Tabla de contenidos para Fall 2021 en Ski Canada

Life’s no holiday so when you finally take one this winter, choose the best—Switzerland. Skiing in and among Europe’s highest mountains never disappoints in a country speckled by glittering 4,000m peaks, snowsure glaciers and charming car-free villages. Top quality, superb service and a complete range of styles and prices are on the Swiss menu: from affordable two-star family hotels with breakfast and dinner included, to ski-in/ski-out high-mountain huts, to blow-out grand hotels. Whatever your style or budget, raise a fork to fondue in a weather-worn wooden barn, a sparkling glass to five-star decadence with a level of service the world’s still trying to emulate, or an après-ski cup of the most delicious hot chocolate on earth. Magic? That’s Switzerland! Valais–Matterhorn Region, Portes du Soleil Looking for a big bang for…

► After 47 years apart, the Gertsch family is reuniting with CMH Heli-Skiing. Swiss-born Rudi Gertsch helped Austrian-born Hans Gmoser start CMH in the 1960s, before Gertsch lifted off to start Purcell Heli-Skiing in 1974. His son Jeff and daughter-in-law Katie eventually took over the daily operations. Last summer, the Gertsch family decided to sell Purcell to Alterra Mountain Company, a ski resort conglomerate that also owns Ontario’s Blue Mountain, Mont Tremblant in Quebec and CMH Heli-Skiing & Summer Adventures. “Everything has come full circle,” says Rudi Gertsch. “I have a profound feeling of professional satisfaction at this point in my life, knowing that the story of our business reaches back to those common origins, and will now stretch forward into the future.” Affable Jeff will remain a lead guide…

Aquiet but hard-fought victory is being won in the Canadian backcountry. It’s not just grumpy old-timers who tell us that the number of backcountry users is skyrocketing; over-flowing parking lots, national park passes, GPS apps and touring gear sales all confirm it. Predictably, the number of search-and-rescue calls has increased as well. More people in the backcountry means more twisted knees, lost parties and medical emergencies. But one thing that has not increased in the last decade is avalanche fatalities. Though most avalanche accidents are in the West, it’s a coast-to-coast phenomenon. In fact, the first avalanche fatality in Canada was in Labrador in 1782 when a slide buried houses, killing 22 people. Nowadays, skiers and snowmobilers make up the bulk of accidents, with snowshoers and climbers adding smaller numbers.…

Most of us are never going to ski 45-degree Alaskan faces or nipple-deep powder like we see on Ski Canada covers and movies at après. In the first case, most of us aren’t good or brave enough. And in the second case, those nipple-deep shots are set up and taken on vanishingly rare days that can only be experienced by those who live in situ and aren’t shackled by lesser-important things like employment and kids. Big powder days for us ordinary skiers are more modest, though no less pleasurable affairs: relatively low angle and not too deep, so that snow safety issues resulting from snowpack and terrain are mini mized. Sure, that 40-degree slope with a metre of dry blower looks awesome, but is it worth spending an hour of…

The best part of autumn is researching, planning and dreaming where the family might go skiing in the winter. Coming from a part of the country where winter didn’t much happen for us last year, we’re part of the sizable pent-up demand of all travellers, including skiers, who are now booking winter escapes. Our extended family isn’t locked into a specific list of potential ski areas with a ski pass, so pretty much anywhere goes as far as destinations. But, since a lot of our skiing involves backcountry adventures these days, we often start by looking at guiding options. Skiing with a qualified mountain or ski guide has fundamental benefits, such as showing you places you’d never find on your own, offering tips and humour—but most important, bringing you home…

In order from more-backcountry to more-freeride. Welcome to the Freeride, Powder and Backcountry portion of our ski test. Last winter, we split up our testing over two days: one for the skis in these categories, and one for the All-Mountain and On-Piste skis that ran in our last issue, Buyer’s Guide 2022. To test these 14 skis, we enlisted the help of instructors, patrollers and recreational skiers of all shapes, sizes and abilities. Most of the testing occurred on a snowy day in Mount Washington Alpine Resort’s Outback, a mostly trailless playground of glades, meadows, cliffs, pillows and lots of powder. For the Backcountry skis, we also took them for a walk beyond the resort in a variety of conditions. Back at the computer, we combined feedback on how the…

Standing at the top of the stairs leading down to the icy Rivière du Diable, I realize that ski runs and spas can both be extreme. While none of the snowy descents I made earlier in the day fit that description, they definitely combined to warrant an après-ski visit to Scandinave Spa Mont-Tremblant. Having already treated my sore legs to the hot pools, steam rooms and saunas dotting the riverside complex, it’s time to complete the second part of the three-step hydrotherapy circuit by immersing myself in cold water. By doing so, staff explain, I’ll improve my circulation, release feel-good endorphins into my bloodstream, and detoxify the whole shebang by activating my lymphatic system. Given the size of the poutine I scoffed at lunch, the latter sounds like a good…

It isn’t every day that you get to witness the birth of a ski area. And depending on who you talked to in Revelstoke, B.C., December 22, 2007, was either a day that you’d been salivating over for three decades to take place, or it was going to spell Armageddon for a small-town way of life. For that was the day that the spanking-new Revelstoke Mountain Resort turned on the power and fired up two lifts to open the most anticipated ski destination in North America. And what a day it was. Snow fell like giant sacks of confetti were being unceremoniously ripped open from the clouds above. Young guns from Whistler, Rossland, Banff, and as far away as Tahoe and Colorado were there—floating through thigh-deep fluff, flying blind off…

Being able to assess a situation, think on your feet and react immediately are universal and necessary qualities among professional ski guides. Take Kevin Marr, for instance, long-time lead guide and operations manager at Selkirk Snowcat Skiing. Kevin has seen it all; he’s a classic example of one who exhibits these important characteristics in a stressful situation. With Christmas Day three sleeps away, our extended and excited family of 11 had only just arrived at Selkirk’s homey alpine lodge to learn that the sugar plum fairies had dumped more early season snow than anyone, even wizened old-timers like crusty Kevin, could remember. Enormous Hollywood flakes swirled in and out of the spotlights beyond the otherwise inky view from the dining room windows as Kevin pushed aside his well-licked dessert plate,…

Right until the snow starts to slide we are partying. It’s a weekday and we’re six dads playing hooky to shred knee-deep powder in the Vancouver Island backcountry. On our first run we expect the new snow to be touchy in spots, but after careful testing and ski cutting nothing moves. Excited to move, we shrug, embrace the stabil-ity and party-lap the rest of the run: figure-eighting, cutting each other off and generally goofing around. Our carefree attitude sticks around for lap two. Like teens pushing each other into dumpsters, we approach Bucks Run like we’re indestructible. When I stop at the top, Andrew plows right by me with a devilish, I’m-stealing-your-line smile. And then Mother Nature slaps it right off his face. The slope fractures under his skis and…

Over the last few decades changes in ski design such as wider skis and rocker shapes have made skiing powder easier, more fun and accessible to more of us. Now, let’s see what this advanced skier in photos A and B can do to make skiing powder even more fun. You’ll notice in photo A, the skier’s bum and shoulders are behind the feet. Although the skier is “balanced,” he’s cheating by weighting the back of his skis, making turn-initiation more difficult. In photo B, the skier’s feet and upper body point in the same direction, while the body forms a single plane inclined into the turn. He may strike an excellent Jesus pose, but the skier should instead make three fundamental adjustments in order to ski divinely: Improve fore/aft…