Night skiing at Pass Powderkeg

Pass Powderkeg is a relatively small ski area at the edge of the town of Blairmore, AB.  It is visible from highway 3 as you drive by. It is not far from the town of Crowsnest Pass.  Note also that the whole of highway 3 is called the Crowsnest highway.

Small is a relative thing. It offers 980 feet of vertical served by 2 T-bars, one above the other. Some of the blue (intermediate) trails are steeper than expected, just like at Castle Mountain.

Pass Powderkeg is less than an hour away from Castle Mountain. After skiing at Castle Mt. till about 4 pm, I arrived at Pass Powderkeg by about 5 pm.  I thought that night skiing here starts at 5:30 pm.  But I confused that with Salmo, where night skiing does indeed start at 5:30 pm.  But at Pass Powderkeg, night skiing starts at 4 pm.  If I had known that, I could have come here a bit earlier.

Still, I got here early enough to be able to see the whole hill before dark.

Unfortunately, only a few runs were open for night skiing.  Both T-bars were running, thus serving the complete vertical available, top to bottom.

As it got darker, I noticed the crescent of a new moon.  Also, from the top of the hill, there was a beautiful view of the town of Blairmore down below.

Notice the crescent moon in the upper right of the picture

There were not many people on this Thursday evening, but here was a ski patroler riding up the T-bar with a kid.