My Road to the Powder Highway in the Kootenay Rockies

My process of settling in the Kootenay Rockies actually sprouted in Germany.

The German Alps were the first real big mountains I had seen and rode in my life. A love story had started - I was only 15 years old and knew that I would spend my life in the mountains.

Four years after I made it to the French Alps and experienced my first season as a ski bum. Then I started my second love story, with a French ski bum!

La Grave, the big mountain skiing Mecca, is where we finally settled down for a few years. I was studying at the University of Grenoble, working part-time at the tourism office and skiing.

In fact, at French universities you get a lot of time off due to the annual strikes. Perfect for the inspiring ski bums. Add in, road closures to the village and my passion for skiing grew.

Our time in La Grave had been fantastic. The terrain was the most impressive anyone would get to see in a skier’s life: 2,200 m (7,200 ft) of vertical drop, big glaciers, steep couloirs, stunning alpine scenery - serious mountains. But on the down side, powder never lasts very long out there.

At the time, our friends were heading to the Powder Highway in British Columbia to experience something different. Coming back, they would all have the same conclusion - the Powder Highway had the best snow on Earth!

So, I slowly started thinking of making it back to Canada and started probing my French-ski-bum-boyfriend on his intentions. One day, we were hanging out with a former resident of Golden (Ptor Spricenieks who now lives in La Grave), a real ski bum at heart and he told us “You guys should definitely checkout Golden - you’ll love it there! It has got the most amazing skiing and a great community - you’ll feel just like at home”.

Our decision was made. We moved to the Powder Highway in November 2010, just in time for ‘La Nina gets mad’ episode. We had the confirmation of what we had been told.

The Powder Highway has the most epic snow conditions you can dream of. It also has everything else to make you want to settle there; laid back small towns, an extraordinary sense of community, passionate people and a very pure healthy environment. In fact, it has the making to motivate any ski bum - it has everything to make ME happy.

Submitted & shared by Emilie

Check out the Powder Highway at: http://powderhighway.com/news.php?id=167