Red Mountain - a growing powder giant with kinks

Red Mountain ski area is big and growing. It has 2,919 vertical feet, spread out over 3 mountains:

1. Red Mountain - the original one, approximately 1,400' vertical. Not as small as it might look. It offers several black trails, plus a couple of blue ones.
2. Granite Mountain - the larger one, about twice the size of Red Mt.  In the upper part of Granite Mountain is an area called "Paradise", served by its own lift. The mid-mountain lodge is in that area.
3. Gray Mountain - the newest one, opened in 2013 via snowcat only, and with a new lift installed in 2014. Our last club trip to Red. Mt. and Whitewater was in March 2013.  It was a well attended carpooling trip. Some of us took the snowcat to the top of Gray Mountain.  This year, I wanted to take a few rides on the Gray Mountain's lift. 

The whole ski area seems to be geared toward powder and tree skiing.  About a third of the terrain is intermediate, but about 50% is for advanced and expert skiers.

This is me on an earlier visit.  This trail on the back side of the original Red Mountain descends directly toward Rossland.

Gray Mountain seems to be mostly full of steep ungroomed slopes, with just maybe 2 or 3 groomed trails.  For my last run of the day, I usually like to pick an easy cruiser trail, because I am tired.  So, on Gray Mountain, I picked what seemed to be the easiest trail called "Get  Up - Stand Up".  On the trail map, it is shown as a blue trail.  Great!  No problem.  The only problem is that this trail begins as a large field of moguls that are moderate at first and then get bigger and steeper.  If you survive that, then you can relax on a blue trail the rest of the way.

Someone told me there is a way to bypass those moguls, but this was not made obvious because there was no trail sign pointing at an easier way down.

It was a rather gray day on Gray Mountain.  This is the easier part of the "Get Up - Stand Up" trail, after the mogul field.

Maybe it's just my luck, but there is always something not quite right with Red Mountain. I have skied there at least 4 times.  A couple of times by myself.  Once with Bob Voss at the tail end of one of our Canada Ski Safaris. And once with the club trip in March 2013.  It seems like every time there was some kind of an issue.  For example:

1. On my first visit, some 10 years ago (or more), I had fun on Granite Mountain.  At the end of the day, feeling tired, I decided to try a few runs on what I though would be the easier hill, the smaller, original Red Mt.  But, that lift closed at 2 pm in those days, and I didn't know it.  I was disappointed at not being able to ski Red at least once.

2.  On another visit, the one with Bob Voss, the whole of Granite Mountain was closed.  So, this time, we were forced to ski only at the smaller Red Mt. hill.

3. Another time, I was caught at the bottom of the Paradise lift when that lift broke down.  No easy was of skiing out of that hollow.  Everyone had to climb up a ways before catching a road that took us around the mountain to the bottom of the Granite Mt. main lift.

Just today (Feb. 9, 2019) there is a notice on Red Mountain's website that "Paradise Chair is currently on wind hold."   Always something!

Three significant news about Red Mountain:

1.  The lifts now ALL close at 3 pm.  This is a mix of good and bad news:
     a)  I had complained for a couple of years about Red. Mt. closing at 2 pm. So, 3 pm is good.
     b)  All ski areas in the US close at 4 pm.  Many in Canada close at 3:30 pm.  Silver Star closes access to the lifts by 3:15 pm, which always irked me.  But closing at 3 pm?  Nobody else but Red does that.  Well, maybe it could be said that Red is such a vast mountain with 3 separate hills that it takes a long time to sweep it, to make sure that nobody was left injured up there.

2. Their lodging options expanded just a few months ago with the addition of "Josie's" a beautiful, modern but expensive hotel right next to the first chairlift at the base area. Probably only 50 or 60 yards from the lift.  Great for ski-in/ski-out, but it is expensive.  Even with group discounts, a room with 2 beds costs around $211 plus tax.   If you can afford it, it's the best place to stay on the mountain.

3.  The main connector lift starting from the base area has been removed.  It was a relatively short lift whose job was just to take you up over a hump in the terrain, so you could connect with the main Granite Mountain lift.  It was a slow chair, but it was tolerable because it was short. It went n a straight line straight toward the longer main Granite Mt. lift.  Some time within the past 3 or 4 years, this lift was replaced with a much longer fixed quad that takes you off to the right and away from the Granite Mt. lift.  This lift now serves two purposes:

• It takes beginners and lower intermediates to some easy slopes.  And ...
• It serves as a connector for everyone else who wants to get to the Granite chair.  The problem is that they now have to sit on this connector lift at least twice as long as on the older lift that has been removed. 

The main Grainte Mt. lift is barely visible in the fog straight up near the middle of this photo.
The old connector lift followed the same line through the clearing in the center of the picture..
The new connector lift takes off at an angle to the right, antd it is much longer than the old lift.

Finding out about lodging options on the mountain is also an issue.  There is no "Central Reservations".  There is no one brochure that would list all the lodging options.  You literally have to go to each hotel, motel, or condo and inquire separately about prices, availability, etc.

Some of the lodging options are a total mystery.
Morningstar, apparently a large condo building on the other side of the parking lot is like a locked down fortress. Thee is no receptionists.  The front entrance is always locked.  Access is possible only if you have a key.  But where do you get a key?  Where can you even ask about it?

Red Mountain Village Lodgings is a large complex of condos.  They at least seem to have an office. But there is nobody there.  A sign on the door says: " Our office is closed.  We can be reached at (phone number) or (website)."  Well, at least there is a way to reach them, as opposed to Morningstar.

Like I said, there's always something about Red Mountain that spoils the overall experience.  But, overall, it is still a good place to go if you are into skiing powder and trees.