Wednesday, July 15

Arriving pre-dawn to get parking in lot no. 1

We were on the road before 7:00 AM to get to the mountain EARLY to be sure that we’d get a spot in the first parking lot. We snaked our way up into the Remarkable mountain range on a steep switchback road in the dark. We arrived at 7:30 and parked in the first row of cars to arrive! We were glad to be there early to get the lay of the land when it wasn’t crowded. There’s a whole culture of the early crowd - they have cooked breakfast and bakery and coffee shop up and running in the cafeteria - and families were settled in with games while waiting for the lifts to spin at 9:00.

They had two chairs running that serviced blue / black runs and one that serviced greens. The snow was good, freshly groomed and crisp. But the visibility was not so great. The clouds rolled in pretty quickly and it became quite overcast causing the light to be very flat. Since we didn’t know the terrain at all we found it quite challenging! Mike ventured down an ungroomed black run, and Gail an ungroomed blue run - wet clay is the most apt description of what the snow was like. So we kept to the groomed runs. The weather forecast had said clear skies by the afternoon, so we went in for an early (and long) lunch hoping it’d arrive sooner than later. But the forecast kept pushing it out later. We went out after lunch and the snow was really coming down - which made for great skiing, and even poorer visibility. So after one run, we decided to call it a day and head down the mountain, mindful that we’d now be driving in this snowy weather.

People store their bags by hanging them from the fencing by the base lodge.

Time to head down the mountain - which means putting chains on our tires! Thank God for the parking lot guys who did it for us! (Mike could have done it, but it would have taken a lot longer and a few swear words!)

Taking the chains off 1/3 of the way down

About the time we took the chains off, the sky cleared and the rest of the drive was beautiful. We ran a few errands on our way back to our condo.

When we arrived the sun was out and the views of the Remarkable range across the lake was spectacular. We relaxed for a couple hours before going out to dinner with Bart and Richard (our friends who invited us here to ski with them, and who we’re staying with).