January 19, 2002

Now that's what it is All About

The board at the bottom of ELk claimed 49 cm in the last 24 hours and I certainly wouldn't doubt it. Better yet, most of that fell overnight and it was of the finest quality light Fernie vintage. This produced many of those wonderful Fernie moments that we treasure and needless to say the skiing was rather ridiculously good.

The downside was some of the most extreme avalanche closures I have seen. First thing in the morning, only the Deer and Elk chairs and while Sunny Side did open in the afternoon, I don't think Cedar Ridge ever did. The hill was also rather crowded, although I think mainly due to locals. This combined with limited area, did mean some areas got scraped down to the underlying ice. but still there was quite a bit of powder to go around and I was still getting face shots on our last run at 3 P.M. I have company and am being a rather poor host, but I think I can cut this short and just let the pictures tell the story.

At ten to five it is -4 C and while there are a few clear patches, the hill is swathed in cloud.



Really getting into it on Sunny Side.

A little fresh on Boomerang Ridge

and again

and again

Yes, it was as nice as it looks.

It may not look deep, but a second later he would just be a powder explosion.