Craig's Report - October 16, 1997

Fall Photo Shoot

Warmer weather has returned and driven the snow out of our yard

and all the way up to the top of the face lift. It was a glorious day that sucked me up the hill in search of some nice fall pictures. Alas I simply reaffirmed my lack of talent as a photographer as the pictures I returned with don't begin to do justice to the magnificence of the day. Of course I will inflict them on you anyway. :-)

The conditions were in marked contrast to last Saturday when I encountered these three intrepid and perhaps over eager lads who have just moved here from Winnipeg. Determined to get in some early riding they hauled their boards up to the top of the Bear (where this was taken), but even they had to admit that riding in the ankle deep snow through the very obvious hazards would probably not lengthen their season. This was probably wise since one already had a cast on one wrist. Nonetheless they decided the cat track had lots of snow for them and off they set.

Following down, on foot, I was entertained by the large assortment of freshly excavated rocks strewn about on the snow in their wake as well as by the occasional loud scrape and whoop from down hill. I encountered them again near the bottom of Arrow where the snow had become too thin even for pretense. The gouges in their boards weren't as bad as I had imagined and while these were their only boards, they were unconcerned as they said they had plenty PTex. I must confess to envying them the rashness of youth.

However today was a day for enjoying the sunshine and the fall colors. We don't get the lovely reds that Easterners enjoy, but today even a rainbow of yellows was pretty nice. This shot is from the top of the gun tower run,

while this was taken from near the top bull wheel of the Bear lift.

Of course the colors were nicer farther down, so I will chew up your bandwidth with one last shot taken from lower Elk, with the Three Sisters sticking up over Mount Fernie.

BTW you can click on any of the pictures to get a somewhat larger shot, but I haven't linked the full size images (1280x960 pixels) as they are a bit large for downloading.

For anyone interested, I have redone the accommodation pages to reflect this seasons rates. I have also made them into real tables rather than just a scan of the ski hill brochure and I would be glad to enter any additional entries if anyone has any.