Red Mountain

This year, we drove across the border to Canada to visit Red Mountain. It was only 2.5 hours away, and they had plenty of snow.
We made our on-mountain reservations back in August when their winter specials went live and we ended up with a slope-side condo, so at night we were facing the slopes and could watch the cats lay down the corduroy. It was so beautiful. We would sit in the hot tub on our patio and just enjoy the view while warming up and relaxing after our ski day. 
The lifts stopped running at 3:00 for 2 of our days, but the last day they stayed open until 3:30, which was great for us! We had so much exploring to do and had a great time getting to know the runs and getting a feel for the grading system of the mountain (green, blue, black).

We're not sure what this was all about, but Emily's cheek was so pink/white when we stopped for lunch one day. Weird!

View of the condo from the slopes

View of the slopes from our balcony

Hot tub on our balcony (serviced regularly by the on site staff)

Dinner one night, picked up from a local (overpriced) restaurant.

Verdict: It's still better to bring our own food, freeze-dried or not.

This was a (funny) sign we saw on sight.

Ski in/Ski out is epitomized in this picture 

We skied RIGHT UP to the back door of our condo and walked our stuff into the inside gear storage locker.

Emily and Dad get on a lift together

Look who we found on the slopes!

And- funny signs in the on-slope bathrooms.

Kellen and Kai wanted to try out the Double Black Diamonds on our first day, but we held them off until the second day when they solo'd the Chute Show. They took a radio and headed off on their own. We only just *happened* to hear them yelling at each other as we skied by the Chute Show down the slope at the bottom of the mountain backside. We stopped and watched them complete their daredevil run, ready to call up ski patrol (or kick off our own skis and run up the hill) if needed. Fortunately, they made it down safely and lived to see it again the following day.

Night skiing- they only had the tow rope and terrain park open for night skiing, but we had a great time on them nonetheless. Next to the terrain park you could get going SUPER fast! Mom tracked herself at 45 mph on her Slopes App!

Kai hit some jumps

Emily loves doing the jumps, too.

Owen gets good air

 

Kellen runs his jumps, too.

Boys tackling groomers and moguls by themselves.

Sometimes we have small (and large) yardsales.

Dad and Emily workin' the mountain.

Kellen found this monstrous icicle at a Flyin' Phils on the backside by Topping Creek Chair.

At the top as a family.

Owen kickin' in on the ground havin' a great time.

This sun reflection showed up on the back side of the Chute Show and was too beautiful to pass up

About half way down "Get Up Stand Up" (which took Emily 30 minutes to get down the first time (mental block to be overcome) but quickly became her favorite run, and Dad's favorite run, too) there is this little warming cabin. Sometimes people just gather inside to have a drink or cook up some chicken. Literally, one day Owen went inside (while Mom and Dad waited outside to make sure he was safe because we didn't go inside but there were lots of skis outside and we didn't know who exactly was inside or what they were doing (eek)) and he found a group a dudes cooking up a chicken and passing it around. The following day we stopped by to check it out and there was noone inside, but it's a fun little warming hut.

 

Mom and Dad skiing at night

Mom, Emily, Owen on the lift

Mom and Emily on the lift

On the last day for the last run of the day (and trip) we went up Motherload Chair (which only services blacks) and tried our hand at a groomed black on the face of the mountain, Main Run. The boys had been wanting to get up to the frozen waterfall since they first saw it, and we finally made it happen. We stopped on the trail, where they shed their skis (and board) to climb up to the frozen water and say they reached it.