Update! We have fresh snow and most trails are groomed. Some have tracks set. See the comment link at the very bottom of this page for updates
Membership
To join the club or renew your membership – click here
You can get membership forms, drop off your membership payment and receive your new membership tag at Breathe Bikes at 1960 Quilchena Ave in Merritt. Hours are 11am-6pm Tuesday to Saturday. Breathe Bikes also offers a free ski rental or ski wax to new Nicola Nordic members – check it out: Breathe Bikes
Chili Sunday – January 13th at P2 shelter
Chili Sunday on the 13th was a great success. Many thanks to the folks that organized things, especially Kate, John and Mischelle. If you have any photos from Chili Sunday to share on this web-page please send them to our email address nicolanordic@gmail.com.
Part of the group at Chili Sunday – January 13th, 2019. Photo: © Ian Webster
For more photos of Chili Sunday 2019 – click here: Chili Sunday 2019
For information and photos of Chili Sundays in past years click here: Events
Photos
Take a camera or phone with you on your ski outing and share your photos. Send ski photos to nicolanordic@gmail.com
For photos from previous seasons go to our Photo Gallery
Trail updates
Take care! There has been a washout on the Hill’s Homestead trail which removed part of the road (and ski area). The club has marked off this area with a high-visibility fence but take care in skiing downhill in this area.
Logging trucks. Logging near the ski trails seems to be done for the time being, but might resume again. Drive with care, especially on corners.
Been skiing in the past day or so? Leave us a comment about which route you used, what the trail was like, and anything that needs attention. You can also leave (or respond to) questions on the Kane Valley Trails or about local weather.
We’ll also use these posts to tell you what’s been groomed, what is scheduled to be groomed, and anything else club members and trail users should know about. Our trails are not suitable for skate-skiing.
For instructions on how to leave a comment click here.
Jan 31st
Just skied Kane and Skyline this morning. The beginning of the trail from P2 is messy but clears up after the junction. Snow was great, not sticky, a little icy under the trees.
A great morning!
Finally got back on the boards Sunday after a month on IR. From P1 skied Raven’s Ridge and Vale to P3. Crossed over to P2 and did Matthews and Chute back to P1. Weather beautiful but snow conditions rather poor. Sunny areas soft and sticky; under trees icy and slippery. Downhills at times precarious because of inconsistencies. Many thanks to Hubby and TJ for their hard work grooming/tracking what snow there is. About an eight degree drop in daytime temperature would be nice. Happy trails!
Letting everybody know most trails are groomed on both sides, track is set on Kane, Matthews Loop, Ravens Ridge, Aspen and others. We got stuck on Sky High and Ravens Ridge from P1 as well as a couple other places, with the groomer as the temperatures rose. Sorry for any inconvenience. TJ
A great day for a ski! We parked at P1, followed skier tracks along Raven’s Ridge, and broke trail along Gulch and Overeasy (sorry about the big Sitzmark past Box Canyon bypass!) to P5. Lots of snow and tons of animal tracks. At P5 we found freshly groomed trail all the way around Hills Homestead and Matthews Loop back to P1. We’ve missed these trails, and today was the perfect day to make the drive from Vancouver. No traffic, sunshine, +4, excellent snow, and good grooming. Thanks, NNSC, for another fantastic visit.
All the network trails are groomed on both sides of the Road. It’s groomed down to P6 but Harmon has not been opened up due to logging. You can still ski it back country style, there has been a couple hard-cores who pushed through. We have a good foot of new snow. Both groomers are out tomorrow and they will open up Hills Homestead.
There are no tracks set (we are working on that) but the guys have groomed everything wider and the snow is soft and fabulous. All week, it’s been blue bird spectacular. BIG thanks to Terrance and Hubby for the grooming!
Come out and Play! …. and kindly drop off your $ 🙂 or membership in the orange box and we will keep grooming and paying our repair bills!!
Enjoy!
The snow has arrived! Terance went out today and did some grooming in Heavy snow. We got a decent 12 inches last night and none of it has melted.
Trails groomed we from P2 and P3 Parking lots. More grooming to follow.
Matthews loops are done as is Ravens to Lunchbox.and Kane.
The rest will be groomed in the coming days…
Conditions are stellar, come out and play!
BIG thanks to VSA for plowing out our parking lots and keeping the road in great shape!
👍just heading up!
jan22 tue skied from p3 up gultch, and up harmon. gultch is really nice and wide. harmon has fresh snow on older groming. just past panorama shelter there is no grooming. that made for a long slog ln deep snow all the way to p6.
Groomer were out yesterday and I believe they did their best to cover up the damage done by rouge truck driver! Very frustrating to be sure!!
The snow is welcome and there looks to be at least 3 inches of fresh snow fall over the weekend. I did get out for a quick ski this afternoon from P5 through to Berthas. The snow is good, the trails are wide and the volume is enough to cover up most imperfections and ice on the trails.
Come out and play, it’s worth the effort!
Kate
Saturday jan 19 2019. Lots of good snow at kane! Parked at P1 skied Ravens to Menzies, and up Gultch. At 3pm an engine sound could be heard, then came across vehicle tracks where Gultch joins the power line. The vehicle left big deep vehicle tracks on the trail to lunch box, then the tracks stayed on the powerline and I skied Ravens. The Menzies trail and the bottom of Ravens had deep vehicle tracks. It looked like the vehicle went in and out from from the access road near P1. The yellow access barrier was open.
friday jan 18 parked at p1. skied chute, mathews,kane to cross at p3, vale, gulch to lunch box and raven’s ridge back to p1. The snow was 2inches of soft over the packed base. Glide was really nice and temperature was not melting as sky were clouded. A really nice ski day. Not sure what the conditions are like at kane today Saturday Jan 19.
thank you NNC for making our first Chili Sunday a great experience! ….and thank you to Kate for giving me a private cross country ski lesson and then doing Matthew’s Loop together! A great day!
Ken and Herta
Wife and I skied Raven’s Ridge to Tillicum and did a uturn back to P1 with toddler in the trusty backpack. Snow is minimal at the start, some bare patches. Gets much better as you get up a bit higher. Everything we saw was groomed, tracks set in some places, not all. Snow conditions were very good. Don’t let the bare patches by the road dissuade you, the skiing was just fine!
Chili Sunday is tomorrow and the vast majority of trails were groomed by Hubby and Terrance today! We are in good shape for tomorrow. Conditions are holding, 5 new cms of snow this week and currently -7.
There is group snow shoe led by Terry Frizzell at 10:30 am from P2. The fires will be going from 11-2. Come with enough Chili for your group (and bowls and spoons) bring a mug, we’ll have the rest. If you want to get rid of extra Christmas baking, it will get eaten!
A beginner lesson will be at 1pm. Help gladly accepted for this!
This day is open to everyone and skiing is free tomorrow only! We will have memberships available tomorrow too for those wishing to support the club. Due to our slow start, memberships have been low. We truly need funds to keep going, so if you’re thinking about joining tomorrow is a great day to do that!
Kind Regards,
Looking forward to celebrating with everyone tomorrow!
Kate
Friday, January 11 2019 parked at P1 and skied up Raven’s. Don’t let the grass stop you. The snow is deeper just around the corner. Skied Menzies and up Gulch to Lunch Box, then along Raven’s back to P1. Made first tracks since the snow has fallen. About 2 inches of lovely soft snow. There are a few places under trees that are a bit wet with drips but it was another unexpectedly quiet peaceful ski.
parked at p5 thursday Jan 10. Skied up Kane to Ravine, then up Ravine (past Bertha’s shelter) to Skyhigh and down Skyhigh and Kane back to p5. Met snowshoers and fellow skiers enjoying the day. There is a about 2 inches of snow that has made skiing quite pleasant. I heard that grooming is coming on or before Saturday. A few snow covered icy spots under trees, but the snow was enough to improve ski conditions.
Skied p5 to p6 Jan 4, 2019. Hard ice in shaded areas. Puddles in sunny spots. No control on the slightest hills. Not recommended until next snowstorm.
Went for a drive up to the trails yesterday. Jan 4th was hoping for ok conditions. Looked like it rained and then froze and was melting again. The trails didn’t look like they were in good enough shape that I was ski. Drove through to cold water rd and the snow was almost gone after Helmer.
Is there enough snow to ski Kane Valley Sat. Jan 5th?