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Riding Northern BC/AB regularly, tripping down south in March. Any suggestions?

1235 Views 11 Replies 6 Participants Last post by  hoots_manuva
Just testing the echo in here. Normally ride solo but as I'm looking to get into the BC this or next season, figured I'd fish around for some people or just conversation.

I'm up in GP but I put on miles to get to more...desirable places.

Been riding Powder King for a few years every other week, looking to plan a March trip down into the Columbia/Koots, maybe Kicking Horse or Red, not set in stone yet and have no idea what the March snowfall is traditionally like down there, if anyone has some recommendations...not that we can rely on that these days.
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I'm working in AB, so cant show you around, but Revy is way more consistent for powder days than most places. Red is Awesome, Big White is great terrain as well. Anyone could be getting hit with march powder, or not, but traditionally you ask? Revy's got a cool thing for that Historical Snowfall | Revelstoke Mountain Resort | British Columbia, Canada

If you can set in stone at the last minute or plan around storms you can just go where the snow is. If you've never done Whistler/Blackcomb it's a definite check out as well.

I want to get up to PK one of these days. I've rode most of southern BC, but nothing up north.
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PK really is great, as long as you don't need anything to do but sleep, ride trees, and drink with randoms in the parking lot. This winter has been awkward with the cold snap followed by the spring snap...but it's still knee deep most places. It's worth a visit for sure. Should be another 30-40cms next weekend!

Revvy looks to be worth a visit for sure, but I've heard it's pretty packed/whistlerish?

RED is on the bucket list with the sheer amount of peaks and an in-bounds cat and everyone says it's pow town...but I've never seen the report show more than 10cm!

Kicking Horse looks like an insane amount of chutes and really unique resort riding, but lots of traverse/bootpacking according to the map, unless its just drawn weird.

I've spent hours checking out all the hills down south and they all look so good, guess I'll just have to pick one! Or two.
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Calgary here and for some champagne powder you cant beat castle mountain resort on a heavy dump day. hour and half south, well worth the trip :D
Calgary here and for some champagne powder you cant beat castle mountain resort on a heavy dump day. hour and half south, well worth the trip :D
Hi, Castle's like an hour and a half South of Nanton, or closer to 2.5 hours from Calgary.

Sneek-a-peek opening this weekend, full open next Saturday.

Cloud Sky Mountain Plant Snow
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Totally sucks here anyways...
Snow Plant Twig Natural landscape Branch
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Sky Cloud Snow Mountain Slope
Christmas at Red
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A little hike up Cornice Ridge at Kootenay Pass tonight, after work.
Flash photography Formation Tints and shades Darkness Cave
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Careful out there, our snowpack is sketchy as fuck right now. Storm slabs sitting on top of weak facet layers. I know that looks mellow and heavily treed, but worth being cautious.
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That ultra cold day last week created that weak layer. That said, not that much seen sliding, and the new stuff on top is helping it consolidate. No wind affect here at least.

Generally, I'd wait and see where the best snow is when you're heading south. It changes pretty fast. Revelstoke is in the right place and can be epic, but when it's not, well it's not that great. The same's true of everywhere, hence a late choice works well. If you're a super hero then Golden is where the wannabe people go, but the "family" places are much easier to score powder in (because the wannabe lot are all somewhere else). March is pretty much peak, so you should have a lot of choices. Early season snowpack is down on standard years, so far.

If you're driving then you could check out standby at the various heli operators. This was 2 days ago when the sun almost came out.
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Back up Cornice Ridge today.
Sky Plant Cloud Snow Branch
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Annual Community Day, free lift tickets at Kimberley today.
Cloud Sky Snow Slope Tree
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