Trip Report: Fernie Dec 16/17 2012
 

Booked an early season couple nights at Fernie. The forecast said we were supposed to get an inch or two of snow each night so I figured we'd at least have some decent groomers to run instead of hardpack... :giggle: I was wrong.

This was the view out of our room the first morning. It snowed about 6-8" overnight at the base! More on certain parts of the hill...
https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.n...51651999_o.jpg

Didn't take my phone/camera on the hill with me Sunday, but I can tell you it was a great day! Rode polar peak for the first time! Here's a pic Monday morning.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.n...79566980_n.jpg

Here's morris149 running through some trees in the Lizard bowl. :yahoo:
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.n...28267870_n.jpg

Heading up Polar Peak today...
https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.n...40919153_n.jpg

Arriving at the top feels like landing on the moon. :wavetowel2: There were lots of signs at the base of the lift advising of extreme conditions, yet some guys still went up that shouldn't have been there. Some couldn't make it down the little chute onto the run, and I almost watched two guys fall off a jagged 10-15 ft cliff.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.n...96885580_n.jpg

Heading down one of the chutes, there's a large (30-40 ft) cliff band on the left, and a 10-15 cliff band on the right falling onto the chute I was on. I headed down to the right, and then cut under the cliff band to the left and found some GREAT powder!
https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.n...95314543_n.jpg

2/2


Saw a couple ski patrol cutting hard left so I figured why not follow. They know the mountain better than anyone else so they might lead me to a good spot. THIS is that spot. The entrance to "Corner Pocket" which is the first chute leading back into the Lizard bowl. Seemed like a great spot to take a pic of the new Virus Avalanche.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.n...89926721_n.jpg

https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.n...66158554_n.jpg

The chute was narrow but only about 30 feet long, and it opened into a wide open steep face of powder!!! I was in heaven! Until I got to the bottom, saw a powder bowl too late and ended up a little stuck. Took a few mins to get up on the snow and across to something with pitch. This pic might not show it well but the powder was about 4" thicker than my board...
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.n...04129937_n.jpg

It was still puking snow as we were leaving!
https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.n...26929398_n.jpg

Overall the conditions were amazing. LOTS of terrain was open and in good shape. The Virus had me a little wigged out in the powder at first, but it becomes very managable in the thick stuff. It didn't feel any longer than my T7 when making short quick turns, in fact as I got confident on it I found myself hitting more lips, pillows, etc. than I would have on the T7.

After 4 days on the board between hardpack, groomers, and two days of powder: this board gets :thumbsup::thumbsup: :eusa_clap:

I want your job. Do you ever work? Are you hiring?

Awesome update. Thanks!

lol saved up a bunch of days off only took 5 days off this summer, so I can board all winter when it pukes! :yahoo::yahoo::yahoo:

If anyone reading this CAN get time off in the next couple days, Fernie's in good shape and it continues to puke.

Okay here's the GPS data for the days...

Yesterday:
https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.n...58332044_n.jpg

Today (you can see the different line I took off polar peak (the lift arrives at the top of the peak in the SW corner of this map):
https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.n...66895224_n.jpg

And here's today's line off polar peak. It's all cliffs and out of bounds to the North and West. You have to head South for the easy way off the peak, or east for some of the chutes. Then I crossed back North over the ridgeline and into some of the best snow of the weekend!
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.n...64117558_n.jpg

im so jealous :blowup: been itching to hit the slopes here in Ontario. I wish I could land a job out in BC... not many hiring there and don't want to live in AB either :p

Have fun at Blue Mountain! :cheeky4:

Nothing wrong with AB... :yahoo:

fernie is the tits when it dumps! talking to my buddy out there this morning. he says he's measured 40cm in the past 2 days at his house. i can only imagine what the higher alpine must be like. Time to book a flight, by the looks of it the Griz is back!

H. A. T. E. :blink:
that's all I'll say for now! LOL...

Lol! I can say now that I've had a chance to really get into the Virus that it is G...O...O...D possibly great. I just don't want to think to highly of it until I get it fully broken in and then do some back to back runs vs. the T7.

Did you go right on cedar? There was untouched stuff on weekend. I imagine it was epic yesterday.

Thought about going but a 6 hour drive and working today was gonna be rough.