Since it’s that time for more personal writing, I’ll be providing yet another trip report, with some eventful stories, because what trip would be complete without some entertaining stories? I’ll be diving into my latest trip, to Smithers yet again! For many months after the 2022-23 ski season ended, my excitement for the next ski season was remarkable. In early October of 2023, an Arctic outflow came through the province, cooling down many places, and dusting snow in the mountains, even on the ski hill. However, this was soon to change. The 2023-24 ski season was predicted as an El Niño year, which is a weather phenomenon that makes the ski season exceptionally warm. I tried my best to be optimistic, but the weather simply did not deliver on Vancouver Island. The ski hill was bare, only having a 40cm base for a time. As everyone who was on the ski trip knows, the snow was decent on that day, but things only went downhill from there after the trip. It rained, hard. There was so much rain that over half of the snow base was washed away, and the ski hill had no choice but to close operations entirely, for a period. It snowed a little more which pushed the hill to re-open, but there was simply nothing there. My solution: book a plane ticket to Smithers, and then I could go and fulfill my desires for winter adventures.
I booked my ticket a month prior, and began the wait to go to winter wonderland, probably the best way I can describe it. My dad decided to book tickets for him and my siblings not long after, as he decided that a ski trip sounded epic after all. I booked these tickets conveniently on Family Day long weekend, so I only had to miss a day of school for this 4-day trip. The night before, I packed my bag, and had a short-lived 5-hour sleep, as the flight left at 6:25am, from Victoria (YYJ) of course. I loaded our single suitcase into the trunk, and we headed to the airport, which is about 40 minutes away for me. I arrived at the airport, and made a beeline for the bag drop, as I had already completed the online check-in the day before, where we the bag was checked and sent off on the baggage belt. I made sure to get some of the high-quality boarding passes at the desk as mementos for later, which was essentially a nicer looking, sturdier boarding pass with the signature Air Canada stripe over the top. The self-serve kiosk prints flimsy receipt paper passes, which I learned early on last year when I went through the kiosk. I arrived at TSA, uneventful, other than the fact that I was randomly selected to be hand swabbed. I made my way to Gate 8, which is an interesting gate because the planes can park horizontally to the gate. What this means is that no pushback tug is needed, which speeds up the departure.
I reassured my dad that we did not need to go to the Harbour Walk for a muffin, and instead made the claim that the Tim Hortons in Vancouver Airport (YVR) would be completely fine for breakfast. I messed around with my music until our boarding time came around at 5:55. I walked towards a 7-year-old Dash 8-400, registered as C-GYJZ, in the new 2016 livery. I boarded, and filed all the way down to 20D, quite possibly the least favorable seat I could imagine, as it’s the back of the plane on the aisle. It wasn’t the end of the world for this flight, as it was just a quick hop over the Strait of Georgia to YVR. This flight only has a block time of 32 minutes, with an airtime of just 12 minutes, based on the runway configuration of 09 in Victoria and 08R in Vancouver. I was sat next to an older gentleman, who was off to Orlando, FL, to visit his daughter for her wedding. I made conversation with this fellow for the entire flight, where we talked about air travel, Florida, along with news and such. We taxied out to runway 09, as mentioned earlier, and were airborne on time headed towards Vancouver, with a cruise altitude of just 4,000ft. This route is only 45NM, and when you’re in a plane doing 200kts over the strait, you do reach the mainland quickly.
After just 6 minutes in the air, Vancouver came into sight, as we started our approach onto runway 08R. Our touchdown was right on schedule, where I had a 1hr layover in Vancouver before connecting to Smithers. As we taxied to gate C39, we parked and had the classic “Panic and try and hit as many people as possible with the bags in the overhead bins”. Not actually, but probably the best way to describe how everyone got off. A noteworthy element about the place in the airport I got off at was the fact that Air Canada essentially owns Concourse C. If you look on the departure board for the C gates, it’s all Air Canada. With the return to my claim where I assured my Dad we could get Tim Hortons in Vancouver, I’ll preface the line with ‘I did not think what I was saying through, at all.’ We arrived slightly ahead of schedule, only to be met with a line 70 people long, which shot down my super confident statement of “Everything is 100% okay”. Admittedly, the reference for the Tim’s being totally fine was from when I was there in the summer at 2pm on a Wednesday, which is definitely quite a different comparison which I clearly didn’t think of, so whoops.
My dad still stood strong that he wanted his food, where I said we wouldn’t have enough time. When my dad was about 4 people from the front of the line, the gate agent for the flight called my dad’s reservation to the desk, for an ‘important change’. Of course, because I clearly lacked cognitive thinking abilities from not sleeping, I didn’t just walk myself over the desk and ask what was going on, rather I stayed right where I was. Great decision, (completely not my dad lost his spot in line). Guess what the ‘important announcement’ was? “The seats were going to be moved from row 15 to row 18. Whoa. Long story short, my dad was a teensy bit livid that I didn’t just ask what was going on so he could keep his spot in line. Again, my thinking failed me, twice. I took my entitled self, passport and all, and boarded one zone ahead of my dad and siblings at gate C33, onto yet another 8-year-old Dash 8-400, registered as C-GUJZ, also in the new 2016 livery. I settled into 3F, a window seat on the right of the plane, where I lucked out with a free aisle seat for the short 1hr 20m hop across the Coast Mountains and Tweedsmuir, 650km north. Pushback started shortly after, and we started up both engines right on time for the taxi to runway 08R. This is the moment I saw a plane parked at gate C32. Not just any ordinary Dash 8, but the one where I sat in the pilot’s seat, four years ago. Of course, I had to get a picture, since I recognized the registration as soon as I saw the Dash, C-GGMU. The takeoff was uneventful, but nonetheless we started our climb to our cruise altitude of 23,000ft.
The inflight service started shortly after our initial climb, where I got a water and some Air Canada pretzels. We cruised over the mountains, which slowly turned to the plateau, and soon enough the Nechako Valley came into sight. We began our descent into Smithers over Houston, BC, and were inbound on our approach to runway 15. The town of Smithers came into sight on final, where we cruised over into onto the runway, with the wind, where the plane was set down quite firm. It is unusual to land with the wind, as normally you always land into the wind. However, the reason for this is because Smithers Airport is completely uncontrolled, meaning that there is no ATC, and you simply report your intentions on the Smithers radio. We taxied into Gate 1, which is the only gate, but besides the point. We were welcomed by a brisk -15 with perfectly clear skies. We headed into Smithers Airport (YYD), which is quite modest, as we waited for our singular checked bag. Our bag came around the belt relatively quick, and we were soon in my Grandpa’s truck headed towards Tyhee Lake, where their house is located. After a short 15 minute drive through Smithers, we went through the outskirts down the country roads, until we reached the house. I immediately made a beeline for the lake, which is frozen over in the winter, where I just sprinted as fast as I could, before returning to the house for a hearty breakfast of back bacon, eggs, and pancakes. Soon enough, we headed to the ski hill, where we went to our cabin, which I would say arguably has the best views out of any cabin on the hill, since my Grandpa built it on the top of the hill off of the Green T (For clarification the Green T is a ski lift that tows you with a T shaped bar, and called the Green T since the towers are painted green). The cabin overlooks the Telkwa Mountains, and I can see the whole range from my bed every morning, which is so incredibly satisfying.
After a few runs, we headed back down to the house for the night. A new day came along, where I was welcomed with yet again another hearty breakfast. After my meal, I experimented with the strength of the ice on the lake, to say the least it is super strong. I was able to drive an ATV onto the lake with no issues, if you can see where this is going, I’ll just say doing donuts is so much fun. We and my Omi headed into town for some birthday shopping for me, since I’m not in Smithers on my actual birthday. I went into quite a few stores downtown, before going to Heartstrings, a local gift shop with fresh fudge and clothing. Here, I got myself a Smithers hoodie, and a bag of saltwater taffies, before heading to Mark’s for wool socks and a new belt. Heading up King St, I immediately noticed something different, the paint was washed away! I remember when me and my cousins were biking down that street, on clear summer nights overlooking the mountains. I don’t know what it was about that street, but it just brings back so many indescribable memories that warm my heart. I’m still mentally in Summer 2023, which brings me to some core memories of fishing on Babine, driving around through the rolling hills on a warm summer night, and The Twin. You may ask, what is The Twin? In short, The Twin is this smaller motel on the Northeast side of town, that serves delectable ethnical food. In our family, The Twin was reserved for almost a reward after hard work. You finished cutting all the trees down and making firewood? Good! Let’s go to the twin. You finished making four truckloads of firewood to the skihill, good! Let’s go to The Twin again.
Anyways, after this short adventure, we went up to the ski hill, for another picture-perfect day, with clear skies. I made a couple runs before skiing shortly ended, and I was forced to end for the day. We had made the plan to stay the night at the ski hill, so I did some snowmobiling on Toboggan Hill, before coming back to the cabin for a tasty meal. My dad came up with my other brother to have our meal and brought some cupcakes, and my Omi brought a birthday cake, for my cousin’s birthday, and to recognize mine, since it was happening a week after I returned home. After the commemoration of my birthday, everyone settled down and went home, whilst I stayed and played cribbage with my Omi. A new day arose, where there was a light dusting of snow on the mountain. As I headed to the lodge to grab my pass, my cousins arrived shortly after for yet again another day of skiing on the hill. We went through the terrain park, many times, where we kept trying to hit this specific rail perfect. It somehow must’ve taken me four tries to get it proper. The rest of the day was quite fun, with many runs on the chairlift, an icy face-smashed-in run through the trees, and a backcountry run to Crater Lake with my Dad in the afternoon, where I got many lessons on what not to do when going backcountry with my Grandpa. The mountains were majestic the entire way, and the lake was even better at the summit. After a short-lived day, the sunset took place, and darkness came. We had the final dinner at the ski hill with the family, played a big round of ‘31’ with the whole family, drove the snowmobile around on the hill. There were some neighbours nearby who had the amazing idea of strapping skis to an armchair. Funniest thing I’ve seen all winter, the screams were even better.
I made many runs to the top of the hill on the snowmobile before heading back to the cabin with the little ones. I eventually fell asleep, and I woke up the next morning with that feeling. It was coming to an end. I came to terms with the fact that winter paradise was swiftly coming to a close, and trudged downstairs for my final 2024 winter breakfast in Smithers. I finished my plate and went to make some runs on the Orange T. I made 5 runs that morning, each with appreciation of the mountains. I made my final ski run, and headed back to the cabin, where I packed up and headed to the house around 2pm. The feeling is indescribable, really. I had some cocktail shrimp at the house, and said farewell at 5pm to leave for the airport. Arriving at the airport, something I found interesting is that the baggage drop and screening belt are all one thing, because of the low volumes of traffic through Smithers Airport. Boarding came around at 5:55, where I boarded another 6-year-old Dash 8-400 for the flight to Vancouver. I settled into seat 8F, with another free aisle seat, and we started our taxi out to runway 34.
Upon takeoff, I saw the town, ski hill, and mountains, all in one big sight on a beautiful sunset, which was amazing. We leveled off at 24,000ft for a rather dark flight over the mountains. On our approach to runway 08L, everything was completely fogged in over Vancouver, a good day to have ILS! On our approach seemingly into nothing, the runway came into sight just 400ft above the ground, where it was pouring rain. Taxiing into gate C39, I noticed an interesting coincidence, which was the fact that we arrived at the same gate that we departed from, four days ago. Stepping onto the wet pavement, I was soaked in 50 paces to the doors of the terminal. We had a 2hr 30m layover before our outbound flight to Victoria, so to kill the time, we had dinner at this grill in the upper part of the concourse, before heading to Tim Hortons for a much needed donut. Our flight was operating out of Gate C40, just one over from where we arrived, so there wasn’t much moving in the terminal.
After a lot of scrolling and admiring of the plane in front of me, we were notified that boarding would be delayed, slightly, for a disabled customer. Boarding commenced later than expected at 10:25pm, where we had a relatively full flight. However, as I lurched into seat 14F, I yet again had no one on the aisle! Lucky me. Boarding soon finished up, and we were on our way to runway 08R for our southbound departure. Another pitch black flight unfortunately. I find it so interesting how the announcements for landing come on during this short flight, actually just 4 minutes after takeoff. We went inbound on our approach to runway 09, where we touched down in more rain. At last, we were deplaned and out of the terminal at 11pm. The drive home was silent, everyone was more or less half asleep from the long day. From start to finish, the trip was an absolute success, and I hope to embark on more winter adventures in 2025. (Remarks, I could’ve summarized this into about 400 words, but the massive piece is purely for my enjoyment).