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| The dream,... find it and keep it! |
About 15km after Revelstoke we ran out of windscreenwiper fluid. We had just spent 2 days in Revi doing pretty much nothing else but recovering after our snowcat trip. So running out of wiper fluid didn't seem too much of an issue. However, as a car overtook us, our windscreen was blanketed with muddy snow which froze immediately. Our desperate windscreen wipers only had friction left to help defrost the mess. With no petrol stations for the next 146 km until Golden, this was definitely lesson #1 for the Canadian winter. Here wiper fluid is laced with antifreeze (spec to -45C).
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| See no evil: despite running out of wiper fluid we made it through Rogers pass. |
We were on our way to Kicking Horse, following a small storm with promises of fresh snow. We beat the snowfall by a day and took the opportunity to familiarize ourselves with the terrain. Kicking Horse's claim to fame is the 1200m gondola lift, burly big mountain terrain and the incredible champagne powder that covers the mountain.
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| Arriving in Golden our first glimpse of Kicking Horse resort. |
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| They don't waist much time grooming runs, as most of the terrain is just too steep. Probably 1/3 of the over 100 runs are double diamond. Nice! |
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| Simone's snowboard boot survival kit. |
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| Life on the road: laundromats and hotel drying rooms. |
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| Kicking Horse river. |
On Tuesday morning, we headed up the hill to chase the 15cm of snow that fell that night. It was a cold but somewhat clear day. Our first run into Bowl Over set the tone for the day: a short but steep run through the forest glade. Then it was time to taste what Kicking Horse is really all about: the chutes. We jumped into an easier option straight under the gondola which lead us to Crystal Bowl and then a second chute into Feuz.
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| 3, 2, 1,...powder! Glades to Bowl Over for breakfast. |
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| Spotting chutes: well on the map it says that we can go down here. |
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| He who conquers the chutes, samples the pow below. But first the steep and gnarly. |
And the rewards: Crystal and Feuz, where the snow was deepest and sweetest.
Later in the day, a short walk took us to the Superbowl, which unfortunately didn't have as much powder as the other side. While we were in the bowl, we saw a skier ride an epic line off the T1 peak hitting several large drops. Kicking Horse is filled with a different breed of mountain folk...
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| T1 (terminator 1) and T2 ridges: unfortunately T2 was closed during our visit. |
In fact, so much so, that Simone and I started to notice how we stuck out: 1) our rental sedan just didn't cut it here, we needed a truck, 2) where were our skidoos? and 3) we needed to style some mountain-goat facial hair, which even some of the woman seem to sport here.
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| Bluebird, but cold! |
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| We hadn't seen much sun on our trip, so the views really blew us away. |
Tuesday was cold, but Wednesday was even colder. It hit -30C during the night. We awoke to blue skies and ice rinks in the parking lot. Since a lot of the mountain wasn't ridden out from the day before we opted for the slack country: we took the lift into the Feuz bowl and then hiked into a neighboring valley to find some freshies.
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| Earn your turn... |
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| Incredible views in the bowl next to Feuz. |
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| Not the longest hike, but we were still happy and hungry when we reached the top. |
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| The top, or at least for our hike. |
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| Smiles on the dials. |
After that it was time for a day or two off and with Simone's birthday approaching we decided to drive out to Banff.
A quick stop at Lake Luis, no it hadn't got any warmer yet.
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| Trans Canadian Highway 1. |
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| Mount Rundle just outside Banff. |
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| Banff. |
We had a lovely dinner in Banff and opted for a scenic drive on the Icefield Parkway the next day, before heading back to Revi. The scenery was absolutely incredible.
