Craig's Report - March 9, 1998

A Nice Little Dump

Last night a dinner was held at the Fernie Community Center to honor Linda and Heiko Socher for all they have done to create our great little ski resort.  It was a wonderful evening with lots of amusing stories and I couldn't help wondering how many of the people there or in Fernie in general, have had their lives altered substantially by what the Sochers created.  I certainly have and I owe Linda and Heiko a great deal of thanks for making it happen. 

Griz was apparently impressed too and laid out a nice new carpet of powder overnight.  A reported 16 cm, it provided nice powder cruising on the previously groomed runs, but was a little too light to mask the hard stuff underneath in bumpy areas.  As long as you stayed out of the really high traffic bump areas and didn't get too sucked in by the soft appearance, the skiing was very nice indeed.  The crowds had disappeared and there was no problem at all getting fresh tracks such as in this about to be defiled little chute on Cedar Ridge.

Everything was open except for the Face Lift and I slogged up the trail into Easter Bowl for my last run of the morning.  It was well worth it as there were virtually no tracks to be found and while you could feel the old cut up stuff underneath, it was still pretty nice indeed.  This picture is down one of the larger clearings in the trees to the skier's right of Easter Bowl.

It was snowing fairly hard this morning, but soon stopped and there was even the occasional glimmer of sun.  At quarter to one this afternoon it is pretty well socked in again with the odd flake falling.  The temperature is an almost perfect -7 C.