griz's blog

Opening Weekend @ Fernie

griz — Sun, 10 Dec 2006 18:14:09 -0500

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Opening Weekend is usually a very special day for me, it signals the start of my winter skiing season. But this year opening day didn't bring with it the excitement it usually does. I wasn't out at 7 in the morning vying for the coveted "First Chair" like I have in the past. This year, opening weekend seemed like just another day. I started my 06/07 season on November 14th and have already had over 15 days of great skiing before the lifts started to turn.

Another reason this weekend didn't quite have the same excitement was because the conditions are not nearly as good as they have been the weeks prior to opening. It hasn't snowed much for nearly two weeks now, and the snow that did fall has turned into a great settled snowpack. A few CM's of snow at this time would go along way.

There are quite a few improvements on the mountain this year; The Deer Chair's now sport comfy new seat tops (although they forgot about the back rest) and Whitepass Quad now has a double sided queue.. perfect for skiing right onto the lift from Big Bang.

Last but not least there is the new "Lost Boy's Café" and bathrooms at the top of the Timber Express. This beautiful new facility has some of the best views on the mountain, and a menu featuring;

Gourmet Baked Potatoes - $9.95-13.95
Cheese Platters - $13.95-16.95
Cheesecakes - $7.95
Muffins - $4.95
Cinnamon Buns - $4.95
Cookies and Mini Muffins - $2.95
Coffee and Hot-Chocolate - $2.95
Draft Beer - $5.95
EJ Gallo Wines from - $7/glass or $27/bottle

I was disappointed to find that they will not be serving any Espresso Coffee's this season.

See a collection of photo's from Opening Weekend Here- www.ourfernie.com/media/far-opening-weekend

Cold Smoke in Fernie

griz — Mon, 27 Nov 2006 13:48:58 -0500

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It keeps getting better as it continues to snow here in the Fernie Snow Valley. The official reports are finally in from FAR, there has been 70 cm of snow since it started falling on Wednesday of last week... although it seems like alot more when your skiing it.

Sunday was probably the best turns of the season, it really doesn't get much better than this, a good 20 cm of the lightest driest Cold Smoke this valley can produce on top of the 50 cm received in the days before.

Beware of the Avalanche Hazard out there, we had large slab rip out on us on a south facing wind loaded slope.

Check out the latest video in the video section for some action

Fernie Snow Report

griz — Sun, 26 Nov 2006 11:25:20 -0500

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Contrary to what is displayed on RCR's skifernie.com it has snowed more than 40 cm this past week here in Fernie. It is probably closer to 100cm, and it is still dumping outside at 7 tonight and is forecast to continue for the next few days. I would imagine that the base is sitting somewhere closer to 150-160cm now. The mountain is in prime condition.

Today waist to chest deep turns were layed down on Tom's Run in Curry, and a few more lines were added to Surprise and Black Cloud in Timber Bowl.

I am getting a bit tired of skinning up the mountain everyday and I am really wishing that I could be riding the chairlifts to take advantage of the superb skiing conditions out there at the moment. I payed $1000 dollars for a SEASONS Pass this year, and I am beginning to wonder why I can't ride the lifts when the SEASON is now well underway. One can only wish that FAR will announce an early opening this week like so many other ski areas in Western Canada have done...

24 in 24 plus 24 and even more

griz — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 21:52:15 -0500

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It dumped last night... again. At least another 24 cm, and it is still dumping outside.

Headed out this morning at 7AM so we could get a ride in with Eddie before he had to head to work at the Guides Hut at 10AM. We headed up to the top of surprise trees again as it was so great yesterday. It was deep, yesterday was knee deep, today was waist deep, and tomorrow is going to be even deeper.

After Eddie headed back down to "the hut" JF, Ari and I were lucky enough to catch a ride on the back of a cat up to the top of White Pass. We blasted down 1,2,3's back to Tresspass trail, all the while hooting and hollering.

Things were too good to go home, so we skinned back up to the top of surprise for another helping.... it was deeper than the first run.

Time for one more before lunch... I think so. We headed across Timber Bowl past the new "Lost Boy's Cafe" and dropped into Big Bang, another first decent of the season. A few more faceshots on the way back to the base through North East Glade, and lower Sib Ridge made this the perfect morning.

At 3:30PM it is still coming down outside, and it is expected to continue through the night.

The skiing was too good today to break out the camera too much, but we got a quick clip of some of the deepest turns of the day... enjoy.

www.doglotion.com/fernie-nov-24th

www.doglotion.com/fernie-nov-23rd

Fernie is Deep

griz — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 11:43:23 -0500

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12 Hour: 10 cm / 4 in
24 Hour: 20 cm / 8 in
48 Hour: 30 cm / 12 in
Week: 90 cm / 12 in
Snow Pack: 75 cm / 30 in
Year to Date: 100 cm / 30 in

After the Easter Bowl Experience yesterday we thought things couldn't get much better for this time of year... well griz proved us wrong, as he often does here in the Snow Valley. Last night it snowed another 10 cm, adding to the 90 or so we have received in the past 3 or 4 days.

We figured we would tour up to the top of easter on the trail we broke the day before... the trail was gone, there had to be more than 10cm overnight. So we re-broke the trail to the top of easter, on the way up we watched 5 or so people drop into some sick looking lines in the high saddle. It looked deep! Easter Bowl was sweet, over the knees all the way to the bottom!

It was so good we figured, hey.. why not go up for another. We toured up the highway with about 10 other keeners to the top of the Bear. From there we dropped in off the rock band into upper cedar, those few turns were the most epic of the day, easily up to the waist of classic Fernie Powder!

Click Here to check out a heap of photo's .....