Making full use of an empty mountain

Apologies for the lack of recent postings, but we've been taking advantage of the mountain before opening day and Alex has been learning the ropes at Fernie Sports - her new workplace when she's not looking after the guests at SVL.

We've been out for a few hikes lately which has been great - firstly to get our fitness levels up, and secondly to get to know the mountain. It's a real priviledge to have the place to yourselves, as we generally do. You might meet up with some other lone hikers or a few boarders/skiers, and in typical Fernie tradition, everyone stops for a chat and wishes you a good day. All very civilised and a world away from the European attitudes that we are more used to!

Firstly, a bit of resort information...

Fernie Alpine Resort covers a series of five different bowls spread over four different mountain peaks. The Mammoth Head peak reaches 6807 feet above sea level, Elephant Head is 6709, Grizzly Peak to the right of the resort climbs to 6900 feet while Polar Peak is the highest reaching 7000 feet into the sky. The five different bowls in the resort all have their own individual attributes and terrain.

From left to right, there is Siberia Bowl which contains one big chute running from the top of the mountain to the bottom. The next over is the Timber Bowl, now believe it or not this bowl contains many, many trees and is excellent fun if you like a good tree run down. Next is the Currie Bowl, and Jethro says this is quite possibly the best ever terrain he has ever had the pleasure to ride. For some reason the Currie Bowl accumulates the most amount of fresh snow of all of the five bowls, in fact, the first run you come to in the Currie Bowl is called 'Currie Powder'!

The next bowl along is called the Lizard Bowl... More to follow on this Bowl.

The final bowl in the resort is called the Cedar Bowl. This one is really a huge open face without too many trees (apart from at the very top when you drop into it), it’s mostly open piste with the odd rock here and there. I haven't really explored to two outer bowls as the ski boundary area cuts through these bowls. In other words, certain areas are not covered by the ski patrol!

The other week Jethro and some others were fortunate enough to catch a piste-basher/snowcat ride all the way to the top of the chair lift. This is at the very top of the ridge that separates the Timber Bowl and the Currie Bowl. On that particular day they rode back down through the Timber Bowl.

On Thursday (24th) we set off in a different direction, we'd trekked up the left side so this time we went up towards the right. Our initial plan was to get to the 'Bears Den', a restaurant half way up the Lizard Bowl, a popular stopping point for hikers on the mountain. We got to the Den in good time and decided to push on further as the usual burning sensation hadn't quite reached our lungs. We continued up the Bear piste where the hiking became quite intense, we had to take it in turns to lead the group as because as it was an untracked piste the leader had to kick foot holds for the rest of the group to use. The piste got steadily steeper as we climbed into the cloud layer.

As we climbed higher we broke through the cloud and everything became a lot clearer, we could see the top of the Great Bear Express chair that we were following so everyone’s pace seemed to quicken. When we got to the top we stopped to refuel on water and 'Gritz', a combination of dried banana, peanuts, wasabi peas, oat-bran and sunflower seeds. Excellent for refuelling and boosting your bodies’ energy supplies. We rested for about 10 minutes, pausing to absorb the amazing views from above the clouds, before we strapped on our boards for the ride back down. After hiking all that way, up the steep piste you work up a bit of a sweat, it doesn't take very long for your body temperature to drop when it's minus 10!

The ride down was pretty sweeet! Plenty of untracked powder with wide open unpopulated runs. It's like the mountain is all ours to play on... well, for now anyway!

I love my new snowboard!

Climbing High on the Bear piste; (L-R) Hammo, Mike, Tony, Bree and Matt off in the distance.


We got to the top of the Great Bear Express chair lift, the second highest access point in the Lizard Bowl.


The view was well worth the climb, once we'd broken through the clouds.
The picture really doesn't do it justice.


Jethro and a cold looking tree!


The hikers; (L-R) Mike, Bree, Jethro, Tony (kneeling), Matt and Hammo.


The ride back down through the clouds was alright I suppose ;)


On Sunday we went for a slightly more leisurely hike with some of Alex's girlfriends and made it just past the Bear's Den. Some recent snowfalls have made the mid-level of the mountain just perfect to board/ski on - light, fluffy powder on top of a decent base. The anticipation for opening day on December 10th is almost palpable in the air. With more snowfall due this week, things are looking good.

The girlie group - with Jethro and Simon tagging along!


Steadily climbing the cat-track


The sun makes a valiant attempt to break through the clouds

Even more snow!

It's becoming a bit of an epic start to the season here in Fernie, with a good four feet of snow falling on the mountain... and we've still got another month til the mountain opens! Fingers crossed it keeps on going! The temperatures are staying low - we're expecting it to get down as low as -16C next week. Chilly!

Rumours abound that the resort may open early for the weekends only... but we hear conflicting information. Some say that it would be too costly for RCR to do this, owing to the fact that they would have to start paying lifties and other staff to start working earlier than usual, and that the only people that would ski/board this early would be season pass holders anyway. So they wouldn't make money, just lose it. It's seems to be a pretty cynical attitude, but I guess business is business.

In the meantime, it's been wonderful (if a little tiring) to have the whole mountain to ourselves. We've done a few hikes and hit some freshies, so life is pretty good!

The walk up is worth the trip down!


Our footprints at the base of the hill...

Sweet November Snow!

Well, to put it mildy, it's been dumping here in Fernie already - and that's just the town. We've had intermittent snow for a good three days now, sometimes piddly little amounts and other times (last night for example) where the flakes are huge and it just keeps on falling...

We went up to the base of the hill yesterday and were impressed to see that there was a good layer of hard packed snow up there already - you only had to walk for about 20 minutes up the mountain until it was almost knee deep. But that was yesterday and today is a whole different story - yet more snow has fallen overnight - a good few inches here in town. That bodes very well for the mountain, so Jethro's just gone to take a drive up and report back on his findings. We're not cracking open the snowboard wax just yet, and I don't know if RCR have any plans to open early like some other resorts in BC, but all this snow can only be a good thing...

Clearing the back steps of SVL - a woman's work is never done!


Where'd the van go?!


Jethro on the hill yesterday