Tats with Katy and Ben, Ultimate Lifties on the Powder Highway

Awoke this morning to a few cm of freshies outside, on the car.  After a quick email session to catch up on friends across the open road, I grabbed my gear and followed my buddy Justin up to the hill here at Panorama Mountain Village. Our car was a little emptier than when we arrived last night, as we moved a bunch of our gear into the new pad at Windermere Pointe.  This place has three beds, couches, flat-screen TVs, full kitchen and laundry in as many rooms; certainly not ski bumming, more like riding the wave.  Needless to say, the little Nitro had some get-up as we trekked up to the resort, laughing all the way.

The ski hill is about a 20 min drive from the junction at Hwy 93 where our pad is located, and it’s an easy trip.  Plenty of parking was available and we were on the hill less than 10 minutes later; the girls at the Guest Services desk made us feel at home and had us on the lift in no time.  Our first run was a doozy, since we managed to avoid a nice warm-up run and followed our eyes to some gladed steeps off the top on Outback Ridge.  A couple of days off had me sitting backseat on some challenging terrain, and my legs were burning like pee in a frat house.  The run-out was a nice long cat-track back to the base village which gave our legs some rest.

With a new approach and respect for this mountain, Justin and I decided to play it safe by hitting the terrain park.  Some highlights of the afternoon:

• Rode the chairlift with everyone from a mother and son, young ski racer, snowboarders from Calgary, and a freeski coach for the local team.
• Justin bought a latte at a really neat coffeeshop attached to a ski rental shop (Lusti’s in the village).  Gotta get some Blizzard demos in there!
• Met some stoked lifties at the Mile 1 Quad and snapped some photos.  Stoke was shared.

So, with a few more days here on this round through, I’m excited to show you some of the park that Panorama has to offer and ski some of the pow predicted on the good ‘ol interweb.  Stay tuned…dropping some edits soon on ChrisTatsuno.com!

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Tags: BC, Blizzard skis, Calgary, Canada, Christatsuno.com, Invermere, Lusti's, Panorama Mountain Village, Powder Highway, Windermere Pointe