Wide-open ski runs are of little use at a ski resort from a seven-year-old skier’s perspective. The more trees the better — add a few jumps, plus some stumps and boulders to ski over and you’ve really got it going on...

 The only thing cleared trails are good for is getting from one set of glades to another really fast. Other than that… “Nah. Pretty useless.”

This from my son, who’s skiing Sun Peaks, BC (http://www.sunpeaksresort.com/) for the first time, and is showing remarkable talent for sniffing out good glades. It doesn’t matter how steep they are, how tight they are, or even if they’re tracked. He beetles from one set to another like a remote-controlled stock car commandeered by Bart Simpson.

“C’mon Mom! You can make it! It’s not that steep. Whattya mean the branches are too low? I made it!”

And this kid’s got more than an opinion or two on how a ski area should be layed out. “5-Mile (a green-circle Sun Peaks run) is good ‘cause it’s long,” he says. “But it definitely needs more trees. The ditches are good on the sides, though. You can get some good jumps in those.”

According to Emmett, the best treed runs at Sun Peaks so far are the Cahilty Glades off the Sunburst Express — well spaced, but not too easy; the trees between Granny Greene’s and Homesteader on Sundance; and Mt. Morrisey’s “easy-peasy” The Sticks.

Emmett skied Cahilty Glades Sunday with a pack of Nancy Greeners (ski racers in the Nancy Greene Ski League), led by Nancy Greene herself, and followed by a CTV camera crew. (The footage will run preceding the Olympics.)

Nancy was cool about heading into Cahilty trees on the first run of the day — she had to be, otherwise the kids on the ski team would mutiny — but the camera crew was a little challenged!

They duct-taped a wide-angle camera to her skis and got action shots of her skiing with all the kids around her. "Kind of hard to ski with one ski slow and the other fast," she said, waving the ski/camera around. She blew it off eventually--made one of her quick slalom turns through the trees and the camera went rolling.

Nancy gave the kids a few tips on skiing trees safely. “Ski with at least three people in trees,” she says. “That way, if you’re hurt, one can stay with you, while the other gets help.” She wisely adds: “And you don’t ski through trees… you ski around them!”

At the bottom of Cahilty she stopped — a rare occurrence for energetic Nancy — and pointed back up at the glades.

“You guys know Bode Miller?” she asked? “The American ski racer? He was here once for a Nor-Am race and missed his start ‘cause he thought he could squeeze one more run through Cahilty trees.”

Emmett nodded his head. He totally got it. When you’ve got glades, who needs gates?

For more Lori Knowles blogs: http://www.loriexploring.wordpress.com/