Although we could've easily hung out and shredded Monashee for the rest of the season, it was time to say goodbye to our new friends and continue along our Interior journey. We had a hefty drive ahead of us that took us down a super windy road and across beautiful Arrow Lake by ferry. Dalby admitted to us that he loves ferries, which brought on a few giggles from the peanut gallery. Our drive continued along the shores of the lake and through the coolest little backwoods (read: grow op) towns.

After exhausting most of the tunes on Dalby's iPod, we arrived into our digs, Slalom Creek, at Red Mountain. Compared to our rooms at Monashee, this place was paradise. So comfortable in fact, that it was hard to motivate the crew come morning. We each had our own room, lots of space to stretch out, a roaring fire, a deck with a hot tub, and strong Kootenay coffee to jack us up in the morning. What more could you want? The only thing that ruined it was Dave Short's gnarly boot stench in the bathroom.

Next day at Red was full bluebird and fun spring conditions. We ended up shredding around the mountain with local Rossland ripper Leah Evans who was glad to show us around her home mountain. After a couple days of straight pow, it was nice to mach down fast groomers and play around on hit runs and a soft park. Despite warm temps, Red still has a lot of snow but most of the locals are in a golfing/fishing/biking mindframe so we had a lot of room to shred anywhere we wanted.

After a sunny patio lunchbreak at Paradise Lodge, where a few cold ones were enjoyed and a lot of neon zinc was brought on, we decided to get serious and got down to business. Leah took us up Red Mountain and off the backside to a spot called "The Pits." Let me tell you, it wasn't the pits at all. Zing! This spot was like a cliff terrain park, the remains of open-pit mining at the turn of the century. Really eerie rock formations with strange Terminator-metallic colours burned into the stone. Afternoon sun was hitting the area with a glow so we decided to session the spot for the rest of the day. Even with a melting snowpack, we were able to make things happen. I can only imagine what this place would be like during a mid-winter dump — drops, spines, doubles, and a tranny that brings any route down back into a central bowl area.

Good times at Red! Thanks Erik, Mika, Mike and Leah. —Dean Seguin

View over to Mount Roberts, where lots of stellar freeride action goes down.

L to R: Our guide for the day, Leah Evans, along with Russell Dalby and Dave Short. Fun in the sun. If only you could see the smiles.

Not just The North Face teammates. Leah and Dave join forces to bring back the '80s neon zinc flave. Actually I think Dave is just wearing lipstick.

Dave didn't like that last comment so he took it out on the patio railing after lunch.

So much potential.

Dave drops into The Pits.

That sign wasn't telling us a whole lot so we made our own route.

Old school meets new school as Dave gets rad in front of this old mining equipment.