Tara in the powder - March 1, 2007 A Little Back Sliding No I have not caved in and decided to revive regular "Unofficial FAR Reports", but I guess this is a little back sliding. While walking on the mountain a few days ago, it occurred to me that without the reports, I wouldn't have a record of the year to year variations in snow, so perhaps I should just take the odd picture with my cell phone. I always carry the phone and it would no effort for those to be stashed in iPhoto (yes I am an annoying Mac freak). After giving it a try, I also realized that just a couple of extra clicks would publish those in a Mobile Me gallery and if I was taking a few pictures I might as well share them. I have no idea if I will continue to do this when the weather makes keeping ones mittens on highly desirable, but whatever I do take will be available at: http://gallery.me.com/craiggmorris I have also decided to use the Apple tools for another attempt at keeping a blog. That is an enterprise fraught with even more uncertainty and in any event will not be specific to the ski hill, but for those interested, it should be at: http://web.me.com/craiggmorris/Blog

Disclaimer These pages are in no way affiliated with the Fernie Alpine Resort or any of the other commercial operations that might be mentioned. Since I happen to live on the ski hill and I wanted to experiment with making Web pages, I thought the hill might be an interesting topic which might actually provide information which some people would find useful. The trail maps etc. are used with permission. I take no responsibility for the accuracy of anything in here, the weather, the state of world affairs or anything else, but there is, of course, an 'Official' FAR page. Craig Morris Back to top

What Is It? Fernie Alpine Resort is a ski area in the Rocky Mountains in British Columbia, Canada. It has a reputation for excellent powder skiing and friendly people (but hey, I'm biased). Total vertical drop is a little over 850 m (2800 ft), with a top elevation of around 1925 m (6300 ft). Average annual snowfall is about 875 cm (almost 29 ft). There are six chairlifts, a T bar, a poma and a carpet lift on the bunny run, and finally a handle tow (which is ugly and short, but saves lots of climbing). Only two of the chairs are a high speed detachable, but lift lines, especially mid week, are usually short to nonexistent. Back to top

Where is it? Fernie is located in the extreme South East of the Canadian province of British Columbia. It is about 160 kilometers (100 miles) south of Banff, Alberta and about 300 road kilometers (180 miles) from Calgary Alberta. The ski hill itself is about 5 km from the town of Fernie, population 5000, and it is about 10 km from the Island Lake Lodge cat skiing operation.   For those arriving by ballistic missle the exact coordinates of the base lodge are N 49° 27.759' W 115° 05.241 However most people come by car with Calgary being the most common origin. People arriving by air can go to either Cranbrook or Calgary and then rent a car, take a shuttle or the bus. I have no experience with the shuttle, but the bus is a miserable trip whose tediousness is only exceeded by the remarkably inconvenient departure and arrival times. Note that if you are staying in town, the ski hill is about a five minute drive away, so you will need to take a shuttle if you do not have a car. Check out Kootenay Taxi for information on the shuttle and bus rates and times. Location Map (34K) Back to top

What To Expect (Will I find Powder?) If you come to Fernie, can you expect to be wallowing in champagne powder? Well, maybe. Fernie does get a lot of snow and your odds of getting a great powder day are better than at most Canadian ski areas, but you still have to be lucky. It is perfectly possible to spend a week here and ski nothing but ice, crud or your junk of choice. On the other hand if you are really lucky, you could get a foot of snow every night. There does seem to be some inverse correlation between El Nino winters and good powder. When the El Nino is in full swing, temperatures rise enough to push many of the storms into rain or wet snow. It is far from a given though. Powder Magazine had a fascinating and unbiased statistical analysis of snow fall at North American ski areas, including Fernie. The author has made it available on the web, so you might want to check it out. The ski hill has also provided some statistics showing the monthly snowfalls since 1984.. Also interesting is the Environment Canada snow pillow data for Morrisey Ridge, which is the ridge on the other side of the Elk Valley from the ski hill. Even if it is not powder, you rarely have to worry about coverage, at least not on the old side. I retired my seven year old skis a few years ago and although they had seen a lot of Fernie miles they had never needed a drop of PTex. Starting in 1999, the expansion territory in Currie, Timber and Siberia bowls was opened in the early season for the first time and I, and I imagine many others, discovered that Fernie can indeed have a ski unfriendly phase. Particularly in Timber Bowl, the combination of wind, rocky terrain and perhaps somewhat less snow than the older bowls can result in hazards that long time Fernie skiers are not used to. Back on the old side though, the coverage is usually good from day one although early in the season the alders can make some off run areas pretty tough or even impassable. While December powder is often great, a lot more terrain opens up later in the season as the snow pack grows (on a really good year there can be nearly 5 meters of settled snow at the top of the mountain). January and February are the prime powder months, although the occasional storm can blow in right up until the end of April closing. Temperatures are usually moderate, although about once a winter we get a week that is -25 to -30C. For those wanting to come for the winter, I have a little bit of info on my ski bumming page. Back to top

Ski Reports For official ski reports you can telephone (250) 423-3555 in Fernie, (403) 289-3700 in Calgary or (509) 747-7495 in Spokane. Note: any Fernie condition report more than a couple of hours old must be considered suspect. Yesterday's fluff can be today's crud, crust or ice. I am sometimes asked if I know of other ski areas with 'Unofficial' ski reports such as used to appear here. There is the UnRed report by Dave Thomas from Red Mountain. Red and Fernie tend to appeal to the same type of skiers (at least in Fernie's pre fame days) and unlike me, Dave often reports on out of area skiing and has a great collection of action shots. There are also the the Whistler Report by 'DualMountaindotCom' and The CDN Rockies Ski Reports', which is looking for volunteer reporters. Back to top

Weather Forecasts There are a number of weather forecasts available for the Elk Valley including: From the FAR site Environment Canada (Sparwood) AccuWeather Snow-Forecast.com (bottom) Snow-Forecast.com (mid) Snow-Forecast.com (top) The Weather Network Alas, but not unexpectedly, there is often considerable variation between them and of course with what actually happens. I have had my favorites from time to time, but none is consistantly accurate. Back to top

If you have any questions or comments about these pages email me at craig@redtree.com.