Craig's Report - December 4, 1998


Opening Day - Fernie Standard Great!

For the folks here for opening day, and there seemed to be lots of them, Griz served up some tasty powder in the Fernie tradition.

There was boot high to knee deep powder almost everywhere except the few groomed runs and very low down on the mountain. 

However there were big line ups on the Bear T-Bar and even short waits on the Boom Chair.  Clearly those new lifts will be needed.


This shot down a nice little chute on Cedar Ridge was typical of the off trail skiing.   Lots of nice light snow with the occasional alder top thrown in for texture.

Of course wrong turns were possible and you might then face something like this little alder trap on the Bear Chutes.  I didn't catch what the official base is, but my impression is that it is pretty decent for opening day.  Although the alders were present in all the usual places, they looked to be only a couple of dumps away from oblivion.

Virtually everything was good and they opened everything up top except the Face Lift.   My exit run down Easter Bowl was particularly tasty although my legs and body in general were beginning to balk.

The only fly in the ointment is the lower runs down near the base, say from the half pipe down.  It is still pretty thin down there and while okay for picking your way down at the end, I don't think you would want a diet of skiing to the base.  They weren't even running the Deer Chair and while I didn't notice the Mighty Moose, I can't imagine they would have bothered. There was powder however right down to the base of the Boomerang chair, so everything up top was fine.

At 1:40 PM my deck thermometer say -3 C (which is down about 3 degrees in the last half hour) and it is mainly cloudy with the odd clear break.

(Click on any picture for a larger version)

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