We had a fairly slow start to the day and left Revelstoke around 8am. Again I was in the cold, foggy car. We got to KH around 11:30 and waited the half hour for the half day pass. Going up the gondola, the clouds cleared and we were presented with the awesome kicking horse terrain. Even at this late an hour there were fresh tracks galore.
We did one leg burner to the base scoring plenty of untracked turns and then headed back to the top.
We were keen to check out the Stairway to Heaven terrain using the CPR Ridge access. I was side slipping down the ridge looking for a place to drop in when my ski pre-released! I watched in horror as my ski went off a cliff and down a 35deg slope. Luckily it dug in about 20m down. I had to climb down the rocks and snow to get my ski. Once I was clicked back in the route down to chair was interesting. I got stuck on top of a large rock band and had to sort of shimmy myself down it and over and around some trees. I dropped the last few rocks and then scored some fresh turn down to the chair. My parents were watching horrified at the bottom.
Looking at Redemption Ridge from CPR Ridge just before my ski went flying off the cliff
The terrain I got stuck in
Looking back at CPR Ridge after my ordeal
After the one ski scare I was a bit rattled, what better terrain to hit than Redemption Ridge to redeem myself. Using this ridge as access I scored some amazing fresh tree runs.
Redemption Ridge
No mans land behind Kicking Horse
To finish the day we dropped into Feuz Bowl from Redemption Ridge. I found a nice tight line down with a little drop at the end. We ducked into the trees all the way to the day lodge, around 1260m of vertical.
After skiing we gunned it back to Banff. There were some nice photo ops on the way. The town of field, the Burgess Shale is in the alpine area above for any fossil freaks.
It was a beautiful night so I spent some time freezing my ass off taking photos.
Day 14 – Sunshine Village
I got picked up early by my mates from Calgary and we headed up to Sunshine. Again we were met with some beautiful boot deep powder. We did about 15 runs down the Garbage Chutes of Standish. Although not long, the chutes are gnarly and require quick reflexes as you ski/fall down. I was having to much fun to stop for photos so here are some frame grabs.
After the chutes we grabbed a coffee and then headed out into the slack country. We did two nice runs through the glades.
We hit a really nice little cliff on the second run. The moment before the drop in.
I had a pretty quiet evening with the olds and my sister in Banff.
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