COLD SMOKE POWDERFEST: Nelson, B.C.

For a photo gallery from this event go HERE

Tucked up in the Kootenay region of interior British Columbia exists a spirit and appreciation for mountain culture unique in comparison to other towns of the mountain variety. With fun-loving Canadians and their eager approach to life in the mountains, big terrain, and tons of snow, the town of Nelson, British Columbia, acted as the host for the second annual Cold Smoke Powderfest.

The two-day event kicked off on Friday with a showing of four films produced by local talent at the Nelson Gun Club. Each film celebrated skiing and the accompanying culture, including a film that attempted to document Chinese skiers on 12-foot long wooden skis with deer hide skins attached to the bases hunting. No hunt was documented, yet each viewer at the gun club felt a cultural assimilation to the children and men of these rural Chinese mountain villages while they skied and laughed on these massive wooden skis comprised of huge tip shovels.

Whitewater Winter Resort, about 15 minutes up the road from Nelson, hosted the majority of the Cold Smoke events on Saturday. Vendors lined up allowing locals to try out new product while the Nelson Search and Rescue debuted their fancy new machine, the llama helicopter, with a long-line rescue. An educational seminar on backcountry beacon search also was held at the base of the ski area. And the first Slopestyle competition at Whitewater went down up in Powder Keg bowl. The mini-comp was essentially in the same form as the Red Bull Cold Rush, a big mountain slopestyle event, but on a scale 20 times smaller. In the youth division, a nine year old boosted a back flip off a little five-foot cliff and then his friend followed with a 360 off the same rock. Meanwhile, as the little groms impressed the crowd lining the cat track, most of the talk swirled around the double front-flip skills of 17-year-old local, Travis Steeger. In the open division, Steeger, who appeared in POWDER’s February issue Shooting Gallery, stomped a double front off a 20-foot cliff sending it about 40 feet. It was big and elicited a lot of talk.

After a ski tour up into Whitewater’s challenging inbounds bowls and chutes, the Powderfest crowd re-united at the gun club for the Photo Showdown. Four photographers had four days prior to the event to snap as many images that best represent the culture of the Kootenays. Such photographers as Doug Lepage, Steve Ogle, and Melissa Welch compressed their best images into a slideshow, where a four-person judging panel selected Ogle as the best overall photographer in the four-day window. Welsh won Photo of the Contest with a monochromatic black and white shot. It was an intriguing display of photo viewing comparing each photographer’s work back to back.

The event wrapped up on Sunday with festival goers from as far as California, Montana, Colorado, and northern B.C. and Alberta driving home content with the mountain celebration. In only its second year, the lighthearted and family-style event is sure to return again next year using the momentum gained in 2008 for an even bigger festival next year.

Thanks to Arc’teryx, Mountain Gear, Whitewater Winter Resort, and the people and town of Nelson for hosting a great event.

For a photo gallery from this event go HERE