March 11, 2009 | Tips from Travellers >
Prince George, Skiing & Snowboarding
View a larger image on flickr.com
Inspired by a North America-wide Burton contest that encouraged growth and participation in women’s snowboarding, seven friends and I embarked on a six-mountain, seven-day snowboarding tour of northern BC in February 2009. The second hill we hit was Hart Highlands in Prince George.
Hart Highlands is a totally volunteer run hill that started in 1968. The lifties are all fathers, friends or supporters that volunteer to hang out in the sometimes numbing cold weather so their kids and kids' friends can have a good time on the hill. Wow! They've even got a $500 bursary program for high school kids that volunteer.
When we arrived at Hart Highlands, we immediately loved it. We parked in the parking lot, right at the bottom of the hill, and watched some of the kids rip around, giving it their all. Immediately, we were stoked!?
At the lodge, the first thing I saw was our tour poster, printed and hanging next to the main entrance. Inside, on the way up the stairs, Mike the president of the hill had printed and posted our profiles and blog info on the bulletin board. Wow! We were so touched. We felt like celebrities.
Mike welcomed us with open arms, gave us free reign of the concession, and introduced us to some great peeps.Then we got to ride.
I have to admit, and I believe I'm speaking for all the ladies on this tour, that though Hart Highlands is a smaller, family hill, it humbled me. We had to watch the 5- to 20-year-old rippers around us to learn how to load onto 'the platter' – a lift similar to a T-bar but in the shape of a small disc and for only one person at a time. It took a bit of time and support from the other women on the tour but I finally strapped in and cruised up. No problem.
We traversed to the top of the hill's second platter lift and regrouped. At the bottom, the locals were sessioning massive jumps. Hit after hit, they were killin' it. Stacey and Sam, our whippersnappers (the youngest in our group), joined in the fun. The rest of us finally gathered our courage and hit it too. Yeehaa!?
At the bottom of the rope tow, though, we were suddenly scared to death. The thing was whipping around at top speed. To get on and up, you had to grab the wire. No handles! I saddled up slowly, bit my lip and went for it. Wooooopppp. On my way. Under three seconds, I was at the top. To dismount, I threw myself to the side, heart pumping.
We regrouped again at the top, all of us a little stunned. None of us had ever experienced a rope tow like that before!
All of us agree that Hart Highlands is a bomber place to learn how to ride. It's also a perfect place to learn spins, 360s, front side shifties, methods, grabs, etc. Whatever you want to work on, Hart is the place to do it as it’s possible to ride down, pull a wicked trick, and whip back up the tow rope within a minute.
At the end of the night Mike and some of Hart's ski club volunteers hosted us with a big tasty plate of fries and onion rings, and some cold beverages. Lovely!?They were awesome to us and we are so impressed by them. What an inspiring crew of people – so passionate and generous.
Thanks Hart for everything! We are so glad we came!
March 11, 2009 | Tips from Travellers >
Quesnel, Skiing & Snowboarding
View a larger image on flickr.com
Inspired by a North America-wide Burton contest that encouraged growth and participation in women’s snowboarding, seven friends and I embarked on a six-mountain, seven-day snowboarding tour of northern BC in February 2009. The first mountain we hit was Troll Mountain, near Quesnel.
??Rolling in at 9:30 at night, we pulled into the parking lot to meet Troll’s owner, Hilder, who thought we were arriving the next day. Surprise! 24 hours early the lovely Hilder showed us to the hill hostel (which isn’t necessarily used as a hostel at the moment as it’s being renovated), a two-story log cabin with baseboard heating, loads of single mattresses and sleeping bags, plenty of floor space, a flushing toilet and electricity.
Thinking we were in for something SUPER rustic we were all stoked to have a warm roof over our heads and a really gracious hostess who didn’t mind eight women crashing at the hill. ??After we unloaded our gear, Hilder brought us to the hill chalet – an incredible log building that her dad Hans built using logs cut from the property in 1972. Absolutely awesome!
Huge cedar picnic tables with giant cedar rounds for legs have been in the building for years. A big warm fireplace with benches around it warms the building and the restaurant has a shelf of Troll Resort coffee mugs bearing staff members names; they like to recycle here and encourage everyone to use a mug instead of Styrofoam cups.??
Hilder put on a pot of potato bacon soup and sat down to chat with us before making sure we were tucked in comfortably in the cabin. Now that's northern hospitality.?!
The next day we were treated to breakfast and hooked up with JT, Lesley and Erin – our hill ambassadors – who took us on a tour of the mountain. We hit up the terrain park and the ‘secret’ gladed run with loads of nice powder to cruise through. Hilder even had the upper T-bar, which is usually open only on weekends, running, just so that we could get longer runs in.
We worked the cameras and got the ladies to fly through the bits of powder we could find and hit features in the terrain park over and over and over again.
For a bunch of real girls who just love to ride, we felt pretty pampered. Troll Resort totally laid out the red carpet and we’re super grateful! We each even got our own personalized Troll Resort mugs.??
March 07, 2009 | Tips from Travellers >
Vancouver, Skiing & Snowboarding
Find more information about Vancouver - Skiing & Snowboarding
View a larger image on flickr.com
I can't think of a better place to be on a sunny, warm day in March, in Vancouver, British Columbia. (Grouse Mountain or any of the North Shore mountains for that matter!) Can you?