What a week of skiing at Red Mountain Resort and the Rossland Range! It snowed consistently around Christmas and several days after, followed by cool, clear bluebird days with some spectacular slack and backcountry touring.

Nicola Kuhn and I near the top of Grey with Glory in the background. Photo: Tyler Merringer with his iphone pano ap!

Presley Hlushak hiking with rime and a reason.

I was blown away by how many people were ski touring over the holidays. Red had record attendance and some of the usual slack touring areas were like a highway. This is great for the resort and while it’s nice to have quiet in the backcountry, there were a lot of smiling faces and plenty of powder to go around. I can only imagine what visitors are telling people about Red and the surrounding backcountry after such an epic week.

View of Red and the shoulder of Granite from Grey Mountain.

Screenshot of a self-portrait with my GoPro mounted to the end of my pole.

I managed to summit nearly every peak in the Rossland Range this week, skiing predominantly south to south-west faces as many of the North faces had wind crust and a tricky snowpack (more on this in a moment). The south faces in the Rossland range are typically mellower (25-35 degree slopes) which was a fairly safe option given the buried hoar layers. And who’d want to pass up silky turns in the sunshine? North-facing, protected treed runs were also stellar.

Pres scoping the line on the northeast face of Record.

…and celebrating a sweet run on Record. Glory becons in the background.

However, as far as snow stability goes caution was warranted. As we approached a peak in the northern part of the Rossland Range yesterday, fog prevented our being able to visually sus the face we intended to ski, providing little info. There was no obvious whumping or cracks on the approach. We dug a pit just off the summit in a safe location on the north side and were a bit spooked to say the least. There were two planar shears on buried hoar layers releasing easily (column test results 1-2 easy taps), one 40cms down and another at 80cms down. This was enough for us to choose the most conservative ridgeline down. Not far below, we were skiing hard crust and quickly learned most of the mountain had slid with enough force to break foot-thick trees at the bottom. There were a handful of ski tracks from the summit so it’s hard to say if the slides were skier triggered or natural. Additionally, the CAA posted some pictures on the regional bulletin of a recent skier-triggered slide on a south face of Mt. Plewman, which had seen quite a bit of traffic. Just because someone, or many people, ski a slope doesn’t necessarily mean it’s safe.

Dropping into the another beautiful evening from Whitewolf Ridge back towards Paradise. Mt. Roberts in the background and Rossland far below.

I predominantly shot video this week but did take a few pics on the approach and transitions. If you haven’t seen my New Year’s edit, check it out here. I’ve got some stellar vid from the past few days and will get another edit up in the not too distant future.

Screenshot of Nicola on southside Record.

And Pres throwing a massive roost…

Happy turns,

Ryan Kuhn (Zorba)