The Queen and King of Coldsmoke Competition at Whitewater Ski Resort is a weekend long wicked adventure! Enter a weekend packed with social events, a skimo race and slopestyle event on Saturday, a backcountry ski and multi ski skill Olympics on Sunday, the stoke of everyone at the mountain enjoying the festival and clincs and the fresh snow falling from the sky…. and you have a perfect weekend.
Things kicked off Saturday morning with the ROAM Randonnee – an Individual length ski mountaineering race that takes you up and down Ymir Bowl on skis three times before you reach the finish line. Then I switched into downhill skis and competed in the Village Ski Hut Slopestyle going down the steepest slope I have done at Whitewater. Sunday began with the always costumed Poker Run (where we answered trivia questions at check points in the backcountry and skied a slalom course while dressed as trolls) and then the North Face Backcountry Olympics (ski up, find beacon, build sled, drag team member down and then build fire and cook then eat egg). A big thank you to all of my team mates that I convinced to do the event with me and stuck by my side throughout the weekend!
I was pleased to come in second overall in the Randonnee, first overall in the Slopestyle, have a decent score in the trivia and a fast time in the beacon search. All of this, combined with a spirit point, crowned me as the Queen of Coldsmoke for 2018!
What an honour! I absolutely love my home hill of Whitewater Ski Resort. The staff, the community, the events and their support have all been fabulous. To top it all off, I got to cross heli-skiing off my bucket list! Stellar Heliskiing gave the King and Queen of Coldsmoke a day of heliskiing as part of our outstanding prize. Thank you Stellar!
We lucked out and had a 30 cm fresh and stable bluebird day! Stellar heli was marvelous. I will never forget that day – so many runs, so many pillow drops and so many smiles. We skied until our legs couldn’t hold us up anymore.
Hopefully I can compete in Coldsmoke again next year.
Regardless of the outcome, it is well worth the effort of throwing everything you’ve got into each of the events. You’ll make new friends and become a better skier in the process.
Lori Anne Donald 