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!

It may only look like 3cms overnight but it definitely felt like more when enjoying some turns on the runs in Kimberley Alpine Resort this morning. Fresh snow combined with warmer temperatures meant for a fun morning today. I tested out these runs for you today:

• Rung – felt a little windswept but not bumpy as it had been groomed recently
• Caper – floaty fast fun
• Dean Left – yummy; floatier faster fun
• Flapper – also groomed recently, no bumps and I found myself able to go extremely fast in one direction
• Dean Right – great as usual
• Flapper – had to do it again as it was so good the first time
• Magma – similar to Flapper, fast fun with one or two bumps forming
• Tramway – the base still hasn’t been skied out and with the warmer weather and new snow the bumps were all soft and move for you when you need them to
• Windfall – like Tramway!
• Twilight – there seemed to be more snow had fallen on Twilight, which made for lots of fun and some air time off those rollers (by choice!) – yeeha!
• Midnight – like Twilight (airtime wasn’t as big!)
• Lower Main – softening up nicely with the fresh snow and warmer temperatures.

What a super morning!

I also discovered last week (when it was about -16 degrees) that the outhouses at the top of the Easter Chair are now heated and extremely comfortable. They even smell great!

Get out and enjoy that fresh snow!

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…

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!

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.

Well, aside from the obvious new addition of the newest and classiest resort, there have been some cool changes and additions to the experience you can have in Kimberley Alpine Resort this winter:

A Good Brush Cut is Great for Skiing!: Over ¼ million spent on run improvements with extensive brushcutting and mowing on core runs this summer will result in making the trails even more skier and rider friendly with smoother terrain and wider trail points and also creating the largest gladed skiing area in Canada!

No Fables of Great Skiing in the Black Forest Glades: The adventures in the Black Forest Glades are never ending. This area is accessible off the Tamarack chair and offers fun and secret powder stashes for all levels of skiers and riders to enjoy! New glade widening makes this area accessible even for the novice. Overall, Kimberley Alpine Resort has the largest gladed terrain that offers continuous adventure for everyone!

Gear Up!: For those who think the gear makes the skier, Kimberley can now make you the best with the option to take our new high performance HEAD ski rentals out for a spin. The resort proudly adds this new equipment to the fleet, helping make a day on the mountain even better!

Season Pass with Extra Benefits: New to the resort facilities is the exclusive season pass lockers conveniently located behind the Stemwinder Bar & Grill. Season Pass holders can now enjoy not only the benefit of skiing every day but also getting out there faster with the quick and easy convenience of their own locker room.

New Exciting Events: A jam packed schedule of events is planned for the season with returning favourites such as the annual Family Festival (Feb 13-14) and Bavarian Iron Legs (Mar 27-28) as well as brand new events including Beer Fest (Mar 13-14) and the Mountain Storm Mountaineering Race (Mar 6).

Follow the Lights of the Night!: If you haven’t had your fill of skiing and riding while the sun is up, Kimberley is home to one of North America’s longest illuminated runs, making it a night-time hot spot. If the skis have been hung for the night, however, enjoy a spin around the skating pond magically illuminated with bright lights or enjoy a delicious s’mores by the bonfire while you watch the skaters waltz to the music.

North Star Racers Settle In: The North Star Racers Society known as the Kimberley North Star Racers have settled into a new home base facility at Kimberley Alpine Resort. The new club house will help the racers continue their efforts “to bring to the community fun, challenge, and opportunities for personal excellence through participation and competition in alpine ski racing” through their fall and winter programs that are offered to developing ski racers from ages 5 to 19 at the resort.

Paralympic Training Centre: In February 2009, Kimberley Alpine Resort proudly hosted the 2009 IPC Alpine Skiing NorAm Cup with 52 paralympic athletes from 9 different countries competing. Starting from a dream to create the best Race Training Centre possible for Paralympic Athletes, Kimberley Alpine Resort has a long history of supporting Race Training that dates back to the 60′s and 70′s. With a dedicated training run, the Dreadnaught, and plans to provide a complete state-of-the-art facility, Kimberley Alpine Resort in proud partnership with the City of Kimberley and Province of British Columbia, holds strong and true to athletic excellence and a dedication to enhance the community of Kimberley while providing athletes the opportunity to train at home.

This information appears on www.skikimberley.com