Related: Kokanee Bowl, Radar Bowl: Unreal Lift-Accessed Ski Touring

Report from December 20, 2025

As Kaitlin and I took a bump up RMR’s Stoke Chair, we soon realized Montana Trees would be our perfect ski-date, my favourite kind of date. After unloading for the surprisingly quiet chair lift, as is expected of the resort before the Christmas break, we traversed towards the wind sock, the ever-recognizable orange fabric flapping in the moderate south winds. A few hundred meters south of the Stoke Chair, we transitioned for a frigid traverse below the Mt Mackenzie South Path. Given all the stormy action December has seen, visibility was naturally poor.

We contoured the terrain, spacing out as we traversed underneath the large SW-facing start zone. With the visibility further worsening, we felt our way along the Mackenzie South Shoulder, distinguishing Montana Trees to the west from Highway Bowl to the east. No more than 15 minutes later, we reached a vast treeline slope dotted with snow-glazed spruces. Stopping above the skier’s left of Montana Trees, where the glading is more open, we transitioned for the descent. I stabbed my Ferreol Surfeur 112 skis deep in the powder, afraid that the steady winds would blow them away.

We cautiously skied through the band of ghostly spruces and opened up the throttle in the vast treeline slope below. With its shallow incline incapable of producing avalanches, I felt perfectly comfortable party skiing it with Kaitlin in tow. After a quick regroup at the trim line marking the start of Montana Trees proper, we traversed towards a virgin hallway tucked between two denser tree bands. With temperatures plunging due to a developing Arctic outbreak, the snow quality was blower, 40cm of perfect champagne powder. As expected, the skiing was fabulous. Playing the Surfeur 112 to its strength, I was having way too much fun throwing the skis sideways, slashing powder into the air.

By the end of the Montana Trees run, the terrain benched out as we glided back to the Montana cat road, the easiest way to get back to inbounds RMR. Impressed by the top-notch skiing, we headed further south towards the Kokanee Ridge, hoping to ski another great lap. We slithered under the Natural Selection headwall, a nearly-vertical rock band where the freeride competition took place.

Following the disaffected cat road and a well-crafted uptrack, climbing Kokanee Ridge was a breeze. Wanting a shorter lap, we climbed up to 2100m and transitioned at the Natural Selection start gate.

We skied down Kokanee Ridge, passing many friendly faces as we raced down the cat road. We stopped at a notable notch leading into the Short Stop run. I tested the 40-degree treed slope by ski cutting the start zone. The snow was absolutely blower and showed no signs of reactivity. Fortunately, the band of trees cresting Kokanee Ridge had protected the terrain from the gale-force winds observed during the last storm cycle. We skied the run one-at-a-time, making sure we didn’t expose ourselves to the Natural Selection headwall to our skier’s right.

We high-fived at the bottom, now that we’re back in the safety of the Montana cat road. We stuck the rugs on our skis and toured back to the resort, traversing under the Jalapeno inbound run.

Route Info

2.5h	112m	3.2 km	1875-2180m

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