The Apex thread

Farewell to the Crystal clan and Copakid! Great to catch up with you.

January continues to be kind to Apex with another 40 cm in the past week, a huge turnaround from the unappealing conditions of a month ago as we were going into Christmas. The eastern side of the Okanagan drainage (ie, BW and SS) is now reporting snowpack readings 35-50% above normal for late January and conditions are excellent. Even if all we get from here on are the typical Okanagan 'dumps' of 5-10 cm, those make for great skiing when the base is already so good.

 

Excellent day on the mountain today. More snow through the week has taken base to 185 cm and it's pretty much full cover now. First tracks this morning in the Wild Side glades where Crystal had her little cry.

 

Last run of the day, had boot top deep turns on an open, official run in the mid mountain area. On a sunday. Gotta love this undermarketed semi dysfunctional mountain.

 

Looks like a primo day for TOFF et al, sunny and 12 cm overnight.

 

I'm a little worried you three will track out a fair bit more terrain than the 8 seniors who make up the typical weekday crowd there.

 

When you ski there on a day like we just had on the Tour de TOFF, you truly feel like you own a private resort. Midweek day, we only saw other skiers at the lift a handful of times. A berm formed inside the ropes of the lift line as people skied right onto the chair all day. True that visibility was poor, but wind settling on top of earlier fresh snow should have been a drawcard. Nope, we scored little shots of boot top tracks all day.

I view the $1600 I spend for season passes for my son and two grandsons as my annual membership in a very exclusive ski club that owns and operates 1000 ha of high end terrain just for us clever - and beautiful - people.

 

Talkin bout my grandkids, Willis.

 

Yesterday was an amazing day, and all the more memorable because it was completely unexpected. Early snow report said 0 cm new, 0 degrees and 40-60 kmh wind. I had another coffee and read my book, almost decided to stay in town but went up in no hurry because no fresh. Hit the lift at 945 and even the short ski to the chair was crap visibility and snowing quite wet. Arrived at the top in an absolute maelstrom of blowing, swirling snow and did some combat skiing to get out of the alpine in the zero vis. Ended up skiing Face and had first tracks. WTF, its 10 am on a weekend. Went back for a second helping and only one other track in there, plus the snow was deeper this time and could feel it up around boot top. Again, WTF?

And so it went, snow kept pounding down, wind flipping from south to north every 30 sec, temp dropping and snow drying out. The mountain was deserted because of the horrid visibility, so bad at one point I was in a tuck trying to get to the gun runs and when vis cleared for a sec I discovered I was not moving at all, but believed I was.

In the crazy three hours from 8-11, Apex got 27 cm. That is a lot of snow for us, and if you could handle the visibility, the skiing was outstanding. By 2 pm the skies had cleared and there was even some sunshine. Everyone dived into the Bowls because open areas like that were unskiable earlier. It was like a second powder session in the same day.

Sadly I heard later that the rest of BC got hit in a less benevolent way by this system. Whistler got a thorough drenching, Squamish just 30 km away and at sea level received 260 mm of rain in 24 hours, and parts of southern Vancouver island got even more. There was local flooding on some streams and a state of emergency is in place there. Numerous rock slides damaged roads, power lines and communication systems. There are about 500 people stranded at Hemlock ski resort because of major damage to the access road caused by a slide.

 

Man cold be coming on fast *cough*

 

Epic continues. Snowed all day yesterday for 52 cm in the 24 hour period. More snow during the night has taken it to 70 cm in 48 hours. Base has rocketed past 250 cm, which we generally consider to be 'go anywhere' level and not normally reached until beginning of March. After a slow start, this could be a 'unicorn' year where we exceed 300 cm settled base. Lines open up that are normally not possible to ski. Still two months of lift ops to go.

 

What a week this has been, and there is another system coming tonight. 152 cm in 7 days, that is a respectable monthly snowfall for the southern interior. Clear this morning and another 10 on top of the previous 90. I'm taking the morning off and going skiing.

 

MOTI contracts avalanche assessment and control work to Apex ski patrol for that little area just outside the village. They had a chopper out about 11 am yesterday and half a dozen bombs were exploded. On the way home we couldn't see any debris that had reached the road, so the closure must have been fairly short.

 

Yesterday was simply amazing, pretty much the best day I've ever had at Apex. For a weekday, they pulled a respectable crowd, lots of day passes indicating the word is out and the road trip folks have converged on the hill. Rightly so, apparently we were the snowiest place on the continent this week.

But anything more than 50 people constitutes a crowd at Apex midweek, there was tons of powder for everyone. My son and I bagged first lines into the Wild Side area (soon to be renamed Anna's bowl) and we got face shots on our final run at 2 pm - and within sight of the village, no less. We skied trees and chutes all day and had lines to ourselves over and over. Part of the joy was that with so much base now, you don't have to stay in between the obvious rock/sapling obstacles - they're buried that deep you just ski over them or off them.

 

So good it didn't even look flat!

 

The goods keep on coming! Another 40+ cm last week on top of the previous 160 cm week. Small hits though like we usually see.

This is Presidents Day/BC Family Day long weekend and possibly the busiest days of the season. Lineups were at or even past the end of the ropes! (5-6 minutes wait). I was still hitting little stashes all day long the tourists dont know about. The mountain is in tiptop condition and should be a stop on any road trip this season, you'll see this unsung hero at its finest.

 

I'm out of town Feb 28- Mar 15 but happy to give a tours outside those dates for visitors!

 

Another snow cycle in progress, > 30 cm in the past few days. Base now at 309 cm with a month of lift ops left. Once again, anyone road tripping at the moment should make a point of visiting Apex, as they only see snow levels like this a couple of seasons in each decade.

 

It was decent when you guys were here, but the really good stuff started the following week.

 

45 cm in the past 48 hrs! Base at 330 cm. I'm on a plane back from Mexico tomorrow. Govt is requiring all returnees from abroad to self isolate for 14 days, and midweek skiing at Apex is pretty damn solitary. I know what I'll be doing!

 

I'll let you know about the supermarkets day after tomorrow but I've heard it's getting wacky. We can have a whip around and get you set up. Freezer still has lots of salmon and halibut, you'll be right. There's lines to be skied at Apex that only open up once or twice a decade.

 

Last day of lift ops is April 5. The resort just announced free skiing for the remainder of the season - if you buy 20/21 season pass now. Ski more than 9 days and you're saving money. There's enough skiing left to make it worth it this season alone.

 

Announced late yesterday that the resort is closing operations at the end of the day today. Tough deal for all involved but had to be done. Base is over 320 cm so there will be hiking and back country possibilities for weeks to come.