Red Mountain Ski Resort in BC Canada is a relatively undiscovered ski destination where you can often enjoy uncrowded slopes. The small village at Red Mountain BC is slowly growing and the nearby town of Rossland is also part of the allure. It’s easy to see why some folks come to Rossland for a ski holiday and never leave because they fall in love with the place. The Scandinavians that came for the gold rush in 1890 were probably also inflicted with the love bug when they discovered that the real treasure was the snow and the great terrain.
Pros and Cons of Red Mountain Ski Resort
Pros
- Red Mountain BC is the place where you can strike gold on a powder day due to the amazing fall line tree skiing where advanced and expert powder hounds can sniff out plenty of fresh powder.
- Red Mountain Ski Resort strikes a lovely balance between steep challenging skiing and family-friendliness.
- The terrain size is reasonably large.
- The ski area is uncrowded on non-powder days.
- The vibe of Red Mountain Ski Resort and the nearby town of Rossland is incredibly friendly and laid back.
- Rossland is a charming ski town.
- You get great bang for your buck! Skiing and snowboarding at Red Mountain is very attractive for families, ski bums and anyone else who is happy to keep money in their pocket.
- You can combine skiing at Red with nearby snowcat skiing with Big Red Cats.
Cons
- The lifts can be painfully slow.
- Whilst the terrain is phenomenal, there are times when you may not want to ride it because the snow has a tendency to sour pretty quickly after a snowfall.
- For non-skiers/snowboarders, there aren’t a lot of things to do.
Pro or Con Depending On Your Perspective
- The ski hill is partially accessible on the Ikon Pass, which will increase crowds somewhat.
Red Mountain Ski and Snowboard Terrain
The
Red Mountain Resort ski area is decent sized with 1,558 hectares/3,850 acres (from 19/20) of skiing and snowboarding, 110 marked trails, and 890 metres of vertical (1,185 – 2,075m).
Beginners have 18% of the terrain, although it feels less than this because many of the green trails are just access cat tracks. Intermediates have 31% of the trails and the new blue trails on the Topping chair are a welcome addition.
The amazing strength of Red Mountain is the terrain for advanced and expert riders and the huge variety of slopes including cut piste, wide-open bowls, glades, tighter trees, and plenty of terrain features. The only limitation for advanced skiers and snowboarders is that it can be difficult to navigate the difference between the single and double black terrain because a lot of trails aren’t marked, and rock bands and cliffs aren’t well sing-posted. Thankfully there are amazing snow hosts that can take you on a tour to help you get oriented to the terrain.
The Red Mountain Ski Resort is serviced by 7 fixed-grip lifts, and the resort prides itself that the chair lifts are thumb-twiddingly slow, with the silly notion that you get more powder because the powder last longer because everyone gets less runs in.
In addition to the lift-serviced terrain, there is also snowcat accessed terrain off Mt Kirkup.
Red Mountain Snow
Red Mountain receives a respectable amount of snow, with an average of 7.5 metres (300 inches) per season, although this is much less than nearby
Whitewater Ski Resort. The elevation isn’t particularly high at Red, and the snow quality can deteriorate on the many sunny slopes.
Where is Red Mountain BC?
Red Mountain in Canada is about 3 kilometres from Rossland in British Columbia, just inside the Canadian border. It’s about a 2.5 hour drive from Spokane International Airport (Washington State, USA), 3.5 hours from Kelowna International Airport, or just 30 minutes from Castlegar Regional Airport.
Red Mountain sits in the
Selkirk Powder Triangle and the
Powder Highway of BC, which is renowned for great mountains and an abundance of quality powder, and is home to many cat skiing and heli skiing outfits.
Rossland Accommodation
It’s a tricky choice regarding whether to choose on-mountain accommodation at Red Resort, or stay down in the old gold-mining town of Rossland. Both have their pros and cons.
The Josie Hotel is a fabulous new hotel at the base of Red Mountain Resort which enjoys the superb convenience of a ski-in ski-out location. This upscale hotel has changed the face of Red Mountain somewhat, because it is now a deluxe destination resort rather than just a quick stop-over for ski bums on a Powder Highway road trip.
Nowhere Special is a modern hostel at the base of Red Resort & only 2 minutes walk to the lifts. Red Mountain accommodation also includes condos and vacation rentals that are reasonably close to the lifts.
The pretty town of Rossland has a small number of accommodations to suit various budgets, and has more shops, restaurants and bars than on-mountain.
Rossland Accommodations Listings
Red Ski Resort Facilities
The resort and town find the right balance between having adequate infrastructure and facilities, without being overdeveloped or “resortified”. The population of Rossland is less than 4,000 people, there is one traffic light, there are definitely no Prada shops, and the town has a beautifully relaxed culture.
Red Mountain Ski Resort facilities include child care, ski school, ski and snowboard rentals, a retail shop, a cafeteria, pub, and other dining options.
Red Mountain Cat Skiing
The resort offers several snowcat shuttles per day to access the advanced terrain off Mt Kirkup, which is adjacent to the lift served Grey Mountain.
For real cat skiing, a must-do for powder hounds is to go out with
Big Red Cats for at least one day during your time in Rossland. The day trips depart from Red Mountain and provide an awesome opportunity to score freshies. This is a very polished cat skiing operation, and it has the distinct advantage over other cat ski operators of separating riders into ability groupings ranging from intermediate to uber-expert. The
Big Red Cats skiing needs to be booked well in advance.