这是第一届，主体就是玩雪。地点Whitewater Resort白水风景区。
The Kootenay Cold Smoke Powder Festival it was! Snow, snow and more snow... in Kootenay fashion, light and deep. All things came together as they should for this 1st annual event. The days before the festival started things off with the storm of the year. A big low pressure cruised through Nelson, to deposit 45 cm of new snow at Whitewater Resort. Then, day after day, the snow kept coming, and the sport surface was set. Friday night’s Cold Smoke Opener festivities started at the Capitol theatre with Meagan Carney, a veteran alpine ski racer and 2 time world free ski champion. Maegan shared her, behind the scenes, impressions of her experiences as a pro free skier on the circuit, along with stories of living the ski bum life in Chamonix, pioneering first descents on some of the steepest lines on the globe. Then Martin Volken and Andrew MacLean showed the audience some ski experiences worldwide including Sweden, Patagonia, and the Pacific Northwest. The night was topped off with Bill Heaths infamous 60s spin on powder skiing in Kootenay style, with his showing of Ski your ASS off. All left the Cold Smoke Opener inspired!
Saturday rolled in with 15 cm of new snow and the start of the first round of clinics. Clinics of all sorts kept people active all day, clinics ranged for beacon rescue, telemark, Randonee skiing, avalanche rescue. Others featured celebrated athletes like Eric Pehota, Naheed Henderson, Andrew MacLean, and Greg Hill. The demo village opened up and participants got a chance to try the latest of backcountry ski and snowboard gear. There were many smiles on the faces of festival participants as they returned from the clinics. The came back with faces glazed in remnant snow, and minds altered with the new experiences from the incredible day.
Also on the schedule for Saturday was the ROAM Randonnae Rally. This was the second stop in the Canadian Ski Mountaineering Team selection race series. The open category would pace themselves over 5000 feet of ups and 5000 feet of downs, whilst the recreational category would climb and descend over 2500 vertical feet of terrain to tour around the boundary of, and finish in the Whitewater Ski area. Racers nervously crowded around that start line for the 10 o’clock lemans start of this uphill/downhill race. Seasoned veteran Cary Smith of Jackson Hole easily won the race with a time of 1:23:07, followed by Andy Traslin of North Vancouver BC at 1:29:53 and Scott Coldrion of Spokane Washington at 1:31:09. the women’s race was won by Melanie Bernier of Whistler with a time of 2:07:15.
The Backcountry Access Beacon Olympics proved challenging for participants. Racers dashed around a course in the Beacon Basin at Whitewater Resort, in an event designed to test people’s ability to quickly perform avalanche beacon rescue.
The Cold Smoke Buff-eh and party started up at the lodge at Whitewater with the most amazing of meals. Black Diamond started things off by sponsoring the BD Happy Hour.（Black Diamond赞助了此次德BD欢乐时光） Whitewater resort is renowned for its powder skiing, but the amazing powder skiing is equaled by the food prepared by the wonderful staff at Whitewater Resort’s Fresh Tracks Grill. The fact that it was a buffet kept inspiration high as there was no limits to how much of the amazing food you could eat. Felt like sheer hedonism. Greg Hill started the nights presentations with tales of his anaerobic ski touring pursuits in the Selkirk Mountains. Dave Heath then gave us a glimmer into his masterful photographic capacities with a short and sweet slideshow of some of his best works. Finally brother bill Heath capped the night showing Sinners, a fantastic film which portrays the sheer fun of skiing in the Kootenays. Smiles, air and powder! The Lazy Poker Blues Band then came on and played up tempo bluegrass til the wee hours of the night. Powder hounds danced the night away, furthering the lactic acid effect of combining a day of magical skiing with the nights frenzied dancing.
Yet more snow arrived overnight, and Sundays clinics got underway. The start of the ARC’TERYX high Mark Competition was slightly delayed by the fact that we had troubles inspiring people to partake, given the effects of Saturday night, combined with the fact that no-one wants to do an uphill race, given the 15cms of fresh snow to be descended upon. Nonetheless the usual suspects like Cary Smith, the Traslin brothers, and others eventually came out of the woodworks to partake in this 100 yard uphill dash.
The Gerick Telecup was a raging success with more then 50 racers. Some showed up in their Gore-tex, other donned lycra world cup racing suits…but things got out of hand when John Wayne and some Vikings arrived at the start line to show us how things are really done at the tele cup! Racing was fierce all afternoon long and you could tell there was some deep Nelson rivalries that came to the surface to spur on some intense competition. The folks at Gericks and Whitewater did a fantastic job of setting a course complete with old school pro slalom jumps and a tight speedy course the provide challenging for all skill levels.
All in all the festival was a great success. Many people came out of the woodworks to experience Nelsons hospitality, snow and the great line-up of events that were a part of the festival, and the icing on the cake was a week of powder conditions. Nelson did not disappoint! We really need to thank the sponsors who gave so much to help us make the event happen. Without their support this event would not have been possible.
Thanks to ARC’TERYX, Mountain Gear, Black Diamond, Scarpa, Powder Creek Lodge, G3, ROAM Shop, K2, Atomic, Recco, Kootenay Mountain Culture, Off Piste Magazine, Outside Magazine, Coulior Magazine, Mountain Safety Research, Adidas Eyewear, Nelson Brewing Company, Voile, Gore-Tex, Karhu, Garmont, Suunto, Dancing Bear Inn, Live Metal Works, Gericks Cylce and Sports, White Grizzly Adventures, Prior Skis and Snowboards, Backcountry Access and Life Link.. Also thanks go out to all the insturctrs and guides who led the great clinics and tours. Next years dates are set and the Kootenay Cold Smoke Powder Festival will again amaze. Look to www.coldsmokepowderfest.com for more details. We will see you next year.
（感谢ARC’TERYX, Mountain Gear, Black Diamond, Scarpa, Powder Creek Lodge, G3, ROAM Shop, K2, Atomic, Recco,等品牌，Off Piste Magazine, Outside Magazine, Coulior Magazine上述的杂志，Adidas Eyewear, Nelson Brewing Company, Voile, Gore-Tex, Karhu, Garmont, Suunto, Dancing Bear Inn, Live Metal Works, Gericks Cylce and Sports, White Grizzly Adventures, Prior Skis and Snowboards, Backcountry Access and Life Link..等公司......）
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