West Coast skiing
Seems I’m falling behind in my blog posts so I’ll have to make a couple of quick posts to catch up. After the World Cup ski races out west I had a few days to get in some skiing. Would I like to do some downhill?, backcountry?, groomed XC?… yes, yes, yes! Was there any chance I could haul all the necessary gear with me for a short week of skiing… No. As a result I opted to take ski gear for just groomed XC and decided to do a little tour of some of the cross country areas I’d heard lots about. Brief setback when the airlines promptly lost my ski bag but they soon found it and delivered it to me while the racing was going on. I spent a day and a half at Whistler Olympic Park skiing the competitive trails as well as the public trails. The competitive trails actually only took a short time to explore as previously posted (there isn’t much to them). The public trails on the other hand were really nicely laid out and had a nice rhythm to them. They snake through a creek valley rolling through old growth Douglas Fir and cedar forests. I can surely say that they truly know how to grow trees on the west coast as everything I skied through dwarfed me. In talking with a friend who lives in Van they also know how to grow tree out there… but I’m not sure what he was referring to as I saw many, many trees. Must be a local thing.
Morning in the "Norwegian Woods" and the groomed corduroy is all mine
After a visit with my brother’s family (got to help out with math homework and enjoy French horn practice) I headed east to Kelowna and took a couple of days skiing at Silver Star and Telemark. Some really nice trails here. Silver Star (well nearby Sovereign Lake actually) hosted a World Cup ski race a few years back and they continue to maintain a great set of trails. The trails are cut through a beautiful lodgepole pine forest and again… are pretty huge compared to the woods back east. While the Okanagan valley was filled with low level clouds the ski areas are high up so there was significant sunshine to enjoy with the undercast in the valley below. Of course high up makes it an 02 challenge to the lowland skier that I am but setting the pace back a little meant the thin air wasn’t a big issue… where did I have to be in a hurry anyway?
Cloudy in the valley... but sunny up high
Telemark is a smaller community based ski area that has some excellent trails. I skied one evening there and another day but they weren’t quite high enough to be out of the clouds (rather they were IN the cloud) so most of my time there was not conducive to picture taking. That said they have a fun set of trails that are well worth the visit. Finally, prior to catching my plane home I skied at Cyprus. Not much to say about this. It’s conveniently located to downtown Van and had excellently groomed trails but it’s pretty two dimensional. Climb up or ski down… almost a downhill venue in the woods. Still and all, a good time trying out some of BC’s groomed trail networks. The weather was stupendous with most days hovering around +3C and not a cloud in the sky. Time well spent and I’ll look forward my next chance to ski out west as there are a few more places I’d like to explore. A random collection of photos can be found
here.
Seems I’m falling behind in my blog posts so I’ll have to make a couple of quick posts to catch up. After the World Cup ski races out west I had a few days to get in some skiing. Would I like to do some downhill?, backcountry?, groomed XC?… yes, yes, yes! Was there any chance I could haul all the necessary gear with me for a short week of skiing… No. As a result I opted to take ski gear for just groomed XC and decided to do a little tour of some of the cross country areas I’d heard lots about. Brief setback when the airlines promptly lost my ski bag but they soon found it and delivered it to me while the racing was going on. I spent a day and a half at Whistler Olympic Park skiing the competitive trails as well as the public trails. The competitive trails actually only took a short time to explore as previously posted (there isn’t much to them). The public trails on the other hand were really nicely laid out and had a nice rhythm to them. They snake through a creek valley rolling through old growth Douglas Fir and cedar forests. I can surely say that they truly know how to grow trees on the west coast as everything I skied through dwarfed me. In talking with a friend who lives in Van they also know how to grow tree out there… but I’m not sure what he was referring to as I saw many, many trees. Must be a local thing.
After a visit with my brother’s family (got to help out with math homework and enjoy French horn practice) I headed east to Kelowna and took a couple of days skiing at Silver Star and Telemark. Some really nice trails here. Silver Star (well nearby Sovereign Lake actually) hosted a World Cup ski race a few years back and they continue to maintain a great set of trails. The trails are cut through a beautiful lodgepole pine forest and again… are pretty huge compared to the woods back east. While the Okanagan valley was filled with low level clouds the ski areas are high up so there was significant sunshine to enjoy with the undercast in the valley below. Of course high up makes it an 02 challenge to the lowland skier that I am but setting the pace back a little meant the thin air wasn’t a big issue… where did I have to be in a hurry anyway?
Telemark is a smaller community based ski area that has some excellent trails. I skied one evening there and another day but they weren’t quite high enough to be out of the clouds (rather they were IN the cloud) so most of my time there was not conducive to picture taking. That said they have a fun set of trails that are well worth the visit. Finally, prior to catching my plane home I skied at Cyprus. Not much to say about this. It’s conveniently located to downtown Van and had excellently groomed trails but it’s pretty two dimensional. Climb up or ski down… almost a downhill venue in the woods. Still and all, a good time trying out some of BC’s groomed trail networks. The weather was stupendous with most days hovering around +3C and not a cloud in the sky. Time well spent and I’ll look forward my next chance to ski out west as there are a few more places I’d like to explore. A random collection of photos can be found here.
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