Many people know of Kimberley for it’s great golf courses, or the fun ski resort. Once you get to know Kimberley and the area around the city, you’ll discover a variety of beautiful lakes to enjoy. The selection below is not exhaustive by any means. These are a few of my favourites and all within a one hour drive from Mountain Spirit Resort in Kimberley.

Lazy Lake – this is a great lake for swimming, the rope swing, rock jumping, fishing, kayaking, canoeing and watching for turtles (45 mins away).

St Mary’s Lake – look out for beavers here. This lake is popular for fishing, kyaking and canoeing (20 mins away).

Wasa Lake -this lake is known for its warm water and sandy beaches (30 mins away)

Premier Lake -a beautiful large lake on the edge of the Rockies with superb fishing plus a swimming area and beach (55 mins away)

Lake Koocanusa – this lake is a very large body of water great for wake boarding, waterskiing and sandy beaches (60 mins away)

Moyie Lake – another large lake about 50km from Kimberley. Moyie is great for all water enthusiasts!

Jimsmith Lake – a smaller lake great for swimming and wildlife spotting (40 mins away).  There is even a rowing club on this lake – The Rockies Rowing Club!

If you decide on a real estate purchase in Kimberley, the condos at Mountain Spirit Resort will provide the ideal base from which to explore and enjoy Kimberley.

At the Canadian Rockies International Airport on June 15th, Integra Air’s first flight on the new scheduled service from Edmonton arrived. The flight from Edmonton takes just one hour and five minutes. Passengers on the inaugural flight included a guest bound for Mountain Spirit Resort. This is no surprise and the first of many, as Mountain Spirit Resort is located just 20 minutes from the airport.

Brent Gateman (left), President of Integra Air, and Dave Macfarlane, Director, are pictured in the cockpit of Integra’s Jetstream 31, at the Canadian Rockies International Airport Tuesday. Integra’s regular air service launched out of Cranbrook on June 15.

Integra comes across as a fun airline offering Wine Wednesdays and Beer and Pizza Fridays on board. The guys at Integra also know how to provide excellent service, distinguishing themselves from other larger airlines. Free parking is available to Integra’s passengers at the Canadian Rockies International Airport, as well as at Edmonton International. Unsecured boarding (meaning passengers won’t have to go through security), is also offered – for the convenience of passengers who are flying into Northern Alberta for work.

Flights are scheduled to run Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays leaving Edmonton in the late morning and arriving in Cranbrook in the early afternoon. The second flight of the day will leave Cranbrook at about 3 p.m. arriving in Edmonton at about 4:20 p.m.

Integra Air will provide commuter services to northern Alberta tourists and workers to the East Kootenay region via Edmonton and on to Fort McMurray and Grande Prairie in Phase II of the project planned for the fall of 2011. This schedule has been designed to provide optimal connections to key connecting flights to locations such as Fort McMurray and Grand Prairie. Prospective purchasers of real estate at Mountain Spirit Resort are scheduling visits from both Edmonton and Fort McMurray following the launch of this new service.

Click here to visit IntegraAir.com and click here to read more on the DailyTownsman.com

Resort real estate expecting boost from new Rocky Mountain flights

May 20, 2011 –Kimberley, B.C. – Mountain Spirit Resort is predicting a boost in vacation property interest in Kimberley from Edmonton, Alta., thanks to a new scheduled air service to the Canadian Rockies International Airport, launching on June 15.

Click here to read the City of Cranbrook’s detailed release on the new air service.

Integra Air is launching direct non-stop air service between the Canadian Rockies International Airport (YXC) and the Edmonton International Airport (YEG).  The inaugural flight will be on June 15, 2011.  Initially the service will run on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays. Prices will range from $189 to $239 plus applicable taxes for a one-way flight.

“These new flights will make an amazing getaway in the Kootenays much easier for vacation home buyers in Edmonton. Edmontonians are already the second largest tourism market for Kimberley, and we think this will result in even more interest from the region if they don’t have to worry about long drive times or limited flight availability.” Allyson Blake, director of real estate marketing at Mountain Spirit says.  “They will soon be only a couple hours away from a four-season mountain destination that offers incredible skiing, golf, hiking and mountain biking, along with world-class fly fishing.”

As demand for the service grows, the company plans to move from the introductory 16 seat aircraft to a 32 passenger aircraft and add non-stop flights to Fort McMurray.

Buyers at Mountain Spirit are able to immediately enjoy the recreational opportunities in Kimberley with either 10 years of free golf at Bootleg Gap golf course, or one year of unlimited golf at Trickle Creek golf course and a season’s pass to Kimberley Alpine Resort.

Mountain Spirit Resort is located 20 minutes from the Canadian Rockies International Airport and offers an ideal location to enjoy the four-season lifestyle available in Kimberley. Mountain Spirit Resort boasts a true ski-in ski-out location at the base of Kimberley Alpine Resort and is a short walk from Trickle Creek golf course, one of Kimberley’s top three golf courses. In addition to excellent skiing and golfing, Kimberley also offers world class fly fishing, hundreds of trails to hike or bike and white water rafting.

“We purchased at Mountain Spirit for its quality construction, boutique size and the general community feeling of Mountain Spirit and Kimberley,” says Lisa Torry, a homeowner from Calgary, Alta. “It continues to meet all our expectations and a great lifestyle choice with four children from tweens to teens.”

For those who also enjoy other destinations such as Costa Rica, Hawaii or Mexico, homeowners at Mountain Spirit Resort also benefit from a complimentary two-year membership in the exclusive international homeowner exchange program, Resort to Resort. This means owners are able to enjoy beach, golf and ski resorts for as little as $39 per night. (This is not a timeshare).

Mountain Spirit Resort is now open and already 50 per cent sold out. Fully furnished suites are available from $298,900 to $950,000. Mountain Spirit Resort has already been top rated on TripAdvisor.com by its guests and nominated for the Best Interior Design and Best Green Initiative by the Perspective Magazine Awards.

The snow was GREAT yet again today after about 20cm of fresh snow over the past 48 hours… followed by sun!

Here’s a few photos I took around lunch time today (I was too busy having fun all morning to remember to take photos).

Click on this link to check out an amazing short skiing video from Kimberley…

Skiing Kimberley Alpine Resort on a Powder Day, January 13th, 2011.

Three words: freshies every run!

That was yesterday.

Apparently today was every bit as good, with another fresh dump (some of us have to work sometimes…)

Nevertheless and in all honesty, I really, very much enjoyed Wednesday boarding in Kimberley Alpine Resort. This enjoyment even though I didn’t get the first chair. Heck I didn’t even get up there till about 11:45am. I still enjoyed fresh tracks every run right to the last run at about 3:45pm.

It must have snowed 20cm between overnight and during the next morning - 20cm at least. I had a meeting at 7:30am and opened the back door to lots of snow. During the meeting I found myself distracted, staring out the window at the beautiful big fluffy fat flakes of snow coming down. It was definitely worth the anticipation.

The snow was that good I even descended the Anton’s run. Not just once, but twice!

Did I mention that some parts of the ski hill had waist deep pow!

Shredding the powder!

This chap was definitely out enjoying the conditions.

Gnarrrrrr!

Guess what, there’s even more snow in the forecast!

We thought it would be fun to invite Craig Ainsworth of Adrenaline Dog Tours to Mountain Spirit Resort on New Year’s Day. Not just because Craig’s a nice guy but he also happens to have teams of adorable pure bred huskies!

One of Craigs team of 16 huskies at Mountain Spirit Resort today.

At 4:30pm Craig started to unload the dogs to meet our visitors. It was fun for all the family – with groups of people lining up to see the 16 huskies – yes 16!

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

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!

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.