Fernie - 62 and counting

Right, time to finish our tour of the mountain.

Just a couple of things to mention first. Monday was Waitangi Day, so we let the Kiwis win a game of cricket against an "Aussie" side with some Brits and Canucks making up the numbers. Cricket and beer was enjoyed by all, with a kicker providing a sideshow of skiing and snowboarding tricks of varying degrees of success.

The Prize

The Action

and The Entertainment

The other big news is that we've now had 4 blue sky days in a row. No new snow for a week isn't a problem when the base is over 3 metres and everything is now open - including hiking up to the head wall and up Polar Peak - but we'd quite like something softer to ski on now thanks.

I noticed from the last entry that the pictures were a bit small. You should be able to click on them and see bigger versions now. OK, lets get back to that hill.

We'd just seen the traverse under the Knot Chutes which can take you into the Currie Bowl, but you can just drop back into the Timber Bowl and get back to the White Pass Chair for another circuit. That means more lovely trees down Surprize, this is looking back at the top of the Timber Chair...

Here's a picture of the top of the Currie Bowl that Jen took. You can traverse along the ridge and either drop down into Currie on runs like Tom's Run or Barracuda, or go down the Saddles to the Lizard Bowl. You can also get to the three runs that look straight down at the base - Stag Leap, Sky Dive and Decline. Check those trail maps if you're getting lost.

Currie Bowl - drop over ridge for Lizard Bowl, traverse right for Sky Dive.

Sky Dive in the middle, taken from the base.

This is what the weather is usually like. A typical view near the top of the White Pass Chair would be...

Over in the Lizard Bowl there are some nice groomed pistes for those that like that kind of thing. Here's the Bear which unsurprisingly starts from the top of the Great Bear Chair...

Viewers, especially skiers amongst you, will notice the line of boarders sat RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DAMN PISTE!!! (Shakes head in a resigned manner). Which brings me to a little aside.

We've been contemplating the collective noun for boarders. Suggestions have been:

An annoyance of snowboarders

An inconvenience of snowboarders

An inconsideration of snowboarders (my personal favourite)

Feel free to add suggestions. Just remember (especially any snowboarders that may have slipped through security) who controls the editing rights around here.

OK, how about a view of the Lizard Bowl from town since it's sunny. This is the classic postcard view...

Here's a closer view of the Lizard Bowl taken from the Bear Chair - the groomed run below the little sunny peak is proably Cascade...

Almost done now I think. Perhaps a quick look at the Cedar Bowl - the chair at the top right is the Great Bear, this is taken from the far side, somewhere on the Snake Ridge...

One more of Currie Bowl in the sun - this is from the traverse, somewhere near the Corner Pocket, looking back towards the Timber Bowl. The Knot Chutes are on the other side of the ridge...

And here's a silly one of Jen as she's not here to stop me putting it on...

And finally some trees with snow on them...


So that's what we've been skiing all this time. There's great tree skiing, big ol' powder fields, steep, deep, whatever you want. When it gets busy you sometimes have to queue at the lifts for a couple of minutes and if it snows too much they close Currie and bits of Cedar and Lizard - and it's always good to watch the carnage when Currie Bowl first opens after a big dump of snow.

Thanks for reading, remember to leave comments, and hello to everyone at Hichrom - Gosia said they've been printing off a copy of each update, so I'll try to keep things clean...ish.

Later.

Fernie - 50 not out

To celebrate 50 days of skiing at Fernie (last Saturday) I thought I'd show you all what a great mountain there is here.

(Any LPTers out there can probably imagine the victory dance I'm about to perform and the smug grin I'll be wearing while doing it - gently though, it was ANOTHER long day at the hill.)

Lets start with the official trail map courtesy of skifernie.com - you may want to have a look here http://www.skifernie.com/themountain/trails.asp for a snazzy interactive version.

If I'm not mistaken that's five bowls of fun - Siberia, Timber, Currie, Lizard and Cedar. And if you want to go out of bounds there's also Fish Bowl on the far side of Cedar.

The day usually starts with a walk down to the hitching spot, on the highway just over the bridge. There's a good view of the hill from there - at least when there isn't any cloud, which is pretty rare in these parts. We've had one perfectly clear day since we arrived in early december, and maybe 4 days that could be described as sunny. And the reason people hitch to the hill is because there's no free shuttle and it's too far to walk.

Right to left - Fish, Cedar, Lizard and you can just see a bit of Currie Bowl.

So, the daily grind begins...

From the base you've got two main options - up the Timber Express and onto the White Pass Chair to access the Siberia, Timber and Currie bowls, or up the Elk Chair heading for the Boomerang or Great Bear Chairs and into the Lizard or Cedar bowls.

That's the Timber Chair in the top right. Looks like this was taken from the White Pass Chair around the bottom of Quite Right. The trees on the other side of Timber Chair are Big Bang and the Mitchy Chutes and the busy (by Fernie standards) trail is 100% taking everybody down to White Pass.

If we spin around in the chair we get a good view of the Knot Chutes - there's a traverse running through the middle of them that ranges from easy to embarassing depending on snow conditions. The embarassing part is due to everybody on the lift getting a perfect view when things go wrong.

There's also a lower traverse below the chutes and both of them give an alternative way into the Currie bowl. Either down here, which might be Gotta Go but I'm not too sure...

or down the Anaconda Glades which almost always have great snow and are as steep as you'll ever want in places. There's also a good view of town from the top...

Anyway, out of time for now, I'll have to finish this tomorrow (and Bromwell High is on).