Chasing Snow Again

Here we are, at it again, going wherever the snow and weather takes us. This time feeling like van veterans.

View from our window as we drove into British Columbia

Some key takeaways from last year:

• Pack less clothes, 2 of everything is enough except underwear
• Everyone wants to talk about van batteries
• Tea with honey is a must on backcountry ski days
• Drying gear in a small space is an art and a skill
• You can make a turkey dinner on one burner
• If you want to get away from people, just keep driving north

We left Lyme, NH on New Year's Eve. What better way (for us) to spend New Year's Eve; no champagne, no big parties, no ball dropping.  We just had the wide open road in front of us and some good pod casting, snacking, and truck stopping.  Forty three hours later we were in British Columbia, our treasured winter paradise.  We started in the town of Nelson, where we spent a few days getting back into the groove again.   After this, we had the good fortune of staying in two backcountry huts, which we booked over 4 years ago. There is high demand and low supply for these cherished huts so the wait can be very long, but worth it.

Ice Creek Lodge

Ice Creek is a lodge in the Valhalla Mountains and, as it says on their website, it is a lodge for mountain people, built by mountain people.  It is a beautiful hut in the middle of nowhere with mountains and snow everywhere. We were in heaven except for the fact that I was way out of my league ability wise.  There were 10 of us total - 3 are world class skiers (be on the lookout for Carson Leys - she is a rising star) and 6 are "would be" world class skiers had they made that decision in their early days. And then there was me!  Each day I prayed I could hang and each day they encouraged me, waited for me, and dragged me along for some great skiing.  At night we at extraordinary amounts of delicious food, played games, told stories, and slept hard.  

Valhalla Mountain Lodge

Valhalla Mountain Lodge is yet another cool hut. I can't say enough about it.  The snow, the ski conditions and the weather could not have been better.  And as usual, great food, vicious Scrabble, crosswords galore, plenty of good chats, drinks, and other fun games.   Some photos from our huts:

Once out of the huts, we made our way to Kootenay Pass. The skiing was fun but the temperatures were rugged.  Each day it was in the single digits and each day we were happy as ever to be back in our van warming up.

After much deliberation, we decided to drive 18 hours north to the towns of Terrace and Smithers. They are almost on the Alaskan border.  While we knew Terrace was in the valley, we were still surprised at the lack of snow. This was a little ridiculous.....

We drove out of the valley and up to Shames Ski Area where things got a lot more winter-like. Shames is a cool place with a hip vibe.  People are there to ski.  No glitz, no real estate, no bar scene, no lines, no restaurants, no big expense.  Just lots of snow (12 meter annual snow fall!!!!) and very friendly people.  We were told many times by the locals, "you can never leave here or you will miss it". And by "miss it", they mean the onslaught of snow on a regular basis. We took their advice and stayed as long as we could. Over the two weeks we were there, they got over 9 feet of snow!  

That's it for now.  I'll be back with more soon.  I've got stories of Mike Allen shredding the "blower", meeting Mattias Fredricksson, and squirrel man!  And then it's onto warmer temps in the desert.  As always, thanks for reading.   I miss everyone and can't wait to catch up in person!