New Years at Monashee Powder

There is no better way to bring in 2010 than to spend four days in the mountains in the interior of British Columbia skiing neck deep powder. On December 30th TJ, Riley Leboe, Josh Bibby, Ian Cosco, Josh Dueck, Joe Schuster, Justin Dorey, Fergie Cancade, and Freeskier’s Shay Williams headed to Monashee Powder to do just that!

Though good times were guaranteed, the weather had been cold and dry for about a week prior to our trip. We lucked out and the weather rolled in the night before the trip began bringing the Okanagan’s famous ‘Champagne Powder’. We all loaded up and left Vernon at 5 AM on the 30th of December to get into the backcountry in time to ski that day. We got to the trailhead, loaded up the gear on the sleds and headed for the lodge. Once at Monashee Powder’s beautiful mountain lodge, we met up with out amazing guide Dave and headed for the cliff riddled, pillow filled slopes of Monashee Powders’s tenure. The snow conditions ended up exceeding expectations by a long shot. We spent the afternoon scoping out some lines within the area that were on the hit list for the trip. TJ, Riley, and Bibby were already sizing up some drops that would prove to be super impressive.

The second, third, and fourth days blew past like we were standing still. With the powder falling each night and day we were ensured amazing snow and great coverage on lines every day of the shoot. The whole crew was skiing at an unbelievable level for this time of the year having spent no time in the backcountry. It was especially inspiring to see Josh Dueck shredding pow and hitting sizable drops as if he has been doing it all along. Riley Leboe, TJ, and Josh Bibby all gave us a little taste of what we can look forward to in this season’s films as they stepped to some very aggressive lines.

Overall the trip was an indisputable success, we brought in the new year with our best friends skiing powder hundreds of kilometers from the nearest anything. A big thanks goes out to Monashee Powder for being fantastic hosts, Freeskier Magazine for being interested in our eccentric group of friends! Make sure you follow along with the whole Vernon crew as they head into the season, especially Josh Dueck who is going to be representing Canada at the Paralympic Games in Vancouver this March.