Needle is located west of Kelowna on the Coquihalla Highway, close to Zoa Peak but on the other side of the road. We knew that the conditions probably weren't going to be that great since weather forecasts during the week had called for freezing levels to reach as high as 2400m. It may even have rained in the Needle Peak area judging by the sheets of ice. But despite knowing this I was still keen to visit Needle because we hadn't hadn't skied here before (Brenda was a bit less keen!)
It was a nice sunny day and this helped make up for the challenging snow. Well, kind of. A bit. Okay not really. Anyway the warm sun softened the south facing aspects just enough for some reasonable skiing. However if you do watch the video below turn on your speakers because the sound of the skis on the icy snow gives a good idea of what the skiing was like.
Hey Andrew,
ReplyDeleteWe're thinking about heading to the Coquihalla this weekend.
Any suggested routes? Have you heard anything about snow pack?
Any Beta would be appreciated.
Cheers,
Mark
hey mark,
ReplyDeletesince the toll was removed i've been asking people the same thing :) i don't know too much about the area. zoa and needle are the only places that we've skied and there was always much less snow than east of kelowna. the terrain at zoa is fairly limited and gentle but still worthy of a visit. there seems to be more terrain at needle. the highway webcam shows lots of snow at the coquihalla summit today. i could send you the gps tracks for zoa and needle if that helps at all (google earth .kml files).