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| First lap, can't wait |
After 2 years of eager anticipation, the Valhalla Catski trip out of Nelson, BC was finally a reality. It was delayed by COVID last year, but despite the 5th wave and omicron over Christmas 2021, it was all systems go for the trip at the start of January. Kyle and I had a rough start to the trip with a 7hr drive from Fernie to Nelson. It has snowed heavily on Thursday night and Kootenay Pass was closed for avi control forcing us to take the ferry, but we did finally make it with time to ski a half day at Whitewater.
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Waiting for the Kootenay Ferry
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Feels like Japan
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We rolled into Whitewater at noon. The ski hill had been on standby due to a medical incident but had only just re-opened for the afternoon. We crushed out a few deep laps to warm up our legs for the next day.
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| Warming up at Whitewater |
We met the crew in the Valhalla parking lot before dawn and loaded into the cat. It was a bluebird skies with plenty of fresh snow in the last week. Sadly, there had a very brief freezing rain episode the night before, leaving a breakable crust at all elevations. This made for exciting skiing and lots of crashes, but the snow underneath was deep and fluffy and we still had a great time.
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| Loading up for our first lap |
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| More laps! |
Our guides were awesome and after a warm up lap they started taking us into more interesting zones with lots of fun hits, trying to find areas where the crust wasn't as bad. The Valhalla terrain is steep and we skied chutes, trees and pillows.
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| Farming! |
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Challenging crust but forgiving pow
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"If you go rogue you go rogue"
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Our crew was stoked and we skied as hard as we could until the end of the day. What a cool trip!
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Ridgetop glow
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Ready to drop in for some afternoon gnar
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Good times with good friends
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