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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Feb 2005
    Location
    North Vancouver/Whistler
    Posts
    13,983

    Shames - little hole in the wall near Terrace BC

    This obscure ski hills averages 40 feet of snow a year. Not a big deal in itself. I live in the Coast Mountains in SW BC where that's a reasonable snow pack.

    I'm a bit jaded though and have had the good fortune of having seen big terrain in North America (travels through my home province of British Columbia, visiting the Canadian Rockies etc.).

    However, this resort serving a population of about 20,000 people (if one were to be generous) is smack-dab in the middle of the most stunning readily accessible terrain I've ever had the fortune of seeing.

    Apologies in advance for the huge panoramic photos. Nothing else will do justice to the grandeur and sweep. Take your time to let the photos load.

    To give one a sense of scale, the surrounding mountains are "only" about 1800m to 2000m high.

    Shames resort boundaries start at about 650m and extend to about 1050m. The resort occupies less then 10% of their tenure

    From the resort entrance you can see the Fay-zurs Chutes. They are about a 120m vertical climb with skins and a 600m run back to the bottom chairlift




    This is the view from the resort's highest lift - a T-bar




    From The Dome (1440m) you can look W to an endless series of bowls. The smallest bowl in the background is Thunder Bowl, which is what we skied today.

    Thunder Bowl is about the size of Flute Bowl (which is a large'ish sized bowl by Whistler standards. Geronimo Bowl is twice the size of Thunder and Super Bowl is twice as big as Geronimo.

    I counted 12 named bowls in the tenured area and another 9 bowls off the tenured area dropping back to the ski-hill access road. A busy day in Shames sees about a 100 skiers; the math is pretty staggering.




    I should emphasize that this is the slackcountry accessible terrain off Shames. A one-way backcountry access ticket will run you $ 10. To give a sense of scale, getting to Thunder Bowl is a bit less then 2 hours.

    Getting to Super Bowl would be more in the 3 to 3.5 hour range. A heli-drop at the top of Super Bowl would cost you $80.

    None of this touches on the touring on the other side of the valley; which the locals have named "Happy Valley" as a counterpoint to the "Valley of Certain Doom" - a name bestowed on the hanging slidepath valleys west of Shames by magazine writer Les Anthony.




    I'll be writing a full-featured article about Shames and its access. I just got pretty stoked working on these shots so thought I would share them.
    Last edited by LeeLau; 03-24-2009 at 03:44 PM.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    May 2005
    Location
    Seattle
    Posts
    172
    Looks awesome. thanks.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Oct 2005
    Location
    Revelstoke; Rogers Pass
    Posts
    877
    jesus, that's in the middle of fucking nowhere. 15 hours from here apparently. Awesome pictures, thanks Lee.

    (Want to ski Columbia in a month or so?)
    Quote Originally Posted by grrrr
    There are good men out there. Good men who are good looking, who ski hard, have their shit in order, know their priorities in life and will make you happy. I'm not one of them, but they are out there.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Mar 2008
    Posts
    3,173
    That's it. That's where I'm going to hole up in a shack in the woods before the massive civil unrest begins.
    "The skis just popped me up out of the snow and I went screaming down the hill on a high better than any heroin junkie." She Ra

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Location
    SF
    Posts
    869
    Maybe more bold fonts and some allcaps? STOKED!?

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jul 2004
    Location
    There's No 666 in Outer Space
    Posts
    666
    What an absolutely beautiful place! The possibilities seem endless.

    Thanks for the stoke.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Feb 2005
    Location
    North Vancouver/Whistler
    Posts
    13,983
    STOKEDDDDD!!! Wiibeert - aye that's the rub. Costs less to fly to Toronto then to Terrace and Air Canada will lose your bags. There's another airline that goes there - www.hawkair.ca

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Nov 2008
    Location
    Terrace, BC
    Posts
    213
    I've seen better...

    Actually Lee, a couple of us are hitting Zola tomorrow.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Feb 2005
    Location
    CB!
    Posts
    2,974
    Quote Originally Posted by tone capone View Post
    That's it. That's where I'm going to hole up in a shack in the woods before the massive civil unrest begins.
    ditto. looks like heaven on earth.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Dec 2006
    Location
    crown of the continent
    Posts
    13,947
    Awesome, thanks!!!
    Something about the wrinkle in your forehead tells me there's a fit about to get thrown
    And I never hear a single word you say when you tell me not to have my fun
    It's the same old shit that I ain't gonna take off anyone.
    and I never had a shortage of people tryin' to warn me about the dangers I pose to myself.

    Patterson Hood of the DBT's

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Location
    SLC
    Posts
    2,898
    can anyone else not see pictures?

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Posts
    2,051
    that looks like the place we're all try to find, but never do because of the distance. You don't know until you go eh!

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Nov 2008
    Location
    the hysterical town of George, CO
    Posts
    1,676
    Fuck man, that terrain looks awesome...
    Quote Originally Posted by DoWork
    Well we really came up with jong because it was becoming work to call all the johnny-come-lately whiny twats like yourself ball-licking, dick-shitting, butthole-surfing, manyon-sniffing, fotch-fanagling, duck butter spreading, sheep fucking, whiny, pissant, entitled, PMSing, baby dicked, pizza-frenchfrying, desk jockeying flacid excuses for misguided missles of butthurt specifically. That and JONG is just fun to say.
    the-one-track-mind

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Location
    Crystal Mountain backcountry, WA
    Posts
    1,359
    Lee, I spent a month in Shames last winter. I drove from Seattle , 23 hrs of sheer terror. Logging trucks behind me and coming towards me all day at high speed as I navigated snowy roads at 47 mph and they wanted to go 60. I was so traumatized that I took the ferry from Prince Rupert to Vancouver Island on the way back( Very neat trip BTW).
    It was and still is the highlight of my road trips. There is a core group of locals who basically adopted me and took me out touring. My son and two friends joined me for a week and everybody on the ski hill knew about the visiting "americans." Last day we where there, my friend is sitting on the double and the stranger sitting beside him said," So I hear you guys are leaving today, eh?).

    The BEST BC run I have ever had was a run called Zymacord Trees off the ridge above the high lift. Every area is named and there is a neat map you can download if you search showing all the named BC areas.

    Marvellous place. Cost my friends about $520 return for airfare form Seattle.
    Thanks for the TR.
    TGR Bureau Chief, Greenwater, WA

  15. #15
    Join Date
    Feb 2005
    Location
    North Vancouver/Whistler
    Posts
    13,983
    Here's the Azad Adventures Rod Gee map that Rod did as part of a course he did in designing websites.

    http://www.azadadventures.com/bc/home.html



    The locals are pretty nice there. Rod really took us under his wing.

    Another funny story. One of our friends flew up and Air Canada lost all his stuff and didn't get his gear to him for two days. We had enough gear that we got him on everything except for boots.

    We walk into Azad and the woman behind the desk starts calling around to find loaner boots for Francis. She knows the boot size of basically everyone in Terrace who has AT boots. In less then an hour, Francis has boots and is skiing.

    I would move to Terrace in a heartbeat.
    Last edited by LeeLau; 03-24-2009 at 02:04 PM.

  16. #16
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Location
    Crystal Mountain backcountry, WA
    Posts
    1,359
    Yep, thats the map.
    It was Rod Gee and his friend Dave Stewart who showed us around, invited me to dinner and took me, my son and friends down Zymacord trees. The friendliest locals I have ever met and damn fine skiers!
    I was housesitting for a guy who was going away for a month and offered his house to fellow skiers on the TAY website. Took me 10 seconds to take him up on his offer.
    There is also a killer mountain bike shop and mountain biking in the summer.
    I heart Terrace and want to live there.

    But don't tell anybody right! ssshhhhh
    TGR Bureau Chief, Greenwater, WA

  17. #17
    Join Date
    Jun 2007
    Location
    Whistler
    Posts
    2,066
    Wow, can't wait for the full TR Lee. You did miss some great snow here in Whistler, but it looks like you made up for it. Shit!
    == | slacktopia | ==
    http://twitch.tv/fugitivephilo
    still bangin' beats

  18. #18
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Location
    Crystal Mountain backcountry, WA
    Posts
    1,359
    Lee looking at your pictures I can remember each run I had.The big open slot below the words Thunder Bowl is called " Iron Curtain" and the treed slopes to the left of it is " No Dogs". Over the ridge is "Cats", which has beautiful rolling terrain facing Thunder Bowl. On the bluebird powder dayday I was skiing Cats after skinning up " No dogs" when a lone skier and his dog dropped form the top of Thunder Bowl and laid beautiful turns down a completely untracked slope in knee deep. I tried to get to Thunder Bowl a few days later along the ridge but got closed out by weather so we dropped Cherry Bowl as shown on the map.

    The terrain is amazing.
    I'm booking a flight
    TGR Bureau Chief, Greenwater, WA

  19. #19
    Join Date
    Jul 2008
    Location
    Portland
    Posts
    2,034
    Holy shite, that looks like some good lovin'
    Be careful about buying snowboard goggles for skiing. Snowboard goggles come in right eye and left eye (for goofy-footers) dominant models. This can make it hard to see correctly when skiing because you are facing straight down the hill, not sideways.

  20. #20
    Join Date
    Feb 2005
    Location
    North Vancouver/Whistler
    Posts
    13,983
    Scotsman - isn't that amazing? The panoramas are what takes me back to that place - Like hallowed land it is. I've got a labelled picture with placenames in one of the ones above

  21. #21
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Location
    Chilli-crack
    Posts
    397
    jesus man, your rubbing salt in the wounds here... all I needed was a server to be jammed for 2 more minutes and I would've been moving there july 1st!!

  22. #22
    Join Date
    Jul 2005
    Location
    Bee Sea
    Posts
    252
    Thanks for the labelled and lovely panos Lee!

    One of these days I'll get up there in the winter.
    I drove up to the lodge one summer as I was passing by and stood there in the parking lot in disbelief--my eyes popping out of my head.

    Where will we be able to see your article?

    r.
    I ski because I was born without wings.
    RET

  23. #23
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    Bromont Qc
    Posts
    15
    Just to make the tease greater. There is a couple of touring hut with heli only access around Terrace too. I've spend 2 weeks again this year in Terrace. Local are very very friendly; they took you everywhere. I think I'll have to go back next year (that would be the third year in a row) cause I have to pay Rodgee a beer. He took me to the top of the superbowl and we skied to the bottom of the valley (5000ft), frankly this was the run of my life (for now). I had the chance to go at the Larsen ridge cabin. Local hut keeper called a whole run after we'd skied it for the first time : "les québécois". I also plan to move there in a couple of years; It's just an amazing place. Here's some pics of Larsen ridge.

    Here's some post I did on Firsttracksonline:

    http://www.firsttracksonline.com/boa...php?f=3&t=7747

    http://www.firsttracksonline.com/boa...php?f=3&t=7730
    Last edited by Lucky; 03-25-2009 at 11:28 AM.

  24. #24
    Join Date
    Jul 2006
    Location
    Ottawa, ON
    Posts
    1,257
    Shames and the NWBC is a beautiful place.

    I tagged up with Lucky for 1 wk last season, great fun.

    I flew in with AirCan: YOW (Ottawa) -YYZ-YPR (Prince Rupert) on a last minute point trip. Lucky flew into Terrace. Not sure was the going rate is to flight there, but from Eastern Canada, it isn't that much more than to Vancouver. However using points to flight to remote places always make perfect sense.

  25. #25
    Join Date
    Feb 2005
    Location
    North Vancouver/Whistler
    Posts
    13,983
    damn, Houses there are so cheap. Nice places for 150k or so.

    I can't help myself. Here's some more shots from Shames and the surrounding Valley of Endless Gnar

    Just thinking about the terrain there makes my nipples go all tight and gets me happy

    John B in Thunder Bowl





    Brad C in Happy in your pants Valley skiing the line "We Came All Over the Face"





    Sharon on We Came All Over the Face



    Our very own Rod Gee. May he never ever have to buy a beer again in his life

    Last edited by LeeLau; 03-25-2009 at 04:35 PM.

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