White Queen

We spent Christmas day chasing the snow, and we found it ... all of it ... in Nelson.

The first three days of our trip were spent at the Whitewater resort. Locals complained that they had a below-average early season base, but as far as I was concerned, we were skiing in an above-average mid season snowpack for the Rockies. It snowed every day we were there, and there was fresh powder to be had even to the last run of the day.

On our fourth day, we decided to do a short tour up White Queen, a small peak just off the resort. It is possible to do the tour from the top of one of the chair lifts, but we decided to not cheat.

The area reminds me a bit of Rogers Pass. Although nowhere near as high in elevation, the tour start pretty much right from the road and gains elevation immediately. The uptrack didn't relent until we reached the summit ridge (about 500m up from our starting point).

We had decided to stay in the trees, as I was not very familiar with the snow conditions and history of the area, but one party did a compression test and got a moderate shear about 25cm down. As the snow on top hadn't formed much of a wind slab yet, I wasn't too concerned, even though the terrain was quite intimidating.

The summit of White Queen, still below treeline

The start of the run was very steep, but the snow was amazing and plentiful. Heavier than Rockies powder, but by no means like coastal snow. We skied the trees and some small avalanche gullies.

Exiting via the cross country ski trails

As is always the case, the run down ended too quickly and we were on the cross country ski trails which run along the base of the peak. Pretty convenient, all things considered. There was a distinct lack of bushwhacking on this day.

I am now very intrigued by both this area and Kootenay Pass, which we drove by on the way to Nelson. The amount of ski touring in the area seems pretty amazing, and Whitewater is a fantastic resort (although it still gets busy on the weekends like any other resort). We will definitely come back again to do a bit of both.

http://www.endomondo.com/workouts/280760809/3101909