[Stefan]

Mt. Goldie 8661'+ / 1115+prominence Mike and I stayed for 5 days skiing at Panorama ski resort northeast of the Purcell Wilderness areaa. Part of one day we went up Goldie. Pretty simple for everyone to do. Took 1.5 hours from the end of the ski trail/road near the top lift. (4000feet of vertical gain helps out with a ski lift!) A road follows "outback ridge" to the top of the 2440 meter closed contour to the east. From there we donned the snowshoes then up the wind scoured ridge and then traversed south the top. There was one minor class 3 section on the top ridge traverse. About 800 feet of gain total from the end of the ski trail. I think lots of people does this during the summer with some good views into the Purcells.

route: http://www.hillmap.com/m/ag1zfmhpbGxtYXAtaGRychULEghTYXZlZE1hcBiAgIDIpbqwCgw Lots of good backcountry skiing potential on the east side of Mt. Goldie and around the lake on the west side.

[reststep]

How was the skiing? That is looks like a great ski area. Did you drive up or did you fly? I should go there. I can ski free according to their website.

[raising3hikers]

glad you guys had a good time

[Mike Collins]

We drove up because the drive in from Calgary would be three hours with additional hours along the way for car rental and security clearance. The snowpack is much less than what we get in the Cascades. The base was ~40 cm. It took two days of solid continuous skiing without a lunch break to ski all of the Green and Blue runs along with a half dozen single Black runs. We didn't try any of the double black runs as I suspected they would be too challenging with icy surfaces. The apres-ski village is small but had good music and restaurants.