Red Mountain Resort Family Ski Trip

For the last few years we have been taking a short family ski holiday between Christmas and New Years.  It's a great way to spend time with Taylor and Dylan, since neither currently live in Idaho.

This year we went a little big and went north to Red Mountain Resort, in British Columbia. The criteria for this year was small town and large vertical drop.  Red delivered these aspects and more!

The first morning out we hooked up with a Snow Host, Doug, to show us around the mountains.  Yes, plural - there are three mountains.  This was a great way to get a feel for the place.

Dylan and Tamara with Doug

Chairlift selfie sans Mom (triple chair)

Heading up

Coming down

Taylor cutting it up

The first day was spent in the cold, but the views were phenomenal, above the "Kootenay Sea!"

We spent the rest of the afternoon skiing in and out of the clouds.  That afternoon we found a base - Rossland Beer Company!  These guys are a small operation and they put out some great beer.

Bicycle art in front of Rossland Beer Company

The second day was spent further exploring the ski area, specifically looking for the few remaining powder stashes.  Our first foray didn't turn out too well.  The trees were too tight and we ran into large rocky drop offs.  So, after lunch, Dylan and I took off looking for tree skiing while the girls stayed on the cruisers.

We spent a half hour hiking from the top of one of the lifts (Grey Mountain) to another peak (Mt. Kirkup) that is serviced by the resorts snowcats (unfortunately it wasn't opened).  From here we enjoyed a great powder run that brought us back to the lift.  At this point we met a local, Jamie, who had been skiing the area for 58 years.  He took us under his wing for a couple of runs, showing us his personal powder stashes!

The ladies enjoyed themselves as well.

The third day was more of the same.  We took the gals to show them Jamie's powder stashes (sorry Jamie) and polished off what remained of the untracked.

After getting beat up for three days straight, the ladies decided to rest on our final day.  We all had a leisurely breakfast before Dylan and I headed back into the sidecountry.  Our destination this time was Record Mountain, a little over 1.5 miles from the resort backcountry gate.  We had a great skin in the sunshine and reached the summit in a little over an hour.

Record Mountain

The powder here was smooth and silky.  After two laps, we realized we screwed up by not starting earlier in the day!

Something strange happened here!

And here is a short video of Dylan on Record Mountain:

That evening we had another great meal together that included our third helping of poutine for the trip!  Just can't get enough of that stuff.

Jug Mountain Powder!

Tamara and I didn't really have any plans for the weekend, but after seeing that Brundage Mountain had 11" of fresh snow on Friday, I quickly texted my buddy, John, up in McCall, to see if he was up for a tour on Saturday.

We met up with John and Cody a little after 9AM and started up the Jug Mountain trail in the shade.  As we moved up, we stopped to allow John and Cody trim back brush on the narrow sections of the trail.    Eventually, we moved out of the shade into the bright sunshine.  Everyone was smiling!

Tamara leading Cody and John up the trail

Thankfully, someone was ahead of us this morning breaking trail through the powder.

As we moved up the mountain, we were salivating at the prospect of skiing this great powder.

Jug Mountain

John Platt's video of me getting a bit of powder on the first lap: Jug Skiing

On our second lap, I neglected to transition my right ski boot from walk mode to ski mode and augured in good!

J. Platt photo

But, it was hard to not smile in these conditions!

After a couple of laps, it was time to head back down. A great day in the McCall backcountry!

Picket Mountain - 8172 feet

John and I got out last Saturday for a little 16 mile hike up the South Fork of the Payette River.  We started at the Grandjean trail head a little after 8AM ,with a goal of hiking up to Picket Mountain.  It was a beautiful morning, a bit cold but no wind, and we moved quickly up the well worn trail to stay warm.  We were on the summit by 12:30 enjoying the eye popping scenery!  Though the peak was a straightforward walk up, the views more than made up for the lack of technical difficulty.

Excellent butt shot of John while he precariously crosses Baron Creek

We shivered in the cold shade, while gazing longingly at the sunshine.

Ahhh, feeling warmer now!

Only to have to cross the South Fork of the Payette River.  Our feet felt like large blocks of stone by the time we got to the opposite bank

As we started gaining some altitude, Grandjean Peak came into view

We were in snow at around 6800 feet on the north facing slopes

Grandjean Peak with Baron Peak poking up on the right

The trail split at the saddle

All snow from here to the summit.  Up to 12" deep too!

One of the Rakers

Headwaters of the South Fork of the Payette River from the summit

Heading back down in the sunshine

Matchsticks!

One last look up the SF Payette drainage

Fall White Cloud Adventure

Last week Super Dave sent out an open invitation to join him as he climbed his last two White Cloud 10K peaks.  I couldn’t make it for Friday’s climb, but was a bit interested in joining him for the Saturday adventure.  After a bit of his convincing, I finally agreed to join him for his last White Cloud peak.  I’m always up for an adventure and rather than climbing a single peak, Dave proposed a four peak day. 

I jumped out of bed when the alarm sounded at 2:30AM, and after a 3 hour drive, we met up at Smiley Creek Lodge for the 40 minute drive to the trailhead. 

We were cruising up the excellent Galena Gulch trail a little after 7AM with headlights blazing.  And I do mean cruising, as we covered this initial 4 miles and 1400 feet in an hour and a half.  We took a quick break where the trail turned south as our peak, “Simpson Peak” or Peak 10,378, was to the north.

Boulder Mountains

 

Tarn with Simpson Peak 

The views of the Boulder Mountains, as well as Simpson Peak, were spectacular in the early morning fall sunshine.  As we made our way north, we walked around a small tarn in a meadow before starting up the side of Simpson Peak.  Before we knew it, we were on top of our first peak for the day.  From this summit we had an outstanding view of Castle Peak as well as our next objective – “Anonymous Peak”.

Castle Peak 

Anonymous Peak

Knowing that we were in for a long day, we didn’t linger on the top for too long.  The route to peak #2 was across a ridge with a large gendarme.  Having walked this ridge before, Dave knew that the left side would go, so we stayed left.  After tiptoeing our way around the gendarme, it was just a straightforward walk up to the summit of Peak 10,356 (Anonymous Peak).

 The summit of Anonymous Peak provided a great view of our third peak for the day – Alta Peak or Peak 10,660 (The topo shows this as Peak 10,621 but List of John says 10,660).  With its rocky ridge, this peak looked like it would be a lot of fun.  We stayed on the ridge crest as much as possible and enjoyed a fun class three scramble to the summit.

Alta Peak

 

Scrambling up Alta's summit - D. Pahlas photo

At this point, Dave’s main goal was in sight; his final peak needed to finish off all the White Cloud peaks over 10,000 feet – Peak 10,340.  It, too, looked like it would be a fun climb.

 

The main objective to the left

But first we had to get down off Alta Peak.  The down climb provided a bit of route finding mixed in with a couple class 4ish moves on some semi-solid rock.  Spicy!

 

Down climbing Alta - D. Pahlas photo

Once off Alta Peak, we moved quickly across the ridge toward our last objective.  I took a short break, while Dave moved off to finish up some paper work.  He seemed to have been doing a considerable amount of paper work during the day…

Up close, Peak 10,340 looked like a mass of loose boulders just waiting for a strong wind to blow it down.  It appeared that the best route to the top was straight up a rib that was between two chutes filled with loose rubble.  With Dave leading, we carefully picked our way up this rib to the summit.  Just before I topped out, I heard a loud, “WooHoo!” signifying Dave had completed his goal. 

Peak 10,340

Finishing off Peak 10,340 - D. Pahlas photo

Unlike the other peaks we had been on today, this one did not have a summit register.  Unfortunately, we did not come prepared to place a register.  Luckily, I had a toilet paper cardboard tube in my pack.  Not the most elegant, but it would have to do.  Dave named the peak, “Grand Finale Peak,” in honor of it being his last White Cloud 10K peak.  After writing all the pertinent information on the cardboard tube, Dave placed the summit register, and we then picked our way down the rubble on the backside of the peak.

4 Summit Splattskis

Two hours later we arrived back at the vehicle, tired but satisfied with our efforts for the day.

Another great adventure with Dave!

Stats:

Distance: ~13 miles

Elevation Gained: ~4500 feet

Time: 10 hours car to car