Now this is real snow
It’s not a good day unless you get 30cm of snow – and that means many in Canada get a morning off to be on the slopes, writes Martin de Ruyter.
Ihad some doubt I could improve my skiing and, in particular, powder skiing. At 52, I figured my skiing ability had plateaued and my best days of skiing were behind me.
The truth is that when you have the luxury of being able to spend nine days in a row skiing as I did at Whitewater Ski Resort in Nelson, British Columbia, in Canada, your skiing does get better.
Also ski technology has improved so much that with modern skis you only have to think about turning and around you go.
The best analogy I can think of is to compare the straight skis I used 25 years ago with my current wide K2 pon2oon powder rocker skis. The difference is about the same as a car without power-steering and a modern car with it. But powder skiing also requires a change in technique from skiing in New Zealand.
Here you need a strong side-slip ability because of the often icy nature of our slopes.
In powder snow, you must be a lot lighter on your skis and while a strong side-slip will get you out of most tricky steep situations in powder snow, your Kiwi version of a side-slip turns into a snow plough and doesn’t help you surf through the fresh pow pow (for non-skiers a term for powder snow) like the Canadian locals.
Whitewater (also known as WH20) is my favourite ski area in the world and powderhounds.com rates it a 5 out of 5 for its snow and tree skiing, and 4.5 out of 5 for lift ticket prices.
The best any New Zealand ski area rates for powder skiing on the same website is a 3 out of 5 for Mt Hutt, Broken River and Treble Cone.
An advantage of skiing at WH20 and other North America slopes is they don’t close because it’s snowing, windy, or has poor visibility.
At WH2O you can ski every day in a variety of conditions and improve your skiing accordingly. I’ve had Canadians tell me there are only two seasons in Canada, winter and construction or, in harsher parts of Canada, this winter and last winter.
The only real consideration you see at the Canadian ski resorts after heavy snow is some of the ski runs will close temporarily while the ski patrol manages the avalanche risk, often with explosives.
One of the things that strikes you straight away at WH20 is most of the skiers aren’t anywhere near the learner slopes and are mostly very good skiers. And if you happen to be Mr-No-Friends, the locals will usually drag you into their ski party and show you their favourite runs. Also this particular mountain
has no cellphone reception and the day lodge has no wi-fi for smartphones, so skiers actually talk to each other over lunch.
Whitewater is also blessed with world-class food options at reasonable prices from the Fresh Tracks Cafe, as well as a bar with a sun deck where you can drink Nelson Brewing Company’s ski-themed beers, such as Ben Pole and Faceplant.
Because some of the best runs at Whitewater are among dense trees, it’s advisable to never ski alone, as there’s always a risk of hitting a tree or sliding head first into a tree well.
This is the gap between the snow pack and a tree and if you go head first into one, it’s pretty much impossible to get yourself out without assistance. Having hit a tree on a previous ski trip, with some blood loss, I’ve now learned my lesson: never look at the tree, always look at the gap between the trees.
The city of Nelson is 20km drive from the ski area and has a population a little more than 10,000. About 40 per cent of the population buy a season pass for Whitewater.
An earlybird season pass pays for itself after 10 days’ skiing and I discovered while skiing with my friend Alexandra Dehnel, who clocked up her 70th day skiing during my time on the slopes with her in March, it’s very good value for money. The ski season at Whitewater typically opens early December and continues until the first weekend in April, depending on where the Easter break falls.
I prefer to ski in March as the ski field temperatures range from -5 to -10 degrees Celsius. This is balmy compared with January temperatures which can be -20C. A lot of Nelson locals don’t consider it a powder day unless there’s 30cm of new snow.
I was witness to one of these 30cm powder days and drove through a blizzard in a 4WD Dodge with steelstudded winter tyres to get to the field.
Canadians don’t appear to be fans of snow chains; I’m yet to meet anyone on the planet who enjoys fitting or removing chains so I understand this.
Unbelievably though, some local drivers negotiated the snow-covered road in front-wheel-drive cars fitted with winter tyres. Not surprisingly, there was a bit of chaos on the mountain access road as several of them got stranded and were abandoned by their drivers.
The bonus on these powder days is most runs at Whitewater become like a heli-skiing experience, albeit without the noise and expense of the helicopter.
On a 30cm powder day, there will be queues at the resort’s three chairlifts. A lot of the locals only ski the fresh powder until 10.30am, then return to Nelson to do a day’s work. So the lift queues all but disappear by 11am. Some businesses in this Kootenay city even promote the 30cm rule, which means if 30cm or more of new snow falls overnight at WH2O, staff are allowed to start work at 11am, giving them time for a few runs in the fresh powder up on the hill.
In the 2017/18 winter, WH20 had more than 13 metres of snow fall at the ski area and in a previous season it was more than 12 metres.
With all this snow you are pretty much guaranteed some powder days, even if they aren’t all in the 30cmplus level. With the addition of the new quad Summit chair for the 2017/18 season the lift capacity has doubled on the more challenging Summit Chairlift and Glory Chairlift side of the mountain.
Whitewater is a challenging ski area with 58 per cent of the ski area rated difficult or expert, which is black diamond or double black diamond. Only 10 per cent of the ski resort is rated easy for beginners.
Skiing has never been a cheap sport, so the allimportant cost of nine days’ skiing at Whitewater using the ski resort’s Powder Pass cost NZ$523 or $58 a day. Compare this with skiing at North America’s largest ski resort, Whistler Blackcomb near Vancouver, at $168 a day for a two-day pass bought online.
I took my own skis to Canada on the 13-hour Air New Zealand direct flight from Auckland to Vancouver, paying an extra $95 each way for a separate bag carrying my skis. I also travel with my ski boots, jacket and pants, and helmet.
Air Canada operates an hour-long flight on a similar type of aircraft to the Q300 flown by Air Nelson, from Vancouver to West Kootenay Regional Airport or Castlegar, which is a 45 km drive from Nelson, BC.
Be warned, the locals call Castlegar, Cancelgar, as a lot of flights to and from this small alpine airport are cancelled or boomerang back to Vancouver because bad weather has closed the airport.
History has shown January is the worst time to fly to Castlegar. Sometimes as many as 50 per cent of flights in this month can run late or are cancelled.
Prices vary on Air Canada to and from Castlegar and the extra bag with the skis is about $35 each way.
Martin de Ruyter travelled and skied at his own expense.