What I love about skiing, is that it is truly a family sport.  There are not too many other sports you can do as a family for a long time.  Son Shane and his family spent the weekend with us.  Not only was I able to watch grandson Waylon skiing on the kids area but I had the pleasure of going with Shane and his friend Matt  to T2 for a run.  Shane is an amazing snowboarder and former slalom snowboard racer.  I had some fun to say the least skiing with the kids. 
March is almost here and is one of my favourite months for skiing.  It can be one of the best months for powder.  Give us a call and book your stay 250 344 2622 or email info@vagabondlodge.ca 
Enjoy the video of Shane doing his thing at Kicking Horse. 

A bit of a dry spell for the past week here at Vagabond Lodge plus we had the long weekend which is one of  the busiest few days of the winter.  Needless to say the bulk of the runs get skied out pretty quickly.  Great coverage but not as easy to find the soft untracked snow. 
But if you are a little more adventuresome and have the necessary avalanche equipment, there is still a lot of great spots to explore just outside the boundary of Kicking Horse Resort.  I do not recommend this to the uneducated in terms of avalanche awareness.  When I go I make sure it is as safe as possible and have a transceiver with me just in case and follow routes that do not take me under or near possible avalanche areas.  And the skiing is fabulous. 
We are closing in on the final month of operation of Vagabond for this winter.  Don't rule out March.  It can be a great month for skiing at Kicking Horse.  Give us a call at 250 344 2622 or email info@vagabondlodge.ca 

One of the things I have wanted to do for a number of years is to ski into Canyon Creek.  It is basically the valley behind Kicking Horse.  I see it every time I ski and think how nice it would be to go down.  It is certainly getting more and more popular for the back country enthusiasts because of the great terrain as well as the proximity to the resort.   There have also been a number of incidents over the past 15 years, where skiers and boarders have gone down into Canyon Creek not realizing they need to have skins on their skis or boards and have to walk back up. They have gone down unprepared and unaware.  There was a fatality there a number of years ago as well.  
I went with some friends this week.  One if very experienced in the backcountry and we took all  necessary equipment.  It was a great day with untracked powder.  The easy part was going down.  The hard part was coming back up which took about an hour.  They went for a second run.  One was enough.   Included in my trip was a ski that decided to run away after a spill near the bottom.  Luckily it did not go as far as it could and was found and brought back up to me.  I hate to think about the consequences of not finding it.  
Awesome day and I will be doing that again in the right conditions and with the right people. 

It's not always pretty.  As you can see from this video.  The key for skiing off-piste is being able to adjust to the varying snow conditions. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.  The other day friend Patrick and I went for a hike to T2.  It looked fabulous but was wind-blown.  One turn and whoops.  One ski goes one way and one goes the other way.  I had that happens a couple times on our run and went for a couple spills.  It was all good.  The snow is amazing for the most part.  We did have 1 day of rain last week at the base.  It was the pineapple express that rolls through from the west coast every so often.  We got away lucky as it snowed heavily after the rain stopped.  Other resorts in the area did not come away as fortunate.  Since then we had had some nice snow almost daily and colder temperatures.  We still have a couple of months of great skiing ahead of us.  Give us a call at Vagabond Lodge 250 344 2622 or email info@vagabondlodge.ca