Mountain Spirit Resort & Spa

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.

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.

If you’ve ever golfed at Bootleg Gap, you’ll be familiar with the natural beauty of Bootleg Gap’s golf course. Once a year in February, the golfers are replaced by dog sledders… and the crowds gather to watch as they race their way around the beautiful championship course at Bootleg Gap. February 5th and 6th 2011 saw the Third Annual Bootleg Sled Dog Races just down the road from Mountain Spirit Resort.

It’s quite a day out for the family. In addition to watching the races and meeting the dogs, there is a silent auction and food available, including a Dinner in Bootleg Gap’s club house on Saturday night. Races are started every hour, with the racers being set off one minute apart. Categories include: 6-Dog Purebred & Open Classes, 4-Dog Purebred & Open Classes, Skijoring and Junior Classes.

I joined the crowds at the finish line to cheer the sledders and their dogs over the finish line.

What’s different about the Bootleg Gap Sled Dog Races is the objective of raising funds and awareness for East Kootenay Friends of Children. Click here to visit the website for Bootleg Sled Dog Races.

Coming across the finish line…

A big part of the fun was seeing lots of beautiful dogs enjoying a rest in the sun.

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!

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!

I arrived at the office at Mountain Spirit Resort this morning. There were some golfers hanging around the surface parking area. Nothing unusual, we’re across the road from a top golf course. But why were they all right outside my office door – to see the buck with the massive rack lying down enjoying some shade! It may not be an unusual sight when you live and work here but the guests definitely get a kick from it!

Next time I’ll have my camera!

As construction of the Kimberley Conference Centre and Athlete Training Centre gets close to completion, the website for the Conference Centre has been launched. “Accessible” and “Incomparable” are the taglines – definitely appropriate for such a beautiful location for organisations to meet, or couples to tie the knot. Check out the site here. Meet green at the Kimberley Conference Centre and stay green at Mountain Spirit Resort.

Chad Jenson of New Dawn Developments was recently recognised as the top business person in Cranbrook this year by the Kootenay Business Magazine. Chad and his team have received numerous awards and accolades for their professional work, which includes the construction of Mountain Spirit Resort. Click here to read the full article.

One of New Dawn Development’s current projects is the construction of the City of Kimberley’s Conference Centre and Athlete Training Centre which is just 200m from Mountain Spirit Resort. Construction will be completing for opening in October this year and many bookings have been confirmed ranging from company conferences to weddings.