Canada

A snowHead

We are thinking of booking an Early Birds 7 day trip to Kimberley start of january 2009.

Anyone been before and was it a good experience?

Cheers

A snowHead

Brother went for a day and enjoyed it. If you've got transport there's also Fernie and a couple of other places.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Been to Kimberley twice and really enjoy it, once for a week with Inghams and the other time we stayed for a few days when doing a DIY trip. The skiing is fairly easy on the front mountain and harder off the Easter Chair. The main problem we had with it was lack of on mountain places to stop for a drink so everyone has to come down to the day lodge so it could get a bit busy and icy.

We stayed at the Lodges on Kimberley Ridge both times, which is lovely accommodation with private hot tub Very Happy

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Booked to go now in January. Ive noticed on the Canada map of the resort they have green,blue, black diamond and double diamond runs. Are the blue runs like our red runs or the black diamond like our red or even black run?

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

MFC, can of worms there!

I reckon as a very rough guide and huge generalisation:
Canada green - Euro easy blue
Canada blue - Euro harder blue, easy red
Canada single black - Euro harder red, easy black
Canada double black - Euro hard black/itinerary (I dunno - never go there! Toofy Grin

)

But I've never been to Kimberley so don't know what their piste gradings are like

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Well there's no direct comparison but going from my Whistler experience I would agree with cathy for the green and blue and add
Whistler single black - Euro harder red through to black and possibly like an itinerary run. Some of the single blacks in Whistler aren't pisted. e.g. Whistler Bowl
Whistler double black - don't think there is an equivalent on the Euro piste map, except maybe the most difficult itinerary runs, as all Whistler's double blacks are unpisted and have varying degrees of gnarly entrances depending on conditions. Sometimes quite Shocked

, sometimes very Shocked

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

MFC the piste gradings in North America are usually particular to that mountain ie. The green is the easiest route on that hill, the blue the next one and the Double Diamond blacks are the hardest.
Kimberley is a good ski area, we enjoyed it. Bear in mind it is a long transfer after a long flight for just a week. And the village which is about 10-15 mins away has a rather unique character all of it's own Shocked

After all it is free

Double-black runs are more like European off-piste. There's not usually any clearly marked trail so you have to find your own way off the mountain. They're generally very steep, always ungroomed and usually ungroomable. You'll generally get to enjoy plenty of unmarked hazards - tree-roots, tree wells, rocks, cliffs and the like - and, if you're below the tree line, you'll almost certainly be skiing through a forest where, at best, the lower branches have been trimmed. Fabulous.

Cheers all.

If the double diamond black runs are like you say I think we will stay away from them for now. Well my girlfriend will i will see how brave i am wink

If the single diamond black are like a hard red/easy black I think we will be ok. Would be nice to hear some more from people who have been

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I've done a few days at Kimberley - its nothing like as demanding as Fernie as most runs are the same sort of gradient spread across different aspects of the hill. Some nice trees and challenging bump runs as well as a couple of fast long groomers. Its certainly not huge compared to the average Euro resort - at best you'll ride 3 different chairs a day.

I'd say its more of a family cruising resort than a hardcore resort (some blindingly fast paralympic skiers excepted).

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

What is cost like for going to Canada instead of Europe?
Does accomodation and equipment-hire make up for the extra cost of flights?

I'd like to go but wouldn't want it to be even more expensive.
Also I suppose you have to deal with long flights and jet-lag.

snow reports

How many times will you get to go to Canada? not many in my case so we thought we'd pay abit more and go for it. Spoke to a friend today whos been and he says the skiing is the best hes ever done. As for the jet lag we will just have to deal with it, I suppose we will be running on excitement.

You know it makes sense.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

Kimberley has a small number of long intermediate cruisers down the front of the hill - all served by fast quad. It also has range of shorter trails through the trees on its back side that are predominantly rated as single black diamond. - Apparently they've recently gladed more of this area to provide improved tree skiing. I should say that the back side is served by an old fixed-grip triple chair (recycled from Lake Louise) that's a bit slow, and that the last time I visited in early January there hadn't been enough snow to allow this whole area to open - which would severely limit your opportunities.

You can get a bus to Fernie (takes about 2 hours) and since both Fernie and Kimberley are operated by Resorts of the Canadian Rockies, you should be able to get a lift pass that covers both hills. Fernie is WELL worth a visit (and the same time that Kimberley was experiencing sketchy conditions, Fernie had knee-deep powder).

Help!!

Canada

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