Ski Stop #3 of 42 - Murray Ridge

 

We travelled 361 km to Ski Stop #3 – Murray Ridge Ski Area, Fort St. James, B.C. – Nak'azdli Whut'en Territory.

It kinda felt like we were surprised all day long when we visited ‘The Ridge’ – as the locals call it. Riding the longest T-Bar in North America was the first surprise. Four kilometres of cable on the two-kilometre-long lift. It was the longest T-Bar when it first started operating in 1977 - and it remains the longest still today. Want to know where the fastest T-Bar is? Surprise - the T-Bar at Murray Ridge is also the fastest one in North America. The lift is so iconic that they don’t seem to even have a name for it – other than ‘Our T-Bar.’ 

Canadian Ski Hall-of-Famer Al Raine helped with the ski area’s master plan for their opening in 1976, and it shows in the amazing continuous fall lines and terrain use across the ski area. It makes for some incredible skiing that surprised us all over the mountain. They say they have 23 runs, but that doesn’t really do justice to just how much skiing is at 'The Ridge.'

Everywhere we went around the base area, we saw GMJana Gainor – she just kept popping up, working everywhere. Ticketing, rental shop, greeting people, and even in the kitchen. Not sure if a lot of people know or appreciate how many hats someone has to wear to run a ski area - Jana wears a lot of them and doesn't seem to stop all day long. Thanks Jana.

On our first run, we found a bit of pow along the trees on Scud and then cut over for some big wide turns on Cassiar. We had the whole run to ourselves and it seemed like someone had groomed it just for us. On our next lift up, we were lucky to bump into Cody Willick, who among a lot of things on the mountain, does his fair share of grooming and had worked the night before on the run we had just skied. We passed on kudos to him for laying out such incredible corduroy for us.

Cody was born and raised in Fort St. James and calls the slopes of Murray Ridge part of his home. It is a close-knit community. Cam, the lead patroller on the mountain, had been Cody's Principal in high school.

Cody and Cam - a couple of the true Action Heros at Murray Ridge:

                            

Cody told us of epic powder days on the ride up the T-Bar. You can see that chat here.

Small-town hospitality seemed to be our ticket for the day at The Ridge. Right down to our last trip into the Day Lodge when we got into an air hockey battle with ski boots on with a couple of kids in the lower level locker room area.

As we left the Day Lodge to go back to our vehicle, we spied Jana, and this time Cody, back in the kitchen again ... helping out again. The never-ending work of making a ski hill tick so that the rest of us can have smiles on days like this – at The Ridge.

Our video recap of our wonderful day at Murray Ridge Ski Area - it features the song Up On Cripple Creek by The Band:

You can listen to the entire Skadi Tour Playlist of Canadian Artists on Spotify.

www.murrayridge.com