Finally, FINALLY, I got back on skis. Skied three of five days at Marmot Basin last week and every one was a nearly perfect day with magnificent blue skies and comfortable temperatures hovering in the minus-5 C range.
And yes, the snow conditions, even after the heavy Christmas-New Year’s period, were just fine. The main runs were hard-packed -- or, as the ski people prefer to say, “fast” -- and the rest of the hill had enough loose covering of snow to make carving easy.
The first day, last Saturday, was interesting for me personally. My first day on skis this winter, first day since my heart surgery last spring, and skiing alone I just went wherever I felt like it. So, after a few warm-up runs down Paradise and Highway 16, it was coffee in the mid-mountain lodge.
With the mild temperatures – which are forecast to continue at Jasper for most of the next two weeks – and the warming sun, the snow softened enough that it invited skiers and boarders to roam onto runs they may have shied away from previously.
With not a cloud in the sky, it was an ideal day to spend time just stopping at various spots on the hill and absorbing the amazing panoramic view of 360-degree snow-capped mountains and the valley below.
This was the first weekend of the annual Jasper In January festival but, as in most past years, the crowds weren’t large, given it was just days after kids had returned to classes from the Christmas break and parents had resumed their daily work days.
Jasper in January is celebrating its 30th anniversary and doing it in style. There are tons of events around town and on the ski hill almost every day. The event runs through January 27 and some of the remaining events include Mountain Park Lodges 31th annual chili cookoff, brewery tours, pond hockey tournament, dogsledding and sleigh rides, food tours, demo days at Marmot Basin and an impressive array of live music throughout the town.
Of course there are also plenty of deals to be found on hotel rooms and lift tickets.
For full details go to http://jasperinjanuary.com/
Naturally I gravitated to the Knob chair and up to my favourite area. Three runs down the Knob area where the snow was still substantial and heavy and the legs were screaming, Break Time! Another break and then it was time for Tres Hombres, that crazy-steep, 18-hectacre treeless bowl that opened last winter. With 367 vertical metres – Marmot’s longest uninterrupted fall-line – and run length of almost 700 metres – about three times the length of Charlie’s Bowl – its advanced and expert terrain is a challenge.
But, Jasper mayor Richard Ireland had issued a challenge, sort of, the night before. We both have to ski Tres Hombres and when we meet for dinner Saturday evening, we’ll compare notes on how the ski-out track had changed from the previous year, he said.
The ski-out, a narrow, roller-coaster track had intimidated the hell out of me last winter, but Marmot had gotten permission from Parks Canada to make a couple of changes and said it would be much improved. They were right. At least it seemed that way to me, a little wider, most of the steep roller-coaster had been packed out of it and it was far easier to control your speed on the constantly downhill track.
Improved so much I came out of the track, skied right to Paradise Chair and back up and into Tres Hombres again. But guess what? Mr. Ireland didn’t make it in … something about the gate was closed by the time he got there!!. Hmmmm, me thinks.
Discovered Marmot has named the runs in Tres Hombres, having selected them from an online voting contest. And great names they are: Holy Guacamole was the leading vote getter and is the run off the top of Tres Hombres, accessed via a short hike off the top of the Paradise chair.
The other names are El Diablo, Canadian Courage, No Fear and the main, open bowl remains Tres Hombres.
Was back to Marmot to ski Tuesday and Wednesday with a buddy, which is always more fun than skiing alone. And we skied hard. Tackled almost every run – except for Eagle East, where I don’t go because I always get lost in the trees and end up hiking out, and Tres Hombres, which we planned to do Wednesday but by the time we remembered, our legs were exhausted. And no way was I going into Tres Hombres on tired legs!
Besides, with more snow forecast for the mountains in the coming days and a return to mild temperatures after our short period of cold weather, I know I’ll be heading back the slopes in the near future.
The mountain man is moving on
Marmot Basin will have a huge hole to fill when Dave Gibson, its long-time president and CEO, retires this summer. Gibson has spent the better part of his life in the mountains including the last three decades running Marmot Basin. As friendly, accommodating, efficient and progressive a president as Marmot could have hoped for, Gibson will give up his life on the hill to move to Kelowna in June.
He will be greatly missed by the resort, the town, the Marmot ownership group and, I suspect, even Parks Canada officials with whom he went toe-to-toe with in negotiations as he fought through the years to bring about the type of improvements that elevated Marmot to its current status as one of the country’s premiere ski resorts. His parting gift, I guess it could be said, was the new 42-year lease Marmot signed with Parks Canada last fall.
No 1 Ski Town in North America
Jasper was voted the Best Ski town in North America in USA Today’s recent Readers’ Choice survey. USA Today implored participants in the four-week-long survey to consider what makes a ski town great, things like ease of access to the slopes, the local vibe, food scene and its history.
Jasper beat out towns like Steamboat Springs, Colo., Taos, N.M., Whitefish, Mont., Park City, Utah, Stowe, Vt., Beckenridge, Colo., and Nelson, B.C.
“The town is its people, so it’s really no surprise that Jasper landed this award,” said Brian Rode, Marmot Basin’s vice-president of marketing and a resident of Jasper for 40 years. “We are truly the best combination of all the things that makes the ski town experience so special.”
Pine Beetle battle rages on
If you go to Jasper and see or smell a lot of smoke, don’t be alarmed. It’s just Parks Canada battling the pine beetle epidemic that threatens to destroy forests throughout Western Canada. Some residents have expressed concern about the town’s safety if a forest fire in the area gets out of control, which could happen with nearly half the pine trees in the valley already dead or dying because of the pine beetle.
About 93,000 hectares of the park’s 200,000-hectare pine forests were affected in the federal agency’s most recent survey last winter. The beetle no longer limits itself to destroying lodgepole pine, it is also reproducing in other pines, including the jack pine, the dominant pine species in Alberta’s boreal forests.
So Parks Canada is cutting dead pines and conducting controlled burns in an effort to slow the beetle spread and to protect the town of Jasper and surrounding resorts in case of fire.
Plus, Parks is also “renovating” the Whistler’s campground, clear-cutting the area and burning those trees as well. So it can get smoky some days.
