Winter is here

Above photo is of Keith Robine, who will be running a Canadian Avalanche Association Recreational Avalanche Course in our territory on the 16-18 Dec. We'll drop the group up at the top, and they'll learn to assess avalanche hazards, dig snow pits, and use avalanche transceivers before ski-touring back down to the highway.
They've been up there ski-touring in knee to hip-deep powder, exploring new territory as they punch the snow roads up the mountain.
Neither El Nino nor La Nina, this year the jet stream should stay right on top of us and send us dump after dump of powder.
Talk about strange weather today - a warm and sunny Remembrance Day. I spent 7 years in the military doing those parades, and every single year there was stiff cold winds and sleet, and fingers frozen to rifles and swords. Glad that's behind me. Far better things to be doing in cold weather!
The last couple of warm days have consolidated the snowpack, and now it's cooling down and snowing again, so we should have fresh powder over a firm base. How good is that?

Huge Snow Dump

The snow has arrived, and suddenly the traffic on our website has tripled. Nothing like the weather-lady talking about "big systems" to make our minds turn to fresh powder - and we've got it!
Here's a picture taken from the front of my house yesterday. Bear in mind that our house is at 1200 metres, but the catski area goes from 1500-2200 metres, so there is more snow up there (it snows continuously up there, when it switches to rain down here at the base of Red). In fact, it's hip-deep in some spots, but it still doesn't have a strong base covering the weeds and stumps etc. BUT - that is what this snowfall will do! Seeing as we're not scheduled to start operating until Dec 20th, we should be nice and deep by then! Richard will have to start grooming the snow roads shortly - so thankfully, the snowcat is purring and our roads are all cut!
And it's still snowing!
Kieren will be in the Whitewater booth at the Portland Ski Show this weekend, and you can pick up info at the Chicago Show from the Red Resort booth this weekend. Anyone to make contact at a ski show and make a booking before Dec 15th enters a draw for a free pair of Rossignal B4 Bandit fat skis! (Your odds of winning are even better if you enter a group and put your name in 12 times...)