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.

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!

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…

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!

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.