More powder, less-traveled slopes in British Columbia

It’s tough to beat the perception that in British Columbia, there’s really only one place to be for the best downhill skiing. And it doesn’t help that Whistler hosted the Winter Olympics ski events.

But stashed away in the opposite corner of the province, barely a long bicycle ride from the Washington State line (and a long way from, well, anything else), is a region and a pair of resorts that offer something that Whistler often can’t — room to spread out.

Red Mountain and Whitewater resorts are both in the Kootenay Rockies on the snowy Powder Highway circuit in British Columbia’s southeast corner, off the main track and therefore little-known and rarely visited even by British Columbians. This leaves some of the province’s most powder-rich terrain to enthusiastic locals, hard-core “pow-chasers” and not-so-expert skiers like myself who prefer very short lift lines paired with very long runs.

Red and Whitewater share a similar atmosphere — funky, retro and built from the ground up by a strong community of local volunteers and colorful characters who remain involved in keeping the ski experiences unpretentious and small-town welcoming.

Just 15 miles north of the U.S. border, Red Mountain is the backdrop for the 1890s Wild West gold rush town of Rossland (population 3,500), which once boasted 42 saloons (one remains). Skiing was part of life from the start when Scandinavian miners strapped boards to their boots. Ski clubs comprised of passionate locals took over and created a true European-style mountain culture that remains. The Red Mountain Racers training team, which started in the 1960s, has contributed more national team members than any other Canadian club and sent two skiers to the Olympics, including gold medalist Nancy Greene.

Stepping into the vintage ski-club-built base lodge with its vivid 1960s orange and yellow wooden lockers in the basement triggers nostalgia from my childhood ski days. Everyone seems to know everyone else and plenty of longtime club members in their 70s and 80s still fly downhill with jaw-dropping finesse: I meet a couple of seniors at the mid-mountain Paradise Lodge who are clad in Day-Glo onesies.

Lonely “lifties” are happy to chat as there’s rarely a line. One of them tells me to poke off-piste along winding Rino’s Run, where I discover half a dozen rustic log cabins half-buried in snow. They’re still used, former backcountry ski club outposts from the 1930s before members rejiggered salvaged gold-mining equipment into Canada’s second chairlift in 1947.

Laced with challenging tree glades and steep and deep slopes — “steep shots” in the local vernacular — Red and adjacent Granite Mountain have a reputation for some of the toughest skiing in North America. As a result, the resort added 1,000 acres of intermediate terrain with quad chair access on adjoining Grey Mountain in 2013.

Now it’s possible to ski 360-degrees around Granite and Grey. The Big Red Cats — the world’s biggest snowcat skiing operation in which folks are shuttled to remote powder on the grooming machines for as little as $8 a run — simply moved over to the next mountain in the chain, Kirkup. In total, there are 110 runs on 4,200 skiable acres — bigger than Jackson Hole.

There’s a gnarliness to Red and locals like it that way. It is so fiercely uncommercial and independent that it’s often referred to as “the anti-Whistler.” When Red Mountain Resort CEO Howard Katkov, based in San Diego, unveiled a unique $10 million crowdsourcing plan in August in which contributors could own a slice of Red while raising funds for snowmaking and other upgrades in an era of increasing mega-resort mergers, the slogan was “Fight the Man. Own the Mountain.”

By early November, they had already passed the halfway mark. A much-needed modern 106-room boutique hotel is going up at Red’s base, scheduled to open for the winter of 2017-18.

By day’s end, those 2,919 feet of verticals have me craving a pint of Faceplant Winter Ale from the Nelson Brewing Co. at the lodge’s Rafters Bar — literally amid the rafters once used for bring-a-sleeping-bag/rent-a cot accommodation. Beneath yellowing photos in one corner stands a picnic table reserved for the Old Bastards’ Powder Team, the old-timers who act like they own the place, which they once did — by the time Red was sold to like-minded private investors in 1989, it had been run by a ski club for 42 years, a North American record.

That evening I switch into cross-country gear, slip on a headlamp and ski with a small group into the Black Jack Nordic ski area for a leisurely and lively three-course fondue dinner by the light of a candle-chandelier in a cozy backcountry cabin.

An hour’s drive northeast of Rossland on the shores of Kootenay Lake is the free-spirited town of Nelson in the heart of the Selkirk Mountains. Bohemian, dotted with beautifully maintained grand Victorian buildings, and much sportier and artsier than your usual hamlet of 10,000, Nelson was once a haven for thousands of American expats escaping the draft for Vietnam (locals even considered erecting a statue in their honor in the mid-2000s).

Nelson is the man-bun, dreadlock and patchouli capital of all things organic, where you might feel naked without a plaid shirt and a lumberjack beard. There are more than 40 excellent restaurants, cafes and drinking establishments with live music — don’t miss the local bluegrass Foggy Goggle Boys.

It’s a combo that makes it a perfect ski base for Whitewater Ski Resort, a 15-minute drive away, with no on-mountain accommodations.

Locals in this strongly community-oriented town wanted to hit the slopes as early as 1932. They formed the Silver King Ski Club to cobble together runs at various locations including an old silver mine. In 1974, they decided on a more suitable location in the Whitewater Valley. A base lodge and chairlift were built entirely by volunteers who chipped in a whopping 9,000 hours of their time. Whitewater Ski Resort opened in 1976.

Driving to the end of the access road, it’s clear from the spectacular view of the massive alpine bowl beneath Ymir Peak’s 7,867-foot summit why this spot was picked.

Winding my way down through the Powder Keg bowl’s nicely spaced trees, I appreciate the ski club’s stand on preventing unnecessary upset to the natural environment, bucking the wide open, windswept-run concept popular at the time. Instead, Whitewater’s trademark is tree skiing and sweet glades for every level: 20 percent for beginners, 40 percent intermediate and 40 percent advanced.

I arrive on day one of the annual Coldsmoke Powder Festival, a wild weekend of extreme ski clinics, music, films and fun on the mountain and in Nelson. But mostly I’m interested in the overnight dump of Champagne powder, some 18 inches of the reliable annual average of 40 feet that blankets a skier’s playground.

Although there are 1,317 acres of skiable terrain, there is much more backcountry for those with the right gear and experience. Whitewater has only three chairlifts, and two of them are charmingly antiquated. The Summit lift was purchased from the 1974 Spokane World’s Fair, and when I flopped onto the Silver King chair, I was again flooded with childhood memories, this time of riding this same lift when it was Whistler Mountain’s Olive chair.

In 2010, the Glory Ridge triple-seat chairlift was added, a speedy 21st century addition that feels like space travel by comparison to the others, rising 2,042 vertical feet in 11 minutes, opening up the Backside area and doubling the resort’s boundaries.

Even a lift ride at Whitewater is an entertaining show: An astounding number of graying ski bums and acrobatic children somersault over jumps and gleefully drop down what are virtually cliffs over one snow pillow — a powder-covered rock — after another.

Despite blissfully floating through knee-deep powder, I am counting the minutes to lunch at the lodge cafeteria. Renovated, but retaining its retro, small and homey feel, the lodge is famed for outstanding cuisine that Skiing Magazine rates as “the best ski lodge food ever.” While Mike and Shelley Adams owned the resort, until 2008, he ran the mountain and she the Fresh Tracks Cafe, creating iconic dishes like the curried Ymir Bowl and trademark Glory Bowl — named after a favorite ski bowl — that had skiers begging for recipes. Shelley eventually compiled four wildly popular cookbooks.

The cookbooks do not, however, contain recipes for “death cookies,” nasty, ride-interrupting ice chunks hiding just beneath the surface of groomed, icy runs. Though their names were whispered and cursed throughout my trip, I never met one personally. There was simply too much powder.

Margo Pfeiff is a Montreal-based freelance writer. Email: travel@sfchronicle.com

If You Go

GETTING THERE

Southwest Airlines: Daily direct flights from San Francisco to Spokane, Wash. www.southwest.com. From Spokane, it’s a 2.5-hour rental car drive or Kootenay Shuttle run to Red Mountain and roughly three hours to Nelson, B.C. About $150 (U.S.) round-trip. www.kootenayshuttle.com/spokane.

WHERE TO SLEEP

Red Mountain: (877) 969-7669; www.redresort.com. On-mountain accommodations from $186.

Red Shutter Inn: (250) 512-2274; www.redshutter.ca. Cozy, no-frills original on-mountain inn at Red Mountain’s base. From $115 double including full breakfast at excellent adjoining Fresh Café and Après, www.freshcafeandapres.com.

Prestige Mountain Resort: 1919 Columbia Ave., Rossland; (250) 362-7375, www.prestigehotelsandresorts.com/locations/rossland/overview. Modern hotel in Rossland near Red Mountain. Doubles from $114 per night.

Hume Hotel: 422 Vernon St., Nelson; (250) 352-5331; www.humehotel.com. Historic 1898 boutique hotel in the center of town, renovated with heritage charm. On-site spa and live music venue. From $115 double including full breakfast.

WHERE TO EAT

The Flying Steamshovel: 2003 Second Ave., Rossland; (250) 362-7323; www.theflyingsteamshovel.com. Rossland’s lively, last-remaining gold rush saloon (and one of British Columbia’s oldest pubs) serving creative gastropub cuisine and live music. Dinner for two from $50.

Cantina del Centro: 561 Baker St., Nelson; (250) 352-3737; www.cantinadelcentro.ca. Funky, popular restaurant known for its creative take on Mexican cuisine and cocktails. Dinner for two from $60.

Oso Negro Café: 604 Ward St., Nelson; (250) 352-7661; www.osonegrocoffee.com. Fine coffee roasted on-site and fresh local cuisine. Lunch for two from $25.

WHAT TO DO

Red Mountain Skiing: Near Rossland, (250) 362-7384; www.redresort.com. Single downhill day ticket: $67 for adults. Discounts for two days or more and accommodation packages available as well.

Big Red Cats: Red Mountain base, Rossland; (250) 362-2271; www.bigredcatskiing.com. The world’s largest cat skiing offers separate single and multiday trips for expert, advanced and intermediate skiers and snowboarders. From $260 per person per day.

Whitewater Ski Resort: (250) 354-4944; www.skiwhitewater.com. Adult day ticket: $57.

Coldsmoke Powder Festival: Feb. 24-26. http://coldsmokepowderfest.com.

Valhalla Cat Skiing: (866) 722-7669; www.valhallapow.com. Of several cat skiing operations at Whitewater, Valhalla is one of the few offering single-day cat skiing or snowboarding.

MORE INFORMATION

British Columbia tourism info: www.hellobc.com