Categories
Ski

2018-01-27 thru 02-03 Snowfall Lodge Ski Trip

 

A view looking from the top of the First Moraine. This is approximately the view from the lodge except this one is 1000' higher.
A view looking from the top of the First Moraine. This is approximately the view from the lodge except this one is 1000′ higher.

January 27 thru February 3, 2018

Carly and I took a ski trip to British Columbia at the end of January.  This trip was organized by one of Carly’s MBA friends.  Dave usually plans a big trip up to BC every year and this year we were able to join in.  We drove up to Nakusp, BC over two days from SLC.  We opted to sleep in the van which turned out to be great for this type of trip.  The 8 hours of driving per day went by reasonably well.  We did have a little bit of a scare at the end of the first day when the van was making a funny noise.  I suspected a wheel bearing and we opted to try and get it fixed ASAP the morning of the second day before getting into the middle of nowhere BC.  Luckily a Chevy dealer in Missoula, our chosen rest stop for the first day, had the parts and was able to push us through in just a few hours.  We made it to Nakusp in good time and weren’t even the last ones to arrive at the meeting spot.

The lodge is in the backcountry and accessible only via helicopter in the winter.  I’ve only flown on a helicopter one other time so I was looking forward to the ride in.  Despite it snowing pretty hard we had no trouble getting into the lodge.  The visibility was pretty low for the ride in and the pilot stayed a 100-200′ off the trees for visual reference.  

The accommodations at Snowfall were great.  Despite being in the first year of operation it was quite plush.  Full kitchen, in-door pee toilet, comfortably heated, electricity, drying room, the works.  Backpacking will be rough change of pace in the future.

Skiing was amazing.  The snow in BC falls at a warmer temperature than here in the Wasatch and it forms these pillows on terrain features.  These features would be something to avoid at home because you probably would hit whatever was under the snow.  In BC these pillows were usually many feet thick and soft.  It snowed on average 6″ per day for the trip.  This was good and bad.  It created some poor visibility and unstable snow.  This kept any of the 16 of us from getting on any big lines.  It did however refill the few areas were were able to access.  

We got a few hours of clear weather about mid-week.  This afforded some amazing views of the terrain around us.  It reminded me of my previous trip to BC with Christina and Drew.  The experience was quite good and I’m hoping I can make this an annual occurrence.

 

 

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