Report from January 15, 2022

Day #2 of the SnowBrains Powder Highway 2022 trip was a rowdy one.

7 hours of driving, 300-miles, 2 hours of skiing, 1 ferry ride, and a savior moon.

We awoke at 7am in Spokane, WA, and hit the road north at 8am.

Fog.

Bad, filthy fog.

Highway 395 north until our right turn onto highway 25 that took us into the nothing.

The country up in far Northern Washington is something out of the 19th century.

Rugged terrain, big rivers, and dilapidated farmhouses dominate.

We hit the border early and the border always makes one nervous.

Especially now with all the added COVID protocol documentation.

Passport, ArriveCAN QR code, negative PCR COVID test within 72 hours required.

He looked at our passports, checked our negative COVID tests, and skipped the ArriveCAN info altogether.

We were only on the border for 5-minutes before tearing across the landscape again.

Nerves relaxed – we made it into Canada for the first time in 2-years.

Our minds returned to the rain…

.

The fog was misting hard.

Windshield wipers on.

37ºF.

We pulled into legendary Rossland, BC for runs at RED Mountain with a local named Greg.

The fog was milkshake thick.

Greg said it was sunny up top – we didn’t believe him.

After 2 chair rides, we broke into the sun and it was glorious!

We ripped groomer after groomer in brilliant sunshine and fast snow.

The rain had hit all parts of the mountain which had warped the off-piste firm so we stayed on-trail and had a hoot.

The wildest part was when you’d ski down into the mist and it would slap you in the goggles like a bucket of water.

You’d instantly have to turn on your manual windshield wipers and you could barely see anything.

Like skiing a deep seamount.

After 2 hours of good times, we said goodbye to Greg and returned to our master – the road.

We’d planned to stay at Red, explore Whitewater, and hit Kootenay Pass but the rain drove us north.

Friends were texting us reports of ok powder skiing in and around Revelstoke.

We changed all our plans, canceled hotels, apologized to friends, and fled.

The road to Revelstoke held less fog and more views.

The amount of water they have dammed up in this region is impressive.

There must be enough water in reservoirs up here to fill the Grand Canyon.

We glided along river-lakesides until we hit the Columbia River ferry crossing.

Our timing was bad and we had to wait for 45-minutes for the ferry.

We took a walk and drank in the views.

The ferry ride was great.

The boat rolled gently side to side as it powered across the glassy river-lake for our sunset cruise.

As a rule, if I’m on a boat, I’m happy.

I was happy.

We reached the other side in darkness with 45-minutes left to Revelstoke.

The dark is not your friend on BC roads at night.

The waxing full moon splashed out of the clouds above and lit our way.

We knew we were lucky, the road was bright.

We limped into town at 5:30pm.

Tired.

I’d driven 18-hours in 2 days, skied for 2 hours, covered 900+ miles, and was ready to be warm and dry.

Our friend Lucas’ place was just the ski bum flophouse we needed.

Food, hot tea, old friends, new friends, hot showers, and a good stretch got the recovery started.

My old friend Lee swung by and gave us his local backcountry report from today and it sounded pretty good considering.

Revelstoke or backcountry tomorrow?

We’ll decide in the morning…

Photos in Chronological