Road trip to 13 ski areas in 10 days

I have done several "ski safaris" in the past.  Most of them were 5-day trips to British Columbia, Canada.

The picture on the left was taken at Kimberley, BC in 2008, on a trip with Kay Kinyon, where we drove to Banff, skied all the big 3 three, and then proceeded to Kicking Horse, Revelstoke, and Silver Star, a total of 7 days.  Look at all that fresh snow!

Another memorable one was in 2014, the first year that the Powder Alliance came into existence and I made an attempt to ski all of the US ski areas that were part of the Powder Alliance.  That attempt is recorded in the earlier blog posts, just below this one. That one was about 9 days, but only about 8 ski areas and one day of rest in the middle.

The current road trip will be the longest I have ever attempted.  I will try to visit 13 ski areas in 10 days. Not counting the very first day, which will be just driving to Abbotsford, Canada.

What triggered this whole trip is the fact that 2 ski areas just joined the Powder Alliance, which means that with my Fusion Pass I can ski there for free.  The two of them are quite large ski areas in Alberta:  Marmot Basin (by Jasper, several hours north of Banff), and Castle Mountain (near Pincher Creek, several hours south of Banff).  I call this another one of my Powder Alliance trips, even though only 2 of the ski areas are part of the alliance.  But that's what motivated me.

Of course, it's a lot of driving to get there and back, so I searched for what other ski areas might be on my route.  That's how I came up with all the other 11 ski areas.  And the amazing thing is that almost all of them will be new to me, with the exception of Red Mountain, where I had skied several times before, but not since they expanded by building a lift on Gray Mountain, so at least the Gray Mountain part of the Red Mountain ski area will be new to me.

The 13 ski areas I plan to visit are: 

1. Sasquatch (Hemlock Valley), BC.
2. Manning Park, BC  (on Hwy. 3)
3. Harper Mountain -near Kamloops, BC
4. Marmot Basin, AB
5. Nakiska, AB
6. Castle Mountain, AB
7. Pass Powderkeg, AB
8. Salmo ski hill, BC
9. Red Mountain (Gray Mt.), BC
10. Phoenix ski area, BC
11. Baldy Mountain -east of Oliver, BC
12. Sitzmark ski area (WA)
13. Echo Valley (WA)

Why these 13?   Well, I might as well ski at all those that are near my route.  I don't want to skip any, especially if I am not going to return to that part of the world any time soon.

It was quite a juggling act to arrange this trip, because some of the smaller ski areas are open only on weekends, or only on certain days for night skiing.  For example, I will ski Castle Mountain during the day, then drive a bit over an hour to do some night skiing at Pass Powderkeg.  Later, I will do the same by skiing Red Mountain during the day and returning to Salmo for some night skiing.

The only way this will work is if I start the trip on a Thursday.  If I am a day ahead or a day late, things will NOT fall into place and I might have to skip a ski area or two, and there might be a domino effect too.

I will try to write about this trip every day, but it depends on whether I will be able to get an internet connection at each motel where I will stay.