My dad and I had a great time in the Rossland area of British Columbia. The area was really nice and we did manage to get some skiing in, despite lots of rain and relatively warm conditions.

On the first day, we went snowcat skiing, which was awesome. They take you to a remote mountain in a snowcat and let you ski all sorts of untouched slopes. Each time, they drop you off at the top and pick you up at the bottom, with a roundtrip of about 25 minutes. It's sort of like heliskiing, except a bit faster and less dangerous - but it's also more limiting in terms of accessible terrain. But when you're in Canada and you could virtually ski the entire country, a snowcat takes you everywhere you could want to go for a day. And after a good snowfall, the powder you can find in the backcountry is exquisite, provided the right conditions. Since it had snowed only about 2 inches the night before, there was some fresh powder, but not enough to cover up the harder, icy stuff that had been sitting there for weeks.

The next day it was 40 degrees and raining, so we took a trip to Nelson and had lunch in this very picturesque town. Then we went to the Ainsworth Hot Springs. It was really relaxing to sit outside in the naturally heated water while it was raining.

And on Day 3, we went to Whitewater Ski Resort, just outside of Nelson. We didn't take any pictures there, but on the way we caught some great views of the Columbia River and also of a runaway truck crossing where drivers with spent breaks would actually have to cross a highway in order to get to the runaway lane.

Best of all, we still have credit for 2 days of snowcat skiing, which we can use any time in the future.