Great powder at Harper Mountain

Minus 10 degrees Fahrenheit, as displayed on my car's
instrument panel

When I arrived in Kamloops last night, the temperature had dropped to about 17ºF.  This morning, it was down to just 1ºF.  As I drove up to Harper Mountain, only 30 minutes away, the temperature dropped to -10ºF.  That's -21ºC.   Cold.

There was lots of fresh and super light powder snow on the mountain, and it kept snowing lightly almost all day.

This was Sunday, and yet, there were no crowds.  In fact, when I took pictures on the slopes, most of the time there were no people around.  The easier side of the mountain, served by a T-bar, had a bunch of young skiers and snowboarder.  But on the more advance side of the mountain, served by a long triple chairlift, I saw other skiers maybe only once every 10 or 15 minutes!

Hey, there's one skier, finally!

I lucked out with the powder.  It was so light that when I go back to my car, there was an inch of snow accumulated on my windshield, but I could simply blow it away.  No need for a scraper or a brush.

The slopes you can see from the parking lot are only a small part of the ski area.
The best part, are the meandering trails that you can't see, both on the left and the right of this picture.

 But what I liked most about this ski area (in addition to the lack of crowds and fantastic powder) is the way this mountain is sculpted and the way the ski trails were laid out.  The mountain has lots of natural features, such as rolling hills and gullies, and those who built the trails took advantage of this. 

Many of the trails meander through the forest and follow the natural contours of the mountain. This makes the trails much more interesting than the boring straight clear-cuts at many other ski areas.

One one of the more secluded trails, not visible from any of the lifts, I laid down a fresh set of tracks. Before me, there was only on snowboarder who rode through there, but his tracks were already being partially covered up by the snow that kept falling.  I liked that trail so much that I returned to it later, and I had to stop and take a picture -- because there were still no other tracks there.  I took a picture of my own earlier tracks.

Notice two things:  a) It was cold.  I normally never cover my face!
b) The tracks in the picture are mine.  Nobody else had skied here before I returned for another run.

 Taking pictures was hard because of the cold.  Taking videos was even harder. My camera kept freezing up on me.  I think the battery got too cold and couldn't produce enough power.  So, I stored my camera deeper inside my clothing, where it could warm up a bit.  Still, that was only enough for 2 or 3 pictures or maybe a very short video clip.

Taking my gloves off every time I needed the camera, and having to unzip my jacket to reach the camera, let in a lot of cold air, and eventually I got a bit too cold and had to retreat to the day lodge. But notice that the staff in the cafeteria (two young ladies) were all bundled up in extra clothing, a hat, and a hoodie!

Notice the hood one of the ladies is wearing.  And both have hats on.

 This reminds of an earlier Canada ski safari with Kay Kinyon, when we skied at Lake Louise (Alberta) in -30ºF.   After each couple of runs, we had to retreat to he day lodge to warm up a bit.  And we noticed that even the lodge wasn't very warm.  The cold penetrated everywhere.

I love Harper Mountain.  It's near Kamploops. If you ever go to Sun Peaks, which is only slightly further away from Kamloops, and in a slightly different direction, remember to stop for a day at Harper Mountain.  If there is enough snow there, you will love it!

Inside the day lodge, a model of Harper Mountain is on display.

 After skiing at Harper, I got in my car, drove back to highway 5 and followed it north for another 3 or 4 hours to spend the night at Valemount.  Tomorrow morning, I still have about another 60 miles to Jasper and then just a few more miles up the access road to Marmot Basin.   This will be the farthest north I have ever been.

In fact, I am already at least 3 hours farther north than I had ever been.  Every time I drove up I-5 to Kamloops and then just past it, turned off to Sun Peaks, I remember wondering what might lay beyond, further up north.  Well, today I saw part of it, and tomorrow I'll see more.