Here’s a sneak peak at the snow art afternoon at Mountain Spirit Resort today:

Tomorrow, Jan 1st 2011, we are welcoming the huskies from Adrenaline Dog Tours. If you like cute dogs or dog sledding, or hot chocolate and freshly baked cookies, come on over. Tours of the resort are also available so come and check out the top ski condos in Kimberley!

Click here to see the fun events you can be part of, commencing Dec 27th…

If there’s a job to be done the spirit does like to do it well. That includes keeping you posted on the conditions for skiing and boarding at Kimberley Alpine Resort. The official opening day for 2010/2011 was held two days ago, on Friday 17th December. I made sure to be there to snap some shots of the conditions. Knowing some folks who work in ski patrol and others in outdoor ops at Kimberley Alpine Resort, I had already heard that the Tamarack Chair was going to be opened on Friday. On preview weekend the Main quad chair and the Easter chair were both open, and not all the runs off the Easter were open. With all the lifts open… this would mean runs would be open that haven’t been skied on yet by the paying visitor (only by the patrol on their safety checks). As I realised this, I thought I should really have made it up the hill earlier. The pace I was on, I’d be getting to the lift line up at about 8:43am.

The clock at Kimberley Alpine Resort was not wrong.

We arrive at the ski hill and there are only two rows of cars in the main parking area…. interesting! I head up the steps past the new conference centre and towards the North Star Quad lift. There’s nobody there yet. Can this be true? Opening day for Kimberley Alpine Resort and I’m getting the first chair again? This should make for a good morning.  My ski-fanatic husband was working today and unfortunately a blog is not part of his work so I stood alone waiting.

Some people start arriving. First is Dan “the Tan Man”, well known in local ski circles. Dan is the reason why Cominco Gardens look so good all summer. Ryan Peterson is next, a local skier who is regularly at the head of the line up any day the conditions are good. Ryan had booked off opening day months ago to ensure he didn’t miss out! As more people trickle in, I see Liana, the latest addition to our team at Mountain Spirit Resort. We’re both working in the office from 12pm and clearly had the same intentions – to enjoy the best part of opening day first!

The "Main" looking pretty nice.

9am rolls around and there’s maybe 40 people waiting in line. Pretty different to opening day at Fernie, when apparently some chap actually slept overnight in a tent in order to bag “first chair” rights!

W’re off. The conditions look amazing. We’ve had 20-30cm of fresh snow in the past 5 days since preview weekend. Usually I feel in a rush to get first tracks on the first runs but today is a little different. It feels like the ski hill has been hired out for my friends and my exclusive pleasure. There is no question about which direction to head in after getting off the quad. We all head over to the Tamarack. “Wahoo!” it’s first tracks for everyone all the way down the “tammy”.

The Tamarack run from the Tamarack Chair.

Second run – let’s do the same one, it was so good. By this stage I’m in a group of half a dozen local skiers and boarders including my mate Dave who works at Kelsey’s. That’s him enjoying the view from the bench at the top of the Tamarack.

Third run, let’s take Upshot. It’s the run skiers left of the tammy and has been totally brush cut over the summer. Last year I rode it there were plenty of alders but this year it’s a different story. The bottom half was total dreamy floaty movie style skiing and boarding for all. Thankfully only Ruth, the British liftie at the Tamarack chair, saw me fall when I transitioned from the deep floaty stuff onto the groomed flat track to the lift (don’t tell anyone)!

At the top of the Tamarack chair, our path crosses with Dan and Ryan. “How’s the back side?” I ask them. “Awesome and there’s nobody there” they reply. Sounds familiar. I should point out at this stage that RCR had originally planned the official opening day for 18th December and then changed it, bringing the opening forward by one day to Friday 17th. This happened about a week or two ago so for people visiting from outside Kimberley, it might have been hard to change schedules and work plans in order to arrive on a Friday. For locals living in Kimberley who knew about the change and could get out and ski on Friday, it was much appreciated – thanks!

Anton's run, formerly called the Easter, from the Easter Chair.

After meeting Ryan and Dan I suggest we head over to the Easter chair and hit up the untouched runs past Vortex. I nip over onto Runt and take it down to the Easter. Our “posse” meets up and we ride together across the Ridgeway towards Geneva. We’ve been told the only run not open is Notre Dame so that means 5 untouched runs between it and Vortex.

The Ridgeway can sometimes be slow for snowboarders. I had made sure to have my board waxed with the correct was for the temperatures, down at ski repair in the Rental Shop. I made it the whole way along the Ridgeway without having to unstrap my board, which is nice. There’s still about 6 of us at the top of our chosen run – the Tramway. I drop over the edge and this snow is even better than the snow on the tammy! And it looks like only 6 people have been here before us. Fresh tracks for everyone AGAIN! Yeehaw!

I don’t even need to turn. It is effortless. I look behind part way down and I only see Liana. Our buddies took the right hand option one third of the way down and are now enjoying their fresh tracks on Tramway. Liana and I meet at the bottom of the Easter Chair where we see our buddies again and a couple of other people. We don’t even need to ask how everyone is as the answer is the same, “FANTASTIC!”.

Let’s head back to the front, it’s time to go to work!

I’d heard more snow was in the forecast but didn’t expect 15cm of fresh snow on our back step this morning. We rushed up to the hill by about 9:15am and thankfully the car park was only one third full. As usual, up the quad and over to the Easter chair was the priority. First thing we noticed was more runs were open. Anton’s was a must. As a snowboarder (aka slowboarder) I am not a fan of moguls. Being able to ride down Anton’s before the moguls are formed for the season was a pleasure… spotted with a few head-over-heels tumbles. All’s good – it’s fresh powder!

Anton's: people were laughing aloud, shouting "wahoo" between tumbles into the powder!

Rumours were rumbling in the small crowd of locals gathered at the top of the Easter – the Black Forest area might be opened. By the next circuit of the Easter, it was! Patroller Gord Towers had the pleasure of taking down the ropes by Dean Left and opening up all the runs across to Vortex. I’m thinking they’re saving more fun on the far runs for next weekend! We hit Magma first. It was powdertastic. Taking long sweeping turns floating above the snow I managed to stay on my board for most of the run. Next run, Twist. Awesome! It was rapidly becoming an epic powder day, the like of which I’ve never experienced this early in the season. It was so good, we did another loop round and hit it again. I say “we” today as I managed not to be ditched by my husband off the first chair, and he showed his true gentlemanly soul by both waiting for me AND pulling me along the couple of slow spots on the Ridgeway (he skis and I board, you see?).

Anton's Run, Sunday 12th December 2010 (Preview Weekend at Kimberley Alpine Resort)

I check my watch as I’m feeling exhausted. It’s 10:35am. Time to head around to the front via a secret new favourite run I’m not even going to mention. You have to come and discover the  best runs for yourselves. It had me hooting an a-hollering yet again – what an amazing season preview weekend. If this is the preview, this season is indeed going to be epic at Kimberley Alpine Resort!

What an amazing opening weekend at Kimberley Alpine Resort. The word on the street is, we’ve already had more snow fall this winter than we had all last year. Here’s how the spirit’s weekend panned out… Yesterday, the spirit nabbed bragging rights of being on the first “official” chair of the season.

Saturday 11th December: Opening day on “Preview Weekend” at Kimberley Alpine Resort. Having been to Fernie the previous Saturday and encountered about 300 people already in the line-up, we decided to get ourselves to the quad at Kimberley EARLY this season opener.

7:15am: Awoke up in our wee house on Wallinger, downtown Kimberley. It was 12 degrees inside. The furnace had packed in overnight. I wished I lived at Mountain Spirit. Not only would it be warm, and take about 1 minute to get to the quad chair from the ski lockers, but I’d be able to have a hot tub after season opening day… I know my muscles are going to ache. We can’t phone any heating engineers at 7am on a Saturday (although we know one personally) – they’re either in bed or getting ready to go skiing methinks!

8:00am: Coffee drank, oatmeal eaten, we left the house trying not to think about our broken furnace. It’s a short drive to big fun… The roads are fine.

8:05am: Arrive at the skier car park. There’s about a dozen cars there, mostly staff.

Kimberley Alpine Resort Opening Day 2010/2011

8:10am I’m at the quad chair. The only person there is the “liftie” brushing the snow off the seats of the chair lift. Is this real? Opening day… the base has 60cm of snow. Where is everyone? Oh wait a minute, we’re in Kimberley, not Fernie. I’m excited. Today Kimberley will offer both untouched powder runs and groomies, dressed in corduroy – something for everyone to enjoy.

Board holds my place so the crowds don't steal my "first chair of the season"

8:20am Two more people arrive (father and son, skier and boarder). We are now four “keeners”. That’s the first quad chair filled.

8:25am Three local kids arrive. They know the kid on our chair. It’s Kimberley…

8:55am The crowds are here for the first lift… there must be at least… 35 people here (about 1/10th what was at the Timberline chair in Fernie last Saturday). I know about half of them – the locals are here!

9:00am With hoots and hollers, we board the first chair of the season…

Riding the first chair of the season, checking out the Main run in Kimberley Alpine Resort - looks great!

9:05am: The new groomers RCR recently invested in seem to have done a great job.

Corduroy looks good on the Main run.

9:08am: Time to offload from the Quad Chair. Adrenaline starts. First run of the year. Where do I go? Caper or Rung, Caper or Rung? Being somewhat familiar with the runs on Kimberley Alpine Resort, I opted to skate across and take Rung down to the Easter chair. Oh my goodness… what a stash of snow. It was unreal! Epic first run… slow motion style snowboarding down the steep pitch of the Rung. Who needs to turn? It’s floaty magic. Of course by the time I made it to the Easter, even riding flat out, my skier husband was nowhere to be seen. Hence the good old saying “No friends on a powder day”. See ya later!

Easter is also looking great - check out the powder on the edge of the run.

9:20am: Time to check out the runs on the “Vimy Ridge” and “Black Forest” sections. Well it turns out Anton’s was shut, and everything past Dean’s Left was also not yet open. So I took Dean Left. Groomed and nice and powdery on the edge. Next run: Purl. Flapper isn’t open… yet.

Some of the first folks to enjoy the Easter (groomed) this year.

9:40am: Riding the Easter chair again. This time there are people skiing on the Easter (they must prefer the groomies). The word on the chair lift is Eureka is still hardly touched. So I ride the Ridgeway over, past Rung (the fun first run) and Runt (not open yet) and when we reach the Tamarack Chair, took a left down Eureka. I think I know why this run has that name now! It’s hardly been touched and the pitch is perfect for movie like powder skiing with gentle turns, floating above the snow.

10:30am: Now the word is, the patrollers have opened Flapper. Off I go, along with my chair lift new friend, a lone skier visiting from Vancouver.

11:00am: After a couple of hours of serious, season-opening fun, it’s time to head back to the front. I take twilight (the rollers are still there!). Ah… I need to find my husband who I lost after the first chair, see to the furnace issue and of course, shower, eat and head to work. Hmmm, the main car park still isn’t full, let alone the overflow. Good. I’m coming back tomorrow morning for more!

It’s official. The grand opening of the Kimberley Conference Centre & Athlete Training Centre took place on November 25th, 2010.

The spirit was off in Regina, SK, on a spirited mission and so didn’t attend the grand event. Instead I managed to get a private tour the week before. The centre is definitely impressive. The conference facilities are the best I have seen anywhere on my travels. The whole main building is accessible and the use of gently inclining ramps in the design makes for a great spot for couples to tie the knot (in what’s called the pre-function area) as well as a great opportunity to people watch as you enjoy cocktails prior to entering the grand hall. The main function room can be split into two, each with the opportunity for professional AV with large screens mounted on the walls. There are many break-out rooms with more AV equipment. The catering area looks very sophisticated and well equipped to handle the large events (there is up to 500 person capacity in this conference facility).

Upstairs is home to the Athlete Training Centre. Due to copyright on the word paralympic, that word isn’t used in the name but I’m going to chance typing it on my blog quite happily. This is definitely an word class training facility for paralympic athletes. Having seen the paralympic athletes training here every year I’ve lived here, I can understand how much this facility is going to improve their training experience. Gone are the days when artificial limbs have to be left in the Slopeside Cafe! The ski-in main floor area features a totally accessible sharpening and waxing area, including very large locker spaces which can fit wheel chairs or artificial limbs. There are large changing and showering areas and the icing on the cake is a very generous training room with state of the art accessible fitness and weights machines.

Here’s what the City of Kimberley has to say about the opening:

“The City of Kimberley is pleased to announce that the Conference and Athlete Training Centre is now open for business. This project is a great example of what can be accomplished through the development of meaningful partnerships with a common goal and vision. Our partners include: the Federal Government, the Provincial Government, Resorts of the Canadian Rockies, Columbia Basin Trust, New Dawn Developments and their many sub-trades and BCMP Architects. We also recognize and commend the volunteer advisory committee members, who have championed this project from conception. The Conference Centre itself is the largest of its kind in the Kootenay Region. It accommodates 350 person banquet style or 500 person theatre style events, provides a large pre-function area and 4 breakout rooms. This facility enables organizations and businesses to host major conferences and seminars, where individuals can come together to learn, exchange ideas and share knowledge.

For more information or to book the facility, please contact Tim Greiner, General Manager at 250-427-6272 or via email manager@meetkimberley.ca or click on the Conference Centre’s website link: Kimberley Conference and Athlete Training Centre.  If you would like to add your business to the Conference Planner’s Database of local accomodations, products and services available, please complete and submit the Product Inventory Data Sheet form to City Hall by mail, email, fax or in person.