Ski Canada的Fall 2020目录

Hunkered down at the cottage during the summer I was bitten by a bat. In the neck. While I slept. Dodging all the vampire jokes on one of my seven trips to the hospital in Parry Sound for rabies inoculations, I was thinking that at least I’m not worrying so much about “The Covids,” as I heard it called more than once in town. As you probably already know, one of the curious symptoms of The Covids is a sudden loss of taste and smell; another seems to be a loss of sense of humour. Letters to the editor (and in 2020 I mean emails and social media rants) have long been cherished here at Ski Canada. Just our mentions last issue of that little pandemic thingy going around, let…

Backcountry skiing has been part of the B.C. landscape since the mid-1980s, but thanks to huge advances in off-grid energy conservation technology and environmentally sensitive construction techniques, today’s private lodges are a far cry from the drafty, rodent-infested hovels of yesteryear. Most backcountry ski lodges take their cues from what’s been done in the heli-skiing industry. Gourmet lunches and dinners have replaced gorp. Private rooms separate the snorers from the insomniacs. There are plenty of hooks for drying jackets and climbing skins, and most lodges offer hot water. Then, of course, there’s the option to repair to the bar to sample craft beer and B.C. wines. And did I mention Wi-Fi? Well, let’s just leave the phone at home, shall we? Currently, the Backcountry Lodges of British Columbia lists 32…

If you’re flummoxed by the fluffy stuff-or you ski with someone who is-here are a few places in B.C. that can help close the gap between groomers and off-piste. Mount Washington: Only slightly off the well-trodden path on Vancouver Island, Mount Washington is blessed with an abundance of deep snow. The pros here can set you up with a truly customized experience, be it all-mountain camps or private sessions with a high-level coach. mountwashington.ca Fernie/Kicking Horse: Make your powder dreams come true with Fernie’s Steep & Deep All Mountain Camp, a two-day adventure featuring bottomless powder and challenging terrain. Or check out Kicking Horse, Fernie’s sister resort, and its Big Mountain Ski Camp. skifernie.com, kickinghorseresort.com Whistler Blackcomb: Not surprisingly, Canada’s biggest ski resort in a big coastal-mountain snowpack has multiple…

Whether you find it in the trees a few metres from the run or deep in the backcountry after a long skin up, there’s nothing like the feeling of choking on a face full of blower. Even untracked, boot-top fluff produces joy that’s hard to beat. This is why we eagerly wake in the dark, drive for hours, and happily stand in the cold waiting for chairs to start spinning or slide one foot past the other uphill to earn our turns. In Ski Canada’s last issue, Buyer’s Guide 2021, we focused on the new equipment that will take skiing inside or close to the resort to the next level. That included Freeride, a crossover category that often combines powder and backcountry. In this issue we dive even deeper into…

The invasion of Normandy got its start at the Chateau Frontenac. So did Celine Dion. She was 18 years old when she sang for a group of Sony executives. A glamorous suite now bears her name. While German U-boats were sinking Canadian ships in the Lower St. Lawrence, the Quebec conference in 1943 saw Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King meeting to discuss Operation Overlord. Churchill and Roosevelt didn’t really trust one another, and King was the diplomat in the middle. In his diary, the teetotalling King complained that Churchill was drunk all the time. The nearby Plains of Abraham is the site of our most famous battle, usually told as a heroic creation myth. Though, in fact, General Wolfe was nervous, hated by many of…

The alarm, a redundancy at 2:30 a.m., doesn’t sound soon enough. I peek outside the frozen walls of the tent; the sky sparkles. Steve Ogle, Cam Shute and I squirm into ski gear then shuffle to the cook tent. I sit in a predawn stupor, hands wrapped around a mug of instant, conversation restricted to utilitarian exchanges. After inhaling some eggs, we follow the beam of our headlamps toward steep moraines above camp. A shooting star blazes across the heavens toward the Southern Cross, which sits low and prominent on the horizon. Given our location, we can also see Ursa Minor and the North Star in the opposite side of the same sky. Wondrous. To the northwest, the amber glow from the bustling metropolis of Quito, a mere 50 km…

“Dive in, I’ll follow you,” someone joked. We had paused briefly on the ice to admire again the Gaspesie’s magnificent coastline and realized the temperature had risen to five degrees. I noticed mist was eerily rising off the open water across the bay at Barachois. I looked down at my feet. Apparently seven cm of ice is considered safe for cross-country skiers in Quebec. Attending the Traversee de la Gaspesie festival means joining an annual winter celebration of hardy French-Canadian joie de vivre with music, gastronomy, unintelligible chitter-chatter—and all the Nordic skiing and snowshoeing my heart, lungs and legs could handle. (Or at least until one of the roaming buses can collect the frozen and fallen.) This winter’s Traversee glides down the peninsula February 20-27. tdlg.qc.ca, tourisme-gaspesie.com…

My dad got hot boxed in the gondola today,” daughter No. 3 Sophie announced dryly to our new dinner guests Olivier from Switzerland and James from the U.K. We were in the swank new Gudauri Lodge in Georgia’s largest, most international ski resort of the same name. Moments earlier I had busted all three of my daughters for scoping out the two good-looking boys who had just walked into the packed dining room. So I thought I would be the embarrassing dad and invite them to join us. But as I tried to interview the pair of oil-trader expats who’d flown in from Dubai for a few days of winter, I instead quickly found myself outnumbered and on the defensive. “I don’t smoke weed,” I explained dismissively to our smiling…