Conditions Report
This report is from January 21, 2024
Whitewater Ski Resort is a five-lift (one rope tow and four chairlifts) ski hill 12 miles from Nelson, British Columbia. Six miles of that is a plowed logging road, taking you to the base lodge, overlooked by Ymir Peak, an iconic mountain that tops out at 7850 feet. The drive can be interesting at times, and the parking is difficult at Whitewater on a powder day.
This season there has been an additional lift opened, the Raven Chair, now allowing lift access to a ridge at 6,768 feet that was once the preserve of ski tourers. This added an additional 123 acres of steep, treed terrain. With this addition, access to the vast backcountry Whitewater is famous for became simpler as well. The top of the chair allows access through three backcountry gates to West Arm Park, a backcountry zone known locally as Five Mile.
On the other side of the valley, the Summit Chair rises to a following ridge line, allowing access to the backside and the Glory Lift. The runs returning to the main lodge vary from cruisy blues, such as Bonanza, to steep technical shots, such as Terra Ratta. The latter being a favorite of many off-duty Whitewater Ski patrollers and locals, who all seem to have their own different stash hidden in the trees
The Glory Lift accesses terrain that 10 years ago was known as Backside and is skied by locals with truck retrievals back to the main lodge from the Summit lift. Mostly ungroomed, this is an expert playground, with drops, pillows, and a top-to-bottom chute in the trees being some of the stand-out features.
Whitewater is also renowned locally for its food, with the scuttlebutt in Nelson being that the ski hill kitchen is one of the best restaurants in town. The poutine is a staple for local families wishing to keep their kids’ energy up for skiing.
After being picked up at my place just outside of town, the three of us slid into the second row of HOV parking. Whitewater has traditionally had parking issues on a powder day, but with the new lift, the parking has been greatly increased, and the HOV spaces are a great addition. The cloud coverage was total but high enough that visibility was good. The temperature was forecast to be 26-32 degrees, but with the wind, was closer to 23 degrees.
Our day started with the fifth chair on the Summit lift. Turning left off the lift, we dropped into an untouched Sleeper, a steep open shot that takes you back to Motherlode, a groomer back to the main lodge. With 3-5 inches of light powder and a base that gripped edges, this was a great first run. Motherlode was a groomed, powder-covered groomer, as fun as it sounds.
We then skied almost straight onto the Raven chair, only one chair of people ahead in the line. Left at the top led us to the edge of Grizzly Glades. As with most of the runs from this ridge, the steep rollover was windswept, and the visibility was not as good as on the other side. Once into the trees, although the snow was good quality, with it still being low tide, we had to pick our way through.
Upon meeting up with three other locals, we headed towards the Glory Lift. From the Summit chair, we went straight fall line down Tailings. This seemed to have been filled in a little more by the wind and had a couple of pockets of six inches of fresh snow. Tailings throws you out on Claim Jumper. This was a lot of fun today, a rolling groomer with side hits that snakes down to the Glory Lodge.
Earlier, the choice had been made to go for a tour from the Raven in the afternoon. So we skied Kuba’s to bring us back to the lodge. Less skied and a little harder to get into, this is a 35-plus-degree short shot through cliffs and chutes into well-gladed trees. For at least one of our crew, this was the best run of the day. Another great day inbounds at Whitewater.
