap lines, and building railroads.
Murray Ridge was founded in 1977 and has been community run ever since. An underrated place, it has many cool features, benches, natural half pipes, trees and cliffy sections. It was just me and the local 5th grade skiing on 3” of new.
There was one lifty on the hill. The top of the t-bar had an emergency button and trip wire. Possibly sketchy but helps the business model.
Favorite run: Haslinger. I think I was the only person who skied it that day.
Bench at top of Murray Ridge T-Bar. Ft. St. James valley in distance.
Day 8: Little Mac, Powder King and Hart Highlands Ski Club
Two hours over logging and copper mine roads from Murray is the small town of Mackenzie with a local hill below the water tower called Little Mac Ski Hill. It was closed in the evening when I showed up, so I walked 200m down to the bottom and back up.
Mackenzie was the northernmost waypoint on my trip, equidistant from Seattle as Tahoe CA, and way north of Jasper BC.
An hour away is Powder King, on the western edge of the Rockies, with a very basic hostel in the parking lot and a reputation for some of the best snow in North America. Just as the chair opened in the am, a small storm rolled in and by noon there was 4” of new and it got pretty good.
I ran into a local forester from Prince George who helped design the area, has a cabin near the hill and uses his snowmobile to get back and forth. He showed me around the backside and how the unique layout and features such as the power lines (transmitting ⅓ of BC power) and gas pipeline (from the Yukon to Vancouver) provided good waypoints to route back to the base area.
Best run: Elevator shaft, off the backside from the t-bar.
Powder King
The forecast was for temps to drop close to -10 F, so I started heading south and spent the night in Prince George, after checking out the night skiing at the local hill called Hart Highland Ski club. The place was being well used by kids, with live music in the lodge. Also, don’t miss the Kadai Paneer at the Madras Maple Cafe if you are in the area.
Hart Highlands, Kamloops, Sat night skiing
Day 9: Mt Timothy
Two hours north of Kamloops, up a logging road is Mt Timothy, with one chair and a t-bar that give you practically 270 degrees of skiing down the mountain. A lucky storm in the Kamloops area had dropped 4” of new.
New owners are transforming this little ski area and there are many little cabins being built with snowmobiles parked outside.
My second ride up was with a woman who learned there as a child and also taught her kids to ski there, who are now in college at UBC.
I had a fun talk with the lifty at the end of the day. He’s a local kid who plants trees in the summer and does lift ops all winter. A serious skier, he prefers the indy areas and filled me in on the other local areas and was interested in some of the ones I’d been to.
Best run: The glades off Solitude.
Mt Timothy
On the way down the road I passed a ramshackle place with hundreds of snowmobile carcasses in the yard. Turned out to be 1500 according to the owner who started Williams Lake Snowmobile Recyclers in 1972 and has been a parts depot for people far and wide ever since. There was a cool shop with various engines, cats, dogs and a woodstove. Outside, two visitors were pawing around looking for parts. Junkyards like this don’t look too appealing but are interesting outdoor museums and let people keep old stuff running affordably.
William Lake Snowmobile Recyclers
From Kamloops, I made my way home the next day, impressed with the commitment that communities all over BC have for keeping their local hill running. And I’m looking forward to the rest of the BC areas that are still on the list to be visited: Phoenix, Fernie, Kicking Horse, Panorama, Sasquatch, Baldy, Apex, Purden, Troll, Clearwater, Bear Mountain, Manning, Seymour, and Cypress.
Apres ski coffee at Mt Timothy
