Mega and mellow. That neatly defines Whistler and Revelstoke. Over the coming winter season, goings-on at these two British Columbia snow sport hotspots will spark a flurry of chatter on chairlifts. The economic downturn might mean fewer skiers will visit B.C.’s slopes — but those who do come have many treats in store.

In Nelson, all goggles are squarely focused on how new ownership at Whitewater Ski Resort will improve access to the town’s limitless stash of hero powder. A short schuss south through the Monashees leads to Rossland, the original home of skiing in western Canada. An innovative plan to nurture mountain culture there at Red Mountain Resort offers definitive proof that the Kootenay Rockies region is on fire. And not just the flash-in-the-pan, Johnny Handwarmer variety either. Changes are afoot, driven by the arrival of a new crew of mountain professionals and their families who are there to stay. Must be the epic snow. Guaranteed. Got any doubts? Read on.

WHISTLER BLACKCOMB With skiers and boarders anticipating an epic season on the slopes, many have their sights firmly set on Whistler Blackcomb. And why not? The resort has staked out a place in the record books with their highly anticipated PEAK 2 PEAK Gondola lift — the longest unsupported span for a lift of this kind on the planet. Set to debut on December 12, the $52 million PEAK 2 PEAK multi-national project has been two years in the making.

Thanks to a specially-dedicated web cam (ww1.whistlerblackcomb.com/ p2pg/webcam/), the saga of how 400 tonnes of steel cable were spun in Switzerland, transported through the Panama Canal and spliced together between Whistler and Blackcomb has slowly played out over the summer for all the world to see. When the 28 gondola cabins — two with see-through floors — begin to glide 4.4 kilometres between the two Coast Mountains peaks, Whistler’s skyline will never be the same again.

The big PEAK 2 PEAK winners will be visitors who want to explore both mountains over the course of a short stay. Above all else, the PEAK 2 PEAK Gondola should help settle the debate as to which of the two companion peaks — Whistler or Blackcomb — skiers and snowboarders prefer most. Local wisdom has long held that when you’re in heaven, it hardly matters which side of the street you stroll down. Truer words were never spoken.

1-800-766-0449; whistlerblackcomb.com
REVELSTOKE MOUNTAIN RESORT British Columbia’s hottest new ski town — Revelstoke — is set to trump last year’s gala debut by doubling in size to 1,227 hectares this winter. Here’s the added whammy: with 1,713 metres of vertical, Revelstoke Mountain Resort now offers the longest lift-serviced terrain in North America. To put it mildly, the once-sleepy railway town has awakened to find that almost overnight its image has evolved from that of a duckling into a swan of the white realm.

To accomplish this feat, over the past summer Revelstoke Mountain Resort mounted a high-speed quad chairlift in the newly-opened North Bowl and expanded the Revelation Gondola to connect with the new village base surrounding the Nelsen Lodge. Along with cafés and shops catering to skiing and snowboarding’s three Rs — retail, rental, and repair — the Revelstoke Guides Bureau anchors the lodge and serves as a reality checkpoint for those headed into the Columbia Mountains backcountry. Those in search of an insider’s perspective on the dozens of surrounding peaks would do well to seek out local guru (and legend) Karl Klassen, the new Operations Manager for the Guides Bureau and former President and Executive Director of the ACMG (Association of Canadian Mountain Guides).

Powder hounds take note: Revelstoke is the only resort in the world to offer lift, cat, heli and backcountry ski options from the village base. Decisions, decisions.

1-866-373-4754; revelstokemountainresort.com

RED MOUNTAIN RESORT Red Mountain dominates the skyline high above Rossland. In winter, the mountain’s white dome wields its magic on local freeriders, both in the heart of the steep-sloped village and on the streets in the nearby Kootenay mining town of Trail. Mining and skiing have always gone hand-in-hand here in the Monashee Mountains’ landscape, where forested peaks roll south into nearby Washington State.

Decades before the CPR railway lured skiers to Revelstoke in the ’20s, Rossland had already established itself as the cradle of western Canadian ski culture in the 1890s.

With an ambitious expansion plan currently underway, resort developers are keen to gather as many players as possible in the same tent, or in this case, a new chalet at the operations base. Artists and athletes, backcountry guides and trail designers, pass holders and guests are being drawn into a dialogue on how best to take the resort to higher ground without sacrificing its enduring — and endearing — funkiness.

To that end, The Mountain Project, or TMP, is the cornerstone in a larger initiative undertaken as Red Mountain seeks to partner with like-minded boutique resorts here in Canada as well as Europe and Australasia. The first step has been in signing a co-marketing agreement with Le Massif east of Quebec City where season passholders at Red are able to ski at Le Massif for free, and vice versa.

As the home town of Olympic gold medal ski racers Nancy Greene Raine and Kerrin Lee Gartner, Rossland’s Red Mountain — as well as its companion peaks, Granite and Mt. Roberts — has long been the domain of gung-ho freeskiers who know all the ins-and-outs of a host of routes that spin off in a 360-degree radius from the mountains’ summits.

One recent addition to Red’s roster is Erik Kalacis. Together with filmmaker Greg Stump, Kalacis co-created the sport of boardercross at Blackcomb Mountain in 1991.

Not surprisingly, since he moved his young family east from Vancouver in 2007, Red Mountain has quickly become a training hub for what is now officially called snowboard cross, a four-person downhill dash which made its worldwide splash at the 2006 Turin Winter Olympic Games. As of this season, you can add boardercross to Rossland’s impressive snow sport quiver.

redresort.com

WHITEWATER SKI RESORT Nothing shakes up a long-established mountain community like new ownership. Nelson is no exception. Backcountry-oriented with just two-chairlifts, Whitewater Ski Resort may seem pokey to outsiders. As the trio of partners in Knee Deep Development Corporation appreciates, this 1,295-hectare hideaway is a shrine for local rank-and-file skiers and snowboarders, the polar opposite of almost all other B.C. snow sport destinations.

Fact: only Whitewater sells more seasons passes than day tickets. In order to retain that level of loyalty, Knee Deep knows it must tread carefully in the tracks laid down by the previous owners, Mike and Shelley Adams. After 23 years at Whitewater, the couple left big boots for the new owners to fill. To that end, Knee Deep isn’t about to tamper with Shelley’s imprint, most noticeably in the Fresh Tracks kitchen, judged to serve the best, most affordable mountain food in Canada. So popular have her recipes been that last season Adams released Whitewater Cooks, which includes the secret formula for the cafés legendary burger sauce.

Just in case you’ve concluded that folks come to Whitewater only to eat and party, here are some undisputable facts. Those rustic twin-seater lifts may be slow but they offer access not just to 445-hectares within the resort’s boundaries but also to five adjoining valleys each of which offer a 720-metre foot vertical drop.

Although you’ll find more skiers and snowboarders sporting locally made gear than Bogner jackets, that’s part of Whitewater’s charm and mystique. And that’s just the way Knee Deep plans to keep things as they roll out a 20-year master development agreement designed specifically to protect the “resort’s” backcountry culture.

skiwhitewater.com

GETTING THERE
No matter where you travel in B.C.’s wintry heartland these days, mountain culture is a word you’ll hear a lot. And with good reason. When it comes to mellowing out in the white world, mellow is as mellow does, and evermore shall be so.

Of course, smooth transportation is key to reaching British Columbia’s winter resorts. Before skiers and snowboarders set foot or other parts of their anatomies on chairlifts or gondolas, particularly at mellow mountain destinations tucked away beyond major transportation hubs, they must first reach a gateway.

Amid a world of airline cutbacks, British Columbia stands out from the crowd. One highly anticipated move, slated for mid-December, will see the newly-expanded Canadian Rockies International Airport in Cranbrook host Delta Air Lines’ first direct flight to the Kootenay Rockies from its Salt Lake City hub, with easy connections from other major destinations throughout the U.S. Get ready to head out on the Powder Highway for the winter safari of your dreams. Here you’ll find deep snow, funky towns and some of the most down-home, stash-laden, adventure-packed ski resorts on the continent. Whether you’ve got lift access, cat- or heli-skiing in mind, more than 50 choices are showcased in the Kootenay Rockies, with Fernie Alpine Resort (skifernie.com), Kimberley Alpine Resort (skikimberley.com), Panorama Mountain Village (panorama-resort.com), Red Mountain Resort (redresort.com), Whitewater Ski Resort (skiwhitewater.com) and Kicking Horse Mountain Resort (kickinghorse-resort.com) as just a few of the possibilities. Recently, airlines such as Westjet have added routes to smaller centres such as Comox Valley Airport, home to Mount Washington Alpine Resort (mountwashington.ca) on central Vancouver Island, and expanded their schedules at Kelowna International Airport on the doorsteps of Silver Star Mountain Resort (skisilverstar.com), Big White Ski Resort (bigwhite.com) and Apex Mountain Resort (apexresort.com) in the Okanagan Valley.

The big news this year for Sun Peaks Resort (sunpeaksresort.com) farther north in the Thompson Okanagan region, is that as of mid-December, Westjet will begin scheduled daily service into Kamloops from Calgary. This is a dream come true, not just for the resort’s owners but also for Sun Peaks’ legion of loyal fans.

Phew! So little time, so much snow, and so many more ways to carve fresh tracks in a hurry this year.

Jack Christie, Special to The Sun