Bad weather good for Whitewater/Red and great to get locals voting in 'Ski Town Throw Down' contest
By Bruce Fuhr
There are probably not many people enjoying the monsoon like weather hammering the Kootenays of late — other than those who can’t wait for a wintry day on the boards.
“The weather this year went from summer to winter, just how you love it,” a beaming Anne Pigeon, GM Indoor Operations and Marketing for Whitewater Ski Resort told The Nelson Daily.
“The weather turned very, very quickly and the snow is definitely starting to come and ‘we say, bring it on, we’re ready’.”
While the hill opening may be more than a month away, skiers can give Whitewater, and Red Mountain in Rossland, a pre-season boost in the exposure by signing onto facebook.com/powdermagazine to vote in the Powder Magazine’s “Ski Town Throw Down” contest.
The two West Kootenay hills join forces in a contest, similar to NCAA Basketball’s March Madness format, to find the top ski area in North America.
Whitewater and Red Mountain open up against Sugarloaf, a resort located in the heart of Carrabassett Valley four hours away from Boston and Montreal, in the 32-team event.
“We say ‘bring it on . . . because we’re going to smack those guys’,” Pigeon exclaims.
“(Nelson and Rossland) both got such a good rep as a great ski towns,” Pigeon adds.
“There been lots of talking around the industry about both communities so we’re excited to be part of the contest.”
Voting starts on Halloween (Wednesday) and runs for two days.
Whitewater/Red Mountain supporters vote on the Powder’s Facebook page.
The successful hill advances to face the winner of Whitefish, Montana and Whistler November 28-29.
The “Ski Town Throw Down” contest is not the only excitement happening at Whitewater.
Whitewater staff has been busy making improvements to the hill — one not bigger than an improved parking lot on the hill.
Pigeon said grading of the lot was recently completed.
“Our biggest improvement that everybody is going to enjoy is the new parking area,” Pigeon said.
“We’ve added a whole new one-way loop that increases the size and opens up between 100-150 spots to the resort.”
Pigeon said the there have been improvements to the lodge seating as well as the delicious Fresh Tracks Café Express that will be available at the bottom of the Glory Ridge Chair.
Opening daily at 8:30 a.m., Fresh Tracks Café Express allows time to fuel up for first chair with locally roasted Oso Negro espresso, breakfast specials and daily fresh-baked muffins.
“We’ve built a lovely little covered area for the truck,” Pigeon explains.
“The area (Café Express) is going into is very environmentally sensitive so we wanted something a little bit more flexible too that we could take on to festivals and also promote the hill.”
Of course now that the staff has all its ducks firmly placed in a row, it’s time to bring on the snow.
And this recent deluged of wet weather is just what a skier would order on the eve of the winter season.
“It’s definitely bodes for the best scenario to have that wet solid base form before the real snow comes,” said Pigeon.
“It’s better for the ski base to have that pre-winter soaking and you get the wet stuff and it freezes and then the base has something to bind too.
“And if you go from no snow to cold, there’s nothing underneath for that new snow to form to . . . which is good not only for ski hills but also for winter activities in the mountains.”
For those skiers licking their lips in anticipation of the new season, the latest report on the Whitewater website has 40cm base at the top of Summit, 25cm at the lodge and 20cm in the past three days.
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