Table of contents for Dec24/Jan25 Vol.53#3 in Ski Canada

Surely the most optimistic skier in the country is Charlie Finley. I finally had a badly needed 77-minute catch up call with the long-time Jasper bon vivant and loyal friend of Ski Canada. It had been four months since Satan tore through town last summer, melting Charlie's land-line along with everything it was attached to. Forty-eight years, all of his worldly possessions, and those of so many of his neighbours, were literally vaporized in late July. “I lost 52 pairs of skis,” said a stoic Charlie, one of the country's most prolific retro ski gear collectors, and then added, with his classic sanguineness, “but storage has always been an issue for me.” “We had a half-hour warning to evacuate and we all thought we were going camping for a few…

I often dream of having my own private ski hill. It's usually when I'm at the back of a lift line on a powder day, or walking from the furthest parking spot into a north wind. I imagine myself and a few friends sliding right onto the chair for first tracks on all my favourite lines, paying no need to the Skier's Code of Conduct and, of course, scoring prime parking. It turns out the reality is even better than the fantasy. On the first run at my private ski hill I don't even wait for my two friends. I just pin it down the face, carve two high—speed turns, launch over a fall—away roll, ski right into a homemade kicker and straightline it back to the none—existent lift line.…

A paintbrush has touched this place. Soft reds tint the early-morning sky, the snow in the fields is white, the St. Lawrence River a cold navy blue. Pretty cottages in pink and yellow line the road, smoke from chimneys curling into the air. And in the little town nearby, signs in spidery script hang over the sidewalks: Auberge, Gallerie, Café, Dépanneur. So this is Charlevoix. At the ski resort, snow is falling on the Chalet du Sommet and skiers are rushing out the door. They slap down skis, click into bindings, push toward a volunteer standing in front of a giant trail map. “Télécabin, télésiège, secteur hors-piste,” he is saying, tap, tap, tapping on the map with a pole. He switches to english, traces steep runs with his pointer, plus…

My earliest memories of skiing are mostly about greasy mitts getting shredded by the rope tow at the Kamloops Ski Hill. That and the smell of oil and the roar of a repurposed V-8 engine. It was glorious. The volunteer-driven Kamloops Ski Hill is gone—long gone. All traces of it have been reabsorbed by the Douglas fir and bunchgrass on a hill now obscured behind a Costco monolith on the outskirts of the growing city in British Columbia's southern interior. Anyone who has skied as long as I have has witnessed the passing of more than a few mom and pop ski hills. My list also includes Grandview Ski Acres on an unassuming, long-forgotten bump of a hill near Knutsford south of Kamloops, and Mount Arrowsmith Ski Resort on a…

When this February's inaugural winter edition of the Invictus Games lands in Whistler—the international event welcoming hundreds of wounded, injured and sick military personnel to compete in several new winter sports—it will come with a slate of benefits for the resort. But for the athletes, their families, and coaches coming to Whistler from 20 nations to compete in alpine skiing and snowboarding, nordic skiing, biathlon and skeleton, the most important legacy is one you can't easily put into numbers. Thanks to the Whistler Adaptive Sports Program (WASP) and the long-standing support it has received from community partners, the local adaptive community has been well-equipped to thrive. But for the teams without the same history of adaptive sport in their home countries, the experience the Games can provide will prove invaluable…

For many southern Ontarians, Blue Mountain Resort is our home mountain. It's the 291m-tall slope on the Niagara Escarpment where we can dependably find some sort of snow— not always natural, not necessarily white, but something to ski on nonetheless—between the months of December and March. It's the place we learned to ski, or the “big mountain” we graduated to after linking our first turns after school on the bluff or converted garbage dump that our lowland neighbourhoods dubbed a ski hill. This conventional image of Blue, however, belies the resort's increasing importance as the workhorse of skiing in Canada, as I discovered on a tour of the resort's operations one unseasonably warm day last February. That day revealed another side of Blue. More than being just my local mountain,…

“If you don't go, you won't know” is probably the best operating principle I can think of when it comes to planning a ski trip. Before arriving at Stevens Pass Ski Area in Washington State, I only knew what I'd seen in the media and two things stood out. The first was that Stevens, or rather, the backcountry area located just outside the ski area boundary, was the site of a high-profile avalanche tragedy back in 2012. Two pro skiers and Stevens Pass marketing manager Chris Rudolph perished while descending the Tunnel Creek drainage. Under the guidance of New York Times sportswriter John Branch, “Snow Fall: The Avalanche at Tunnel Greek” won a Pulitzer Prize and became a shining example of integrated multi-media storytelling that used text, maps, interviews, videos…

After more than 40 years of skiing I have had many #skifails. There was the time I tomahawked down Lake Louise's Whitehorn 2. Also the showboating switch ski session that ended in the trees. And last winter I caught an edge on the bunny hill and stopped with my face. But the one that I know would have won me #jerryoftheday on Instagram involved an old snag, a mushroom top of powder and a natural jump that seemed to line up perfectly. It was mid-week during a stay at a backcountry lodge with a group of buddies. Between tagging summits, navigating glaciers and lapping tree runs, the guides had let us experience a safe fraction of what we had seen in ski movies: baby-pillow lines, a few small cliff drops…

I remember riding the Solar Coaster on Blackcomb in the ‘90s with Intrawest CEO Hugh Smythe on a cloudless, bluebird day. Fifteen centimetres of snow had fallen overnight, but all Hugh could talk about was hitting the groomers. Gesturing down at his shapely K2 Fours, Smythe enthused, “These babies just turn themselves. With the outstanding grooming we have these days, the average skier can experience the same feeling that World Cup racers get when they set an edge. I can even carve without using any poles; over in Europe, it's huge." “Getting your hip to the snow has become aspirational for many skiers.” We got to the top and I left Hugh to do his trench digging on the groomers. I was after fresh tracks—after all, isn't that skiing? Two…

Don't be fooled by the faux Wild West architecture of SilverStar's village, both it and Sun Peaks are modern, purpose-built resorts. That doesn't mean they are both cut from the same bolt of corporate cloth. Each has grown up in its own way and has a distinct set of offerings for the travelling skier (even non-Australians). Read our side-by-side showdown before deciding where to book. SILVERSTAR ACCESS Destination skiing doesn't get much easier than this. SilverStar is just 65km from Kelowna YLW, an airport that manages to stay relaxed despite having direct flights from the hellmouth called Pearson (something Kamloops can't readily boast, though that seems like the wrong word). Kelowna Concierge offers shuttles from the airport to the resort for $95 per person and the resort's ample ski-in/ski-out accommodations…

An effective pole plant is an essential tool in skiing. Don't believe me? Try skiing bumps without poles—and please let me know how you get on, ideally with photos. The pole is an aid to balance, striking the ground at the most challenging moment in skiing, just as the body passes over the feet at the transition from one turn to the next. In briefly touching the snow, the pole widens a skier's base of support, making it easier to balance over a moving platform. In this photo sequence, note how the skier's arms remain still while the pole moves from the wrist. The less his arms move, the easier it is to maintain balance, especially in cruddy, unpredictable snow. DRILLS TO TRY The Incredible Lightness of the Pole Plant:…